Breakdown of Не бойся ошибаться, когда тренируешься говорить по‑русски.
Questions & Answers about Не бойся ошибаться, когда тренируешься говорить по‑русски.
Бойся is the imperative, 2nd person singular of the verb бояться (to be afraid).
- бояться = to be afraid (of something / to do something)
- Imperative (informal singular): бойся – don’t be afraid
- With negation: не бойся – don’t be afraid
There is no form боись in standard Russian; the correct imperative of бояться is бойся (singular) / бойтесь (plural/formal).
The ending -ся / -сь marks a reflexive verb.
- Dictionary (infinitive) forms: бояться, ошибаться, тренироваться
- Conjugated forms: бойся, ошибаться, тренируешься, etc.
Reflexive verbs in Russian can mean several things:
- Action directed at oneself
- мыться – to wash oneself
- Internal state / emotion
- бояться – to be afraid
- “Middle voice” / passive or “to practice, to train oneself”
- тренироваться – to train/practice (oneself), to work out
Spelling detail: in conjugated forms, the reflexive ending is written as:
- -ся after vowels: боишься, тренируешься
- -сь after most consonants: бойсь would be the form by pure spelling rule, but the actual imperative form is бойся historically fixed; so you learn бойся as is.
Russian often uses boяться + infinitive for “to be afraid to do something”:
- бояться + infinitive: не бойся ошибаться – don’t be afraid to make mistakes
- бояться + noun (genitive): бояться ошибок – to be afraid of mistakes
In this sentence, the pattern is:
- не бойся + infinitive (ошибаться)
→ don’t be afraid to make mistakes
Using ошибки / ошибок would change the structure and feel less natural in this motivational, “don’t be afraid to do X” context.
Russian aspect here is important:
- ошибаться (imperfective) – to be making mistakes, to make mistakes in general / repeatedly
- ошибиться (perfective) – to make a (single) mistake, to slip up once
The sentence talks about making mistakes as part of practice, as an ongoing / repeated process. For that, Russian uses the imperfective:
- Не бойся ошибаться… = Don’t be afraid of making mistakes (in general, repeatedly, as you practice).
If you said Не бойся ошибиться, it would sound more like “Don’t be afraid to make a single mistake (this time).” That’s a different nuance.
Тренируешься is 2nd person singular of тренироваться:
- я тренируюсь – I practice / train
- ты тренируешься – you (informal) practice / train
Difference:
- тренировать (non‑reflexive) – to train someone/something
- тренировать команду – to train a team
- тренироваться (reflexive) – to train/practice oneself, to work out
- тренироваться говорить по-русски – to practice speaking Russian
In this sentence, you are training your own speaking skill, so Russian uses the reflexive verb тренироваться → когда тренируешься говорить…
Here, говорить is the infinitive that depends on the verb тренируешься:
- тренироваться (что делать?) говорить – to practice (what?) speaking
Russian often uses the structure:
- тренироваться / учиться / стараться + infinitive
- тренируешься говорить – you are training yourself to speak
- учишься говорить – you are learning to speak
If you said когда говоришь по-русски, it would mean “when you speak Russian” (simply doing it), not “when you are practicing speaking Russian.” The infinitive keeps the idea of practising the skill.
In Russian, когда often introduces a subordinate clause of time. The full structure is:
- Main clause: Не бойся ошибаться
- Subordinate clause (time/condition): когда тренируешься говорить по-русски
Rule: when a subordinate clause is introduced by когда, если, потому что, что etc., it is usually separated from the main clause by a comma.
So the comma before когда is standard: it marks the boundary between the main idea and the “when…” condition.
Yes, you can, and the meaning is essentially the same.
Both are correct:
- Не бойся ошибаться, когда тренируешься говорить по-русски.
- Когда тренируешься говорить по-русски, не бойся ошибаться.
Differences:
- First version starts with the advice / command (“Don’t be afraid”), then adds the condition.
- Second version starts with the situation (“When you’re practicing…”), then gives the advice.
In everyday speech, both orders sound natural and the difference is only in emphasis, not in basic meaning.
You switch to plural/formal forms:
- Не бойтесь ошибаться, когда тренируетесь говорить по-русски.
Changes:
- бойся → бойтесь (imperative plural/formal)
- тренируешься → тренируетесь (2nd person plural)
Everything else stays the same. This is what you’d say to a group of students, or politely to someone you don’t know well.
Both can mean “to speak in Russian,” but there are nuances:
говорить по-русски
- Very standard when talking about speaking a language.
- Focus on the manner / way of speaking.
- Typical for ability:
- Я говорю по-русски. – I speak Russian.
говорить на русском (языке)
- Literally: to speak in the Russian language.
- Focus on the language as an object.
- Very common with texts, films, etc.:
- Книга написана на русском. – The book is written in Russian.
In говорить по-русски, the adverb по-русски (in Russian, in a Russian way) is the most natural choice for “to speak Russian” as a skill.
По-русски is an adverb formed from the adjective русский (Russian) with the prefix по- and the ending -ски.
Rule: Many adverbs formed with по- and endings like -ому, -ему, -ски, -цки, -ий are written with a hyphen:
- по-русски – in Russian
- по-английски – in English
- по-французски – in French
- по-новому – in a new way
So по-русски must be written with a hyphen.
Grammatically, yes, that sentence is correct:
- Не бойся ошибаться, когда тренируешься говорить.
But then it means:
- “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes when you are practicing speaking (in general).”
You lose the information which language you are practicing. In a context where it’s already clear you’re talking about Russian, it might be okay, but by itself the original with по-русски is clearer and more natural.