# Forum Learning Russian Language Pronunciation, Speech & Accent  how hard is russian pronunciation for english speakers?

## firefaerie

On the scale of 1-5, how hard is russian pronunciation for english speakers? (1 being very easy and 5 being very difficult)

----------


## scotcher

Which English speaker, specifically? 
The answer could fall anywhere on that scale depending on which part of the English-speaking world he comes from.

----------


## basurero

5 
Not to put you off or anything... 
Actually maybe 4. I just remembered mandarin!   ::

----------


## scotcher

See, there you go, if I were to answer that regarding myself, I'd say 1.

----------


## Dogboy182

Ya its really not that hard. Maybe like a 2. Getting rid of your accents is the hard part.

----------


## shadow1

5 
Try pronouncing здравствуйте   ::

----------


## TATY

On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.

----------


## Dogboy182

I do it everyday. Its pretty easy.

----------


## kalinka_vinnie

> On the scale of 1-5, how hard is russian pronunciation for english speakers? (1 being very easy and 5 being very difficult)

 2. depending on what dialect of English you speak.

----------


## DDT

> On the scale of 1-5, how hard is russian pronunciation for english speakers? (1 being very easy and 5 being very difficult)

 I think that you should just give up right now!!

----------


## RavinDave

It gets easier after the third or fourth vodka.

----------


## SSSS

My friend who speak several languages used to say, _Only first five or six language are difficult, after that it's very easy..._

----------


## Chuvak

> On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.

 Do not judge and will not be judged

----------


## Chuvak

> My friend who speak several languages used to say, _Only first five or six language are difficult, after that it's very easy..._

 Is he scoffing ???

----------


## SSSS

> Originally Posted by SSSS  My friend who speak several languages used to say, _Only first five or six language are difficult, after that it's very easy..._   Is he scoffing ???

 There is a joke in every joke...

----------


## laxxy

> It gets easier after the third or fourth vodka.

 This has, afaik, been scientifically proven (there are publications) for most languages  ::

----------


## challenger

> Originally Posted by TATY  On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.   Do not judge and will not be judged

 Are you trying to quote what has passed into an English proverb, or is this a Russian thing?

----------


## Chuvak

> Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by TATY  On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.   Do not judge and will not be judged   Are you trying to quote what has passed into an English proverb, or is this a Russian thing?

 Its a russian thing "Не суди и не судимым будешь"
Is there an English proverb, similar to that ?

----------


## SSSS

> Originally Posted by challenger        Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by TATY  On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.   Do not judge and will not be judged   Are you trying to quote what has passed into an English proverb, or is this a Russian thing?   Its a russian thing "Не суди и не судимым будешь"
> Is there an English proverb, similar to that ?

 Tehcnically, it's a guote from the Bible... What you presented is just a Russian translation...  Unfornutnaltely, I don't know the English original... Which is kinda the same to my knowladge...

----------


## pisces

> Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by challenger        Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by TATY  On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.   Do not judge and will not be judged   Are you trying to quote what has passed into an English proverb, or is this a Russian thing?   Its a russian thing "Не суди и не судимым будешь"
> Is there an English proverb, similar to that ?   Tehcnically, it's a guote from the Bible... What you presented is just a Russian translation...  Unfornutnaltely, I don't know the English original... Which is kinda the same to my knowladge...

 Do you really believe that the Bible was originally written in English?   ::

----------


## Chuvak

[quote=pisces] 

> Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by challenger        Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by "TATY":bt7az65i  On a scale of 1 to 17, how hard is it to judge how hard it is for an English speaker to pronounce Russian.   Do not judge and will not be judged   Are you trying to quote what has passed into an English proverb, or is this a Russian thing?   Its a russian thing "Не суди и не судимым будешь"
> Is there an English proverb, similar to that ?   Tehcnically, it's a guote from the Bible... What you presented is just a Russian translation...  Unfornutnaltely, I don't know the English original... Which is kinda the same to my knowladge...

 Do you really believe that the Bible was originally written in English?   :: [/quote:bt7az65i]
I think ORIGINALLY ALL the texts were written in English (but some dont believe in it)

----------


## DDT

Yes, God told me just the other day that english is his official langusge. He  took out his monocle and looked at me and said in His stuffy British accent, "I have always liked you DDT and I want you to know that I have made English my official language." And then He left in order to play a game of polo.

