Question: is the root the same in соберу and собираю? Answer: yes, it is, even though the vowels are different. This is called vowel alternation: е - и. A few pairs do this regularly:
е - и:
стереть - стирать,
умереть - умирать,
зажечь - зажигать
о - а:
коснуться - касаться,
предложить - предлагать,
опоздать - опаздывать,
осмотреть - осматривать
о - ы:
вздохнуть - вздыхать,
позову - призывать
а - и(м), а - и(н):
поднять - поднимать,
нажать - нажимать,
начать - начинать
A similar question: is the root the same in писать and пишу? In могу and может?
Answer: yes, it is, and this mutation is called consonant alternation.
Here is a list of the most common pairs:
с - ш: высокий - выше, носить - ношу
х - ш: ухо - уши, страх - страшный
з - ж: возить - вожу, низкий - ниже
г - ж: могу - можешь, нога - ножной
г - ж - з: друг - дружный - друзья
д - ж: сидит - сижу, молодой - моложе
к - ч: крик - кричать, восток - восточный
ц - ч: лицо - личный, птица - птичка
т - ч: хотеть - хочу, крутой - круче
ст - щ: растить - ращу, пустить - пущу
ск - щ: искать - ищу, доска - дощаный
б - бл: любить - люблю
п - пл: терпеть - терплю
в - вл: ловить - ловлю
м - мл: кормить - кормлю
Compare окно and окон, отец and отцу, ружьё and ружий. One word in each pair has a root vowel that the other one doesn't have: о in окон, е in отец, и in ружий. Some people call this a fleeting vowel while others call it an inserted vowel. The latter is more accurate because we insert this vowel when otherwise the word would end in a consonant cluster. Most of the time, we find it hard to say more than one consonant at the very end of the word, so we add a vowel between them. We seem to have less trouble saying a sequence of consonants at the very end of the word when one of them is a «в» (e.g. чувств), «м» (e.g. гимн), or «л» (e.g. корабль, дирижабль, дубль, рубль). Still, even in those cases, the number of words where the vowel is not inserted is very very small, and most of them are foreign borrowings. Only half a dozen words end in -бль, compared to hundreds of words that end in -бель.
Here are a few more examples of words with inserted vowels: палец, рынок, ужасен, лёд (compare to льдом), свадеб (compare to свадьба), чаек (compare to чайка), заём (compare to займа). Note the expected behavior of the «ь» and «й» in some of these examples. Note also that in some of these examples the inserted vowel sound «о» is spelled with «ё», also as expected.
When an inserted vowel is unstressed, you may hear «а» but since «а» is never used as an inserted vowel, always write «о». When you hear an unstressed inserted vowel as «и», the safe thing to do is to write «е», since the use of «и» as an inserted vowel is very rare.
The root defines the basic meaning of the word, e.g. the words научиться, учёный, учитель, ученик, учёба, самоучитель, and учебник all have to do with learning. The prefix may add a nuance to the basic meaning, e.g. научиться and выучиться signify that the process was completed. The ending shows how the word functions in the sentence, e. g. to answer the question О чём ты говорил? you'll say О газете, but to answer the question Откуда ты это знаешь? you'll say Из газеты. The word remains the same, but the grammatical construction and the ending are different, because the word газета now serves a different function. A suffix is the part of the word that is between the root and the ending. Like a prefix, it creates a word with the same basic idea, but a somewhat different meaning. For example, the suffix -тель creates a word that means "the person or thing that carries out the action indicated by the root," like учитель, водитель, писатель, читатель, нагреватель, etc. Like some of the prefixes, many suffixes present a spelling problem because they're rarely stressed, and so you cannot trust the vowel sound that you hear. For example, you may hear the sound -и- in the suffix of the word маленький, but the word is spelled with -e-. You can remember this suffix as one that creates adjectives with affectionate, diminutive overtones. The suffix -оньк- does the same, and may sound as if it has an -a- in it. These two suffixes are never spelled with -и- or -а-.
Here are a few common suffixes whose spelling you should remember:
-тель-: учитель, глушительThe adjectival suffixes -анн-ый, -янн-ый, -онн-ый, -енн-ый, -инн-ый, are always spelled with two нн's.
Two verb suffixes deserve special attention. The suffixes in рисовал
and списывал
may sound similar but these verbs behave very differently when conjugated: compare
рисую and списываю. If you are not sure about the spellng of a -ва- verb,
you can tell the two types apart by conjugating them:
-ова- and -ева-: рисовать / рисую, танцевать / танцую (the suffix changes form -ва- to -уй- when conjugated)
-ыва- and -ива-: списывать / списываю, достраивать / достраиваю (the suffix stays the same).
It is very useful to remember that there are many verbs with the suffixes -ай- and -а- and none at all with the suffix -o-. This will help you to spell, e.g. слышать (-a- verb) and слушать (-ай- verb, e. g. слушай, слушаю, слушает).
Given vowel alternation, consonant alternation, and vowel insertion, it is not surprising that sometimes the root takes several forms in the same family of words.
ОД(И)Н- од(и)н-, един- one; only, sole, lone; single; uni-; mono-
| одќн one; a; alone | едќнственный only, sole |
| однђко however, only | едќнство unity |
| одновремљнный simultaneous | единоглђсно unanimously |
| однообрђзный monotonous | единообрђзный uniform |
| одинђковый identical | единќца the figure ‘1’ (math.) |
See more sample word nests in PDF format.
Names of nationalities and languages are not capitalized, e. g. англичанин, английский, русский.
Names of months and days of the week are not capitalized, e. g. среда, суббота, воскресенье.
In titles, only the first word is capitalized (but names are still capitalized, of course), e. g. Война и мир, Дети капитана Гранта, Том Сойер.
The first word in a sentence is always capitalized. The pronoun я is not capitalized unless it is the first word in the sentence. The pronoun вы is capitalized only in personal correspondence.
Compiled by Slava Paperno. Not copyrighted. May be reproduced without asking for permission. Comments sent to sp27@cornell.edu will be appreciated.