Thread: Confusion over pronounciation

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Уважаемые граждане, вы не можете исправить мои ошибки на русском языке?

I'm not sure if you've done it on purpose, so if you have, you can safely ignore what I'm going to say.

If all you want is to ask people to correct your Russian, you should say something like:

Уважаемые граждане, не могли бы вы исправить мои ошибки в русском языке? (as close to the original as possible) OR

Буду благодарен за исправление моих ошибок в русском языке. (preferable)

Because the phrase "Уважаемые граждане, вы не можете исправить мои ошибки на русском языке?" means:

Ladies and gentlemen, you can't correct my mistakes using Russian language? (=> You can't, eh? So, you don't know Russian well enough to express your corrections in Russian, ladies and gentlemen? Even though I make mistakes (e.g. in the Rocket Science) you can't correct them in Russian? Oh dear! What kind of ladies and gentlemen are you?! )

Originally Posted by Crocodile

I'm not sure if you've done it on purpose, so if you have, you can safely ignore what I'm going to say.

If all you want is to ask people to correct your Russian, you should say something like:

Уважаемые граждане, не могли бы вы исправить мои ошибки в русском языке? (as close to the original as possible) OR

Буду благодарен за исправление моих ошибок в русском языке. (preferable)

Because the phrase "Уважаемые граждане, вы не можете исправить мои ошибки на русском языке?" means:

Ladies and gentlemen, you can't correct my mistakes using Russian language? (=> You can't, eh? So, you don't know Russian well enough to express your corrections in Russian, ladies and gentlemen? Even though I make mistakes (e.g. in the Rocket Science) you can't correct them in Russian? Oh dear! What kind of ladies and gentlemen are you?! )

I think it depends on what word emphasis is put on. If it's the last word, then it's like you said. But if it's the word "можете", then it would be ok, and the meaning would be pretty close to "could you please correct...?", and everyone would get it.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I think it depends on what word emphasis is put on. If it's the last word, then it's like you said. But if it's the word "можете", then it would be ok, and the meaning would be pretty close to "could you please correct...?", and everyone would get it.

You're right in a sense that intonation means a lot in Russian and could be used to convey very different meanings. However, there's often a better way of saying the same thing. Another better alternative would be "Вам не сложно [...]?"