The Russian Languagefor English Learner

May 2009 (Incomplete Work) by pfournar@gmail.com

Table of Contents1 Basic facts about Russian Language..............................................................................................5

Basic grammatical features .............................................................................................................5Basic phonetic features ...................................................................................................................6

2 Russian alphabet..............................................................................................................................7The Handwriting Russian Alphabet.................................................................................................9BGN/PCGN Romanization of Russian..........................................................................................10

3 Stress...............................................................................................................................................13Word stress on the whole and applied to Russian language .........................................................13

Russian stress has the following features .................................................................................134 Pronunciation.................................................................................................................................15

Russian Pronunciation Guide.........................................................................................................16Palatalised (soft) and non-palatalised (hard).............................................................................16How to mark the softness of consonants ..................................................................................16

"я", "ё", "ю", "е", "и"...........................................................................................................17The letter "ь"........................................................................................................................17

Consonant......................................................................................................................................17Paired Consonants (Plain, Palatalised)......................................................................................17Unpaired consonants.................................................................................................................17Palatalised Consonants - Palatal Indicators...............................................................................17Noisy consonant (ч щ ш ж ц) ..................................................................................................18Velar consonant (к г х).............................................................................................................18

Vowels...........................................................................................................................................18Hard-Indicating Vowels (A, O, Ы, У, Э)..................................................................................18Soft-Indicating Vowels (Я, Е, Ё, Ю, И)...................................................................................20

Ikanie....................................................................................................................................20Quick reference on "soft-indicating" vowels.......................................................................21

Alphabet.........................................................................................................................................22Additional features of Russian pronunciation ..............................................................................24

5 The Russian Spelling System........................................................................................................26Hard and Soft Vowels. ..................................................................................................................26Vowel Alternations after Soft Consonants....................................................................................27The Combination of й+V (y+vowel).............................................................................................27The soft sign (ь).............................................................................................................................28The 7 Consonant Rule (not ы but и). ............................................................................................28The 5 Consonant Rule (о or е).......................................................................................................28The Hush Rule (not ы я or ю but и а and у)..................................................................................28Upper or Lower Case?...................................................................................................................28Suffixes (Суффиксы)....................................................................................................................29

6 Useful Russian Words...................................................................................................................317 Pronouns.........................................................................................................................................34

Classes of Russian pronouns..........................................................................................................34Personal Pronouns..........................................................................................................................35Possessive Pronouns......................................................................................................................37Demonstrative Pronouns................................................................................................................38The Interrogative Pronouns...........................................................................................................41Reflexive Pronouns........................................................................................................................45

8 Verbs...............................................................................................................................................47Introduction....................................................................................................................................47Aspect............................................................................................................................................48Usage of Russian Verbs.................................................................................................................49The General Nature of the Russian Verb ......................................................................................51

Stem..........................................................................................................................................51What Are Conjugations?...........................................................................................................53Present- Future and The Conjugations......................................................................................54The Past Tense Endings ...........................................................................................................56The Rules of Stem-Ending Combination..................................................................................56

Infinitive ........................................................................................................................................59Forming the infinitive...............................................................................................................59Uses of Infinitive.......................................................................................................................60

Indicative Mood ............................................................................................................................61Conjugations of Verbs* (..Maybe I have to merge some headings)..............................................63Present Tense ................................................................................................................................66Ending of Present Tense ...............................................................................................................67Examples........................................................................................................................................68

A Full Example.........................................................................................................................68Palatalization..................................................................................................................................69

Where Does Palatalization Occur?............................................................................................70Past Tense .....................................................................................................................................71Future Tense .................................................................................................................................72Some Conjugated Russian Verbs...................................................................................................73Verbal Accent in Russian..............................................................................................................75Verbs of Motion.............................................................................................................................77

Part 1 - Motion verbs without prefixes. - To Go.......................................................................77Part 2 - Other unprefixed verbs of motion................................................................................78Part 3 - Other unprefixed verbs of motion -To Carry...............................................................79Part 4 - Prefixed verbs of motion..............................................................................................79

The Imperative Mood....................................................................................................................821st Way To Form Imperative....................................................................................................822nd Way To Form The Imperative..........................................................................................83

Subjunctive Mood..........................................................................................................................85Reflexive Verbs.............................................................................................................................86

Genuine Reflexives...................................................................................................................86Optative Reflexive Verbs..........................................................................................................87

9 Nouns..............................................................................................................................................88Cases..............................................................................................................................................88Russian Nouns Genders.................................................................................................................89

Exercise.....................................................................................................................................90Russian Genders' Table.............................................................................................................91

Plural Nouns..................................................................................................................................92The Nominative Case.....................................................................................................................93The Accusative Case......................................................................................................................93

Accusative Case Form .............................................................................................................93Instrumental Case (With, By)........................................................................................................94Declension.....................................................................................................................................95

Noun Declension Table.............................................................................................................95Mnemonic Rules of Cases.........................................................................................................96I Declension - Masculine Paired Consonants............................................................................97I Declension - Masculine Unpaired Consonants.......................................................................97I Declension – Neuter...............................................................................................................98II Declension - Feminine (and some masculine and epicene)...................................................99III Declension – Feminine only..............................................................................................100

Russian Names - Русские имена................................................................................................102Examples: ..........................................................................................................................103

10 Prepositions................................................................................................................................105Prepositions Governing the Nominative Case ............................................................................106Prepositions Governing the Genitive Case..................................................................................107

Genitive Prepositions Indicating Non-Existence....................................................................108Genitive Prepositions Indicating Closeness............................................................................108Genitive Prepositions Indicating Origin.................................................................................110Miscellaneous Genitive Prepositions......................................................................................111

Prepositions Governing the Accusative Case..............................................................................113The Accusative with Verbs of Motion....................................................................................113Other Prepositions Governing the Accusative........................................................................113

Prepositions Governing the Prepositional Case ..........................................................................115Prepositions Governing the Instrumental Case ..........................................................................117

11 Numerals....................................................................................................................................119Russian Cardinal Numbers..........................................................................................................120Rules of Numerals.......................................................................................................................120Russian Ordinal Numbers............................................................................................................122

12 Participles ..................................................................................................................................123The Present Active Participle......................................................................................................128The Present Passive Participle.....................................................................................................128The Past Active Participle ...........................................................................................................129

13 Adjectives 1................................................................................................................................130Common Adjective's Endings......................................................................................................130Long and Short Forms of Adjectives...........................................................................................132

14 Adjectives 2................................................................................................................................134Normal Adjectives.......................................................................................................................134

Normal Adjectives - Hard (“-ый”, “-ой”, “-ий” (but not “-ний”))........................................135Normal Adjectives - Soft (“-ний”).........................................................................................135Short Adjectives......................................................................................................................136

Comparative Adjectives...............................................................................................................137Method 1 : More / Less...........................................................................................................137Method 2 : Comparative Adjectives.......................................................................................1373. Without Чем........................................................................................................................138

Superlative Adjectives - Most......................................................................................................13815 Appendix....................................................................................................................................138

Vocabulary...................................................................................................................................138Index of Conjugated Russian Verbs............................................................................................148Language Review........................................................................................................................150

Russian Names........................................................................................................................151Russian Greetings...................................................................................................................151Please and Thank-You............................................................................................................152Really Small Russian Words...................................................................................................152Using the Russian Language...................................................................................................153Conclusion..............................................................................................................................155

A. Verbs.......................................................................................................................................155писать (verb, imperfective aspect, transitive)........................................................................155

1 Basic facts about Russian LanguageRussian language belongs to Indoeuropean family, Slavic group, East Slavic branch. It derived from Old Russian language in 14th-15th centuries from which also Ukrainian and Byelorussian derived. About 250 million people around the world speak Russian, including 180 million people on the territory of the former USSR. Its closest relatives are the remaining two East Slavic languages: Ukrainian and Byelorussian, Byelorussian being the closest (I must admit, that in Belarus beyond the countryside people speak only Russian, not Byelorussian, so Byelorussian is possibly endangered language). Other relatives include Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Slovene from South Slavic branch and Polish, Czech, Slovak, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Polabian (extinct) from West Slavic branch. On the vast territory of Russia you will see almost no dialectal divisions, almost all people speak common literary language, only old people might still use local dialects which vary little from place to place. Russian is rather synthetic than analytic language and being a synthetic language it is flective, not agglutinative, that is it uses a lot of prefixes, suffixes and flections and it can express in one word what analytic language like English has to use three words for; but unlike agglutinative languages, like Finno-Ugrian and Turkish ones, the same flection might express a lot of different grammatical categories and different flections might express the same grammatical category.

