Мой брат смело говорит по-русски перед публикой.

My brother speaks Russian bravely in front of an audience.

Breakdown of Мой брат смело говорит по-русски перед публикой.

• мой: my
• говорить: to speak
• перед: in front of
• брат: the brother

Questions & Answers about Мой брат смело говорит по-русски перед публикой.

Why is it говорит по-русски and not говорит русский?

In Russian, “to speak a language” is usually expressed as:

• говорить по-русски – to speak Russian (literally: to speak in a Russian way), or
• говорить на русском (языке) – to speak in Russian (language).

You do not say говорить русский for “speak Russian”.
говорить русский would sound like “to speak a Russian [man]” or “to speak the Russian (thing)”, which is ungrammatical and confusing.

So the natural patterns are:

• говорить по-английски / по-немецки / по-французски
• говорить на английском / на немецком / на французском (языке)

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Why is there a hyphen in по-русски?

по-русски is an adverb formed from the adjective русский with the prefix по- and the suffix -ски.

Russian spelling rule:
Adverbs formed like по- + adjective stem + -ски / -цки / -чески are normally written with a hyphen:

• по-русски – in Russian
• по-английски – in English
• по-немецки – in German
• по-человечески – in a human way

So the hyphen is just a standard orthographic rule for this type of adverb.

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