----------


## Wowik

> Try pronouncing здравствуйте

 Все произносят:
Здрасьте!

----------


## gRomoZeka

> Originally Posted by shadow1  Try pronouncing здравствуйте     Все произносят:
> Здрасьте!

 Некоторые более культурные особи произносят "Здраствуйте".   ::

----------


## Оля

> Некоторые более культурные особи произносят "Здраствуйте".

 Когда здороваюсь с одним педагогом, я выговариваю каждую букву: "Здравствуйте, Владимир Анатольевич". И очень-очень боюсь запнуться   ::  
Но с другими я здороваюсь не так старательно   ::

----------


## SSSS

Близким друзьям я говорю, "Здарова, карова..."

----------


## Kirill2142

Я "Здрасьте" вообще не люблю - звучит как-то по-детски. Всегда говорю "Здравствуйте" - длинно, сложно, но зато солидно

----------


## Chuvak

> Yes, God told me just the other day that english is his official langusge. He  took out his monocle and looked at me and said in His stuffy British accent, "I have always liked you DDT and I want you to know that I have made English my official language." And then He left in order to play a game of polo.

 I didnt know that the Lord has a British accent...

----------


## Storebror

Actually, Russian pronunciation is quite easy because in the main, it's a phonetic language - once the script is mastered, pronunciation is quite straightforward.  One of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce as a non-native speaker  is - English, which is one lf the least phonetic languages in existence - and if you doubt this, just think of the English combination of -"-ough" and the various ways this is pronounced - and there are no rules about this combination to guide you!

----------


## basurero

But that is just spelling and memorising which sound goes with each word. Saying the sounds themselves is the difficult part.

----------


## Storebror

That's exactly the point.  Without being *told* how to pronounce a particular 'ough' combination, there is no way a non-native speaker can 'guess' how to pronounce it.  With Russian, once you know the sound values of the individual letters of the alphabet, you can pronounce any Russian word even if you've never met it before - you may not understand what the word means, but you can still pronounce it - try that with English, or Dutch - another language where there is little correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.  I could cite other examples of where English is tricky - what about the 'th' combination which has two distinct sounds  - or the infamous 'schwa' vowel - the most common sound in the English language!

----------


## Vadim84

> Without being told how to pronounce a particular 'ough' combination, there is no way a non-native speaker can 'guess' how to pronounce it.

 You are exaggerating a bit. There aren't many of such combinations.
And it's not *THAT* hard to guess how to pronounce certain word for a non-native speaker unless it's a really weird exception. After all, there are some rules of pronunciation. Besides, a lot comes with experience. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions as well, but not all of them THAT difficult to guess. 
Anyway, the most difficult thing in the English language for me is article usage. And the second place in this respect belongs to verb tenses. Everything else is relatively easy I daresay. 
P.S. Well, since pronunciation is the main issue, I would place it in the third place. I mean it's the third most difficult aspect of English for me. But I'm pretty satisfied with my pronunciation.  I'd even say it's better than your average non-native pronunciation  ::

----------


## Storebror

Well, I've taught lots of different nationalities English (I'm a qualified TEFL teacher) and the one thing they have all agreed on is that English pronunciation is probably the most difficult part of the language to master simply because there are so *few* set rules - so I don't really think what I've said is an exaggeration.  Let me give you an example -  imagine you have never seen the English word 'banana' - how would you say it? 
By the way, I absolutely agree with you about English verb tenses - nightmare! (And excuse me for ranting on like this - I get fascinated by linguistics - I shall stop now   ::  )

----------


## Vadim84

Well, then I must be an exception. Of course, I can't guess every single word but I don't regard this as a terrible problem. When I don't know how to pronounce a word, I look it up in dictionary. And then, after I've heard the word couple of times in somebody's speech, in context, I know the pronunciation virtually by heart. What's so difficult, says me  ::  It's article usage that's *REALLY* difficult to master.   

> Let me give you an example - imagine you have never seen the English word 'banana' - how would you say it?

