So you want to write a Russian-speaking character in English
Hello! Are you an English speaker trying to write Russian characters with an accent? Do bad and/or inaccurate mistakes set your teeth on edge? Here is a general primer of the English grammar of native Russian speakers from a linguistic standpoint to help you write Russian characters more accurately and avoid unnecessary stereotypes.
Your primary language greatly influences any additional languages you learn (especially if you learn as an adult), as well as the mistakes you make in those languages. For that reason, here is a very broad description on common mistakes by Russian L1 speakers in English.
I am not a Russian speaker, but I have taught English as a second language (ESL) for many years and have studied linguistics and TESOL. All of the information below is from an excellent book on the English of speakers of other languages, called Learner English: A teacherâs guide to interference and other problems, ed. Michael Swan & Bernard Smith.Â
I am going to focus specifically on grammar rather than the pronunciation, spelling, or writing of native (L1) Russian speakers, because thatâs the most relevant for writing Russian characters. If you want to know more, feel free to reply/send me a message, or check out Swan & Smith. (There are pdfs of the entire book online, as well as individual chapters. You can read the Russian chapter by Monk & Burak here.)
All examples of typical Russian speech mistakes are from Monk & Burak in Swan & Smith, but correct English examples are my own. (NB: in linguistics, an asterisk * is used before an ungrammatical (bad) utterance.) This is obviously not an exhaustive explanation of the influence of Russian grammar on English, but hopefully it will give you a place to start if you want to write Russian characters that sound like actual humans instead of cartoon villains and you're not sure where to start.
I marked two sections with a star (â ) because I think they are the most interesting, and also very easily clocked by readers as errors, though it is sometimes hard to pinpoint why. Additionally, they are an easy way to add misunderstandings if you want to go that route. (Plus I just love verb tenses.)
Articles
Possibly one of the most well-known features of Russian English is the confusion with articles (a, an, the). In Russian, there are no articles, which leads to articles not being used, not being used correctly (as in, using a/an in place of the and vice versa), or being used when not necessary. Examples:
*New house is building near cinema that is near us. [correct: a] *Have you mother? [correct: a] *Have you the mother? [correct: a] *Is the a woman you told us about? [correct: the]
Quantifiers
The following ways of talking about quantity are often confused: few (of), a few (of), little (of), much (of), many (of), none (of), a lot (of). Examples:
*I have many money. *I have few days before I go. (in the sense: I have a few days left before I go.) (*) I have many friends. (for I have a lot of friends.) (*) I have much time. (for I have a lot of time.) (*) I have little time. (for I don't have much time.)
Nouns
Russian nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. This leads to mistakes with personal pronouns:
"Where's my book?" *She is on the table." "Where's my umbrella?" *"He is here."
English and Russian both have count nouns (that is, nouns you can count, like pillows, as compared to nouns you can't count, like rice). However, not all count nouns are the same. Here are some examples:
*Her hairs are nice. *I have one news. *I'll give you a good advice. *Where are money? *They on table. *I don't like this songs. [NB: this/that and these/those are always tricky]
Adjectives and adverbs
As is the case with English learners of many languages, the comparative/superlative forms of good and bad (and other irregulars) are hard, as are the adverbial forms of those adjectives:
*He is more bad than I think. *They are badder. *It is farer. *He speaks English very good. *She plays piano bad. *He is more bad than I think. *They are badder. *It is farer. *He speaks English very good. *She plays piano bad.
Adverbs so and such can also get mixed up:
*He is so clever man. *It is such difficult.
Prepositions
Languages use prepositions differently, and Russian speakers may not use prepositions, may add prepositions, or use incorrect prepositions:
*I listen music very much. *I want to explain you this. *It'll be dark for three o'clock. (for ...by three o'clock) *He work on factory. *Can you comment this? *What are you laughing?
â Time and tenses
Russian has three verb tenses: past, present, and future. English has many more tenses, depending heavily on progressive vs. simple tenses to express nuance:
I am drinking coffee now. (present progressive) vs. I drink coffee every day. (simple present) I have lived here for 10 years. (present perfect) vs. I have been living here for 10 years. (present perfect progressive) I was reading the book yesterday. (past progressive) vs. I read the book yesterday. (simple past)
Instead of the multitude of verb tenses that English has, Russian's verb system is built on aspect: completed actions (perfective aspect) vs. uncompleted actions (imperfective aspect). That doesn't translate literally, so Russian speakers can be perceived as clunky and abrupt to English-speaking ears.
