When should I use спрашивать and when просить?

Question

When to translate the word "ask" to Russian as:

How to differentiate these cases?

I think Geo is asking (no pun intended) when to use спрашивать vs. просить. So the question is about Russian. — Dima, Feb 27, 2015 at 22:09
So YellowSky and AleksG: So you're implying that if this person goes to English Language & Usage and posts the question "When should I use cпрашивать and when просить?" he'll get an answer? How is this an English question? Honestly, sometimes the pettiness on this site is absolutely dizzying. — CocoPop, Mar 24, 2015 at 21:14

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-18 08:26:04Z

3

Спрашивать is to ask about something, or to inquire. Просить is to ask for something, or to ask somebody to do something, or to request.

But it gets worse, because it would be wrong to translate "to ask a question" as "спрашивать вопрос". The correct form is "задавать вопрос".

I asked you a question. - Я задал тебе вопрос.

I asked you about your work. - Я спросил тебя о твоей работе.

CommunityBot

1

answered Feb 27, 2015 at 22:05

Dima

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Another way to translate просить instead of "to ask" is "to request" and that is related to просьба = request.
– KCd
Feb 28, 2015 at 23:49
Good point! Thank you. I have updated the answer.
– Dima
Mar 1, 2015 at 3:27

Add a comment |

user31264 · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-21 12:27:03Z

Спрашивать is to ask a question. Просить is to ask anything else.

Examples:

There is also a word запрашивать which is about information:

One can also use запрашивать instead of просить in bueracratic contexts:

To confise you even more,

in Russian cant language (fenya) the word спрашивать has entirely different meaning. Use the word поинтересоваться instead.
in 19 century, the word спросил oftenly meant попросил, i. e.
- Он медлил — он спросил огня. (А. С. Пушкин "Выстрел")

2 Answers 2