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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 1 of 5 24 May 2009 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
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There are some words in Russian which seem to be synonymous with each other, but with which I seem to be corrected fairly regularly. I've written two of the ones I can think of below. What are the differences between the usage of these verbs?
стараться/постараться - пытаться/попытаться (to try) употреблять/употребить - пользоваться/воспользоваться - использовать (to use) Thanks Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5792 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 2 of 5 24 May 2009 at 9:45pm | IP Logged |
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"стараться/постараться" has mean "strenuously, hardly, diligent try", "пытаться/попытаться" -- simply "try".
Other verbs are equivalent (of course, except theirs grammatical forms: "употреблять, пользоваться, использовать" are imperfective aspect, "употребить, воспользоваться" are perfective aspect). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 5 24 May 2009 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks; I didn't think it'd be as simple as that :)
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| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6775 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 5 25 May 2009 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
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I don't think it is as simple as that - but it is hard for native speakers to come up with a good and thorough explanation of these things, as a lot of it is based on one's intuition and "language sense".
"стараться/постараться" and "пытаться/попытаться" are pretty much interchangeable, and should be understood either way. But, yes, there is a tiny bit of difference. Whatever difference there is probably comes from the roots of those respective words, and the first one puts slightly more focus on the effort, while the second just implies the attempt itself. I'd say there is more difference in the perfective aspect: попытался is probably something like "made an attempt to", while "постарался" is closer to "made an effort to". попытался almost implies the failure (though not necessarily), while "постарался", just implies one made an effort, and doesn't really suggest whether one failed or not. употреблять/употребить - пользоваться/воспользоваться are also close, but I think that in certain circumstances only one of those two could be used. I think употреблять is less common of the two, so it may be a good idea to stick with "пользоваться" in most situations and whenever you are not sure which one to use. употреблять/употребить has a shade of "consume" as one of its meanings ("consume" in the sense of consuming food, alcohol, pills, drugs, etc). If you ever use either of the two alternatives for these things, use "употреблять". "пользоваться", on the other hand is a more generic word, that means both "use" and "make use of". "воспользоваться" is more like "to take advantage of". Edited by Russianbear on 25 May 2009 at 12:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 5 of 5 25 May 2009 at 12:07pm | IP Logged |
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Well, Russianbear - even though you said it's difficult for native speakers to explain the nuances behind these verbs, I think you've done a very good job of explaining them to me! Thanks very much!
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