 Sorry, I can't imagine this. I just know how to pronounce it and it's great  ::   
I'm more concerned about article usage than pronunciation. By the way, what do your students think about article usage?  ::

----------


## laxxy

> That's exactly the point.  Without being *told* how to pronounce a particular 'ough' combination, there is no way a non-native speaker can 'guess' how to pronounce it.  With Russian, once you know the sound values of the individual letters of the alphabet, you can pronounce any Russian word even if you've never met it before - you may not understand what the word means, but you can still pronounce it - try that with English, or Dutch - another language where there is little correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.  I could cite other examples of where English is tricky - what about the 'th' combination which has two distinct sounds  - or the infamous 'schwa' vowel - the most common sound in the English language!

 What about the schwa vowel? It's probably the most common sound of the Russian language, too.
My big problem (in both English and Ukrainian, actually) has always been that I would pronounce it where it does not belong.
I think the hardest part (in AmE, at least) for the Russians to get correctly is the word stress and the sentence intonation patterns in general, which are rather different and much more pronounced in English compared to Russian. 
Irregularities are a problem, too (it took me like 8 years to realize that "leasing" is pronounced with "s" instead of "z", and it is a fairly common word that I hear and use often). Luckily there are not too many of them.

----------


## laxxy

> Actually, Russian pronunciation is quite easy because in the main, it's a phonetic language - once the script is mastered, pronunciation is quite straightforward.  One of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce as a non-native speaker  is - English, which is one lf the least phonetic languages in existence - and if you doubt this, just think of the English combination of -"-ough" and the various ways this is pronounced - and there are no rules about this combination to guide you!

 I would not call Russian "phonetic", or you would have to call e.g. French phonetic, too... Byelorussian is phonetic, Russian is not  ::  And that even without touching the subject of stress and je/jo.
But yes, it is more regular than English.

----------


## Vadim84

Oh, I forgot to ask what the 'schwa' vowel is and why it is infamous  ::  Could somebody just give some examples, some words with the sound? I can only think of the "governator" - Schwarzenegger  ::

----------


## laxxy

> Oh, I forgot to ask what the 'schwa' vowel is and why it is infamous  Could somebody just give some examples, some words with the sound? I can only think of the "governator" - Schwarzenegger

 It's usually denoted with an inverted "e" in R-E dictionaries. It's essentially the same as a weak unstressed Russian a/o.

----------


## Storebror

Some examples of the schwa vowel: 
the 'e' in brother
the 'a' in postman
the 'o' in forget
the 'o' and the last 'e' in forever
the 'o' and the last 'e' in together 
As for Russian not being phonetic - er, it IS and that is not opinion it's simple linguistic fact - go and take a look at the pronunciation section of a Russian Grammar or at this example: http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/pronounc.html 
or here  http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/azbuka-e-xr-a.html 
- and by 'phonetic' is meant that each letter represents one sound and one sound only, which by and large is true for Russian.  Yes there are exceptions such as unstressed vowels, but there are clear rules as to how they are pronounced - my point in starting this dialogue was that in languages like English that are NOT phonetic, one letter can have a whole variety of sounds and, in English at least, there are no rules about how or why certain words are pronounced the way they are and it is that that makes it a hard language to pronounce just by looking at how the word is written -

----------


## laxxy

> Some examples of the schwa vowel: 
> the 'e' in brother
> the 'a' in postman
> the 'o' in forget
> the 'o' and the last 'e' in forever
> the 'o' and the last 'e' in together 
> As for Russian not being phonetic - er, it IS and that is not opinion it's simple linguistic fact - go and take a look at the pronunciation section of a Russian Grammar or at this example: http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/pronounc.html 
> or here  http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/azbuka-e-xr-a.html 
> - and by 'phonetic' is meant that each letter represents one sound and one sound only, which by and large is true for Russian.

 This is simply false, and this is not at all limited to unstressed vowels. If it were,  learning to write in Russian without mistakes would not be such a large issue for Russian children. 
At best, you can say that you can normally correctly guess how to pronounce a specific written word. But you can do the same in e.g. French. Is smth like "les oiseaux" phonetically written? If it is to you, then I guess maybe you can call Russian phonetic too (forgetting about stress and a few other things, of course).

