Questions & Answers about Я пишу очень медленно.
The dictionary form is писать (to write). Why does it change to я пишу instead of "я писаю"?
Писать is a high-frequency irregular verb. In the present tense, the с changes to a ш, and the -а- drops out completely. So you add the endings to пиш- instead of писа-. (Be extra careful to remember this change, because "я писаю" is a real phrase in Russian, but it means "I am peeing"!)
Since писать belongs to the first conjugation group (like ты пишешь), shouldn't the "I" form end in -ю?
Normally, verbs in this group do take a -ю for the "I" form. However, Russian has a strict spelling rule: you can never write the letter ю after ш (or after ж, ч, and щ). Because of this rule, the ending is forced to be -у, resulting in пишу.
How does медленно translate to "slowly"? Is the -о at the end like "-ly" in English?
Can I put the words in a different order, like Я очень медленно пишу?