Thread: заслонять и загораживать

Какая разница?

Заслонять is covering/hiding with заслон (screen, shield) what you can take with your hand and прислонить к себе.
Загораживать is covering/hiding with загородка (wall, barrier, fence) what you can construct to cover behind it.

Usually they can be used both. But sometimes if you want to add special meaning you should follow original meaning. )

Additionally:
To block someone's road is загородить only.
To protect from some incoming influence or to block the line of sight with a kind of shielding can be either заслонить or загородить.

Заслонять is very often used to mean 'protect', 'limit access', 'cause obstacle'.
Загораживать is very close in meaning. It seems to me it has a little bit negative connotation. Заслонять is usually for more positive circumstances.

If you read authentic Russian texts you may notice the collocation, I think...

These are very close synonyms.