Basic grammatical features ● there are three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), though there was dual number in Old

Russian

● there are three genders: masculine, feminine and neutral

● there is no article

● nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, participles do decline

● there are 6 cases: Nominative, Genitive (the so-called Genitive-II is used with some nouns), Dative, Accusative, Instrumental and Prepositional (Prepositional-II is used with some nouns, though not with the same ones as Genitive-II) (Russian lacks Vocative case which is present in Ukrainian and in many other Slavic languages).

● there are 3 classes of noun declension

● adjectives decline according to case, gender and number and agree with nouns in case, gender and number

● there are short adjectives that do not decline

● verbs conjugate according to person, number, tense, voice and mood

● there are two classes of conjugation, 3 tenses (Past, Present and Future) and 3 moods (Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative)

● verbs have two aspects: Imperfective and Perfective, similar to English Present and Perfect infinitives, e.g. to do - to have done, to go - to have gone, but these two forms in Russian both consist of one word

● participles exist in 4 forms: Present Active, Past Active, Present Passive and Past Passive

● there are short participles corresponding to two Passive forms of regular participles that like short adjectives do not decline

● there are adverbial participles that do not decline and exist in Present and Past forms

● word order is free, moreover, by changing the word order any word in a sentence can be emphasized

Basic phonetic features ● pronunciation is almost phonetic, that is there is one-to-one correspondence between letters and

sounds, but not at all since there is a lot of specific moments which have to be studied

● there is no division of vowels into long and short ones

● but consonants are divided into palatalized (soft) and non-palatalized (hard) ones unlike English

● there are no diphthongs

● stress is free and moving, that is it can fall on any syllable of the word and on different syllables within the paradigm (the set of the word forms) of the same word

2 Russian alphabetHere you will get familiar with all those strange unreadable symbols you may have seen on the TV screen or elsewhere. You will understand that they are quite readable as well as Latin symbols.

Primarily Russian letters will be introduced as small pics in a table since you still might not have the Cyrillic support on your computer, but after the table and in all following lessons only Cyrillic font will be used in writing Russian words.

In the following table all of the 33 letters (both in upper and lower case) which Russian alphabet comprises are presented, along with their rough English equivalents. More detailed consideration of pronunciation rules is still to follow.

a i s -

b j t i, y

v k u -

g l f e

d m h u, ju

e, je n ts a, ja

o, jo o ch

zh p sh

z r shch

Note that these are only transliteration, not pronunciation rules.

All present-day Russian letters are derived from ancient Cyrillic alphabet by means of excluding some out-of-date letters and simplifying their writing form. The first reform of Russian alphabet was undertaken in 1708-1710 by Peter the Great and then in years 1735, 1738 and 1758 by the Russian Academy of Sciences. But 3 remaining unnecessary letters remained until 1917 when they were finally abolished.

Special care should be taken of the letter "Ё", introduced in 1797 by Russian author N.Karamzin, since it is used nowhere except for the teaching aids, you won't see it anywhere in Russian papers, it is even not present on the Russian keyboard, it is always replaced with the letter "Е", and as these letters are pronounced differently it will be difficult for a learner to know which sound to pronounce when seeing the letter "Е" in a word. In fact, all the words with the letter "Ё" should be learned by heart, and there many of them. So to help learners I will use the letter "Ё" in writing words. By the way, there is no "Ё" letter in Ukrainian, combination "ЬО" is used instead, so there is no such problem as described above in Ukrainian.

You probably noticed that letters "Ъ" (hard sign) and "Ь" (soft sign) have no Latin equivalents. That is because these letters are never pronounced in Russian, the former one is used only as a partitive letter between the prefix and the root of the word, e.g. съесть (to have eaten), the latter is used as a softening sign telling that the consonant after which it is written must be palatalized (softened), compare мол (particle used in retelling the other person's words) - моль (moth). Soft sign is also used as a partitive sign but mainly in the root of the word, e.g. пьёт ((he) drinks), it is used to underline some grammatical features (feminine gender, imperative mood) as well.

The letter "Ы" can never start a word except for the very rare words borrowed from Korean, Kazakh and Siberian languages. The letter "Й" also very rarely starts a word.

There a lot of peoples that use cyrillic alphabet, mainly those inhabiting the territory of the former USSR. Among the Slavic languages 4 languages use cyrillic alphabet: Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian. However their alphabets are slightly different from the Russian one.

In the next table the names of all Russian letters are presented

Letter Name Letter Name Letter Name Letter Name

Аа а Ии и Сс эс Ъъ твердый знак (hard sign)

Бб бэ Йй и краткое (short и) Тт тэ Ыы ы

Вв вэ Кк ка Уу у Ьь мягкий знак (soft sign)

Гг гэ Лл эль Фф эф Ээ эДд дэ Мм эм Хх ха Юю юЕе е Нн эн Цц це Яя яЁё ё Оо о Чч че

Жж же Пп пэ Шш ша Зз зэ Рр эр Щщ ща

You can get an mp3 with all these names in a row here.

The Handwriting Russian Alphabet

BGN/PCGN Romanization of RussianFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BGN/PCGN romanization system for Russian is a method for romanization of Cyrillic Russian texts, that is, their transliteration into the Latin alphabet as used in the English language.

There are a number of systems for romanization of Russian—the BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for anglophones to pronounce. It is part of the larger set of BGN/PCGN romanizations, which includes methods for twenty-nine different languages. It was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. The portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944, and by PCGN in 1947.

This romanization of Russian can be rendered using only the basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct character (·) can optionally be used to avoid some ambiguity.

In many publications a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names, typically converting ë to yo, simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y, and omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь. Edward Allworth, for instance, uses a romanization system based upon BGN/PCGN in his 1971 book Nationalities of the Soviet East—Publications and Writing Systems; he transliterates е and ё always to e and ë respectively and substitutes an i for the y of й, ю and я, which makes the system also close to a version of the ALA-LC system without diacritic marks.

The following table describes the system and provides examples.

Russianletter Romanization Special provision Examples

А (а) A (a) None Азов = AzovТамбов = Tambov

Б (б) B (b) None Барнаул = BarnaulКубань = Kuban’

В (в) V (v) None Владимир = VladimirУльяновск = Ul’yanovsk

Г (г) G (g) None Грозный = GroznyyВолгодонск = Volgodonsk

Д (д) D (d) NoneДзержинский = DzerzhinskiyНелидово = Nelidovo

Е (е)Ye (ye)

1. Word-initially; 2. after vowels; 3. after й; 4. after ь; 5. after ъ.

1. Елизово = Yelizovo

2. Чапаевск = Chapayevsk;

3. Майер = Mayyer; 4. Юрьев = Yur’yev; 5. Съезд = S”yezd.

E (e) All other cases Белкин = BelkinЁ (ё) Yë (yë) 1. Word-initially;

2. after vowels; 3. after й; 4. after ь; 5. after ъ.

1. Ёлкин = Yëlkin; 2. Е ё = Yeyë; 3. <insert an example

with "йё">; 4. Громадьё =

Gromad’yë; 5. Подъёмный =

Pod”yëmnyy.

Ë (ë) All other cases Озёрный = Ozërnyy

Ж (ж) Zh (zh) None Жуков = ZhukovЛужники = Luzhniki

З (з) Z (z) None Звенигород = ZvenigorodВязьма = Vyaz’ma

И (и) I (i) None Иркутск = IrkutskАпатиты = Apatity

Й (й)

Y∙ (y∙)Before а, у, ы, or э. Used primarily for romanization of non-Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

Кайафа = Kay∙afa

Y (y) All other casesЙошкар-Ола = Yoshkar-OlaБийск = Biysk

К (к) K (k) None Киров = KirovЕнисейск = Yeniseysk

Л (л) L (l) None Ломоносов = LomonosovНелидово = Nelidovo

М (м) M (m) None Менделеев = MendeleyevКаменка = Kamenka

Н (н) N (n) None Новосибирск = NovosibirskКандалакша = Kandalaksha

О (о) O (o) None Омск = OmskКрасноярск = Krasnoyarsk

П (п) P (p) NoneПетрозаводск = PetrozavodskСерпухов = Serpukhov

Р (р) R (r) NoneРостов = RostovСеверобайкальск = Severobaykal’sk

С (с) S (s) NoneСковородино = SkovorodinoЧайковский = Chaykovskiy

Т (т) T (t) None Тамбов = TambovМытищи = Mytishchi

У (у) U (u) None Углич = UglichДудинка = Dudinka

Ф (ф) F (f) None Фурманов = FurmanovУфа = Ufa

Х (х) Kh (kh) None Хабаровск = KhabarovskПрохладный = Prokhladnyy

Ц (ц) Ts (ts) None Цимлянск = TsimlyanskЕльцин = Yel’tsin

Ч (ч) Ch (ch) None Чебоксары = CheboksaryПечора = Pechora

Ш (ш) Sh (sh) None Шахтёрск = ShakhtërskМышкин = Myshkin

Щ (щ) Shch (shch) None Щёлково = ShchëlkovoРтищево = Rtishchevo

Ъ (ъ) ” This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word. Подъездной = Pod”yezdnoyЫ (ы) Y∙ (y∙) Before а, у, ы, or э. Used primarily for romanization of non-

Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

Выудить = Vy∙udit’

∙y After any vowel. Used primarily for romanization of non- Суык-Су = Su∙yk-Su

Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

Y (y) All other cases. This letter does not occur in the beginning of words of Russian origin.