Here are some typical mistakes with verb tenses by Russian speakers (again from Monk & Burak in Swan & Smith, p. 152):
Past time:
*I read when he came. *He said he already finished work. *I still didn't read the book. *He said he live here long. (reported speech typically changes the tenses of original utterance) *I knew she (is) in town. (reported speech again)
Present time:
*Where you go now? *Your article is typed now. Please wait. *How long you be/are here? (for ...have you been here?) *He very like her. (for He likes her very much.) [NB: in my experience as an ESL teacher, the third person -s on verbs is VERY commonly forgotten by speakers of all languages, even at advanced levels, and similarly don't is used for doesn't all the goddamn time.]
Future time:
*I promise I come tomorrow. (simple present tense, while native speakers would say I'm coming or I will come) *She will work here ten years by Thursday. (progressive vs. simple tense error) *This time tomorrow I will lie on the beach. (progressive vs. simple tense error) *When she will ring you, tell her I called. (subordinate clause of future time should be in the present tense) *She said she go tomorrow. *They said they no come.
For a real life example of this, Alex Ovechkin (Russian NHL player for Washington) famously said, "we're not going to be suck this year" (and, in fact, they were not fucking suck as they won the cup that year!). One possible read on this is that he learned "going to be" as a complete phrase and just added "suck" to the end.
The next year, Ovechkin said, "back-to-back we not going to be suck," which is also an example of another common ESL mistake:
In my personal experience as an ESL teacher, English learners make a lot of mistakes with progressive tenses (which require the verb to be plus the -ing form of another verb), even if their first language has something similar. This is true across languages (and also a constant source of stress for yours truly).
Common ESL mistakes (across languages, examples my own):
*I taking a break instead of I'm taking a break. *I'm take a break or *I am take a break instead of I'm taking a break. *I'm work at the restaurant for I work at the restaurant. *I working there every day for I work there every day.
Lots of deletion of to be or gerund ending when it's needed, but also adding to be or gerunds when they're not necessary. [NB: a lot of the first person to be deletion, I think, is due to how North American English speakers reduce our words, especially common forms like I'm. Some learners just don't hear am or 'm, I think. Still drives me up the wall with my advanced students.]
For a real life example of this, Evgeni (Geno) Malkin (Russian NHL player for Pittsburgh) famously said, "I am score," which has turned into something of a catchphrase.
â Questions and negatives: auxiliaries
(This section is taken directly from the chapter by Monk & Burak in Swan & Smith, pages 151-152.)
1. The auxiliaries do, have, will and be have no equivalent in Russian. Typical mistakes in statements, questions and responses are:
*I no like it. *When you went there? *How you like it? "Do you like football?" "*Yes, I like."
2. Do is often confused with does, and vice versa:
*She don't go there now.
3. Negative question forms may be wrongly used:
*Don't you know when he's coming? (for Do you know...?)
4. Not having auxiliary verbs, Russian lacks question tags. Russians have great difficulty forming these and often make mistakes when using them. They also tend to employ them far less frequently than native speakers:
*You like her, doesn't it? *Is many people in the room, isn't it? *Did you see him, didn't you? *You didn't do it, didn't you?
5. Russian learners find the use of short answers and reply questions difficult:
"It was a very pleasant evening." "Yes." (for "Yes, it was."/"Yes, wasn't it?") [NB: while this is technically correct in English, it sounds curt and potentially rude. In the first scene of Heated Rivalry when Shane and Ilya meet for the first time, Ilya responds to a statement with just "Yes." To North American ears, it sounds like he's an asshole. In addition to his English being quite limited at this time, he gives a Russian-type answer to a US-type question, which contributes to his perception as a jerk. Imo this is a big thing in North American ~media misunderstanding non-native speakers, especially Russians.] "Can he play tennis?" "Yes." (for "Yes, he can.") [NB: again technically correct, but comes across as rude] "Are you tired?" "*No, not tired." (for "No, I'm not.") "Don't forget to write." "*No." (for "I won't.") "I don't understand." *"No? I explain again." (for "Don't you? I'll explain it again.")
