Grammar mistakes are made even by literate people. It is easy to see that some rules of the Russian do not cause difficulties, while the majority regularly stumbles on others. It's not so much that these rules are complicated. Rather, they are simply inconvenient, and some have so many exceptions and application features that their presentation takes up a whole sheet - it seems that they cannot be learned without being an academic.
Let's consider the most typical mistakes in Russian, made not by schoolchildren, but by fairly literate people.
What counts as a grammatical error?
A grammatical error is a violation of a generally accepted established norm. Any errors relating to word formation (for example, the wrong suffix was used to form a word), morphology (for example, incorrect declension of a verb), syntax (for example, an adverbial phrase inconsistent with the main sentence) are called grammatical errors.
Grammar errors should be distinguished from spelling or speech errors.
The most common mistakes are related to punctuation:
1. Many people are used to highlighting "however" with commas and are very surprised when Word underlines the comma after it, aserror. Those who are more attentive notice that a comma after "however" is considered an error only when it is at the beginning of a sentence. Indeed, if the meaning of this word is similar to "after all", "nevertheless", and it is in the middle of a sentence, then it is considered introductory, and it must be separated by commas. If it means "but", as, for example, in the sentence "However, she did not understand him" (="But she did not understand him"), then you do not need to put a comma.
2. Often there is confusion with the signs "dash" and "colon". Many, when faced with complex sentences in which the union is omitted, intuitively understand that they need to put a more "solid" sign than a comma. But which one? The rule is actually quite simple. You need to choose the most suitable words instead of the missing conjunction.
If words such as "what", "because", "namely" are appropriate, then you need to put a colon. And also a colon is put if the first sentence ends with words denoting perception and suggesting that they will be followed by a description. These can be words: see, understand, feel, etc.
Examples:
I remember (that): it was evening, a quiet pipe was playing.
He was a complex person (namely): quick-tempered, bilious, sullen.
I recognized him immediately: (because) he was wearing one yellow shoe.
I see: a barge is sailing, there is a barefoot boy on it, tanned,unfamiliar, but flashes a smile and in the next second he waves his hand at me.
If you can insert words like "a", "but", "and", "like", "this", "therefore", "like", then use a dash.
Stepped wide (and) - the pants were torn.
Across the sea heifer (this) is half, yes, the ruble is transported.
The wind blew - (therefore) groaned, creaked the old forest.
Dash is also used when the words "if" or "when" can be added at the beginning of a sentence.
Examples:
(When) I thought about Grisha - he is right there.
(If) I get a fee - let's go to the sea!
Grammar errors related to morphology
Difficulties cause "nn" in suffixes (although everyone remembers glass, tin, wooden), it is especially difficult to deal with double "n" in adverbs. And also many are confused by the use of particles not / neither. Quite a few educated people, imperceptibly for themselves, are mistaken in management. Which is correct, "control over" or "control over"? The confusion between the two is another popular grammatical error. Example:
- quality control;
- control over the execution of the order;
- water level control.
Which is correct? All. One or another type of control in this case is selected depending on the characteristics of the subsequent word. For example, "control over" is used before verbalnouns (execute - execution). There are other subtleties.
This article does not cover all common grammatical errors. It is quite possible to learn not to commit them by studying the rules. We hope that we were able to demonstrate that learning the secrets of the native language is an exciting business, and sometimes a superficial acquaintance with the rule is enough to realize all its logic and expediency. We also hope that you have noticed the variations of the rules described above in the article itself, and not just under the "examples" headings.
