What is the difference between “просить” and “спрашивать”?
Как вежливо попросить открыть дверь
A1 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Picked for people who know a little
English “ask” is two verbs in Russian. Просить / попросить is to ask for something, a request: вежливо попроси, “ask nicely.” Спрашивать / спросить is to ask a question: спроси, сколько стоит, “ask how much it costs.” If you want someone to do something, it’s просить; if you want information, it’s спрашивать.
Пожалуйста comes from the same politeness toolkit: открой дверь, пожалуйста is the polite version of the bare дверь открой. Прошу on its own also means “please / go ahead,” as when inviting someone in. The clip is a politeness test: дверь открой gets no reaction until it becomes открой дверь, пожалуйста.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A1 Russian listening practice video?
How common in Russian
How common in spoken Russian
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.