Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Ask specific questions about your target languages. Beginner questions welcome!
User avatar
Dylan95
Orange Belt
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 3:11 pm
Location: USA
Languages: English (N)
Currently Studying
Russian C1
Uzbek B1
Ukrainian B1~

Previously Studied and mostly forgotten
French
Italian
Latin
x 399

Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Postby Dylan95 » Tue Jul 04, 2017 6:22 am

They appear to be synonyms, are they interchangeable? Is one better for some contexts than others?
0 x

aaleks
Blue Belt
Posts: 884
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:04 pm
Languages: Russian (N)
x 1910

Re: Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Postby aaleks » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:30 am

I'm not a linguist but just an ordinary native speaker, please keep it in the mind :) . I don't see these two words as synonyms, although maybe in certain circumstances they could be synonyms. 'Наружу' is a direction. It could be an answer to the question 'куда?'. 'Снаружи' is kinda a place where someone or something is located, in this case the question would be 'где?'.
3 x

vonPeterhof
Blue Belt
Posts: 879
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:55 am
Languages: Russian (N), English (C2), Japanese (~C1), German (~B2), Kazakh (~B1), Norwegian (~A2)
Studying: Kazakh, Mandarin, Coptic
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1237
x 2833
Contact:

Re: Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Postby vonPeterhof » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:27 pm

To you they appear to be synonyms both meaning "outside"; to me it feels like снаружи means "outside" while наружу means "outwards", except that for some reason English speakers overuse the word "outside" and keep using it when "outwards" clearly makes more sense (e.g. "Wanna take it outside?") ;)

Jokes aside, it's pretty much as aaleks said - one's a location, the other's a direction. Now that isn't to say that the distinction is always clear cut - for example, one of the ways to say "outie" would be пупок наружу, even though the navel isn't moving anywhere (but then, cases like this can be argued to have an implied verb/participle, like пупок торчащий наружу - navel protruding outwards). Still, these cases are marginal and the general rule works most of the time. Same with вовнутрь and внутри, вниз and внизу, etc.
5 x

User avatar
Dylan95
Orange Belt
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 3:11 pm
Location: USA
Languages: English (N)
Currently Studying
Russian C1
Uzbek B1
Ukrainian B1~

Previously Studied and mostly forgotten
French
Italian
Latin
x 399

Re: Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Postby Dylan95 » Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:04 am

aaleks wrote:I'm not a linguist but just an ordinary native speaker, please keep it in the mind :) . I don't see these two words as synonyms, although maybe in certain circumstances they could be synonyms. 'Наружу' is a direction. It could be an answer to the question 'куда?'. 'Снаружи' is kinda a place where someone or something is located, in this case the question would be 'где?'.


That makes sense! Thanks!
0 x

User avatar
DianaRay
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2017 6:49 am
Location: Thailand
Languages: Russian (N), English (B2), Thai (A1), Spanish (B1)
x 21
Contact:

Re: Russian Question: Difference between наружу and снаружи

Postby DianaRay » Wed Jul 05, 2017 7:32 am

"Наружу" more frequently use with direction and "снаружи" with place.

For example:
Давай пойдём (where?) наружу (direction). - Они разговаривают (where?) снаружи (place)
Мышь вылезла наружу (direction) и снаружи (place) нашла сыр.
3 x
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin
http://studyspanishwords.com


Return to “Practical Questions and Advice”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Khayyam and 2 guests