----------


## Kirill2142

I don't like multiletter sounds, such as in 'daughter'. I wonder why should we waste so many letters. It makes people change words' spelling: you - u and so on

----------


## scotcher

If you saw the hypothetical English word 'ghoti', how would you pronounce it? 
Would it sound the same as 'fish'? 
No? What if you took the *gh* from 'lau*gh*', the *o* from 'w*o*men', and the *ti* from na*ti*on?

----------


## Storebror

Scotcher those are good examples - if English were a phonetic language, then 'laugh' would be 'laaf', 'women' would be 'wimin' and 'nation' would be 'nayshun' -

----------


## basurero

As you were talking about articles:   

> Well, then I must be an exception. Of course, I can't guess every single word but I don't regard this as a terrible problem. When I don't know how to pronounce a word, I look it up in the dictionary. And then, after I've heard the word couple of times in somebody's speech, in context, I know the pronunciation virtually by heart. What's so difficult, says me  It's article usage that's *REALLY* difficult to master.

----------


## laxxy

> As you were talking about articles:        Originally Posted by Vadim84  Well, then I must be an exception. Of course, I can't guess every single word but I don't regard this as a terrible problem. When I don't know how to pronounce a word, I look it up in the dictionary. And then, after I've heard the word couple of times in somebody's speech, in context, I know the pronunciation virtually by heart. What's so difficult, says me  It's article usage that's *REALLY* difficult to master.

 why not "in a dictionary"? To me it looks like he is not talking about a particular specific dictionary here.

----------


## Chuvak

> Originally Posted by basurero  As you were talking about articles:        Originally Posted by Vadim84  Well, then I must be an exception. Of course, I can't guess every single word but I don't regard this as a terrible problem. When I don't know how to pronounce a word, I look it up in the dictionary. And then, after I've heard the word couple of times in somebody's speech, in context, I know the pronunciation virtually by heart. What's so difficult, says me  It's article usage that's *REALLY* difficult to master.      why not "in a dictionary"? To me it looks like he is not talking about a particular specific dictionary here.

 Maybe he was talking about his favourite dict, wasnt he ? to which he would refer in case of trouble

----------


## basurero

Да, вы правы. Оба варианты правильны. Все зависит от контекста. Но я все еще только хотел обратить внимание на то, что здесь артикль нужен.

----------


## Chuvak

> Да, вы правы. Оба варианты правильны. Все зависит от контекста. Но я только хотел обратить внимание на то, что здесь артикль нужен.

 The артикль - an важная составляющая как the английского языка так и the русского   ::

----------


## basurero

АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.

----------


## Chuvak

> АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.

 В русском языке ЕСТЬ много артиклей   ::   (просто не все их употребляют).

----------


## Оля

> В русском языке ЕСТЬ много артиклей    (просто не все их употребляют).

 В русском языке только один артикль!
Он же - междометие   ::  
Его как раз недавно где-то тут обсуждали...  ::

----------


## Ramil

> Originally Posted by Chuvak  В русском языке ЕСТЬ много артиклей    (просто не все их употребляют).   В русском языке только один артикль!
> Он же - междометие   
> Его как раз недавно где-то тут обсуждали...

 Мля/_ля
Нах
Пох
Нах_ля
Ёптыть
...
заканчивая такими замысловатыми, как
Авот_уй_ля

----------


## Оля

> Мля/_ля
> Нах
> Пох
> Нах_ля
> Ёптыть
> ...
> заканчивая такими замысловатыми, как
> Авот_уй_ля

 2. - существительное (потому что обычно следует сразу за артиклем)
3. - наречие
4. - вопросительное слово
5. - слишком длинное для артикля.  ::

----------


## Kirill2142

> АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.

 В испанском артикли тоже есть, так что тебе должно быть привычно их употребление, а не наоборот

----------


## Chuvak

> Originally Posted by basurero  АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.   В испанском артикли тоже есть, так что тебе должно быть привычно их употребление, а не наоборот

 По моему Басуреро - Ново-Зеландец и говорит по-Английски (а не по Испански)

----------


## Ramil

> Originally Posted by Ramil  Мля/_ля
> Нах
> Пох
> Нах_ля    (вставить б)
> Ёптыть
> ...
> заканчивая такими замысловатыми, как
> Авот_уй_ля     (вставить х, б) 
> 2. - существительное (потому что обычно следует сразу за артиклем)   (это именно так и говорится - нах, причём х практически не слышно. В армии имел удовольствие слышать часто от нашего прапора: 
> ...

