Discussing Language Abilities in Russian – Breakdown

Let’s look at the dialogue. When I read, I want you to pay attention to the words showing the languages. Find what these words are and see how they’re used in the dialogue. Здравствуйте, вы говорите по-английски? (Zdravstvuyte, vy govorite po-angliyski?) Hello, do you speak English? Да, я говорю по-английски. (Da, ya govoryu po-angliyski.) Yes, I speak English. First is a formal greeting Здравствуйте. (Zdravstvuyte). Hello Then the question. Вы говорите по-английски? (Vy govorite po-angliyski?) Do you speak English? Then the answer. Да, я говорю по-английски. (Da, ya govoryu po-angliyski.) Yes, I speak English. Or Нет, я не говорю по-английски. (Net, ya ne govoryu po-angliyski). No, I don’t speak English. Now let’s look at some speaking examples. First, you’re asked the question Вы говорите по-русски. vy govorite po-russki? Do you speak Russian? And you would answer. Да, я говорю по-русски. (Da, ya govoryu po-russki.) Yes, I speak Russian. And, if you ask about Japanese. You can answer. Да, я говорю по-японски. (Da, ya govoryu po-yaponski.) Yes, I speak Japanese. Now let’s look at the sentence pattern. This pattern will be the structure that all of our dialogues will follow. Да, я говорю по-[language]. (Da, ya govoryu po-[language].) Yes, I speak [language]. You may have noticed here that the word for English по-английски (po-angliyski) is a little different from the vocabulary section. The words in the vocabulary section are all adjectives referring to the language. Some example phrases are “английский актёр” (angliyskiy aktyor) – English actor “русский язык” (russkiy yazyk) – Russian language; “немецкий паспорт” (nemetskiy pasport) – German passport. When referring to the ability to speak a language the prefix “по” (po) is added with a hyphen, and the ending “й” (y) is removed. This is done for every language. Examples are по-русски (po-russki); по-японски (po-yaponski).