"Я не люблю экзамены."

Translation: I do not like exams.

[BrookeLorren]

Is there a difference between an exam and a test? "I do not like tests." is wrong. I reported it, but I'm not sure if the course creators think that test should be a right answer.

[Langrusse]

An exam - экзамен (general exam, after all the course/ after half a year/ after a year of learning). A test - тест (little check after every theme but also uses in the Tests of languages such as TOEFL, ТРКИ).

[islandmonkeee]

What about "I hate exams"?

[AntonRusland]

Я ненавижу экзамены.

[bhankerson]

How would you say "I don't love exams"?

[Theron126]

You maybe would find this helpful. https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11754722

[bhankerson]

Cool, thanks! That helps a lot. However, maybe I'm being facetious, but it still doesn't answer how one would say "I don't love exams", accent on "love". Like I think exams are ok, but I don't love them. Granted, exams is a bad example, but I'll stick with it. "Я не очень люблю экзамены" to me translates to "I don't like exams very much" which is a different expression. Maybe "Я не обожаю экзамены", accent on "обожаю"?

[Theron126]

Someone asks if you like exams, you say "I don't love exams, but I don't mind them either", is that the kind of thing you're asking about? Maybe you could use ничего. "Экзамены ничего, но я не люблю их"? I'm not a native speaker and I don't know if that's correct or not. I'm not sure "не очень люблю" doesn't convey more or less the meaning you want.

[IwantToLea20884]

Обожать is nearly never used with negation

[yashamax]

Thanks for pointing this out, Iwant. Respectfully, in this sentence, a more natural word would be "almost" rather than "nearly."

[IwantToLea20884]

Thanks for pointing out. As far as I understand, 'almost' and 'nearly' are more or less synonyms, so is the difference about stylistics here?

[DavidG430]

I think this explanation (and the Duolingo translation) misses the point that любить consistency expresses a stronger sense of emotion than нравиться. In that way it is just like love and like in English. We could say I love chocolate or I like chocolate, where the former is a stronger sense. And it is the same in Russian.

[testostyrannical]

There is no meaningful difference between "exam" and "test" in english. They are perfect synonyms.

[Kukushka1]

That isn't quite true. I might call my end-of-year exam a test, but I wouldn't call my little end-of-unit test and exam. An exam implies a more formal evaluation, one with a greater impact on my grade.

[daughterofAlbion]

The difference is that a test may be marked by the person who sets it, and may be taken quite informally. If it is called an examination it presupposes certain standards under which the testing is carried out, such as invigilation, strict time allowances, anonymised marking of papers etc.

Now the question is: is the distinction in English between examination and test the same as that between эксамен andтест?

[Zeitschleifer]

"Экзамен" sounds more important and difficult than "тест". Details can differ from your description.

Edit To add more. "Экзамен" sounds like a kind of a final decisive event that can be preceded by several "тесты".

[yashamax]

Absolutely right. But is there a difference in Russian?

[testostyrannical]

if I'm translating from russian to english, it is irrelevant what distinctions the Russians make.

[yashamax]

Ah yes, well said. But for those of us who are trying to learn Russian, I'm wondering if it might be relevant.

[testostyrannical]

It may be, but then you have to teach it the other way. People who misuse экзамен can learn to differentiate it from тест when their answer comes up wrong. Imposing Russian categories on English concepts isn't even marginally helpful.

[TJ_Q8]

in a language that does not have a definite/indefinite articles, how am I supposed to sense that it should be "exams" and not "the exams" ?

[E-chan.]

"Я не люблю ..." clearly indicates that you are talking about something in general. If you were talking about something specific, it would be something like "Мне не нравятся эти экзамены".

You can say "Я не люблю борщ" - "I don't like borsch [at all]". But you can's say "Я не люблю этот борщ" - "I don't love this borsch" if you mean a particular borsch in your plate. For this you should say "Мне не нравится этот борщ".