Fluent?

[david-us.livejournal.com]

What is the best way to express the idea of fluency in Russian?

For instance, what if I wanted to say, "I do not speak Russian fluently."

I have always used the word свободно, as in "Я не свободно горорю по-русски."

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[gemelo.livejournal.com]

For "fluently" you may use the word бегло - говорить бегло=speak fluently

[goluboglazaya.livejournal.com]

fluently - бегло
so "Я говорю по-русски не очень бегло."

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

Where's the stress on this word? Which vowel>

[icamel.livejournal.com]

бéгло

[goluboglazaya.livejournal.com]

sorry, forgot to mark it)

[creiz.livejournal.com]

Я плохо говорю по-русски. That's the best and simpliest way.

[anusoida.livejournal.com]

+1

[oryx_and_crake]

I'd say "не очень хорошо говорю". There is a difference between not being very fluent and being outright bad at the language.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

While свободно говорить на языке implies being fluent, the opposite (especially with the negated adverb) can mean several different things and it's a bit ambiguous because of that. It can mean your poor fluency or some constraints (e.g. something or somebody forbids you to speak the language at the moment).
The best would be "Я (еще) недостаточно хорошо говорю по-русски." It's longer that the suggested phrase with плохо (a good one), but it does not say your skills are too bad and does not necessarily discourage others from speaking the language with you. It's more of gray than black and white kind of thing, you know. If you want to continue the conversation in Russian after that, ask to speak more slowly or loudly or using simpler words.

[quorax.livejournal.com]

Indeed, "бегло" is a correct translation for "fluent", but negative constructions like "не бегло" sound awkward. "Говорю не совсем свободно" or "не очень хорошо" are good solutions.

[zcrendel.livejournal.com]

You wrote:
"Я не свободно говорю по-русски."

This sentence has incorrect form. At least you can say: "Я не говорю по-русски свободно" or "Я не владею русским свободно". Also, you can improve second variant by word 'Язык'. For example: "Я не владею русским языком свободно".

Hoping this will be helpful.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

"Я не очень хорошо говорю по-русски" would sound a lot more natural.

[david-us.livejournal.com]

To me, there is a difference between saying you don't speak a language very well and saying that you are not fluent.

I have come across many people who speak English very well as a second language - although they were not fluent. For them to say that they don't speak English very well would be a gross understatement of their abilities.

Yet, I see your point.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[hellga.livejournal.com]

I can see what you mean, but in Russian there is no such difference... you either speak well (as in completely/almost completely fluent), or you don't. When you are using negatives, at least. You can say "я свободно говорю/пишу/читаю по-русски" but you cannot say the same in the negative, it just doesn't sound right. Semantics of the language does not necessarily carry across different languages... and Russian has a lot of idiosyncrasise. Like the perfective verb победить which has all the forms except first-person singular. :) And this verb has no adequate translation into English either.