Which is also wrong, because it is grammatically incorrect to to use pa Russki with the verb ГОВОРИТЬ (govoreet, to speak) (with my extremely rusty Russian, it’s hard to properly phonetically type Russian words). With the verb ГОВОРИТЬ, you would use the direct object ЯЗЫК (yzeik, language) modified by the adjective РУССКИЙ (rooskie[masc], Russian).
The proper sentence is therefore Я НЕ ГОВОРЬЮ РУССКИЙ ЯЗЫК (Ya ne govoryu rooskie yzeik, I don’t speak the Russian language; although in common usage yzeik is often dropped as it is understood).
Now, to answer the OP, ПР is probably short for ПРОСПЕКТ (prospect, avenue) and Московский is the male adjectival for of Moscow. So it is Moscow Avenue.
Not bad, I don’t think, for someone who’s spoken maybe a half dozen sentences of Russian since 1993.
Erm, where did you hear this rule? It’s perfectly acceptable to say “govorit’ po-russki” (not even going to try to type Cyrillic here, cos my attempts always look fine on my computer but turn to gibberish for everyone else).
Sorry, but that sentence is wrong. The proper way to say “I do not speak russian” is
a) “Ya ne govoryu na Russkom yazike.” GOVORIT’ (to speak) does not take a direct object, needs a preposition.
b) “Ya ne znau Russkii yazik” ZNAT’ (to know) takes a direct object
c) “Ya ne govoryu po Russki” Different preposition/object/case, there is no implied “yazik” since “Russki” takes place of indirect object all by itself. It is not an adjective in this case.
I’ll concede a and b. As I said, it has been over a dozen years. I do remember clearly, however, being told c was grammatically incorrect. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to my Russian teachers any longer to confirm.
Hmmm. I just got finished with my fifth semester of Russian, and we were definitely taught to say “говорить по-русски (по-английски, по-испански, и т.д.)”, and I’ve been asked “Вы говорите по-русски?” by native Russian speakers. Hearkening back to the currently raging pit thread on nuclear vs. nucular, just because a grammarian somewhere, sometime said that a particular construction was incorrect doesn’t make it so.
True, yBeafy. It could be my Russian teachers (Defense Language Institue, The Presidio, Monterey, CA - 47 week immersion program) were sticklers. The actual Russian language stuff I ended up working with wouldn’t have cause to use that phrase. I know that what I did end up hearing mangled grammar as bad as any Brooklynite (fuhgeddaboudit!) and that the accents, for one trained solely by Muscovites, were a big challenge.
My boss is an educated native Russian (Ukranian) speaker, but I won’t get to speak to him until late next week (if at all this year). If I remember (and catch him while he’s still sober), I’ll ask and bump this thread next week.
** Polycarp** had it on the nose, in any case.