Thread: Confusing Syntax!!

But Russian has so many ways to form a sentence that it's not always the same. Sometimes when I translate Russian back into English, keeping the Russian structure the same, it looks like Yoda wrote it because the words are so mixed up.

So from what I've seen, even if I do, do it that way like you said, it won't always be exactly the same. Make sense?

For some reason, in longer sentences (especially when they are written and not spoken), I can't tell what the dialogue is emphasizing or when the dialogue is "new".

If only Russian could stick to one word order... that would be way easier.

Originally Posted by Nichole.

But Russian has so many ways to form a sentence that it's not always the same. Sometimes when I translate Russian back into English, keeping the Russian structure the same, it looks like Yoda wrote it because the words are so mixed up.

That is just because English has to stick to a very rigid sentence structure in order to make the roles clear. It has no case system, so it needs a placement system. You can't turn "the dog bites the man" around without changing the meaning: "the man bites the dog". But in languages with a case system, you can. And because you can, giving special significance to certain options of word order is possible.

For some reason, in longer sentences (especially when they are written and not spoken), I can't tell what the dialogue is emphasizing or when the dialogue is "new".

But you have given the rule yourself: the emphasized element is the last one. Put what you want to emphasize at the end. Notice in sentences you read or hear what is at the end. That's where the emphasis is. If you were learning German, which also has a working case system, you'd have to live with the opposite: the emphasized element is at the front, and the whole sentence hinges on the verb which must be in the second place.

I find that it helps me a lot in order to develop a sense of how to structure Russian sentences in a natural fashion when I read Russian texts relatively quickly, not worrying about individual unknown words but noticing the overall structure instead.

If only Russian could stick to one word order... that would be way easier.

Yes, and if English made any attempt to have the written form correspond in any way with the spoken form, then English would be easier, too. All languages have their idiosyncracies. My native German has no progressive form (such as "am going") and no distinction of imperfective and perfective verbs like Russian has them, it's possible to have a valid and functional language without that. But I have to live with the fact that English and German have these alien complexities. But coming from English, look at what complexities you have become used to from your native language which Russian does not have: there's no passive to speak of, there's just a single past tense and that doesn't even mark the person, there's just a single future tense. There's almost no "to be", which after all is the most complex verb in English (while calling a verb with eight distinct forms "complex" makes me laugh inwardly ). Is that easier for you?

When learning a foreign language, the hard parts are those which are different from your native language. I think that even the areas where the target language is less complex than the native one can be very difficult to master. You have to leave behind the concepts of the native language and try to adopt a feeling for the concepts of the target language in order to master it.