General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Does anyone think the Russians are all over social media but not on Democratic Underground? [View all]DFW
(54,302 posts)If anyone thinks it's a coincidence that DU was hacked during the 2016 election, I have some coastal property in Wyoming to sell you. I'm not sure how much priority they give us these days. I'm sure Savushkina Street 55 and the few GRU Directorates that are involved have been given bigger fish to fry.
That having been said, Russians who are not 100% comfortable with English make telltale grammatical mistakes that Republicans do not. Here are a few tips to spot them.
Where Republicans tend to use an apostrophe to form a plural (where they got that, I'll never know, as no school in the English-speaking world ever taught them to do that), Russians have problems with articles (the, a, an), which do not exist in Russian. Russians inexperienced in English are unsure of how and when to use them, and tend to omit them altogether. Russian does have some prepositions, but it is also a declined language, so some prepositions in English are left out in Russian in lieu of a changed word ending. Where we would say "here is a basket full of food," a Russian would say the equivalent of "here is basket full food." If anyone remembers Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Russian spies, Boris and Natasha always used to say "get moose and squirrel!" which was making fun of the fact that in Russian, that is exactly what a native speaker would say, instead of the English "get the moose and the squirrel!" Also, where we would say "of Vladimir," or "Vladimir's" to indicate possession, a Russian would say "Vladimira." Where we would say we are sending a letter "to Vladimir," a Russian would say "Vladimiru." If motion is involved, a Russian might say "K Vladimiru," but the ending is the same.
As for our Russian visitors getting a laugh out of all this: Привет, товарищи, и идите к чёрту (greetings, comrades, and go to hell!).