Breakdown of Говори чуть громче, пожалуйста.
говорить
to speak, to talk
громко
loudly
пожалуйста
please
чуть
a little, slightly
Questions & Answers about Говори чуть громче, пожалуйста.
The current lesson is about чуть не meaning 'almost', but here we just have чуть. Why is there no не?
In this lesson's main grammar point, чуть не plus a perfective past verb means 'almost did something (but didn't)'. However, the word чуть on its own just means 'a little' or 'slightly'. When paired with a comparative word like громче, it simply means 'a little louder'.
Why use the imperfective imperative говори instead of the perfective скажи?
You are asking the person to alter an ongoing process (their speaking volume) and to keep doing it. The imperfective говори focuses on this continuous process of talking. The perfective скажи would mean to say one specific thing and be done, which does not fit a request to adjust the volume of an ongoing conversation.
Could I use немного instead of чуть in this sentence?
Absolutely. Говори немного громче means exactly the same thing. Чуть (or the repeated чуть-чуть) is just slightly more colloquial and very common in everyday spoken requests.
Why does громко become громче here?
To form the comparative of many short adjectives and adverbs ending in -ко, the к mutates into ч and the ending becomes -е. So громко (loudly) becomes громче (louder). This is a common consonant mutation you also see in words like легко (easily) becoming легче (more easily).
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