Particles in Colloquial Russian

Foreign students of Russian are bound to find it difficult to convey emotive-expressive nuances in colloquial speech. However, this aspect of language has so far been insufficiently studied in linguistics and has been inadequately systematized in available textbooks and manuals of Russian. This book is an attempt to shed light on one of the "musteries" of colloquial Russian, that represented by the particles - short, sometimes inconspicuous words with quite specific meanings, often, however, most difficult to define - which fulfil a wide variety of functions.The wide use of numerous particles is a typical feature of colloquial Russian. Many of the particles add specific coloring to the individual's speech and lend it a wealth of emotive-expressive shades, vividness, richness, spontaneity and sometimes sly merriment, meaningful connotations, etc.