Homework help.

[onekatietwo.livejournal.com]

Sorry. This kind of seems like a silly place to go for help with my homework, but i just can't figure this out.

I'm very confused by the word order in Russian sentences. Any helpful tips or tricks? I've heard that the most important word is supposed to go at the end of the sentence, and that knowledge helps a little bit, but i'm still having trouble forming sentences with the vocabulary i know.

Also, the sentence (in my homework) that currently has me hung up is "In which park do they often (usually) walk?" How would i write that in Russian?
Thanks for any help.

Comments

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

В каком парке они обычно гуляют?

[onekatietwo.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! So the word order can follow the english word order exactly? Or is that just in this case?

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

It's only in this case :-)

[mulan2006.livejournal.com]

The translation is "В каком парке они обычно гуляют?"

[oryx_and_crake]

The word order is pretty flexible but still follows a more or less established order, i.e. you probably will not go wrong if you put noun first, predicate after it and all the objects afterwards. This is for affirmative sentences. For the questions, you put the thing of which you ask first and everything else after it. E.g.:

Маша обычно гуляет в парке.
Где Маша обычно гуляет? (в парке)
Кто обычно гуляет в парке? (Маша)
Что Маша обычно делает в парке? (гуляет)

[onekatietwo.livejournal.com]

That is very helpful! Thank you!

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Well, there're cases when the order (and intonation) suggest the meaning.

Order:
Я обычно гуляю в парке. <- this sentence is normal, suggesting nothing special
Я гуляю обычно в парке. <- this one suggests that something went differently (e.g. different place, or it didn't happen at all)
Обычно я гуляю в парке. <- same as above

Intonation/emphasis:
*Я* дал книгу Маше. <- (re)confirms the giving person
Я *дал* книгу Маше. <- (re)confirms the action
Я дал *книгу* Маше. <- (re)confirms the given object
Я дал книгу *Маше*. <- (re)confirms the receiving person
As you can see, same order but different intonation/emphasis makes a whole lot of difference. I'd say it's as subtle as the difference between "*pretty* good" and "pretty *good*" to somebody unfamiliar with peculiarities of English.

[onekatietwo.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[cassandraclue.livejournal.com]

it might help you to study the seven intonation constructions. i had to take two courses on this one concept, so it's extremely important to understanding meaning in sentences, much more so than word order IMO.