At first glance, it seems that the Macedonian language is not complex. There are no cases (thank God!), the accent is fixed, there is a principle of “read as you write”, there are many similar words.
However, there are peculiarities in the Macedonian language that are not simple for those whose mother tongue is Russian.
The editor of Russia Beyond talked to several Russians who studied or are studying Macedonian, and based on their answers (and also from his own experience) made a so-called classification of “difficulties”.
Article
This peculiarity of Macedonian grammar, according to the degree of difficulty, certainly takes the first place. Thanks to the experience of studying other European languages, the term article itself, which does not exist in Russian, is known to Russian speakers. And, in principle, it is not strange that the article can change by gender (for example, in French or in Spanish it also changes by gender). It is unusual that the article in the Macedonian language is at the end of the word, it merges with it, and also has three forms: -ot, -on, -ov. But you get used to it quickly. The real difficulty begins when it has to be used in speech. Of course, there are rules that largely explain the principles of article use. Besides, some people try to draw a parallel with other European languages. But even those who have a good command of the Macedonian language, who deal with it professionally, often ask themselves the question: Is an article needed here? For those whose mother tongue is Russian, it is difficult for them to understand and adopt the article the way the Macedonians do, because they simply do not always “feel” it.
Overstatement
When introduced to the narrated form, the first reaction is usually the following: what does it matter whether I witnessed the event or not, am I speaking for myself or am I retelling someone else’s words? An additional difficulty is created by the suffix -l which is used in the formation of this form: among Russians it is associated with the past tense. But when you get a little used to the retelling, you begin to realize that it is a very interesting feature that contains many additional possibilities for conveying emotional nuances. However, Russians often know how to forget the overstatement. It has happened to me in situations when I tell about something that they ask me: “Were you there or have they told you about it?” And then it will occur to me: “Ah, yes, there needs to be a retelling…”
Direct and indirect object
According to how strange it is, this grammatical feature of the Macedonian language is not far behind the retelling. And the main question when getting acquainted with it is: why are there all these short pronouns of the type go, mu, ja, im, etc., when they are “duplicated” with certain words in the sentence? But with a good explanation of how to correctly make a connection between words in a Macedonian sentence, everything falls into place. And those who once learn it well, rarely make mistakes. That cannot be said for those who did not study Macedonian grammar. Very often the doubling of the object “falls out” for them, they do not see it and do not use it.
System of tenses
If you compare the system of tenses in the Russian and Macedonian languages, then you can notice that in Macedonian it is much more developed. In the Russian language there are 4 tenses: present, past and two future – simple and complex. And, in Macedonian: present, aorist, imperfect, perfect 1, plusquamperfect 1, perfect 2, plusquamperfect 2, past future, and on top of that, past tense. Not to mention that there is no special form for the infinitive of the verb. That’s why it takes time for a person to get used to all this.
An excuse
The Macedonian language is very hard for the Russian ear, so it is very easy to recognize the Russian accent in Macedonian: words such as milk, bread, cinema, love and many others, Russians often pronounce them “in Russian”, that is, softly. In addition, Russians in their native language reduce unstressed vowels and, for example, pronounce the word M-O-L-O-K-O (milk) as M-A-L-A-K-O : only the final O is pronounced as O because it is stressed. Some unintentionally apply the same principle in Macedonian, so, for example, the word M-L-E-K-O can be transformed into M-L (very soft, almost Lj)-E-K-A.
And a few words about the ACCENT. The fact that it is fixed is a big plus. But when you first hear that you have to count the third syllable from the end of the word, you get a little confused – do I have to count every time? Then you get so used to the accent that the need to count disappears and you put the accent without thinking automatically. Also, try to give a Macedonian to read a text in a close language – Serbian or Bulgarian, for example. It is very likely that he will read the text, placing the accents as in the Macedonian language.