----------


## Kirill2142

> Originally Posted by Kirill2142        Originally Posted by basurero  АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.   В испанском артикли тоже есть, так что тебе должно быть привычно их употребление, а не наоборот   По моему Басуреро - Ново-Зеландец и говорит по-Английски (а не по Испански)

 Даже если так - это в данном случае не важно. В английском артиклей хоть отбавляй   :: 
Хотя, вообще-то, их всего два   ::   ::

----------


## Ramil

> Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by Kirill2142        Originally Posted by basurero  АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.   В испанском артикли тоже есть, так что тебе должно быть привычно их употребление, а не наоборот   По моему Басуреро - Ново-Зеландец и говорит по-Английски (а не по Испански)   Даже если так - это в данном случае не важно. В английском артиклей хоть отбавляй  
> Хотя, вообще-то, их всего два

 Угу, а вот в немецком - там побольше будет.

----------


## pisces

> Originally Posted by Kirill2142        Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by Kirill2142        Originally Posted by basurero  АХХХ. Слава Богу, что в русском артиклей нету! Мне приснится кошмар.   В испанском артикли тоже есть, так что тебе должно быть привычно их употребление, а не наоборот   По моему Басуреро - Ново-Зеландец и говорит по-Английски (а не по Испански)   Даже если так - это в данном случае не важно. В английском артиклей хоть отбавляй  
> Хотя, вообще-то, их всего два      Угу, а вот в немецком - там побольше будет.

 Да тоже два (или три, если kein тоже считать), просто они склоняются.

----------


## laxxy

http://www.rusf.ru/lukin/books/tipa_artikl.htm

----------


## Chuvak

> http://www.rusf.ru/lukin/books/tipa_artikl.htm

 Аналог артикля ТИПА в английском языке есть - это like!!!
Он типа осел = He is like an asshole!!!
Я говорю , что в русском можно употреблять артикли из английского, и.е. зе и а (ан). Типа Он а програмист, Положи это на зе стол анд со он.... гет ит?

----------


## Kirill2142

> Originally Posted by laxxy  http://www.rusf.ru/lukin/books/tipa_artikl.htm   Аналог артикля ТИПА в английском языке есть - это like!!!
> Он типа осел = He is like an asshole!!!
> Я говорю , что в русском можно употреблять артикли из английского, и.е. зе и а (ан). Типа Он а програмист, Положи это на зе стол анд со он.... гет ит?

 Asshole, вообще-то - нечто другое   ::

----------


## Vadim84

Thanks for the correction, basurero. It was a silly mistake. Of course the word "dictionary" needs a determiner since it's a countable noun. But I wasn't paying proper attention back then.

----------


## basurero

> В испанском артикли тоже есть

 Да. Но я изучаю испанский, и я думаю, что тема артиклей в этом языке очень сложна, потому что они не употребляются так же, как в английском.  В русском артикли не так важны...

----------


## Chuvak

> Originally Posted by Chuvak        Originally Posted by laxxy  http://www.rusf.ru/lukin/books/tipa_artikl.htm   Аналог артикля ТИПА в английском языке есть - это like!!!
> Он типа осел = He is like an asshole!!!
> Я говорю , что в русском можно употреблять артикли из английского, и.е. зе и а (ан). Типа Он а програмист, Положи это на зе стол анд со он.... гет ит?   Asshole, вообще-то - нечто другое

 Asshole - любое обозначением дурака или неспособного человека (дурак, козел, пентюх, жопа с ручками). 
Так что в этом отношении я прав   ::

----------


## basurero

осел! Ты - смелый русский хор.

----------


## basurero

Кстати, насчет русского произношения, я только что осознал, что русский язык коверкает рот. Я, на самом деле, не могу говорить, потому что у меня весьма сильно болеет рот. Вы спросите, почему болеет? Потому что я пытался сказать что-то на русском!

