Thread: Russian spelling

I sometimes have troubles with the particle/prefix "не": whether it forms one word or two (небольшой - не большой).
Hanna, is Swedish spelling hard to master?
Your statements about Russian grammar remind me Aurelian's but in a milder form.

I'm reading a log about learning Russian on How-To-Learn-Any-Language. This forum is known to Hanna, she left there about 1500 posts. The author of the log complains about Russian spelling (he forgets unstressed vowels) at the seventh week of intensive studying.

Lets consider one Russian spelling rule. How to write не: separately (небольшой) or together (не большой).
With adjectives we write separately if there is (or is implied!) opposition with conjunction "a" (не большой, а маленький), words далеко, вовсе, отнюдь, ничуть, совсем and negative pronouns and adverbs (никто, никак, и т. д.) (совсем не большой, ничто не вечно). Short adjectives are spelled in the same way as full ones. But most common short adjectives are spelled separately (не согласен, не рад), неправ/не прав, недоволен/не доволен - both variants are possible.
In other cases we write не together
Most nouns are spelled always separetely (не дом, не кошка). But there are some which form words with не (неправда, неосторожность). They are spelled in the same way as adjectives.
Adverbs which are formed from adjectives (нехорошо) are affected by the same rule. Other adverbs are always spelled separately (не очень, не назад...)
Verbs are always spelled separately. As well as gerunds (не видя).
Participles are spelled separetely in the same situations as adjectives, plus when there are any dependent words (it means nearly always) (неубитый солдат, ещё не убитый солдат). Short participles are always spelled separately. Words on мый (невидимый) are spelled separately only if the dependent word is in instrumental (не видимый глазом).
Other parts of speech are written separately. Allthe words are spelled together if they are not used witout не.
Is this single rule simple? Please, correct my mistakes.