Ыттык-Кёль = Yttyk-Kël’Тында = Tynda

Ь (ь) ’ This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word. Тюмень = Tyumen’

Э (э)

∙eAfter any consonant except й. Used primarily for romanization of non-Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

Двухэлементный = Dvukh∙elementnyy

E (e) All other cases

Электрогорск = ElektrogorskРадиоэлектроника = Radioelektronika

Ю (ю) Yu (yu) NoneЮбилейный = YubileynyyКлючевская = Klyuchevskaya

Я (я) Ya (ya) None Якутск = YakutskБрянск = Bryansk

Тс (тс) T∙s (t∙s)Used primarily for romanization of non-Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

Соответствие = Sootvet∙stviye

Шч (шч) Sh∙ch (sh∙ch)Used primarily for romanization of non-Russian-language names from Russian spelling. The use of this digraph is optional.

3 Stress

Word stress on the whole and applied to Russian language Here we will be speaking only about the word stress since there is also the logical stress which accentuates certain word in a sentence. The word stress is a way of differentiating the certain syllable of the word from the others by any means. These means can be different. Generally there are 4 types of stress:

● quantitative - the length of the vowel of the stressed syllable is longer than the lengths of unstressed vowels

● dynamic - the stressed syllable is more powerful, intensive and loud in pronunciation, sometimes this type is falsely called expiratory since the strength of the syllable is thought to depend on the amount of exhaled air, but these are different phenomena not determining each other

● quality of the vowel - the stressed vowel gets clear and distinct and therefore acquires special quality

● tonic - pitch of the stressed syllable is higher

There are languages which don't have word stress. Syllables do not differ at all. These are Even, Evenk, Kalmyk and others. But the most languages do have it. Each language usually has not only one type of stress, but different types play a certain role in a language. For example, in Japanese and Swedish the tonic stress plays the main role. It did in Ancient Greek as well but it is displaced by dynamic stress in contemporary Greek.

Russian stress has the following features ● the main type of stress is the quality of the stressed vowel: even if all the words in a

sentence consist of one syllable and therefore each syllable is stressed one can feel that they are stressed not comparing the stressed syllables with unstressed ones (because there are no unstressed ones) but because of special quality of the stressed vowels, for example Весь день шёл дождь (It was raining all the day). Another example: карандаш (pencil). Here the last syllable is stressed, the last vowel is the most clear, the last but one is weaker and the first one is very unclear which even can be omitted in hurried speech, the first vowel as well as the second one can be compared to the always unstressed schwa in English

● Russian stress is quantitative: the length of the stressed vowel is known to be 1.5 times longer than that of the vowel preceding the stressed one. This type of stress is possible in Russian because there is no opposition between long and short vowels unlike f.ex. Finnish and German where short and long vowels are different phonemes (for example, in Finnish, word "tuli" (fire) cannot be stressed by lengthening the first vowel because we will get another word with another meaning - "tuuli" (wind); by the way it may be interesting that there is word "tulli" (customs) in Finnish as well)

● Russian stress is also dynamic, because the strength of the vowel depends on its quality● there is no tonic stress in Russian (there must be no confusing it with rising and lowering

tone in a phrase which does exist in Russian in certain types of sentences)

Now as we have considered the phonetic nature of stress let's consider its placement in a word.

There are two types of stress regarding the association of it with a certain syllable of the word: ● fixed stress - the stress is always associated with a certain syllable of the word, for example

in Finnish, Hungarian, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Polish it falls on the last but one syllable, in French it falls on the last syllable

● free stress - the stress can fall on any syllable of the word, but each word, of course, has its definite stressed syllable. This type of stress is in Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian.

Languages either with fixed or free stress can have one of two following types of stress: ● stable stress - the stress does not change its place within the paradigm (the set of word

worms) of the word while being declined or conjugated and in all derived words as well, i.e. if a noun has its ending stressed it will have its ending stressed in all possible cases, the same is true for root or prefix

● moving stress - the stress does change its place within the paradigm of the same word, for example, if a noun in singular form has its root stressed then it can have its ending stressed in plural form. Note, that languages with fixed stress can have moving stress, for example in Polish word "polski" (Polish) the first (last but one) syllable is stressed which belongs to the root, but in Genitive case "polskiego" the second syllable (also last but one) is stressed which belongs to the ending, not to the root

Russian language has free and moving stress which is the most difficult to study. You must learn the stress of each word otherwise you might be not understood or misunderstood. So in this course I will mark the stress of each word by making the stressed vowel bold, for example город (town), корова (cow), молоко (milk), трубопровод (pipeline), палеонтология (palaeontology). You see that in these words stress falls on different syllables, from 1st to 5th. But please don't fall into despair, Russian stress is very simple compared to Lithuanian where the stress is free and moving and in addition there are 3 different types of stress marked with acute, grave or circumflex each of which changes the intonation of the word. Even Russian people can hardly deal with the stress, there are a lot of common errors, for example a lot of people say звонит instead of звонит ((he) phones), договор instead of договор (agreement, contract), торты instead of торты (cakes) etc. And for this reason there are pronunciation dictionaries in Russia usually intended not for transcribing the words but mainly for marking their stress; all the forms of each word that can make people doubt are included in such dictionaries and there are very many of them, for example in the entry "дать" (to give) there are 34 forms of this verb. There are words which have two accepted in the literary language ways of stressing, for example творог and творог (curds) are both right. You should note that changing the stress in some words leads to totally different meaning, e.g. замок (castle) and замок (lock), дорогой (Instrumental case of дорога - road) and дорогой (expensive, dear), уже (narrower) and уже (already), потом (Instrumental case of пот - sweat) and потом (then, afterwards). As already mentioned above, Russian has moving stress, but however some words have stable and some words have moving stress, for example words собака (dog), лимон (lemon), пожар (fire) have stable stress since all their forms and words derived from them have their stress on the second vowel of the root (а, о, а respectively) and words рука (hand, arm), гора (mountain) have moving stress, since their plural forms руки (hands, arms) and горы (mountains) have their stress on the root and not on the ending. The place of stress in a word can change during historical evolution of the language, for example word музыка (music) was in 19th century pronounced as музыка.

4 Pronunciation

Russian Pronunciation GuideHere all aspects of Russian pronunciation will be considered. Right on this chapter you will find only basic pronunciation rules which might be enough for you to pronounce Russian words more or less correct.

Now let's discuss each letter of the Russian alphabet in their alphabetic order and see in what ways it can be pronounced. As already mentioned in Basic facts about Russian language Russian language is almost phonetic that is there is one-to-one correspondence between the letters of the alphabet and the sounds. But this almost means that there are some exceptions. The most important of them are discussed here.

Well, first to be mentioned, there is no division into long and short vowels in Russian, that means that it is no matter how you pronounce a vowel: long or short, it won't change the word's meaning.

Palatalised (soft) and non-palatalised (hard)Almost all consonants in Russian appear in two forms: palatalised (soft) and non-palatalised (hard) ones. The term palatalised means that while pronouncing the sound the middle part of your tongue is lifted toward the hard palate and makes what is being uttered sound in a higher pitch what is perceived by us as softness.

You can determine where your hard palate is by pronouncing the sound [j] like in "yes": it is where your tongue touches the upper jaw. Try to compare sounds [n] and [n'] ( ' denotes palatalisation) in words "not" and "new": in the first one you pronounce [n] because the next [o] vowel is on open vowel and does not require your tongue to lift while pronouncing [n]; on the contrary, in the second word you pronounce [n'] because your tongue automatically adjusts to the pronunciation of the next [j] consonant and lifts toward the hard palate.

You see that soft and hard consonants appear in both Russian and English but the difference is the following: in English for example you can't pronounce [n'] before [o] like in "not", you can pronounce it only in certain positions before the sounds with the similar articulation (e.g. [j] or [i:]), but in Russian the sound [n'] can appear before every sound no matter how it is articulated.

For example, there are two absolutely different in meaning words in Russian differing only in palatalisation or non-palatalisation of [n] consonant: "нос" [nos] (nose) and "нёс" [n'os] (past masculine form of "нести" (to carry), carried). Another example is "мат" [mat] (mate) and "мать" [mat'] (mother).

