Differences in punctuation marks between Russian and English

Question

What are main differences in punctuation marks between Russian and English? I found the following:

• In Russian, a signature is often follwed with the period mark. In English, no period after the signature.
• Сложноподчинённые предложения. In Russian, the comma is required before "что", "как" etc. In English usually there is no comma before "that", "which" etc.
• In Russian, no comma before "и" in constructs like "A, B, C и D". In English, "A, B, C, and D" - the comma before "and" is required. Same for или/or.
  • Similarly, in the constructs "и A, и B" and "или А, или В" the comma is required, while in the constructs "both A and B" and "either A or B" there is no comma.

But probably there are other differences.

Answer 1

Besides already mentioned, there is one thing that kind of drove me nuts when I was making my first steps in communication with English-speaking people: there is no comma before a grammatical address (обращение) in English!
Russian:

Привет, Ваня!

English:

Hi John!

This is a tiny thing but it really makes a difference. So, now when I see a comma in those cases in English, I'm almost sure that the author is a Russian-speaking person.

Answer 2

Apart from commas and periods, there's a great difference in the use of other punctuation signs.

• Quotation marks:

  «Собака» – это имя существительное.

  "Dog" is a noun.

  (Also note the dash used to mark a pause.)

• Direct speech punctuation, especially the colon, the dash, and the position of the comma outside of the quotation marks:

  Он крикнул: «Беги!»

  He shouted, ‘Run!’

  «Беги!» – крикнул он.

  ‘Run!’ he shouted.

  «Она не придёт», – сказал Олег.

  ‘She won't come,’ said Oleg.

Answer 3

In Germany, an electrician killed a dog.

В Германии электрик убил собаку.

Answer 4

Consider вводное слово.

Он, вероятно, плохой человек.

He is probably a bad man.

Они, возможно, не придут.

They possibly will not come.

But I am not sure whether a comma is allowed here in English.

Answer 5

Your question has no easy answer. Put simply, Russian punctuation is VERY different from the English one. And about twenty times more complicated, too. Which is to say: where English punctuation may be flexible and forgiving, Russian punctuation is authoritarian, prescriptive and merciless.

I've had to read a good few books on English punctuation before I was able to tell my dependent clauses from my independent ones. I suggest you do the same. Brace yourself. :)

By the way, your example:

• In English, "A, B, C, and D"

should read "in American English". British English avoids the Oxford comma this days - one of the rare examples where Russian punctuation agrees with its (British) English counterpart.

Answer 6

I am speaking from my own experience, and only about the commas. Also, I am speaking in the most general way – which I still find useful, though.

The main difference is that in Russian, punctuation is made according to how one's thought is built, and in English, it is made according to how one's thought is expressed. That is, in Russian the thought is divided in blocks according to the importance of its components for the completion of minimal ideas (correlations between things), and in English, such correlations are divided in blocks according to the importance of its blocks for the attention of the listener. In Russian, punctuation separates statements of correlation between things, and in English, it separates units of the reader's attention.

Thus, the comma after “in English”, like in the previous sentence, is desirable in English and forbidden in Russian. The word “in English” is absolutely a part of the correlation that is named by the verb “separates”, and thus it couldn't be separated from the verb, if the text was in Russian. All other rules work like that, too. Say, the initial phrase in a letter (“Hi John!”) does not contain just one correlation of things (the address and the greeting are not a statement of correlation, as “hi” is no verb, and therefore we have two such “statements”), but it is still the same unit of attention, so it deserves no comma in English.

I find the same reason for the fact that the English punctuation is less strict: how one's thought is composed from the constituent ideas (one could say, propositions) is a more strict matter than how one's attention is divided over it. The second question permits a lot of leeway.

For completeness of the answer: most Russians punctuate their texts the English way, anyway. That's most annoying and sometimes hinders communication, but that's how it is.

Answer 7

See also English Grammar online site:

Old McDonald had a pig and a dog and a cow and a horse.

In Russian, a comma before "и" ("and") is required: "Старый Макдональд имел свинью, и собаку, и корову, и лошадь"

Answer 8

I once read in a book for Russians about writing in English that the purpose of a comma in written English is to help the reader, while the purpose of a comma in written Russian is to demonstrate to the reader that the writer knows the rules for using commas.

Answer 9

In a quotation in English, the period goes inside the quotation marks; in Russian, outside the quotation marks. (But an exclamation point and a question mark still go inside.)

• "No pain, no gain."
• «У попа была собака».

Answer 10

My 5 cents (мои 5 копеек).

Example of a email message in English:

Hi Helen,

yesterday I've received a parcel from you. Thank you for it!

The same in Russian:

Привет, Елена!

Вчера я получил посылку от тебя. Спасибо!

Note that English version uses comma in the first line, and the second line starts in lower case.