Ways to say it
| Russian | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| спотыка́ться | spotykátʹsja |
| оступа́ться | ostupátʹsja |
The verb is used to describe the act of tripping or falling. If you want to say that you stumbled over a specific object, use the preposition о followed by the accusative case: споткну́ться о что-то. Related to this movement, the noun спотыка́ние refers to a fall or trip, while the noun про́мах refers to an error or blunder.
Which one should you use?
The imperfective form спотыка́ться is used to describe the ongoing process of stumbling or a repeated habit of stumbling. In contrast, the perfective form споткну́ться is used to describe a single, completed instance of stumbling.
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
The perfective aspect of the verb is споткну́ться. When using this perfective form in the past tense, use споткнулся for a masculine subject (he stumbled) and споткнулась for a feminine subject (she stumbled).
How do you pronounce it?
spotykátʹsja
Did you know?
- The phrase оступа́ться на ровном месте describes tripping on flat ground, which is often used idiomatically to describe an embarrassing or inexplicable failure.
- While спотыка́ться describes a physical trip, the word оступа́ться is often used metaphorically to describe making a moral mistake or a 'false step' in life.
- Russian has a specific distinction between спотыка́ться for tripping over an object and оступа́ться for losing one's footing on a slippery or unstable surface.
Examples in context
- Он замахнулся и споткнулся о свою собственную ногу.He swung and stumbled over his own leg.
- Он начал спотыка́ться из-за усталости.On nachal spotykatsya iz-za ustalosti.He started to stumble because of fatigue.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “stumble” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