How to mark the softness of consonants Now you see that palatalisation bears word differentiating function in Russian so you must manage to pronounce every Russian consonant in both hard (which is easy) and soft (more difficult) forms to be understood properly. As mentioned above you should always pronounce soft consonants by lifting the middle part of your tongue toward the hard palate. The problem is how to mark the softness of consonants in writing.

This problem is solved differently in different languages: in Polish letter "i" is placed right after the consonant letter to denote its palatalisation, Serbo-Croatian has special letters for each palatalized consonant since there are only four of them in it; if it were the same way in Russian we would have to use 15 additional letters in the alphabet which would be an unbearable burden on the language, so Russian uses two variants of vowel letters instead:

"я", "ё", "ю", "е", "и"

Russian uses "я" after a consonant letter to mark both its softness and vowel [a] after it (compare мать (mother) and мять (to crumple)), "ё" - to mark the softness of preceding consonant and vowel [o] after it (compare вол (bullock, ox) and вёл ((he) was leading)), "ю" - softness of the consonant + vowel [u] after it, "е" - softness of the consonant + vowel denoted by letter "э" after it. Besides, letter "и" always denotes the softness of preceding consonant plus vowel [i] after it as well (e.g. один (one)) but the same vowel [i] can also be expressed by the letter "и" apart from the consonant (e.g. искать (to look for)), so "и" has no counterpart while "я", "ё", "ю", "е" do have it.

The letter "ь"

If there is no vowel following the soft consonant softness is marked by the letter "ь" (soft sign), e.g. мать (mother), кольцо (ring).

Consonant

Paired Consonants (Plain, Palatalised)All but six of the consonants of Russian occur in two varieties: a plain variety and a palatalised variety (pronounced PALatalized). For example, the plain variety of п is pronounced somewhat like the p in English poor, and the palatalised variety of п is pronounced somewhat like the p in English pure. Similarly, the plain consonant н is pronounced somewhat like the n in the middle of English cannon, while the palatalised н is pronounced somewhat like the n in the middle of English canyon.

The consonants that occur in two varieties are called paired consonants.

Unpaired consonantsThere are also six unpaired consonants, i.e. consonant sounds that do not come in both a plain and a palatalised variety. These are the sounds ч щ ш ж ц (noisy consonant) and the sound /y/ (as in 'boy' and чай).

The difference between Russian palatalised consonants and English consonants followed by y (as in canyon) is that palatalisation (pronounced PALataliZAtion) is produced simultaneously with the consonant, whereas in English the y-sound is a separate consonant. In other words, a palatalized н in Russian is a single sound and takes no longer to say than a plain н, while in English the combination ny is two sounds and takes longer to say than n alone.

Palatalised Consonants - Palatal IndicatorsThe Russian alphabet does not represent palatalised consonants with separate consonant letters. Instead, palatalisation is indicated by the letter that follows the consonant. Thus, the consonant letter «н» followed by the letter «я» indicates that «н» is palatalised (ня), while «н» followed by the letter «а» indicates that «н» is plain (на). (English uses a similar device: the difference between 'soft g' and 'hard g' is indicated by the letter that follows, not by two separate consonant letters, e.g. the first g of George and gorge.)

Notice in the above example (ня vs. на) that the vowel sound is considered to be the same, though the vowel letters differ. There are five basic vowel sounds in Russian, but ten vowel letters; five of these letters (called plain indicators) are employed to indicate that the preceding consonant is pronounced in the plain fashion, and the other five (called palatal indicators) are employed to

indicate that the preceding consonant is pronounced in the palatalised fashion.

The whole system looks like this (In Accented Cyrillic Font, may not appear better):

Vowel Plain Palatal Examples

sounds Indicators Indicators

/i/ ы и мы, ми

/e/ э е тэ, те

/a/ а я Ђнна, Ђня

/o/ о ё тћмный, тёмный

/u/ у ю пнџ, пнє

Noisy consonant (ч щ ш ж ц)

Velar consonant (к г х)

Vowels(See also Hard and Soft Vowels)

Russian pronunciation rules are rather simple as compared to English. For example, there are no words in Russian that sound the same but have different spelling like English “might” and “mite”. By and large, Russian words will sound correctly if you simply read them letter-by-letter.

In this lesson you will learn ten Russian vowels and several basic pronunciation rules. You will find that almost all Russian vowels have pretty close English sounds. In general, Russian vowels are divided into two basic types: "soft-indicating" and "hard-indicating" vowels. The "hard-indicating" vowels are а, э, ы, у, о. Russian "soft-indicating" vowels are formed from their "hard-indicating" counterparts by adding an English sound of "y" at the beginning. Thus you will get such "soft-indicating" vowels as я, е, ё, ю, и.

Notice, that vowel groups are marked as "soft-indicating" and "hard-indicating" because they indicate whether the following consonant is "hard" or "soft". In this sense, the Russian pronunciation system should be looked at as a unity of vowels and consonants. For now, do not worry if you do not understand what "hard" and "soft" mean. Just try to learn the pronunciation of vowels and memorize what group ("soft-indicating" or "hard-indicating" ) each of them belongs.

If you really want to learn Russian vowels, you should practice. Here we give guidelines on pronunciation of five "hard-indicating" Russian vowels. They are accompanied with exercises so that you could practice them with real Russian words.

Hard-Indicating Vowels (A, O, Ы, У, Э)

A as in Ah

This vowel is pronounced in two different ways depending on stress. When stressed, it is close to the sound of the English word Ah, but shorter. When unstressed, it is pronounced like u in the word nut. Practice these words:

мама папа вата вода масло

mah-ma pah-pa vah-ta va-dah mahs-la

mother father cotton water butter

You've probably noticed that the letter o is pronounced like unstressed a in the words вода and масло. This is an important rule of the Russian pronunciation.

Rule #1

In unstressed positions, Russian letter O is

pronounced like unstressed Russian A. In other words, it souns like English u in nut.

O as in law

You already know that unstressed letter o is pronounced like unstressed a. But when it is stressed, is sounds like English aw in law. Practice these words:

кот точка молоко стон окна

kot toch-ka ma-la-ko ston ok-na

cat dot milk groan windows

Ы

This vowel does not have an equivalent in English. Try to invest some time in learning it and differentiating from other sounds. To get Russian sound ы, you should place your tongue in the position right between the positions of English sounds i in kit and u in sugar. Then make a new sound of ы. Note that this sound is different form the English i in bit. Now practice these words:

дым быт был мыло мы

dim bit bil mi-lo mi

fog everyday life was soap we

У as in wood

The letter у sounds like oo in wood. In unstressed positions, it is pronounced a little bit quicker than in stressed positions. Practice these exercises:

стул губа музыка звук

stool goo-bah moo-zi-ka zvook

chair lip music sound

Э as in net

This sound is close to e in pet. Practice these words:

этот Интернет темп шест

e-tat een-ter-net temp shest

this Internet tempo pole

Quick Reference On "hard-indicating" Vowels

Russian letter Symbol Pronunciation

A (stressed) ah as Ah, but shorter

A (unstressed) a as u in but

O (stressed) o as aw in law

O (unstressed) a as u in but

Ы i no English equivalent

У oo as oo in wood

Э (stressed) e as e in pet

Э (unstressed) Ee as ee in meet

Soft-Indicating Vowels (Я, Е, Ё, Ю, И)The basic rule to make a "soft-indicating" Russian vowel is to combine a sound of English y with corresponding "hard-indicating" vowel. For example, to get Russian я you should say y + a as if they are one whole (ya). Here I will introduce you into five "soft" vowels of the Russian language я, е, ё, и, ю . You will also learn a rule of the Russian pronunciation called ikanie.

Я as in yahoo

This vowel is pronounced like English ya in yahoo. Practice these words:

яма ряд яхта мясо

ya-ma ryat yakh-ta mya-sa

hole row yacht meat

E as in yes

The Russian sound of e is easy, because it is close to ye in English yes. Do not confuse it with English letter e , which sounds like Russian э. Practice these words:

место лето песня весело

myes-ta lye-ta pyes-nya vye-see-la

place summer song marrily

IkanieIn the word весело, an unstressed e sounds like an abbreviated Russian и. This rules is

called ikanie and it also applies to unstressed я and э .

Rule #2

In unstressed positions, Russian letters Я, Е, Э are

pronounced like an abbreviated Russian И.

Ё as in yonder

This letter is pronounced like yo in yonder. As you can see, ё is formed from y sound and vowel o: y + o = ё. Now practice these words:

ёж ёлка плёнка

yozh yol-ka plyon-ka

hedgehog fir-tree film, tape

Rule #3

The letter Ё is always stressed in Russian words.

