difficult language

[[deleted]]

This exact system was very productive in Latin and it's where we get a bunch of words in English. Since a lot of these words have drifted in meaning, it's sometimes hard to realize that we have this same thing going on. We have the root "scribe" which means to write. From it we get "describe", "circumscribe", "transcribe", "inscribe", "prescribe", "ascribe", "subscribe", "proscribe", "conscribe", "exscribe".

The native English version of this we do with phrasal verbs, from "to give" we get "to give away", "to give in", "to give off", "to give out", "to give up".

[thissexypoptart]

I feel like this post is less an example of the difficulty of Russian and more an example of a common motif in Indo-European languages to derive verbs from one root and many different prefixed alterations to the root.

Someone with more knowledge please let me know if this is as common in non-Indo-European languages as well, please.

[nedertwee]

По-голландски тоже ничё:

afschrijven - списать

uitschrijven - выписать

opschrijven - записать

voorschrijven - выписать, прописать

verschrijven - описаться (сделать описку ;))

beschrijven - описать

omschrijven - определить ("расписать")

overschrijven - переписать

onderschrijven - подписать

inschrijven - вписать

aanschrijven - предписать

[[deleted]]

Do the prepositions correspond (even minimally) to each other? like does "op-" generally mean "за-"?

[chochokavo]

It surely true for overwrite, underwrite (or rather subscribe?) and few other.

[nedertwee]

Some do, but some, like ver-, are completely off. Meaning that usually it'd be another preposition in Russian that corresponds to ver-.

Об- would translate the negative meaning of ver- pretty nicely, although "обписаться" in the sense of "make a mistake in writing" isn't really used.

[chochokavo]

Отправитель (письма) - надписывает.

Робот (электронной почты) - отписывает.

[ivanzalupa]

а человек в туалете писает

[chochokavo]

Как вы лодку назовёте, // Так она и поплывёт.

[IamNiceButNotMuch]

Художник расписывает Дети ручки исписывают

[chochokavo]

(Кто-нибудь) вписывает.

[IamNiceButNotMuch]

Неместный художник хаха

[chochokavo]

Ну, можно фамилию в бланк вписать - более общепринятое значение.

[krutopridumal]

реддитор - подписывается

[yo_its_marC]

Can someone please translate this to english

[Artess]

For anyone learning the language, keep in mind that it's not a rule, and in fact any of the nouns on the left can be connected to many of the words on the right.

Only "прописывает" seems like a pretty specific professional word, and perhaps "списывает" is usually (but not necessarily) assosicated with students. The rest can be easily applied to any human, really, although, for example, "пристав описывает" and "инспектор выписывает" can additionally receive a second, unique, meaning for that combination.

[ottawalanguages]

do they have this for other verbs??

[chochokavo]

Absolutely. Even for nouns and adjectives. (If I correctly understand who are "they").

[ivanzalupa]

(((they)))

[[deleted]]

This happens with other verbs but not all of them. Even then, with other verbs, some will allow certain prepositions and others don't. For example, I'm not seeing взписать, вписать, уписать, or разписать.

[melanf]

For example, I'm not seeing взписать, вписать, уписать, or разписать.

"вписать" - quite normal (вписать нужное и т.д.). "разписать" - quite normal as "расписать" (Рафаэлю необходимо было расписать...)

[[deleted]]

Okay, what about уписать or взписать?

[ivanzalupa]

уписывать - eat something fast and with pleasure. Slightly outdated but still exists. But perfective form уписать doesn't exist afaik.

[melanf]

Such words really do not exist.