Learning a new language requires time, effort, and dedication
Russian is a language that is hard to catch perfectly for native English speakers. It takes from five to ten years to start speaking properly if you practice a lot. Why the language is so hard? There are many answers to this question:
- Russian is hard because of the Cyrillic alphabet. It was invented in the 9th century and based on the Green one, which means that the letter is not similar to the roman ones;
- The language’ pronunciation is pretty tough for the English speakers: the sounds on novels and the consonants are hard to spell
- The rules of the language. The Russian language has so many rules, and even more exceptions to these rules, so you have to learn them by hearing to speak the language correctly.
We are going to take a look at the other aspects of the Russian language that are important to know if you decided to learn the language.
Watch Out the Vowels and Consonants
When you want to learn Russian to fluency you have to know the pronunciation and the spelling of the words. The number one enemy of the students who learn Russian is vowels. They love changing their sounds according to the letters they stand with. For example, if there is “O” it can sound like “A”, and often the rules work differently with exceptions!
Stressed and not stressed vowels are a big lean in Russian. Stressed ones are longer in comparison with the not-stressed ones. Sometimes they lose the stress completely.
Some vowels that are placed in the base of the word, can be changed by the word.
The consonants are the favorite part of the Russian language for many of us: they also can be soft and hard. They whether hard or not by the letter they follow. Pronunciation of these letters can also seem hard: it all depends on the tongue articulation. Putting a tongue in the right position is what you need to learn from your Russian tutor.
Learn the Alphabet by Heart
The Russian alphabet is based on Greek letters, but the Greeks can’t understand the Russian language. The thing is that the language structures are different, words and the vocabulary, that is why a Greek can’t speak Russian without learning it.
Don’t worry if you think that it is impossible, anyways the roots come from Latin, which is the base of the Romance languages too.
The length of the Alphabet is thirty-three letters only, which is not long, so you have a great chance to learn it by heart. Let’s take a look at some ways to learn it quickly:
- Get the stickers with the letters all over your house;
- Play games with your friends to end the word by the ending of the previous word.
- Watch movies and TV series. There some good Russian TV series on Netflix, like “To the Lake.”
Learning Russian is not that hard if you get the Alphabet as long as learning new words and how to speak the language. Communication is another great challenge to overcome.
Don’t Be Confused by the Words
The length of the Russian words can be scary, we know that but the good news is that they can’t compete with the German words in this category. Speaking several languages can help you and confuse you as well, as some words might seem familiar. Example: word “фамилия” means surname, but not “family”. There are a lot of words like that in Russian that might make you think you know the language.
To Sum It Up
The numbers of Russian-speaking countries are quite astonishing are growing year by year. Australia and African countries have wide Russian-speaking communities. It does prove the idea that the language is quite popular in the world. Learning that is not easy, but if you know the issues you might face studying the language the task might be a little bit easier.
Fortunately, with our short guide on the things to learn before studying Russian, you are prepared to face the harshest rules of the language.
Remember to communicate more with the Russian – they are very friendly people and might help you with your learning.
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