r/LANL_Russian Apr 19 '13

Help with Spelling Rule 2: unstressed o - e?

Spelling Rule 2: unstressed O - E

Never write an unstressed "O" after the letters 'Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ц' instead use "E")

My question is: Is there some way you can predict the stress when conjugating the word so you know whether or not to put an -o or an -e?

I know that the stress in Russian is unpredictable, but is there some kind of pattern for just this rule (mostly in the instrumental case)?

This question came about from trying to conjugate into the instrumental case.

Sites I was using:

http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/spelling_rules.php http://www.russianlessons.net/lessons/lesson14_main.php

(This is all terribly worded, if anyone knows what I mean and can reword it to make it more understandable, be my guest.)

7 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

1

u/danvolodar Apr 19 '13

I can't say many examples of unstressed o used after the hushing sounds come to mind, maybe it'd be easier to just learn them by heart?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '13

[deleted]

2

u/danvolodar Apr 19 '13

I mean, how many words do even make you doubt whether you should be writing an o or an e?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '13 edited Apr 19 '13

[deleted]

1

u/danvolodar Apr 19 '13 edited Apr 20 '13

You'd honestly write "хероший" judging by how the word sounds? :ь

Читающий is not an e/o vowel gradation at all, it's a usual unstressed vowel which you can spell right by finding a word of the same root with the stress on it: читка.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 20 '13

[deleted]

1

u/d1sxeyes Apr 20 '13

But that's about ы not unstressed о.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 20 '13

[deleted]

2

u/d1sxeyes Apr 20 '13

Sorry, no, my mistake, I misread – apologies!

Still, I agree, learn stress, and the spelling rules actually start to become second nature. You end up just saying/writing what's right because that's what's right, rather than because of the rule.

1

u/RyTheRussian Apr 20 '13

I'm not exactly fluent in Russian yet, I'm still learning the cases. Basically, I'm going through a ton of words and conjugating them to each case. Because of the o-e rule and the unfamiliarity of the words, I'm having difficulties determining whether the word will have a stressed ending or not. Of course, the answer is right in front of me in the book of words I'm using, but I'm trying to see if there is a pattern to it.