What is the difference between Russian and Ukrainian

[KMK]

Some, but not too many. I speak both.

[rooskyprerebodchik]

That may be so, but think about other similar languages. How many of them have so many words in common. And no, I'm not talking about the difference between British and American english.

[KMK]

A significant number of Ukrainian words are also common to words in Sanskrit. Or Italian.

Serbian is probably just as close to Russian as Ukrainian.

Here's a test. Take a native Ukrainian speaker from Western Ukraine and drop them on a busy street in Moscow to ask directions.

I can guarantee you, most Muscovites, unless they are Ukrainian, would state they don't understand about 80% of the question.

[rooskyprerebodchik]

One thing I know for nearly certain, though, is that English is as screwed up as can be. It takes words from a lot of languages and doesn't even change them most of the time. That's why it ranks as one of the top 3 hardest-to-learn languages (for 2nd language, of course).

[tryingtolearn]

First, I cannot speak, read or write Russian or Ukrainian. I want to learn both languages and write business letters.

I am looking for either an on-line web based free translator or software for English to Ukrainian and back. I have used the IM Translator for Internet Exployer which is free and works well for Russian but not Ukrainian.

http://plugin.imtranslator.com/

It also has a decoder and translit function for cyrillics. Also, does anyone know who could help me with better russian and ukrainian grammar? Translators work fine for basic understanding but doesn't help with transliteration and sentence structure in Russian or Ukrainian.

I understand that in the Russian language, the word order is rather flexible. Though the Russian sentence is generally arranged SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT, the grammar rules allow to use virtually any combination of subject, verb and object within the sentence.

Does anyone have any advise on any of this?

[Charlie998]

Hi tryingtolearn (sic)

my experience with automatic translators a few years ago led me to the conclusion that they are worse than useless, except as a spell checker and for checking that you've got endings of Russian nouns, verbs and adjectives at least within the bounds of possibility. I used an early Win 3.1 program called "Socrat" for this. I haven't tried this recently, but try translating a reasonably complex sentence into Russian and then back to English, using a translator. The results can be hilarious.

Ever wondered why you haven't met many Russians who speak perfect English or native English speakers who speak flawless Russian? It's precisely because Russian isn't arranged SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT, as you might expect, but is very like Latin in its grammatical structure, in that word order is much more flexible than English. Then you've got to get the endings right, like Latin, agreeing in gender, case and number. Finally, when speaking, you've got to learn the pronounciation and, most importantly, which syllable the stress goes on in each word.

That's the bad news - the good news is that Russian is a rewarding language of great good humour and elegance and has a large literature with which you will feel strangley familiar. In my experience, Russians are always surprised and pleased when a foreigner attempts to communicate in their language. Once you get hooked on it, there's no cure. Little did I know, when I bought my first "Get by in Russian" cassette 13 years ago at the end of perestroika, what adventures it would lead to!

Stick at it! You won't regret it!

[Balamut]

When I think off all those endings in russian, I'm simply amazed how you ,guys, who started to learn russian, handle it. My respect to all of you.