----------


## Alware

> Кстати, насчет русского произношения, я только что осознал, что русский язык коверкает рот. Я, на самом деле, не могу говорить, потому что у меня весьма сильно болеет рот. Вы спросите, почему болеет? Потому что я пытался сказать что-то на русском!

 he he. 
То же самое могу сказать про английский  ::

----------


## Ramil

Я, как поговорю по английски, почему-то начинаю "шепелявить" на русском.

----------


## Chuvak

> Кстати, насчет русского произношения, я только что осознал, что русский язык коверкает рот. Я, на самом деле, не могу говорить, потому что у меня весьма сильно болит рот. Вы спросите, почему болит? Потому что я пытался сказать что-то на русском!

 Наверно ты имел ввиду что рот БОЛИТ (the mouth hurts or you have a mouthache)
Болеет - имеет другое значение. Я болею (например гриппом), он болеет.
Хотя и "болеет" и "болит" происходят от одного и того-же слова - болеть

----------


## Vadim84

To basurero: 
You can use "болеет" only for people: 
Вася Пупкин сейчас болеет = Vasya Pupkin is ill/sick right now.  
When you want to say something aches, you use "болит": 
У меня рука болит = My arm/hand aches.  
It's two different verbs although they have the same infinitive "болеть": 
1) болеть = to be ill/sick
2) болеть = to ache

----------


## Оля

> То же самое могу сказать про английский

 Вот-вот!   ::

----------


## Vadim84

> осел! Ты - смелый русский хор.

 What on earth is that supposed to mean?  ::

----------


## DDT

> осел! Ты - смелый русский хор.
> 			
> 		  What on earth is that supposed to mean?

 Just a guess but it sounds like in English,  
"Asshole too! Smelly Roosky whore!" 
I don't know what was meant or in what context. I did not read the whole thread.

----------


## Vadim84

Oh, then of course it definitely IS what he meant. I just didn't know that joke.

----------


## Chuvak

> Originally Posted by Vadim84     
> 			
> 				осел! Ты - смелый русский хор.
> 			
> 		  What on earth is that supposed to mean?    Just a guess but it sounds like in English,  
> "Asshole too! Smelly Roosky whore!" 
> I don't know what was meant or in what context. I did not read the whole thread.

 Я думаю можно придумать нечто вроде блатного русского словаря. Два слова уже есть:
1. Хор - whore
2. Смелый - smelly 
(Типа "Какой ты смелый сегодня")   ::   
Если есть идеи и желание - можете продолжить список  ::

----------


## basurero

шить - sh*t
факт - f*cked
бич - b*tch

----------


## Chuvak

> шить - sh*t
> факт - f*cked
> бич - b*tch

 Ambiguous phrase: Сейчас ты у меня бич получишь (depends on whether you put 2 commas or not)

----------


## Wowik

> Я "Здрасьте" вообще не люблю - звучит как-то по-детски. Всегда говорю "Здравствуйте" - длинно, сложно, но зато солидно

 А я предпочитаю "День добрый!" - слегка на польский манер (Dzeń dobry).

----------


## &lt;~A~&gt;

I really don't know because I just started learning Russian....but for now i'll have to say 2

----------


## Ezri

> Which English speaker, specifically? 
> The answer could fall anywhere on that scale depending on which part of the English-speaking world he comes from.

 As well as depending on how good a mimic he is. I have a really hard time actually learning languages, but Id put myself at a 1 for being able to speak most words correctly straight away upon hearing them.

----------


## doninphxaz

> Originally Posted by basurero  As you were talking about articles:        Originally Posted by Vadim84  I look it up in the dictionary.      why not "in a dictionary"? To me it looks like he is not talking about a particular specific dictionary here.

 It's very common for us to say, "Go look it up in the dictionary." The assumption is that the person has a dictionary and that they have only one, thus "the" works in that context. 
"Go look it up in a dictionary" is fine as well.

----------


## doninphxaz

> I don't like multiletter sounds, such as in 'daughter'. I wonder why should we waste so many letters. It makes people change words' spelling: you - u and so on

 Mark Twain wrote a short humorous piece about English spelling reform that might get a chuckle out of you.

----------


## Ezri

> It's very common for us to say, "Go look it up in the dictionary." The assumption is that the person has a dictionary and that they have only one, thus "the" works in that context. 
> "Go look it up in a dictionary" is fine as well.