[NB: On a related note, Monk and Burak write that "failure to use 'conversational fillers' [...] may make Russians sound impolite when, in fact, they do not mean to be so" (p. 159) (coughILYAcough):
"Would you like to go there?" *"No, I wouldn't." (for "Well, I'm afraid I can't because...") *Tell me please how to go to the station. (for "Excuse me, could you tell me the way to the station please?")]
6. Russians have difficulty with the use of Let imperatives:
*Let they to do it. *Let's no do it.
"To be"
(This section is taken directly from the chapter by Monk & Burak in Swan & Smith, p. 154.)
1. The link verb to be is not used as a rule in the present tense in Russian:
*He good boy. *They no nice.
2. In all tenses Russians experience difficulties in the use of the there is construction:
*Is table in room? *Many tables are in room, yes?
3. When the there is construction has been learnt, Russians may still confuse it with the use of it as a dummy subject:
*There is hot here, is it? *It is very good stereo in room.
Modal verbs
English modal verbs are, in my professional opinion, a damn mess. Some but not all require to, the past tenses are complicated, and some require multiple words (like to be able to). Here are some typical mistakes:
*I can do to it. *You must to work hard. *Yesterday he must go home early. (for must have gone) *She will can do it. "May I come in?" *"No, you may not/can't." (meaning "Please don't.") "Must I do it now?" *"No, you must not." (meaning "No, you needn't/don't need to.")
More complicated sentences with multiple verbs and/or clauses
Aka gerunds, infinitives, infinitives of purpose, object + infinitive constructions, etc.
*I heard of his appointing headmaster. (for I heard that he had been appointed headmaster.) *I like inviting by my friends. (for I like being invited by my friends.) *She is said to live here long. *She is believed to write a new book. *I came for to help you. *I came that to help you. *I could see him to go across the street. *They made me to do it. *I've just made it. (for I've just had it made.) *I must go to cut my hair. (for I've got to have my hair cut.)
Word order
English sentence word order is very fixed: subject-verb-object. We sometimes change the word order, but it's for emphasis only. Russian word order is extremely flexible because there are many prefixes and suffixes that indicate the role of everything in a sentence. In the classic example "dog bit man," there is nothing about the word "man" that indicates it's the object, so if we change it to "man bit dog," the meaning is changed completely. That wouldn't happen in Russian, because there would be an ending on the nouns indicating their role, so even if the word order were changed, the meaning would remain the same. This could lead to a Russian speaker "rearranging" the words in a sentence and confusing an English listener. Additionally, Russian sentences often begin with adverbs of time and place, while English generally puts them at the end. For example:
*Yesterday on the table lied my book.
Conclusions I guess?
Well, this turned out longer than I expected! When writing a Russian character, you certainly do not need to add all of the mistakes described here. Rather this is an overview of common mistake types made by Russian ESL speakers. It's possible (and common!) for advanced English speakers to include some (or all) of these mistakes, and they can still be quite comprehensible. Even people who speak the language well, as well as those who have lived in an English-speaking country for a long time, make mistakes. A very common feature of second languages is fossilized errors, which are repeated errors that learners make again and again. Your favorite Russian characters may always make a mistake with a certain grammatical construction, one specific phrase, one category of constructions, or none at all.
Finally, I want to say that speaking an additional language is a huge achievement, especially when you speak it to such a degree that you live your life in your second (or third...) language. I do not intend for anyone to use this to make fun of Russian speakers in English, or English learners from any language, for that matter. It's really hard to speak another language, and really frustrating to be unable to express yourself as fully, clearly, and specifically as you can in your primary language. It can also lead to being unintentionally rude or inappropriate, when in reality you may just not have the words to express yourself how you want.
I hope this is helpful for anyone who wants to write Russian characters with reasonably accurate English errors! This is by no means a comprehensive account of Russian L2 English, and I hope that I (through Swan & Smith) have described the language mostly accurately. If there are any mistakes, or if any actual Russian speakers want to weigh in, let me know!
