If you have just started learning English, then you need to clearly understand the difference between the structures of the native language and a foreign language. To facilitate this process, our article will compare Russian and English at different levels. And finding out how they differ from each other, you can avoid many common misconceptions.
Which language is better - Russian or English?
Many people ask a similar question. But it is initially incorrect, since each language is interesting and unusual in its own way. And you cannot judge which one is “good” and which is “bad.”
English is foreign to a Russian person. Therefore, at the first encounter with him, most are afraid of difficulties and abandons the study at the very first stage. But if you compare the two languages mentioned, the differences that occur at almost all their levels will no longer scare you so much.
What is phonology
The first structural level is phonology. This is a section of linguistics that studies the sound structure of a language. The basic unit of this step is the phoneme, which exists and is realized in real-life sounds called backgrounds.
Comparison of languages at the phonological level
Turning to a comparison of the phonological systems of the Russian and English languages, you need to understand that they belong to the same Indo-European language family. This explains their similarity in the systems of vocalism and consonantism (the ratio of the number of vowels to consonants). But the Russian language belongs to the East Slavic group, and English, in turn, to Germanic. And that explains their difference.
The Russian language is a typical representative of the consonant type, as it has 36 consonants and only 6 vowels. While in English the number of consonants and vowels is almost the same: 24 and 20.
The next difference at this level is the vocalism system, that is, the vowels of the language. In English, the named group of sounds can be divided into three classes:
- diphthongs;
- monophthongs;
- trifthongs.
In the Russian language, only monophthongs form a group of vowels.
What is lexicology
The next level of language is vocabulary. Vocabulary is all the words that are used in it. A section of linguistics that deals with the study of vocabulary is called lexicology. The lexicology interests include the meaning of the word and its meaning.
Word Count
The first significant difference when comparing the lexical systems of Russian and English is the number of words. If you do this, relying on official sources, and look at the Great Academic Dictionary of the Russian language, then you can count 150 thousand words in it. While the Oxford English Dictionary will show a number several times larger - 600 thousand. But one must take into account the fact that the Russian dictionary includes the words of the modern literary language. The English dictionary includes the words of all dialect dialects and archaisms (which have already left speech communication), starting from 1150. That is, most of the words given here have not been used for a long time.
If dialectisms are added to the Russian dictionary, then the figure will rise to 400 thousand. And if other categories of words that are used in the English language would appear in it, then the figure will be much larger.
Linguist Mikhail Epstein argues that in the 19th century, for example, only about 150 words with the root “love” could be counted, which shows the richness of the Russian language.
Parts of speech
In Russian there is a clear classification of parts of speech. If you take a word without context, you can easily determine to which group it belongs - a noun, an adjective, and so on. In English, this is impossible. Here words can easily pass from one part of speech to another. For instance:
- like - like (verb) and similar (adjective);
- book - book (noun) and book (verb);
- need - need (verb) and need (noun);
From all we can conclude that the meaning of English words, unlike Russian, is highly dependent on the context. Outside of it, as a rule, it is very difficult to guess what part of speech is implied.
Polysemy
Polysemy is the polysemy of a word. In this aspect of lexicology, languages are similar to each other. After conducting studies comparing the Russian and English languages, it was revealed that on average one word, both in Russian and in English, has about 5 meanings.
For example, if you take the word "key" and consider all its meanings used in these languages, then the Russian version of the word has six meanings, and in English - seven. It follows from this that in these two languages without context it is almost impossible to determine the intended meaning of the word.
Grammar system
Grammar is a section of linguistics that studies the change of a word and its combination with other words in a sentence. When comparing Russian and English, several grammatical differences can be distinguished. Let's consider them in more detail.
Endings
In the course of its historical development, the Russian language has developed a certain system of endings, which is needed to connect words in a sentence. For instance:
- The book is on the shelf.
- There is no book on the shelf.
- The book was found on another shelf.
In English, the role of endings is played by various forms of the verb. Therefore, native speakers of the Russian language when building sentences in English will not need to think about choosing the right ending. In the examples described above, the book will always be a book. Only the verb that will play the role of the predicate will change.
Principal members of the proposal
In English, a sentence cannot be considered grammatically correct without the two main members - the subject and the predicate. While in Russian you can count thousands of such sentences. This is because there are no endings in English. Therefore, here the words are grouped around the predicate, which, in turn, cannot exist without the subject:
- I am a teacher - Russian version.
- I am a teacher (I am a teacher) - English version.
Word order
In Russian, words in sentences can be arranged in any order, depending on the intent of the speaker. In English, there is no such thing. There is a clearly fixed word order that cannot be broken. The classic circuit looks like this:
- Actor.
- An action that is committed by a person.
- Indication of this person.
- Indications of conditions.
An example is the sentence:
- The bird caught the insect in the yard (In the yard, the bird caught an insect).
If you change the order of words in it, you get a completely different meaning:
- The insect caught the bird in the yard (In the yard, an insect caught a bird).
When translating some sentences, teachers are asked to start at the end of the sentence. This is explained by the fact that in the Russian language sentences in most cases begin with a description of the situation where the action took place.
Comparison of phraseological units of English and Russian languages
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics that studies established expressions. Another name for phraseological units is idioms. Each language has its own idioms that cannot be literally translated into other languages. So, in Russian there are idioms:
- hang your nose;
- without a king in his head;
- the soul went to the heels and the like.
In English there are no analogues of these expressions. But with a careful comparison of the idioms of the Russian and English languages, one can find similar in meaning and structure. For instance:
- play with fire - to play with fire;
- burn bridges - to burn bridges;
- there is no smoke without fire.
However, in the English language there are idioms that, when literally translated, will not be understood by a foreigner. Understanding them requires an additional explanation.
For example, the famous idiom It is not my cup of tea. Translated literally, you get the sentence "This is not my cup of tea." Of course, such a translation may exist in a certain context. But for the most part, the sentence is used precisely as phraseologism and has the meaning: “I am not interested in it” or “I do not like it”.
Another equally popular idiom is against the clock. Translated literally, you get a combination of "against the clock." In fact, it does not make sense. But in English, this phraseology has the meaning: "to do something very quickly, in a very short time."
From this we can conclude that when comparing English and Russian in this aspect, you can find similarities. Because both in one and in another language there are individual phraseological units that do not have a literal translation into another language.
If we summarize all the information described here, we can say that the two languages described are different from each other, although they are representatives of the same language family. But you can still find some similarities between them. But to answer the question of which language is more difficult - Russian or English, will be problematic. Since they have their own individual characteristics, each of which either impede or facilitate their study. But if you have the opportunity to learn English, use it.