How is Russian word order different from that of English?

Question

English is Subject-Verb-Object.... Is Russian different?

Answer 1

According to a Ukranian friend of mine, Russians tend not to worry about word order as long as they're all there in the sentence. She claims to be able to spot anyone that learned Russian as a second language because they always try to use their native syntax.

Answer 2

Grammar
Main article: Russian grammar
Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflectional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place.

Russian grammar encompasses

a highly synthetic morphology
a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
a polished vernacular foundation;
a Church Slavonic inheritance;
a Western European style.
The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

See more about Russian language at link below.

Answer 3

The word order in Russian is not fixed, as well as in Ukrainian.
But when you write an essay or prepare a speech - something formal- you should stick to some basic rules: the subject preferably goes before the verb...But, well, don't bother that much!

Answer 4

Yup it's different. The difference is, you can say it ANY WAY YOU WANT, and people will still understand you. For instance, take the phrase "I want to go home" In English, you can only say it this way, or else it's incorrect grammer. However, in Russian you can say
"Want home go to I"
"I home go to want"
"Home I go to want"
"Go to want I home"
Or any other variant you can think of, and it'll still come out right.
Hope this helps. :)

Answer 5

Because there are many more morphemes than in English, the structure of a sentence is not bound by sequence, you can still tell what is what by the ending/infection, it's more like Latin that way.