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Stress when making comparison

Posted: Mar 29th, 15, 20:42
by machine_head
Здравия желаю! :)
(I read this expression somewhere, I think it can be used as "hello", am I right?)

My question to you is the following: When making comparisons of adjectives, sometimes I see that the ending "-ee" is stressed (for example, он сильнее, чем я) and sometimes it is not (for example, этот диван удобнее, чем тот). Is there any rule to explain what happens? or should I just memorize the correct ending? (with all the exceptions of Russian memorizing seems to be the only option :)

Заранее благодарен!

Re: Stress when making comparison

Posted: Mar 29th, 15, 21:39
by dimiter
'Здравия желаю' is a militar way to say 'Hello'. Don't use it.

Here are a two lectures by famous Russian linguist Зализняк about the issue you're asking:
http://tvkultura.ru/video/show/brand_id/20898/episode_id/973669/video_id/983735/viewtype/
http://tvkultura.ru/video/show/brand_id/20898/episode_id/974684
In a nutshell: Russian udarenie is incredible crazy, you need to memorize a lot. The reason of that is in the past(around XI century) there was a strong logical system of udarenie but for last 11 centures another rules was changing this old system and nowadays Russian udarenie is a mix of two different systems therefore it's so chaotic. However, if you learn the old system, you will make much less mistakes comparing to memorization of everything because only approximately 20% of Russian words has changed its udarenie.

Re: Stress when making comparison

Posted: Mar 30th, 15, 20:56
by machine_head
great!!!!!!!