Then there’s совсем, which refuses to follow simple rules.
If it means completely or absolutely, Russian usually prefers the single-word spelling.
“By that point, I felt (совсем) completely (некомфортно) uncomfortable.”
But if совсем strengthens the negation itself—closer to “not at all”—the separate spelling is often the better choice.
“Are you comfortable (чувствуешь комфортно)?”
“Not at all.” (не совсем)
Few things frustrate Russian learners more than the tiny word не. Sometimes it happily sticks to the word that follows. Sometimes it refuses. And every now and then, it seems to change its mind halfway through the sentence.
The pair некомфортно and не комфортно is a perfect example.
The good news? Both spellings are correct.
The bad news? They mean slightly different things depending on the sentence.
Most of the time, некомфортно is written as a single word.
This happens when the word simply describes a state, a feeling, or a quality. In these cases, it often behaves like an adjective or an adverb and can usually be replaced with a close synonym such as awkward, uneasy, unpleasant, or uncomfortable.
It also appears in sentences that describe a person’s condition rather than an action. “I’m feeling uncomfortable right now.”
Here, некомфортно functions as what Russian grammarians call a category of state—a special group of words used to describe how someone feels or what a situation is like. English doesn’t really have an exact equivalent, which is one reason the construction can puzzle learners.
Write не комфортно separately when не doesn’t create a new word but simply negates the idea of comfort. One of the clearest signals is the presence of words that strengthen or emphasize the negation.
Russian has a handful of these “magnet words”—expressions like вовсе (“not at all”), далеко не (“far from”), or больше не (“no longer”). They tend to pull не away from the word that follows.
Then there’s совсем, which refuses to follow simple rules.
If it means completely or absolutely, Russian usually prefers the single-word spelling.
“By that point, I felt (совсем) completely (не комфортно) uncomfortable.”
But if совсем strengthens the negation itself—closer to “not at all”—the separate spelling is often the better choice.
“Are you comfortable (чувствуешь комфортно)?”
“Not at all.” (не совсем) – So it is all about the feeling intoantion and context.
If некомфортно describes a feeling or quality on its own, write it as one word.
If the sentence emphasizes not—especially with words like вовсе, далеко не, больше не, or with a clear contrast using а—write it as two words.
Every language has that one verb. The one that seems perfectly normal—right up until you actually try to conjugate it. In Russian, one of the best examples is блюсти.
It means to observe, to uphold, or to safeguard. You’ll most often see it in formal expressions like блюсти закон (“to uphold the law”) or блюсти порядок (“to maintain order”). Simple enough.
Then you try to say “I uphold the law.” That’s when the simulation starts glitching.
If you’ve learned enough Russian, your instincts will probably produce something like:Я блюжу. It sounds plausible. It follows familiar patterns. It is completely wrong.
The correct form is: Я блюду. ✅ Not блюжу.
And once you accept that, the rest of the verb becomes its own little adventure.
Present tense
- я блюду
- ты блюдёшь
- он / она блюдёт
- мы блюдём
- вы блюдёте
- они блюдут
Notice something? None of the endings are the ones your brain was expecting.
Surely it gets more predictable there? Of course not.
Past tense
- он блюл
- она блюла
- они блюли
At this point, it starts to feel less like a verb and more like Russian is checking whether you’re still paying attention.
The good news is that you’ve probably already met this verb—just wearing a disguise. Meet its much more common cousin: соблюсти (“to observe,” “to comply with,” or “to follow”). It follows exactly the same pattern.
блюсти → блюду
соблюсти → соблюду ✅
And the rest works the same way.
Pattern
- блюду → соблюду
- блюдёшь → соблюдёшь
- блюдёт → соблюдёт
- блюдут → соблюдут
If соблюду sounds perfectly normal to you, congratulations—you already knew how to conjugate блюсти without realizing it.
Mostly because hardly anyone uses блюсти by itself anymore.
In everyday Russian, people overwhelmingly prefer соблюдать or соблюсти.
That means learners constantly hear:
But almost never:
The older verb survives mostly in legal language, official speeches, journalism, and the occasional dramatic movie villain who sounds like he’s about to deliver a monologue.
If you ever forget how блюсти works, don’t try to invent the forms. Instead, think of соблюсти.