This is in case your child says не хочу (don’t want to) a bit too often.

Sometimes even the most cheerful and positive of us встают не с той ноги (get up on the wrong side of a bed). Or maybe it is the right side of the bed, but then something happens during the day and now an otherwise nice and reasonable person starts acting как вожжа под хвост попала (something got into him; lit: a rein got under his tail). In other words, they start to капризничать (to act up, to be moody).

Children do it a lot, don’t they? I mean, sometimes it seems all you hear from them is

не хочу – I don’t want to
не буду – I won’t
не стану – I won’t
не собираюсь – I won’t be going (to do something)
не перестану – I won’t stop (doing something)
не пойду – I won’t go
не слушаю – I am not listening
не нравится – I don’t like
не вкусно – it’s not tasty
не интересно – it’s not interesting

you get the picture. The structure of the negative particle не + a verb is simple, repetitive and grating. I am very fortunate that my own child doesn’t do this to me. Not to say he is never in one of those moods. It’s just ever since he’s been от горшка два вершка (knee-high to a grasshopper) he would simply say я отрицаю! (I contradict! or I refuse! or I deny!) instead, which always brings a smile to my face.

But he also still uses неможно as a way of saying that something is нельзя (not allowed). Which makes perfect, if grammatically incorrect, sense since we all know that the word можно (allowed) exists and the word льзя doesn’t.

There are a couple of ways to form антонимы (antonyms) in Russian. One is to memorize word pairs of opposites:

Cильный – слабый (strong – weak)
Быстрый – медленный (fast – slow)
Большой – маленький (large – small), etc.
Прочный – ломкий (durable – breakable)

But if you don’t have enough time or desire to do twice as much work, you can frequently get by adding the prefix не to the original word:

сильный – несильный
быстрый – небыстрый
большой – небольшой
прочный – непрочный

If this approach works, you might be wondering, then why bother memorizing the pairs of opposites in the first place.

There are two good reasons and one excellent reason.

Good Reason #1

You might not be forming an opposite. Ok, this is confusing, so let me give you an example:

Экзамен по математике оказался трудным – The math exam turned out to be difficult.
Экзамен по математике оказался лёгким – The math exam turned out to be easy.
Экзамен по математике оказался нетрудным – The math exam turned out to be not so difficult.

You see what I mean? Нетрудный (not difficult) doesn’t always mean лёгкий (easy). It’s just not very difficult.

Путь им предстоял длинный – Their journey was to be a long one.
Путь им предстоял короткий – Their journey was to be a short one.
Путь им предстоял недлинный – Their journey was to be a rather short one.

А он красив! – подумала Оксана – He is handsome, Oxana thought.
А он уродлив! – подумала Оксана – He is ugly, Oxana thought.
А он некрасив! – подумала Оксана – He is not handsome, Oxana thought.

As you can see, there are polar opposites – длинный – короткий, красив – уродлив – and then there are the не- forms that fill the connotational space in between.

Good Reason #2

There are quite a few не- words for which there is no opposite without не-. I already mentioned that the opposite for нельзя (not allowed) is можно (allowed) because the word льзя doesn’t exist.

Some other words include

непролазный – impassable
неряшливый – sloppy
неизбежный – unavoidable
невмоготу – unbearable, beyond endurance
невинный – innocent. Do not confuse this with the adjective винный which doesn’t mean guilty, but rather “of or related to wine” as in винный магазин (wine store). The opposite of невинный is виновный or виноватый.
негодовать – to be indignant
немножко – a little bit (although the opposite of немного (a little bit) is много (a lot)). If you are wondering what the opposite for немножко is, it’s очень (very much), значительно (significantly), or много (a lot).
неотъемлемый – inalienable
невтерпёж – past endurance, unable to wait another moment

and a few others (feel free to contribute in the comments).

Read this wonderful short poem by Юрий Басин (Yuriy Basin) and try to spot as many non-existing words as you can that were formed by removing не- from negatives. Then try doing the opposite – adding не- back and figuring out the proper antonyms.

Шёл по улице удачник,
Весь в глиже, одетый брежно,
И на вид он очень взрачный,
Сразу видно, что годяй.
Он людимый, он имущий,
Удивительный дотёпа,
Он доумок и доучка
И доразвитый вполне.
А ему идёт навстречу
Врастеничная Смеяна,
Языком вполне цензурным
Говорит ему взначай:
Я уклюжая такая,
И природная поседа,
Я радивая ужасно,
Очень ряшество люблю.
А давай-ка мы с тобою
Будем жить в законном браке,
Ведь такой кудышной пары
Сыщут вряд ли кто и где.

And now

The Excellent Reason for Memorizing Opposites

Yes, memorizing pairs of opposites takes time and effort. But the payoff is sweet. You will get a new level of appreciation of Russian language’s richness and complexity and an insight into the subtle shades of meaning in literature you read and conversations you have with friends. In short, you will get much more enjoyment out of speaking, listening to and reading Russian.