Не смущайся, если ошибаешься, когда говоришь по-русски.

Не смущайся is the informal singular negative imperative of смущаться.

So it means something like:

• Don’t be embarrassed
• Don’t feel shy
• Don’t get flustered

The exact English wording depends on context. In this sentence, the idea is: Don’t feel self-conscious if you make mistakes when speaking Russian.

Both смущайся and ошибаешься come from verbs ending in -ся:

• смущаться
• ошибаться

This -ся is often called the reflexive marker, but in Russian it does more than just mean oneself. Sometimes it makes a verb truly reflexive, but sometimes it creates a verb with its own meaning.

For example:

• смущать = to embarrass someone

• смущаться = to feel embarrassed / to be embarrassed

• ошибать is not used in everyday speech the way learners might expect
• ошибаться = to make a mistake / to be mistaken

So here, you should learn these as full vocabulary items, not always try to translate -ся literally as self.

Because Russian often uses the present tense after если just like English does after if in general statements.

So:

• если ошибаешься = if you make mistakes / if you are making mistakes / if you happen to make mistakes

This is a general or repeated situation, not one specific future mistake. Russian does not need a future form here.

Compare English:

• If you make mistakes, don’t worry.

That is very similar in logic.

Когда говоришь here means when speaking or when you speak, in a general sense.

The sentence is not about one specific future occasion. It means something like:

• whenever you speak Russian
• when you are speaking Russian
• when speaking Russian

Russian often uses the present tense for this kind of general, repeated context.

If you said когда будешь говорить по-русски, that would point more toward a specific future occasion: when you speak Russian later.

По-русски is an adverb, meaning in Russian or the Russian way.

It is written with a hyphen because this is the standard spelling for many adverbs of this type:

• по-русски = in Russian
• по-английски = in English
• по-французски = in French

After говорить, Russian commonly uses this adverb:

• говорить по-русски = to speak Russian

So here it does not function like a noun in a case; it is an adverbial expression.

Sometimes yes, but there is a difference in what sounds most natural.

Most standard choices are:

• говорить по-русски = to speak Russian
• говорить на русском языке = to speak in the Russian language

Говорить на русском can be heard in speech and is understandable, but по-русски is the most natural and compact option in a sentence like this.

So for learners, говорить по-русски is a very good pattern to remember.

Russian often omits subject pronouns when they are obvious from the verb ending.

In this sentence:

• смущайся tells you it is directed to you singular informal
• ошибаешься also shows you
• говоришь also shows you

So adding ты is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

English needs you, but Russian often does not.

Russian uses commas very regularly to separate subordinate clauses.

The sentence has:

• the main clause: Не смущайся
• a clause with если: если ошибаешься
• a clause with когда: когда говоришь по-русски

That is why commas are used:

Не смущайся, если ошибаешься, когда говоришь по-русски.

Russian punctuation is often stricter than English punctuation in these clause structures.

Yes, ошибаться is imperfective.

Here it is used because the sentence is about a general possibility or repeated action:

• making mistakes from time to time
• being wrong occasionally while speaking

The perfective ошибиться usually refers to a completed single mistake.

So:

• ошибаться = to make mistakes / to be mistaken in general
• ошибиться = to make a mistake once

In this sentence, the imperfective fits much better because the meaning is broad and habitual.

In negative commands, Russian very often prefers the imperfective when the meaning is general:

• Не смущайся = Don’t be embarrassed / Don’t get embarrassed

This sounds like general advice.

A perfective negative imperative would usually sound more like don’t do it even once in a specific situation. That is not the idea here. The sentence gives broad encouragement, so the imperfective is natural.

Yes. This version is singular informal, used with ты.

The formal or plural version would be:

Не смущайтесь, если ошибаетесь, когда говорите по-русски.

Changes:

• смущайся → смущайтесь
• ошибаешься → ошибаетесь
• говоришь → говорите

So use -те forms for you plural or formal you.

Yes. Ошибаться can mean:

• to be mistaken
• to make mistakes

In this sentence, because of the context when speaking Russian, the meaning is clearly about making mistakes while speaking.

So a natural understanding is:

• if you make mistakes when speaking Russian

Without context, ты ошибаешься could also mean you’re wrong.

It gives the context in which the mistakes happen.

So the logic is:

• Don’t feel embarrassed
• if you make mistakes
• when speaking Russian

It tells us when or in what situation the action of making mistakes happens.

English might compress this to when speaking Russian, but Russian uses a full clause: когда говоришь по-русски.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, though not completely free. This sentence could be rearranged for emphasis, for example:

• Когда говоришь по-русски, не смущайся, если ошибаешься.
• Если ошибаешься, когда говоришь по-русски, не смущайся.

These all mean roughly the same thing, but the original version sounds natural and straightforward.

Word order changes mainly affect focus and style, not the core grammar.

A rough breakdown is:

• Не = not / don’t
• смущайся = be embarrassed / feel embarrassed
• если = if
• ошибаешься = you make mistakes / you are mistaken
• когда = when
• говоришь = you speak / you are speaking
• по-русски = in Russian

So very literally:

Don’t be embarrassed, if you make mistakes, when you speak in Russian.

That literal version is awkward English, but it helps show how the Russian sentence is built.

The main stress points are:

• не смущАйся
• если ошибАешься
• когдА говорИшь по-рУсски

A learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be something like:

• nye smoo-SHCHAI-sya
• YES-lee a-shi-BA-yesh-sya
• kag-DA ga-va-REESH pa-ROOS-kee

The hardest parts for many English speakers are:

• щ in смущайся
• the vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
• the cluster in ошибаешься

It sounds natural and encouraging. A native speaker could definitely say it.

It is a little more careful and complete than casual speech, but not unnatural. In everyday conversation, someone might also say:

• Не стесняйся, если ошибаешься, когда говоришь по-русски.
• Не бойся делать ошибки, когда говоришь по-русски.

But the original sentence is fully normal and grammatically natural.