Читать книгу Russian For Dummies - Serafima Gettys - Страница 37

Stress is an important concept in Russian. Putting a stress in the wrong place isn’t just a formal mistake; it can also hinder communication, because the meaning of a word can change based on where the stress is. Take the word зaмoк (zah-mahk), which means castle. If you shift the stress from the first syllable to the last, зaмoк (zuh-mohk) now means lock.

Unfortunately, no hard-and-fast rules about stress exist. Stress in Russian is unpredictable and erratic, though you’ll begin to recognize some patterns as you learn more. The harsh truth, however, is that each word has its own stress pattern. What happens if you stress the vowel in the wrong place? Certainly, nothing terrible: The Earth will continue to rotate around its axis. What may happen, however, is that the person you’re talking to may have a hard time understanding you and will take longer to grasp what you really mean.

Before learning a new Russian word, find out which vowel to stress. Look in any Russian–English dictionary, which usually marks stress by putting the sign ´ over the stressed syllable. In a dictionary, зaмoк (zah-mahk) (castle) is written зáмoк, and зaмoк (zuh-mohk) (lock) is written зaмóк.