 I think we say _the_ dictionary in the same way we say _the_ bible. As there was only one when they both begun. But these days there are many forms of dictionarys and bibles, so it would probably be more accurate to say _a_ dictionary or _a_ bible.
But old habits die hard and I dont doubt Ill still say "Ill have a look in the dictionary" even though I have several.   ::

----------


## Ramil

> Originally Posted by Kirill2142  I don't like multiletter sounds, such as in 'daughter'. I wonder why should we waste so many letters. It makes people change words' spelling: you - u and so on   Mark Twain wrote a short humorous piece about English spelling reform that might get a chuckle out of you.

 :)))))) That's good. The result resembles some north-European languages. I had troubles struggling with the final passages. And strangely so, the end result was easier to read than the intermediate ones. Probably that's because I am Russian and we have fonetik alfabet in Rushen. :)

----------


## doninphxaz

> I think we say _the_ dictionary in the same way we say _the_ bible. As there was only one when they both begun.

 Actually, no.  You would be hard pressed to say that there was only one Bible when it "began."  The Bible is a big mix of documents, and which documents should be considered authoritative (much less bound together in a single volume) has been controversial from the beginning of the discussion about "authority."  And to suggest that there is an original dictionary somewhere is equally untrue.   Bilingual lists of words have been around for thousands of years, and where they shade into becoming "dictionaries" is not a clear-cut event. 
So why do we say "the" in "look it up in the dictionary"?  I think the answer is twofold. 
1.  At least in the US, most monoglot households don't have more than one dictionary, so when a child is told to look a word up in the dictionary, that's a simple use of the determinate meaning of the article.  In my upbringing, at least, most classrooms I was in during childhood also had only one dictionary, so when the teacher said, "Go look it up in the dictionary," she had it in mind that there was only one dictionary in the room. 
2.  It wouldn't be surprising to hear someone say, "Go to the library and look it up in the dictionary."  A public library often has more than one dictionary, so why "the"?  My hypothesis is that we say "in the dictionary" in childhood at home with "the" so often that it has become a stock phrase in some speakers minds. 
In other words, my thought is that there is not necessarily only one reason that a person might use "the".  There are multiple grammatical rules in our minds, and sometimes two rules might lead to the same surface form for different reasons. 
If I hear someone say, "Go to the library and look the word up in a dictionary", it sounds less typical, and I infer that the person may have just thinking about the fact that the library has more than one dictionary.  It may have been just a background thought, not in the foreground of their thought process, but it's probably floating around there somewhere.

----------


## Vadim84

Little did I know that my mistake caused by rash writing would entail such an intense debate more than a year later  ::

----------


## Ezri

> Originally Posted by Ezri  I think we say _the_ dictionary in the same way we say _the_ bible. As there was only one when they both begun.   Actually, no.  You would be hard pressed to say that there was only one Bible when it "began."  The Bible is a big mix of documents, and which documents should be considered authoritative (much less bound together in a single volume) has been controversial from the beginning of the discussion about "authority."  And to suggest that there is an original dictionary somewhere is equally untrue.   Bilingual lists of words have been around for thousands of years, and where they shade into becoming "dictionaries" is not a clear-cut event. 
> .

 Yes but perception is often different from fact and out perception of both the dictionary and bible (particularly the latter if your religious) is of a singular  _the_.

----------


## chaika

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search 
"in a dictionary" is about a third less common.

----------


## TATY

> See, there you go, if I were to answer that regarding myself, I'd say 1.

 Your pronounciation isn't that amazing.

----------


## scotcher

I have never claimed that it is.  
The question was "how hard do you find Russian pronunciation?", not "how amazing is your Russian pronunciation?"

----------


## muayen

Since not everyone has the same level of intelligence, the answer depends on how much you want to know.  ::      
***************************************
Respect every creature (humans inclusive)

----------


## Sokolov

I don't think it's too hard, but it's not without it's difficulties. Personally, I give Russian pronunciation a 3 out of 5.

----------


## DDT

I said it 2 years ago  and I'll say it again. 
It's really, really, really, really, really, really hard, and you should just give up right now.   

> On the scale of 1-5, how hard is russian pronunciation for english speakers? (1 being very easy and 5 being very difficult)
> 			
> 		  I think that you should just give up right now!!

----------