И as in meet

This letter is pronounced like ee in meet. Practice these exercises:

игла Индия пикник лист

eeg-lah een-dee-ya peek-neek leest

needle India picnic leaf

Ю as in you

The letter ю denotes the same sound as the English word you. Practice these words:

юг Юпитер плюс

yook yoo-pee-tyer plyoos

south Jupiter plus sign

Quick reference on "soft-indicating" vowels

Russian letter Symbol Pronunciation

Я (stressed) ya as ya in yahoo

Я (unstressed) ee as ee in meet, but very short

Е (stressed) ye as ye in yes

Е (unstressed) ee as ee in meet, but very short

Ё (always stressed) yo as yo in yonderЮ yoo as the word youИ (stressed) ee as ee in meet

Alphabet Now let's go to the alphabet. In the following list Russian letters are on the left, their rough pronunciation on the right.

1. а - like "a" in "part" but shorter, e.g. зима (winter), дать (to give), да (yes).

2. б - like "b" in "bone", e.g. банан (banana) (hard), берёза (birch) (soft)

3. в - like "v" in "vast", e.g. ворота (gate) (hard), ковёр (carpet) (soft)

4. г - like "g" in "get", e.g. город (town), огурец (cucumber) (both hard), гений (genius) (soft)

5. д - like "d" in "day", e.g. вода (water) (hard), делать (to do) (soft)

6. е - at the beginning of the word, after all vowels and letters "ь" and "ъ" like [je] in "yes", e.g. ель (fir), диета (diet), in other positions it marks the softness of the preceding consonant (except "ж","ш" and "ц", e.g. женщина (woman), шесть (six), цены (prices), and other consonants in some foreign words, e.g. фонетика (phonetics)) and is pronounced almost like Russian "э", i.e. like "e" in "let", e.g. петь (to sing), газета (newspaper)

7. ё - at the beginning of the word, after all vowels and letters "ь" and "ъ" like [jo] in "yawn" but shorter, e.g. ёж (hedgehog), даёт ((he) gives), бьёт ((he) beats), in other positions it marks the softness of the preceding consonant (except "ж" and "ш", e.g. шёлк (silk), жёлтый (yellow)) and is pronounced like stressed Russian "о", i.e. like English "o" in "corn" but shorter, e.g. мёд (honey), ковёр (carpet). Note that "ё" is always stressed in Russian.

8. ж - like "g" in "rouge", e.g. жёлтый (yellow), жить (to live) (both hard); "ж" is very seldom pronounced in soft form so in the previous examples letters "ё" and "и" did not soften it.

9. з - like "z" in "zest", e.g. звать (to call) (hard), зелёный (green) (soft)

10. и - like "ee" in "teen" but shorter, e.g. зима (winter), пить (to drink). Note that the consonant preceding "и" is always soft except for letters "ж", "ш" and "ц" which are always hard in Russian (in these cases letter "и" is pronounced identical to "ы"), e.g. жизнь (life), широкий (wide, masculine), цирк (circus).

11. й - when beginning a syllable (very seldom) like "y" in "yes" or like "j" in German "ja", e.g. йод (iodine), койот (coyote), when terminating a syllable - like "y" in "may" ("й" is pronounced like a semivowel in this case so it is called "и краткое" (и short)), e.g. мой (my), майка (T-shirt). Note that "й" can have only soft form since it is a palatal sound, i.e. it

is pronounced with the tongue touching the hard palate, so it is already palatalized and can't be pronounced without palatalization.

12. к - like "k" in "kick" but not aspirated, e.g. корова (cow), сок (juice) (both hard), кисть (paintbrush) (soft)

13. л - like "l" in "look", e.g. голубь (pigeon) (hard), лес (forest) (soft)

14. м - like "m" in "moon", e.g. мыть (to wash) (hard), место (place) (soft)

15. н - like "n" in "not", e.g. она (she) (hard), они (they) (soft)

16. о - like "o" in "port" but shorter, e.g. молоко (milk), дом (house)

17. п - like "p" in "pay" but not aspirated, e.g. папа (dad) (hard), пиво (beer) (soft)

18. р - no exact counterpart in English but it is like rolled "r" in "rock" in Scottish pronunciation, e.g. работать (to work) (hard), река (river) (soft)

19. с - like "s" in "say", e.g. совет (advice) (hard), семья (family) (soft)

20. т - like "t" in "time", e.g. тот (that, masculine) (hard), тень (shadow) (soft)

21. у - like "oo" in "moon" but shorter, e.g. стул (chair), луна (moon)

22. ф - like "f" in "fast", e.g. факел (torch) (hard), кофе (coffee) (soft)

23. х - no exact counterpart in English since English "h" is pronounced as a pharyngeal sound and Russian "х" is articulated by the back part of the tongue touching the soft palate, it is rather like German "ch" in "Buch", e.g. плохой (bad) (hard), хитрый (cunning, crafty) (soft)

24. ц - like "ts" in "cats" (but pronounced as one sound) or like "Z" in German "Zeit", e.g. отец (father), цыган (Gipsy) (both hard). Note that this consonant never appears in soft form in Russian unlike Ukrainian and Belorussian.

25. ч - like "ch" in "check", e.g. чай (tea), чёрный (black) (both soft). Note that this consonant never appears in hard form unlike Belorussian

26. ш - like "sh" in "shock" but not so soft, e.g. душа (soul), шум (noise) (both hard). Note letter "ш" never denotes soft consonant since there is another letter "щ" for this purpose

27. щ - this letter denotes long and soft "ш" like "sh" in "she" but a bit softer and longer, e.g. щука (pike), плащ (raincoat). Of course this letter can't appear in hard form like "ш" can't appear in soft form

28. ъ - this letter is not pronounced in Russian, it is usually a partitive sign between the prefix and the root, it can only appear between a consonant and letters "е", "ё", "ю", "я" which are then pronounced as at the beginning of the word or after a vowel, i.e. with consonant [j] preceding a vowel: [je], [jo], [ju], [ja] (in stressed position). Example: подъехать (to drive up), объявление (advertisement)

29. ы - no exact and even similar counterpart in English, this sound is very hard to describe, you should pronounce [i:] as in "mean" then lower the middle part of your tongue a bit and bring your lips to neutral position, then you will hear somewhat similar to Russian sound. But better listen to the examples: мыло (soap), дышать (to breathe), забыть (forget), крыса (rat)

30. ь - this letter like is not pronounced in Russian, like "ъ" it is a partitive sign between the parts of the word, also like "ъ" it can appear between a consonant and letters "е", "ё", "ю", "я" which are then pronounced with a consonant [j] preceding them, e.g. пьяный

(drunken), бьёт ((he) beats). But "ь" can also appear at the end of the word, e.g. моль (moth), конь (horse). In both cases the consonant preceding "ь" is pronounced soft (except for "ж", "ш" which never appear soft)

31. э - like "e" in "set", e.g. этот (this, masculine), мэр (mayor) (quite rare in Russian)

32. ю - at the beginning of the word, after all vowels and letters "ь" and "ъ" like [ju] in "mute" but shorter, e.g. юг (south), поют ((they) sing), шьют ((they) sew), in other positions it marks the softness of the preceding consonant and is pronounced like Russian "у", e.g. клюв (beak), нюхать (to smell).

33. я - at the beginning of the word, after all vowels and letters "ь" and "ъ" like [ja] in "yard" but shorter, e.g. ящик (box), маяк (beacon), пьяный (drunken), in other positions it marks the softness of the preceding consonant and is pronounced like Russian "а", e.g. понять (to understand), пять (five).

Additional features of Russian pronunciation

There are two additional features of Russian pronunciation which even a beginner should know of:

• vowels in non-stressed positions are reduced more or less depending on a particlular vowel: vowels [u], [ы] and [i] are not reduced very much (compare рука (hand,arm) - руки (hands, arms), дышать (to breathe) - дышит ((he) breathes), зима (winter) - зимний (wintry)); vowel [a] is reduced pretty much: in the syllable right before the stressed one it is pronounced like "u" in "cut" (1st level reduction), e.g. замок (lock), in all other syllables except the stressed one and the one right before stressed it is pronounced yet weaker (2nd level reduction), e.g. караван (caravan) (here we have two unstressed syllables); vowel [o] which is denoted by letter "о" is reduced very much in non-stressed syllables: in the syllable right before stressed it gets identical with the vowel [a] in its 1st level reduction, elsewhere with the vowel [a] in its 2nd level reduction, e.g. молоко (milk), дорогой (expensive, dear).

