Russian prefixes

[PEMbl]

Добрый день все! =)

I don't come very often to this forum, but this should change in the near future as I'm really starting to need more conversation training in this fascinating language that is Russian. Expect to see me often here..

I've been learning russian all by myself in the past two years with almost no practice with natives (hard to find them where I live) and there is one thing I can't seem to find decent information about. Prefixes.

Although I'm starting to get the hang of them on -some- verbs such as ехать or идти(is it even written properly?) I'm starting to think most have to be learned by heart. Is that true? I don't get how выдерживать and удевживать can be related, and that's also valid for a lot of verbs.

Does a anyone know any good tip/resource to help me learn them? I feel it would really help my progress in Russian.

Thanks a lot everyone!

Edit : I forgot to specify, I know most questions are better suited in the Discussion group but since prefixes are in Russian already a big subject to talk about and learn, I thought there would be enough to talk about for an entire thread. I hope it's alright and if it's not feel free to tell me.

[lazyaficionado]

Hi, glad you find Russian fascinating!

Here's the link that might be useful to you: http://www.slovorod.ru/russian-prefixes.html. It's a list of Russian prefixes with their meanings. As usual, there are exceptions and it's not always deducible from the meaning of the stem and the meaning of the prefix what the compound word means. (You showed examples yourself: although these words seem related very much to me ). So yeah, you got to learn things by heart.

Here's the tip though: when you see a word which you don't know the meaning of but it's composed of a stem and an affix familiar to you, try to deduce what the word could mean, then look it up in the dictionary in case you guessed wrong or couldn't come up with anything. You'll get better the more you practice I think .

Oh, and BTW: it's "Добрый день всем!" (dative case).

[linguoboy]

I've found Townsend's Russian word-formation a very useful resource for understanding Russian prefixes (as well as suffixes and roots). It's an older publication, but it's not like the basic compositional principles have changed significantly in forty years.

[PEMbl]

This website, lazy, looks really great! Although I don't understand absolutely everything it says (my russian is still only intermediate) it should really help me get some things straight! The link can be a pretty good reference anytime - I'll keep it saved somewhere. Also thanks for the correction =)

And linguoboy, I'll see if I could check that book out. I sure need that kind of information as much as I can.

In the meaningwhile, if anyone else has any resource or tip concerning prefixes (or any other word-formation arcticle, for that matter) I'll happily take all the help I can! Thanks all!

[SmotritelTerve]

yes, I think you should learn the different word forms by heart rather than try to compose them from its root

[PEMbl]

This sounds like sarcasm

[linguoboy]

yes, I think you should learn the different word forms by heart rather than try to compose them from its root

You may be misunderstanding what the OP is asking for. IME, learning prefixes isn't useful for coining new vocabulary but rather for making intelligent guesses about unfamiliar words and for making the rote memorisation a bit easier.

[PEMbl]

Also because it allows for a much more detailed way to express oneself. And because they're used just about every other word in russian sentences..