Breakdown of Говорить по-русски сложнее, чем просто читать книгу.
книга
the book
читать
to read
говорить
to speak
чем
than
Questions & Answers about Говорить по-русски сложнее, чем просто читать книгу.
Why is Говорить in the infinitive and not a form like я говорю with a clear subject?
Russian often uses the infinitive to talk about actions in a general, abstract way, similar to English to speak, speaking.
In this sentence, Говорить по-русски is used in a general sense: speaking Russian (in general) is being compared to just reading a book (in general). No specific person is meant.
You could think of the structure as:
- Говорить по-русски – (To) speak Russian / Speaking Russian
- сложнее – is more difficult
- чем просто читать книгу – than just reading a book
You could add a pronoun and conjugate the verb:
- Мне сложнее говорить по-русски, чем просто читать книгу.
It’s harder for me to speak Russian than just to read a book.
But then the focus shifts from a general truth to a personal statement. The bare infinitive keeps it general and impersonal.
What exactly is по-русски? Why not на русском языке?