Sprachliche Richtigkeit und Ausdrucksfähigkeit: controlling case, aspect and style
This component is scored across every written part of the exam: it measures whether your Russian is grammatically controlled and whether your expression is varied and idiomatic. Markers look for recurring error types rather than isolated slips - a case error repeated five times signals a systematic gap, while one irregular verb form does not.
High-yield grammar rules
- Verbs with fixed government: «интересоваться чем», «заниматься чем», «восхищаться чем», «зависеть от чего», «думать о чём», «влиять на что», «благодарить за что», «благодаря» + Dativ.
- Aspect: process or repetition → imperfective; one completed result → perfective. A prohibition commonly uses imperfective («Не открывай окно!»), but perfective negative imperatives also occur, for example a warning such as «Не упади!». Choose from meaning and context.
- «не» + perfective often means failure: «Я не сдал экзамен» = I failed it; «Я не сдавал экзамен» = I did not take it.
- Verbs of motion: «идти/ехать» for one direction now, «ходить/ездить» for repeated or general movement.
- Place vs direction: «в библиотеке» (Prepositional) vs «в библиотеку» (Accusative); movement toward a person can use «к» + Dativ; location at someone’s place uses different constructions, such as «у» + Genitive.
- For nominative numeral phrases, два, три and четыре take a genitive singular noun, while пять and many higher numerals take genitive plural («два студента», «пять студентов»). Compound endings, teens, oblique cases and animacy require their own analysis; do not apply a bare 2-4/5+ formula universally.
Ausdrucksfähigkeit
Vary connectors («однако», «к тому же», «следовательно», «несмотря на это»), replace repeated «очень» with «крайне», «особенно», «чрезвычайно», and use collocations rather than single words: «играть роль», «принять решение», «обратить внимание на».
Worked example
Incorrect: «Я интересуюсь о русской литературе». Correct: «Я интересуюсь русской литературой». Reasoning: «интересоваться» governs the instrumental without a preposition; the German «sich für etwas interessieren» invites the false preposition «о». Test the verb against its case once and the correction transfers to «заниматься», «увлекаться», «восхищаться».
Traps that cost marks
- Transferring German prepositions literally into Russian government.
- Choosing aspect by translating the German tense instead of looking at meaning.
- Adjective and pronoun agreement lost in oblique plural cases.
- «свой» used where «его/её» is required (possessor differs from subject).
- Mixed registers: colloquial «классно» in a formal letter.
Avoid automatic aspect substitutions
An aspect contrast is not simply a contrast between one English tense and another. Compare whether the speaker presents process, repeated occurrence, general experience or a bounded result. Negation and intention can change which interpretation is relevant. Read verbs of motion with their prefixes and destination as well as their unprefixed dictionary pair. A form expressing movement in one direction need not mean the event is literally occurring at the moment of speech. Record useful constructions as complete examples, then explain the relationship that makes the form appropriate.