The Complexity of Russian
Language Translation
Russian is one of the most difficult and intricate languages in the world, and even more difficult for non-native speakers to learn. It takes years to develop English to Russian translation knowledge. Their grammar system is one of the most complex of all major languages, and their vocabulary is equally full and rich. Here are a few examples:
- The Russian noun cases more complex than other Slavic languages, because both nouns and the adjectives that describe the nouns change with each case. Any given adjective or noun can take on many different endings, and to English ears, they can sound like different words altogether when spoken.
- There are six noun declension cases for Russian grammar: Nominative, in which nouns are the subject; Accusative, when the noun is the object of the sentence; Prepositional, when the noun is preceded by certain prepositions (at, on, of, in); Instrumental, which is used for “with” or to express by means of; Dative is used for indirect object nouns; and Genitive is used for possessive nouns.
- Nouns have masculine, feminine and neuter genders. Their endings change differently according to their gender, and they also have different endings for plural and singular noun forms. Adjectives adhere to the same declension rules as nouns. This intricacy takes years to learn correctly for any professional Russian translator.
- The Russian alphabet contains two letters which have no sound – myaki znak and tvordi znak - but which create soft or hard letter sounds for the letter before it.
- There are no article equivalents for a, the, or an in Russian. Instead, they are expressed in the content of the sentence or by changing the word itself. For example, “dom” means “house,” and “doma” means “at home.”
Because Russian is so complex, and because of its huge potential for regional/localized dialects as well as cultural and colloquial differences, only the most experienced translators should handle your Russian document translation. Trusting anyone except a skilled and professional human English to Russian translation service like Tomedes will result in inaccurate translations, and potentially embarrassing mistakes in communication.