I'm not trying to teach you Russian. I'm giving an example in a language you're familiar with. I can give an example from Germanic languages. Old English: tōd

I'm not trying to teach you Russian. I'm giving an example in a language you're familiar with. I can give an example from Germanic languages. Old English: tōdæġ (modern English "today") Swedish: idag "today" Dutch: vandaag "today" Same root ("day"), same meaning ("today"), but different languages chose different prepositions/prefixes (to-, van-, i-). Just like with s- vs. za- in Russian/Serbian.