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learn_russian(inspired by this discussion)
Using a web search engine to determine the right spelling of some word is a good idea, if you use it wisely. Even the spelling that generates 40 000 hits may still be a wrong one. And here's why.
1. The bulk of web-pages returned by the search engine may be not in Russian at all, but in Byelorussian or Ukrainian, and you may not be able to tell the difference. (Try to yandex "карова".)
2. You'd be amazed but a lot of native speakers cannot spell correctly in their own language. That's why "база даных" will return about 40 000 hits which does not make this spelling legitimate, not a one little bit. Think native English speakers and words like "there/they're/their".
3. The misspelling may be deliberate, see here, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udaff. Widespread Runet (Russian Internet) slang uses deliberate misspelling in a certain way (e.g. words like зайчик and котик become зайчег and котег, привет becomes превед etc.)
4. Typos happen. There are about 140 million people in Russia; if a few million people type the same relatively short and very commonly used word (like самый/самых that was discussed recently) there is a good probability that a few thousands of them will make the same typo. Think "teh" or "pwned".
Using a web search engine to determine the right spelling of some word is a good idea, if you use it wisely. Even the spelling that generates 40 000 hits may still be a wrong one. And here's why.
1. The bulk of web-pages returned by the search engine may be not in Russian at all, but in Byelorussian or Ukrainian, and you may not be able to tell the difference. (Try to yandex "карова".)
2. You'd be amazed but a lot of native speakers cannot spell correctly in their own language. That's why "база даных" will return about 40 000 hits which does not make this spelling legitimate, not a one little bit. Think native English speakers and words like "there/they're/their".
3. The misspelling may be deliberate, see here, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udaff. Widespread Runet (Russian Internet) slang uses deliberate misspelling in a certain way (e.g. words like зайчик and котик become зайчег and котег, привет becomes превед etc.)
4. Typos happen. There are about 140 million people in Russia; if a few million people type the same relatively short and very commonly used word (like самый/самых that was discussed recently) there is a good probability that a few thousands of them will make the same typo. Think "teh" or "pwned".
