Why Russian to English is harder than it looks
Russian has no articles, and English needs them constantly. Я купил книгу is “I bought a book” or “I bought the book,” and nothing in the Russian says which. The translator has to infer it from context, which is why Russian rendered carelessly into English reads like a telegram.
Case endings do the work word order does in English. Russian can move words around freely because the endings say who did what to whom. Translated in the original order, the English comes out scrambled. The whole sentence has to be read before the first English word is chosen.
Aspect is not tense. Читал and прочитал are both past, but one is “was reading” and the other “read and finished.” English handles this with a different verb form entirely, and getting it wrong changes whether something is done or still in progress.
Russian directness is not rudeness. A Russian request often lands in English as an order, because English softens requests with words Russian does not need. Setting a friendly tone adds the padding English expects rather than preserving a bluntness that was never intended.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
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