Глаголы движения

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

What is the difference between доходить до and подходить к? I tried asking my teacher but... I need more opinions. The former to me is "coming up to" and the latter "approaching." And to me, that means the same exact thing.

There's also this line from Руки Вверх that goes "может быть твоё письмо потерялось, не дошло," why дошло instead of пришло?

Comments

[gordin.livejournal.com]

Доходить means an action when something was in movement (of any, even non-literal sense) and succesfully reached the target - 'до' means that the action (идти/ходить in this case) was finished:

Я дошёл до автобусной остановки - I reached the bus-stop.

Письмо дошло - the letter has reached the recipient.

До меня дошло, что он имел в виду - I understood, what he had meant.

Он дошёл до воровства - he got as low as stealing. Probably can be translated more accurate with an idiom, but it's the idea - to reach a certain level in a negative sense. It's a tricky one. It generally just shows a big step-by-step change. But mostly it is used to describe a person going down, emphasising how bad the situation has gotten.
Дошло до того, что он стал воровать - the same as above, in a bit nicer way (suits best for a written text, I'd say)

Something/somebody доходит - is in the last phase of the process, usually by itself. Can be used for a meal (when you finished any stirring and it has to stay as it is for some time), or for a person, getting ready to take an action or make a decision. Has a message feeling that the speaker is certain that the process will finish succesfully.

Подходить к has two meanings - to come up to smth/to approach and to match (for clothes).

Я подошёл к автобусной остановке - I came up to the bus stop.

Он подошёл к такому возрасту, когда пора задуматься о будущем - he reached an age, when it's high time to start thinking about the future. Here look - it's also reaching a certain point (not only in time or space), but it doesn't have any negative meaning at all.

Я подошёл к этому делу научно - I took a scientific approach to this matter

Эти туфли и сумочка подходят друг к другу - these shoes and the purse match.

Hope it helps, any corrections/additions welcomed.

P. S.

Please, please don't listen to this music. I know you do it 'cause they are easy and have contemporary lexics, but it is _sooo_ bad. Not just in the musical way - their language is not just simple, it's primitive and they make _a lot_ of mistakes.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

It did help a lot, thanks! I just usually get frustrated that in general the meanings are blurred, but I have to get used to the fact that there's specificity involved. Dammit.

And also, yeah, I know about the music. I listen to it with that disclaimer. Besides, that's not the only Russian music I listen to. I do listen to good ones every so often :)