Russian 3305/3306: Letters and Sound. Part 5

Чередование гласных в корне слова

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

Чередование согласных в корне слова

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

Вставной (беглый) гласный звук в корне слова

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.

Суффиксы

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, глушитель
-еньк-: маленький, тётенька (there're no -инький words in Russian, and only three -иньк words, e.g. паинька)
-оньк-: сухонький
-онк-а: мальчонка, девчонка (in this suffix, always -о- after -ч ш ж щ-, i.e. noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)
-ёнк-: сестрёнка, шестерёнка (in this suffix, -ё- after a non-noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)
-ечк-: Наташечка, мальчишечка, скамеечка, нянечка (this suffix is never stressed and therefore is not clearly heard and can cause a spelling problem; not to be confused with words like свечка, where the -е- is part of the root)
-ичк-: таджичка, птичка, сестричка (this suffix is always stressed and therefore is clearly heard and does not cause a spelling problem) -очк-а-: мамочка, дурочка, коточка (this suffix never occurs after a noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)
-ак-: дурак, земляк, бедняк
-щик-: барабанщик
-ов-щик-: часовщик
-чик-: лётчик, счётчик, мальчик (compare to -чек words below)
-чек-: звоночек (from звонок), праздничек (from праздник), кошелёчек (from кошелёк) (all -чек words are diminutive forms of -ок/-ек/-ёк/-ик words)
-ник-: колхозник, спутник
-ик-: математик, винтик
-ец-: ленинградец, немец
-ан-ец-: американец
-ин-: болгарин, татарин, трещина, морщина
-ан-ин-: горожанин
-тор-: новатор (words in -тар do exist, but they never mean "someone who does what the root signifies")
-ость-: активность, гордость (there's no -асть- suffix in Russian)
-от-а-: беднота, краснота
-ин-а-: ширина, глубина
-а-ни-е-: внимание, собрание
-е-ни-е-: чтение, удивление
-ев/ов-: боевой, строевой, полевой, трудовой, годовой, беговой

The 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).

A Sample Word Nest

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.

Upper or Lower Case?

The use of capitalization in Russian is different from English. All proper names (including names of individuals, countries, towns, rivers, seas, oceans, and continents) are capitalized in Russian the way they are in English, but if a common noun is part of the name, it is not capitalized. Examples: Пётр Иванович Смирнов, Дженни, Атлантический океан, Финский залив, Миссисипи, полуостров Крым, город Нью-Йорк.

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.