аканье (akanie), оканье (okanie), иканье (ikanie)So you see: whenever you meet letter "о" in non-stressed position you should pronounce it as if letter "а" were in its place (this process is called а канье (akanie) and is dated back to the 13th century, it influenced mostly territories to the west and south of Moscow, on the contrary to the north-east of Moscow we can still hear a lot of people pronouncing [o] non-reduced in non-stressed syllables, it is called о канье (okanie) ); vowel [e] (denoted by "е") and vowel [a] before soft consonants (denoted by "я") are in non-stressed syllables reduced to a vowel very similar to [i], e.g. дерево (tree), деревянный (wooden), девять (nine), девяносто (ninety) (this process is called и канье (ikanie) )

• noise consonants (in Russian they are denoted by the following letters: "б", "в", "г", "д", "ж", "з", "к", "п", "с", "т", "ф", "х", "ц", "ч", "ш", "щ") are assimilated in the presence of voice when coming in clusters, i.e. if there is a cluster of these consonants, consisting of at least two consonants, then all of them are pronounced voiced or unvoiced solely depending on the last consonant of the cluster being voiced or unvoiced respectively. This process is called regressive assimilation since the last consonant of the cluster influences all the previous ones; in English we can meet progressive assimilation, for example when

forming the plural of a noun you choose endings [s], [z] or [iz] depending on the quality of the preceding consonant (compare "books", "tables", "matches"), or in forming the Past Simple form of regular verbs you choose [t] or [d] ending for the same reason (compare "looked" and "saved") so that the first consonant of the cluster influences the following one.

Examples of regressive assimilation: в комнате [fkomnati] (in the room) ("в" is pronounced as unvoiced [f] in this consonant cluster since the last consonant of the cluster is unvoiced [k]), отдать [addat'] (to give back, perfective aspect) ("т" is pronounced as voiced [d] since the last consonant of the cluster is voiced [d]), лодка [lotka] (boat), с горы [zgarы] (from the mountain). Exception: voiced consonant [v] (denoted by "в") does not influence the previous consonants of the cluster though it gets influenced by the following noise consonants, compare свойство [svojstva] (feature, property) ([v] does not influence the previous consonants neither in the first ("св") nor in the second ("ств") cluster) and вши [f/sh/ы] (lice) ("в" does get influenced by the following "ш"). Another feature is that all noise consonants are devoiced at the end of the word (of course if there is no word immediately following it and beginning with the voiced noise consonant, you could see it in one of the previous examples: с горы), e.g. год [got] (year) ("д" gets devoiced), враг [vrak] (enemy) ("г" gets devoiced), мороз [maros] (frost) ("з" gets devoiced)

5 The Russian Spelling SystemThe Russian spelling system is far simpler than that of English. The system is basically this: one sound, one letter; one letter, one sound. There are a few disparities, but only a few. To give you an idea of just how few: they are all just below on this one page. Russian kids learn them by the end of first grade; if you are past this stage, you should pick them up with no difficulty. Right?

Hard and Soft Vowels.

Russian has a system of 'soft' or 'palatalized' consonants which parallels that of the regular consonants. (Soft consonants are pronounced as though you were pronouncing that consonant and a 'y' simultaneously.) Fourteen Russian consonants come in soft-hard pairs and, if the Russian alphabet assigned a distinct consonant for each, we would have to memorize fourteen additional consonant letters.

However, because they want their language to remain the simplest language in the world, the Russians decided to use the following vowel to indicate whether the preceding consonant is hard or soft. Since the Russian language has only 5 distinct vowel sounds, this system requires only 5 additional letters. This saves the Russian-language learner 9 letters to memorize! Here are the 10 vowel letters which indicate whether the preceding consonant is 'hard' or 'soft'. Remember, each vowel of the pair is pronounced identically, except for the ы and the и. The approximate pronunciation is given to the right.

Russian Vowels

Hard SoftSound(roughly)

а я 'Ah!'

э е 'Eh?'

ы и 'Eee!'

о ё 'Oh!'

у ю 'Ooo!'

The vowel letters in the left column occur only after 'hard' consonants; those in the right column appear only after 'soft' consonants.

You must remember that, after applying all the other rules of Russian, especially when adding noun, verb, and adjectives endings, you must be sure to convert any 'hard consonant' vowel to its 'soft' alternate, if the suffix begins with a vowel and is added to a stem ending on a consonant.

Also, if any word ends on a vowel from the right-hand column, then its stem ends on a soft consonant, so when changing the endings on such words, you must consistently use the vowels from the 'soft' column. The following table shows what I mean. [For best results in studying this table, focus on one word at a time and follow the change in each word. Begin with the forms in the left columns; they provide you with the basic vowel used after hard consonants. The right-hand column shows you the rule for converting the basic vowel to the vowel used after a soft consonant.]

Vowel Alternations after Soft Consonants

after hardconsonants Examples

after softconsonants Examples

C + а стол-а Cь + а > я

C + e стол-е Cь + е > е

C + ы стол-ы Cь + ы > и

C + о окн-о Cь + о > ё

C + у стол-у Cь + у > ю

"Cь" = any soft consonant in the table above. To compare the use of the 'soft' vowels after soft consonants (Cь) and the 'hard' vowels after hard consonants (C), examine the table below. Женя is the nickname for Евгений "Eugene" or Евгения "Eugenia" and жена means "wife". Table shows some of them in their various case forms.

Hard & Soft Consonants

Nominative жена Женя

Genitive жены Жени

Accusative жену Женю

Instrumental

женой Женей

The Combination of й+V (y+vowel) Russian orthography does not allow spellings with й (jod) plus a v owel, that is, й+а, й+э, й+ы, й+о, й+у. Instead, the "soft" vowels are also used to indicate these combinations, as the following table illustrates.

Jod + Vowel Combinations

стол-а 'of a table' 'of a genius'

стол-ы 'tables' (Pl) 'geniuses' (Pl)

стол-ом 'with a table' 'by the genius'

стол-у 'to a table' 'to the genius'

The soft sign (ь)

In their attempt to simplify their alphabet for us, the Russians developed a spelling system that leaves us another problem: how to indicate the softness of consonants at the end of words or before other consonants, i. e. when no vowel follows. If the consonant is hard--no problem: стол "table". However, if the consonant is soft, a soft sign (ь) must be added to distinguish the soft consonant from its corresponding hard variant, e.g. мать "mother", дверь "door", день "day"; только "only", судьба "fate", просьба "request".

The 7 Consonant Rule (not ы but и). Also remember that after к г х (velars) and ш ж щ ч (hushes) never write ы but always и, e.g. студенты "students" but студентки "coeds", лифтёры "elevator operators" but лифтёрши "women elevator operators".

The 5 Consonant Rule (о or е).

After ш ж щ ч ц (noisy consonants, don't confuse it with hushes that have not ц) write o if that syllable is accented and e if it is not, e.g. в большом хорошем доме "in a big nice house". (The light letters indicate accent placement.)

The Hush Rule (not ы я or ю but и а and у).

Finally, after ш ж щ ч (hashes) never write ы я or ю but always и а and у.

Upper or Lower Case?The use of capitalization in Russian is different from English. All proper names (including names of towns, rivers, seas, oceans, and continents) are capitalized in Russian the way they are in English, but if a common noun is part of the name, it is not capitalized. Examples: Атлантический океан, Финский залив, Миссисипи, полуостров Крым, город Нью-Йорк.

Names of nations and languages are not capitalized, e. g. англичанин, английский, русский.

Names of months and days of the week are not capitalized, e. g. среда, суббота, воскресенье.

In titles, only the first word is capitalized (but names are still capitalized, of course), e. g. Война и мир, Дети капитана Гранта, Том Сойер.

The first word in a sentence is always capitalized. The pronoun я is not capitalized unless it is the first word in the sentence. The pronoun вы is capitalized only in personal correspondence.

Suffixes (Суффиксы)The root defines the basic meaning of the word, e.g. the words научиться, учёный, учитель, ученик, учёба, самоучитель, and учебник all have to do with learning. The prefix may add a nuance to the basic meaning, e.g. научиться and выучиться signify that the process was completed. The ending shows how the word functions in the sentence, e. g. to answer the question О чём ты говорил? you'll say О газетее, but to answer the question Откуда ты это знаешь? you'll say Из газеты. The word remains the same, but the grammatical construction, and the endings are different, because the word учебник now serves a different function.

A suffix is the part of the word that is between the root and the ending. Like prefixes, they create words with the same basic idea, but somewhat different specific meanings.

The Suffix -тель

For example, the suffix -тель creates a word that means "the person or thing that carries out the action indicated by the root," like учитель, водитель, писатель, читатель, нагреватель, etc.

Like some of the prefixes, many suffixes present a spelling problem because they're rarely stressed, and so you cannot trust the vowel sound that you hear. For example, you may hear the sound -и- in the suffix of the word маленький, but the word is spelled with -e-. You can remember this suffix as one that creates adjectives with affectionate, diminutive overtones. The suffix -оньк- does the same, and may sound as if it has an -a- in it. These two suffixes are never spelled with -и- or -а-.

