# В письме vs на письме



## 涼宮

Good afternoon!

What is the difference between *на письме *and *в письме*?

For instance in the following sentence:

В/На письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. 


Thanks in advance!


----------



## NiNulla

涼宮 said:


> Good afternoon!
> 
> What is the difference between *на письме *and *в письме*?
> 
> For instance in the following sentence:
> 
> В/На письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне.
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance!


"письмо" has two meanings: 1. letter (written message), 2. writing (process) 


(1) В письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. This is correct.

(2) Пауза на письме (в процессе письма) обозначается запятой.


----------



## rusita preciosa

Could you please provide the source where you saw these expressions?
*в письме *is a normal expression "in the letter"
*на письме *- I'm not sure how it would be used - I imagine an envelope (supposedly containing a letter) and your friend scribbled a note on the envelope... I can't think of another way where that would be used.


----------



## grinski

в письме means in the letter.

В письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. (correct)
На письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. (wrong)

на письме = at the writing
На письме речь выделяется кавычками. = At the writing speech is used with quotation marks.


----------



## 涼宮

Thank you NiNulla and Grinski! That explains many things.

Rusita, I was doing an exercise in my book in which I have to put the right preposition, I wondered if I had to put *в *or* на *with письме, I googled *на письме* and found many results:

В основе правил русской орфографии лежит принцип необозначения _на письме_ мены звуков под влиянием положения в слове
Основной принцип передачи _на письме_ значимых частей слов
Коррекция ошибок _на письме_ у младших школьников


----------



## Ptak

NiNulla said:


> Пауза на письме (в процессе письма) обозначается запятой.


That's not true, by the way. Those who do this show their illiteracy.


----------



## rusita preciosa

In the sentence from your textbook and in the examples you found on the internet + offered above, the word *письмo* has different meanings.
В письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. (письмo = letter)
Основной принцип передачи _на письме_ значимых частей слов... (письмo = process or output of writing)


----------



## NiNulla

Ptak said:


> That's not true, by the way. Those who do this show their illiteracy.


Do what?


----------



## Ptak

NiNulla said:


> Do what?


Indicate a pause with a comma.


----------



## Guliver

rusita preciosa said:


> Could you please provide the source where you saw these expressions?
> *в письме *is a normal expression "in the letter"
> *на письме *- I'm not sure how it would be used - I imagine an envelope (supposedly containing a letter) and your friend scribbled a note on the envelope... I can't think of another way where that would be used.



I completely agree with this viewpoint. "В письме" means "in a letter" and this phrase tells a reader that he will later encounter information about things mentioned in the letter. For example, I can think of something like "In a letter to the judge he acknowledged that he was a drug addict". Also another example is something like "There were too many mistakes in the letter". 

Concerning "на письме" it's used quite rarely and at first sight it's really hard to say what this construction might mean. For example: "There were several books lying on the letter". It means that the letter was under those books, which prevented one from reaching it. That's the only context I can imagine where "на письме" really makes sense.


----------



## Ptak

Guliver said:


> Concerning "на письме" it's used quite rarely and at first sight it's really hard to say what this construction might mean.


*На письме* is a normal expression and is widely used. It has a very clear meaning even with no context. It means "in writing, in written form".
Another possible meaning is "on a/the letter".

http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/buro/search_answer/?s=%ED%E0+%EF%E8%F1%FC%EC%E5


----------



## Guliver

I've looked through the examples you've indicated. Most of them sound weird to me. 

Грамотно ли *на письме* местоимение "её" обозначать как "ее"?
Разъясните, пожалуйста, следующее: в каких случаях "наверняка" выделяется *на письме* запятыми в качестве вводного слова ("Наверняка, вам известны такие случаи"), а в каких - не выделяется и является обстоятельством ("Я действовал наверняка")?

I would never say any of these.​


----------



## Ptak

> I would never say any of these.​


However, people who asked and answered questions on 11 pages on there used it.

Even my Russian-Ukranian Lingvo dictionary gives an example:
_викласти *на письмі* — изложить письменно [*на письме*]_

So it's only sad that you don't know such a simple expression.


----------



## rusita preciosa

Guliver said:


> I completely agree with this viewpoint.


Er... I'm not sure what you disgree with...
В письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. - in [his] letter my friends writes about country life.
На письме мой друг пишет о жизни в деревне. - try to interpret this and see how your interpretation differs from mine (unless of course you are "completely disagreeing" solely for the sake of writing something here).


----------



## grinski

на письме is a bit scientific, lingustic phrase so some may not know it.


----------



## Guliver

Probably it's very scientific, indeed. I must say again that I've never heard such usage and therefore I can't recommend that learners say "на письме" unless the meaning is very specific and idiomatic.


----------



## Ptak

Guliver said:


> Probably it's very scientific, indeed.


It's not very scientific. On the link I gave above questions have been asked by different people, and some questions with "на письме" expression were really childish. The question _Как нужно оформлять на письме: "маршруты № 5 и 7", "маршруты №№ 5 и 7" или "маршруты № 5 и № 7"?_ really seems to be posted by some bus fleet employee.


----------



## grinski

I would never say _как на письме будет_, my option is _как пишется то и то_. _На письме_ is what you see when you look up for a rule in a reference book and then start using it while asking questions on the web.


----------



## Ptak

grinski said:


> I would never say _как на письме будет_, my option is _как пишется то и то_.


_Как пишется_ and _как оформить на письме_ are not the same at all.
I would never say _как будет на письме _myself.


----------

