Question by Gabelier: Why is word stress particularly important in Russian?
I’ve been trying to learn Russian lately, and every learning source makes note that correct word stress is particularly important in each word in Russian. So why is this? Obviously word stress is important in any language, for if someone stresses the wrong syllable in English, French, German, etc, few would be able to ake sense of what they are saying. So why in Russian is it even MORE important? I can’t find any words that are the same, with changes only being in stress, Each word seems to be unique. Does anyone know why this is?
Answers and Views:
Answer by John Doe
Because Russia is a shittyass country and so everybody is stressed so they use the word a lot
Give your answer to this question below!
Julian Crane says
because замок (with the first syllable stressed) means "castle" and замок (with the 2nd syllable stressed) means lock (i e a doorlock for e.g.)
anastasia_chu says
Stress is important in Russian because depending on stress words are read differently. That happens because in unstressed positions some vowels become kinda "neutral". Look at the word "milk":
молоко (the stress is on the last syllable and that's why the word is pronounced like "malako")
If the stress was on the first syllable it would be pronounced like molaka, if it was in the middle it would be maloka. You can see that the difference is big and many Russians wouldn't understand that it's the word "milk" or it may look as some declination of this word. And besides, there are a few words that are differentiated by stress, for example:
замОк (door lock) зАмок (castle)
Brenton says
its just how languages are.like there difference between were and where. or two words u spell the same but they sound different and mean different things
its just how you say it