Here are a few common suffixes whose spelling you should remember:

-тель-: учитель, глушитель-еньк-: маленький, тётенька (there're no -инький words in Russian, and only three -иньк words, e.g. паинька)-оньк-: сухонький-онк-а: мальчонка, девчонка (always -о- after -ч ш ж щ-, i.e. noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)-ёнк-а: сестрёнка, шестерёнка (-ё- after a non-noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)-ечк-а-: Наташечка, мальчишечка-очк-а-: мамочка, дурочка-ак-: дурак, земляк, бедняк-щик-: барабанщик-ов-щик-: часовщик-чик-: лётчик, счётчик-ник-: колхозник, спутник-ик-: математик, винтик-ец-: ленинградец, немец-ан-ец-: американец-ин-: болгарин, татарин, трещина, морщина-ан-ин-: горожанин-тор-: новатор (words in -тар do exist, but they never mean "someone who does what the root signifies")-ость-: активность, гордость (there's no -асть- suffix in Russian)-от-а-: беднота, краснота

-ин-а-: ширина, глубина-а-ни-е-: внимание, собрание-е-ни-е-: чтение, удивление-ев/ов-: боевой, строевой, полевой, трудовой, годовой, беговой

The adjectival suffixes -анн-ый, -янн-ый, -онн-ый, -енн-ый, -инн-ый, are always spelled with two нн's.

Two verb suffixes deserve special attention. The suffixes in рисовал and списывал may sound similar but these verbs behave very differently when conjugated: compare рисую and списываю. If you are not sure about the spelling of a -ва- verb, you can tell the two types apart by conjugating them:

-ова- and -ева-: рисовать / рисую, танцевать / танцую (the suffix changes form -ва- to -уй- when conjugated)-ыва- and -ива-: списывать / списываю, достраивать / достраиваю (the suffix stays the same).

Слышать And Слушать

It is very useful to remember that there are many verbs with the suffixes -ай- and -а- and none at all with the suffix -o-. This will help you to spell, e.g. слышать (-a- verb) and слушать (-ай- verb, e. g. слушай, слушаю, слушает).

6 Useful Russian Words

Personal pronouns

я I мы we

ты you вы you

он, она, оно he, she, it они they

Possessive pronouns

мой my наш our

твой your ваш your

его, её, его his, her, its их their

Numbers

ноль zero

один one одиннадцать elevenдвадцать один

twenty one сто hundred

два two двенадцать twelve двадцать два twenty two двести two hundred

триthree

тринадцать thirteen двадцать триtwenty three

тристаthree hundred

четыре four четырнадцать fourteen тридцать thirty четыреста four hundred

пять five пятнадцать fifteen сорок forty пятьсот five hundred

шесть six шестнадцать sixteen пятьдесят fifty шестьсот six hundred

семьseven

семнадцатьseventeen

шестьдесят sixty семьсотseven hundred

восемь eightвосемнадцать

eighteen семьдесят seventy восемьсот eight hundred

девять nine девятнадцать nineteen восемьдесят eighty девятьсот nine hundred

десять ten двадцать twenty девяносто ninety тысяча Thousand

Days of the week

Russian week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday . Note that all the days are written with the small first letter in Russian..

понедельник Monday

вторник Tuesday

среда Wednesday

четверг Thursday

пятница Friday

суббота Saturday

воскресенье Sunday

Months

Note that all the months are written with the first small letter in Russian.

январь January

февраль February

март March

апрель April

май May

июнь June

июль July

август August

сентябрь September

октябрь October

ноябрь November

декабрь December

Colours

белый white

черный black

красный red

зелёный green

синий, голубой blue

жёлтый yellow

оранжевый orange

коричневый brown

фиолетовый violet

серый gray

7 PronounsPronouns are words that are used as substitutes for nouns. They do not name objects, their characteristics or quantity but only refer to them. There are nine types of pronouns in Russian.

Classes of Russian pronouns

Personal1st person я, мы I, we2nd person ты, вы you (sing), you (plural)3rd person он, она, оно, они he, she, it, they

Reflexive себя myself, oneself

Possessive мой, твой, наш, ваш, свой my, your (familiar), our, your (polite/plural), (reflexive) my etc.

Demonstrativeтот, та, то, те; этот, эта, это; эти; такой, такая, такое, такие; столько

that; this; these; such; so much/many

Interrogative кто, что, какой, чей, который, сколько, насколько

who, what, what/which, whose, which, how much/many, to what extent

Indefinite

некто, нечто, некоторый, несколько;кто-то, кто-нибудь; что-то, что-нибудь; какой-то; кое-кто

someone, something, some, some;somebody, something; some; someone

Relative кто, что, какой, который, чей, сколько, насколько

who, what, what/which, which, whose, how much/many, to what extent

Negative никто, ничто, некого, нечего, ничей, нисколько; никакой

nobody, nothing, there's nobody to, there's nothing to, nobody's, to no extent

Determinative сам, весь, всякий, каждый, иной, другой, любой

oneself, all, everybody, each/every, other/some, another, any

Personal PronounsHere we take a look at the personal pronouns. They are:

Я, ты, Он, она, оно,мы, вы, ониCase Singular Plural

Nominative я ты oн oнa oнo мы вы oни

Accusative меня тебя его её его нас вас их

Genitive меня тебя его её его нас вас их

Dative мне тебе ему eй ему нам вам им

Instrumental мной тобой им ей, ею им нами вами ими

Prepositional (обо) мне (о) тебе (о) нём (о) ней (о) нём (о) нас (о) вас (о) них

The personal pronouns do not change by number, they belong to either singular or plural number. я, ты, он, она, оно are always singular. мы, вы, они are always plural.

Finally, you have to remember to insert and н before all the third person pronouns when the occur after prepositions.

Without Prep With PrepЯ видел его. I saw him. Я иду от него. I'm leaving his place.Я видел её. I saw her. Я иду от неё. I'm leaving her place.Я видел их. 'I saw them. Я иду от них. I'm leaving their place.

The First Person

As you may know, the first person grammar term refers to someone who is the author of the narration. Therefore я, мы are the first person pronouns; they refer to the speaker.

Я стал медленно взбираться на холм (started to climb the hill slowly). Я refers to someone who is actually saying this sentence.

In addition, the pronoun мы refers to people who perform an action along with the speaker.

Мы все éли яблоки: и я, и Миша, и Толя, и Дима (We were all eating apples: I and Misha and Tolya and Dima). Мы refers to all people who were performing an action.

The Second Person

The second person describes someone who was addressed by the utterance. In other words, it is the person you are talking to. Therefore ты, вы are the second person pronouns; they refer to one ore more interlocutors.

Лéна, ты тáк хорошó поёшь (Lena, you sing so well). Ты substitutes for Lena, the person being addressed. Когдá ты пойдёшь в гóсти к дрýгу (When will you visit a friend?). Вы substitutes for the person addressed.

The Third Person

The third person pronouns он, она, оно, они refer to the person or thing being talked about. Он заинтересовáлся игрóй (He became interested in the game). Онá былá единственным ребёнком в семьé (She was the only child in the family ) Они встáли и поздорóвались (They stood up and greeted).

Possessive PronounsRussian Possessive pronouns change according to gender, number and case. These pronouns are adjectival since they occur in attributive position before the noun they modify and agree in case, number, and gender with the noun. Here they are. The pronoun has been given first.

possessorsingular plural

1 (я) 2 (ты) 3m (он) 3f (она� ) 1 (мы) 2 (вы) 3 (они� )

nom

моймоя�моёмои�

твойтвоя�твоётвои�

acc

inan animмой моего�мою�моёмои� мои� х

inan animтвой твоего�твою�твоётвои� твои� х

gen

моего�мое�ймоего�мои� х

твоего�твое�йтвоего�твои� х

dat

моему�мое�ймоему�мои� м

твоему�твое�йтвоему�твои� м

inst

мои� ммое�ймои� ммои� ми

твои� мтвое�йтвои� мтвои� ми

prep

моёммое�ймоёммои� х

твоёмтвое�йтвоёмтвои� х

его� её

нашна�шана�шена�ши

вашва�шава�шева�ши

inan animнаш на�шегона�шуна�шена�ши на�ших

inan animваш ва�шегова�шува�шева�ши ва�ших

на�шегона�шейна�шегона�ших

ва�шегова�шейва�шегова�ших

на�шемуна�шейна�шемуна�шим

ва�шемува�шейва�шемува�шим

на�шимна�шейна�шимна�шими

ва�шимва�шейва�шимва�шими

на�шемна�шейна�шемна�ших

ва�шемва�шейва�шемва�ших

их

Oh, by the way. . .the possessive reflexive pronoun свой, своё, своя; свои is declined the same as мой and твой. It is used when the referent of the possessive is identical with that of the subject, e.g. Я взял свою книгу "I took my (own) book".

