Improving and correcting

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Dear friends!
Would anyone like to give me example of the usage of исправить and попрaвить?
As far as I understand, исправить is when you make a wrong right, when you straiten something out, and попрaвить is when you make something better by adjusting it a bit?
I am thinking of "исправительная колония" (поправительная колония sounds funny.. :), and "поправить шарф".

But when it comes to ошибки, can they be both исправленные and поправленные? And when I have corrected all misstakes in a text - has it been popravlen or ispravlen?
I usually say that I "исправляю" if it is simple grammatical mistakes or spelling, but "поправляю" if somebody recommended to improve the syntax, did I get it wrong?
/Amanda

Comments

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

thank you!
"Also, you can поправить something and the result will still be not perfect. Исправить, however, means that your job is done and nothing left to be desired. "
That is why popravitel'naya koloniya sounds funny, i guess… although on second thoughts, it might be more accurate .-)

[viata.livejournal.com]

I think it sounds funny because there actually is a clearly defined standard: don't break laws and all that. Plus, well, why would you lock them up if you think they're already okay as is? :>

Btw, исправить стилистику = you made mistakes, you can't phrase it like this, let's fix it. Поправить стилистику = well...it's not a mistake, but I can help you make it sound better (to my taste).