Note that English possessive pronouns have two forms: my - mine, her - hers, your - yours. In Russian, there is only one form of possessive pronouns. For instance, both "my" and "mine" are always translated as мой.

Demonstrative PronounsWe are assuming at this point that you have mastered (more or less) the personal and possessive pronouns. The next type of pronoun you need to have under your belt before you can babble away incessantly in Russian are the Demonstrative Pronouns. Here comes everything anyone could ever want to know about them.

First you need to realize that, just as it turned out that you knew all the endings on the possessive pronouns, you already know all the endings on the demonstrative pronouns—they are the same as those of the possessive. That is, the demonstrative pronouns follow the pronominal principle that the nominative-accusative endings are the same as nouns of the same gender and all other endings are the same as the corresponding adjective endings.

The Nominal And Adjectival Demonstrative Pronouns

Take a look at это "this" and то "that" in Russian.

Declension

Masc. sg. Fem. sg. Neut. sg. Pluralnominative этот эта это эти те (pl. of то)

accusative этот, этого эту это эти, этих те, тех

genitive этого этой этого этих тех

dative этому этой этому этим тем

prepositional об этом об этой об этом об этих тех

instrumental этим этой, этою этим этими теми

The thing to notice is that except for the plural, это and то are declined identically. In fact, like all adjectives, the feminine declension had only one ending, -ой for all the singular cases other than nominative-accusative. You only have to look out for the plural: in the plural то uses a different vowel than the adjectives (and это), e rather than ыor и. Also notice that это uses the soft variant и in the plural even though it declines like a hard stem in the singular.

The demonstratives то and это may be used as nouns or adjectives. In Russian you may say either

1. Это — моя лягушка. That is my frog.2. Это — мой трактор. That is my tractor.3. Это — мои улитки. Those are my snails.

or (used as adjectives)4. Эта лягушка — моя That frog is mine.5. Этот трактор — мой That tractor is mine.6. Эти улитки — мои Those snails are mine.

These tables tell several interesting stories.

1. First, comparing (1-3 with (4-6), notice that in Russian there is no difference between the attributive forms like "my, your, his" and predicate forms like "mine, yours, his". There is only one set of possessive pronouns in Russian while English has one for attributive position and another for predicates.

2. Second, getting back to the demonstratives, when это and то are used as nouns in the subject of a sentence, they remain singular even if the predicate is plural (3). However, when the demonstratives are used as adjectives, they must agree with the noun they modify as in (4-6).

3. Finally, notice in (1-3) that while the default demonstrative in English is that, e.g. That is my book, in Russian the default demonstrative is этот, as in the Russian correlate Это — моя книга. So when you need to distinguish between "this" and "that", use the Russian demonstratives like the English ones. But if you just need a demonstrative and it doesn't matter which, in Russian say это.

The Adverbial Demonstratives

In addition to the noun and adjective demonstrative pronouns, there is a series of adverbial demonstratives meaning "that place (= there)", "that time (= then)", "that way (= thus)", "that kind of", etc. Here is the complete list (why they are called "T-K Pairs" here will become evident in the syntax review):

T-K Pronominal PairsDemonstrative Pronouns Interrogative Pronounsтот, то, та; те that, those кто?, что? who, whatтакой, такая, такиеthat kind of

какой?, какая?, какие?what kind of

так thus, so как? "how"там, туда, оттудаthere, thither, thence

где?, куда?, откуда?where, whither, whence

тогда then когда? whenстолько that many сколько? how manyпотому for that reason почему? why

The demonstrative adverbial pronouns are used pretty much the same as their English counterparts. The obvious exception to this is the retention of forms for "there", "thence", and "thither". These words were still in English when Shakespeare wrote, so you are probably familiar with them even though you don't use them yourself in speaking. There, like Russian там, indicated a place where an immobile object is located. Thither indicated a place to which some object moves while thence indicates a place from which some object (uh, like a person) moves. Obviously these two are used with spoken or implied verbs of motion, e.g. Ты куда? "Where are you off to?" or Куда ты идёшь? "Where are you going?" Or, in the other direction, Ты откуда? "Where did you come from?" as opposed to Где ты? "Where are you (currently)?"

The demonstrative adjectives are like no English pronoun; they are used to elicit a quality expressed in an adjective. For example, if you ask, Какая женщина — она? "What kind of woman is she?" you expect an adjective as an example, e.g. Она — умна/хорошая/задумчива "She is smart/good/contemplative." The remainder of the demonstrative pronouns are pretty much like their counterparts in English. Before we check our mastery of these concepts, there are a couple of tricks you can do with demonstratives that might come in handy.

Some Tricks Demonstratives Do For You

True to their name, demonstrative pronouns exhibit a pronounced presence in the Russian language. They serve a lot of functions other than demonstrating. Two very common places you find them is in the expressions for "the same" and "the wrong". Here's how they work.

Saying "the Same" In Russian.

To say "the same N" in Russian, you need only add the particle же after the appropriate form of the demonstrative pronoun. For example, if someone snooty says that s/he saw the latest French film, Я видел(а), ты знаешь, тот французский фильм "I saw, you know, that French film", to put them in their place retort: Я видел(а) тот же фильм "I saw the same film"—you just add же to the тот. If some tells you that they've been to Monte Carlo, all you have to say is Я был(а) там же: "I've been to the same place". Neat, huh? And, as usual, simplissimo!

Saying "Wrong" In Russian.

To say "the wrong N" in Russian, you need only add the particle не before the appropriate form of the demonstrative pronoun. For example, if that same snoot who went to Monte Carlo buys a new book for a course, you can get her goat by saying, A ты взяла не ту книгу, "You got the wrong book". Or let's say you see some guy who's been bugging you coming out of the mens' room and there is a womens' room next door, just say, Ты пошёл не туда "You went to the wrong place" and test his self-confidence.

Now that we have the basic principles of the demonstrative pronouns, here is an achievement recognition opportunity to appease our egos.

The Interrogative PronounsIn Russian, just like in English, the interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. The interrogative pronouns are:

Interrogative Pronounsкто, что who, whatчей, чья, чьё, чьи whoseкакой, какая, какие which / what kind ofкоторый what/whichкак howгде, куда, откуда where, where to, from whereкогда whenсколько, насколько how much/many, to what extentпочему why

All the languages of the world have exactly two types of questions and that includes Russian. The first type is called a 'yes-no' question. 'Yes-no' questions beg the answer "yes" or "no" and do not require an interrogative pronoun. In English, for example, if I ask you, Did you do your homework? I expect a crisp, clear answer of either yes or no, not, Uh, well, you know, uh, like, my mother doesn't, like, like me answering questions like, like, that. Sometimes I'm disappointed but my intent in asking a 'yes-no' question is clear.

In other situations, however, we need to know who did what to whom if not even when and where and how and why. The boldface words in the previous sentence are the English interrogative pronouns

Let's Look At Several Examples

Кто пришёл? Who has come?Кто они? Who are they?Что это? What is this?Чья это кепка? Whose cap is this?Чей эта кепка? Whose is that cap?Куда идёт Иван? Where is Ivan going? Откуда вы? Where are you from? Когда Павел ездит к родителям? When is Pavel going to (his) parents? Где их родители жили раньше? Where did their parents live before? В каком доме они жили раньше? In what kind of house did they live before?Сколько вам лет? How old are you? (formal)Как вас зовут? How do they call you?С кем ты обедаешь? With whom are you lunching?

In this lesson you will learn about the usage and meaning of Interrogative Pronouns. We will first study the pronouns какой, который, чей and their forms. Then we will take a look at the pronouns кто, что, сколько, followed by который and чей.

Какой, Который, Чей

The interrogative pronouns какой (what kind of), который (which), чей (whose) change by gender, number and case like adjectives. Besides, you should distinguish between animate and inanimate forms when using the accusative case. This is demonstrated in the tables below.

Change by gender and number

masculine feminine neuter plural (any gender)

какой какая какое какие

который которая которое которые

чей чья чьё чьи

Change by cases

Case "какой" "который" "чей"

Nominative какой который чей

Genitive какого которого чьего

Dative какому которому чьему

Accusative какой, какого который, которого чей, чьего

Instrumental каким которым чьим

Prepositional о каком о котором о чьём

Кто, Что, Сколько

The interrogative pronouns кто (who), что (what), сколько (how many/much) change only by cases.

Case "кто" "что" "сколько"

Nominative кто что сколько

Genitive кого чего скольких

Dative кому чему скольким

Accusative кого что сколько

Instrumental кем чем сколькими

Prepositional о ком о чём о скольких

"Who" Questions

To form a "who" question use a past, present or future tense singular masculine verb after кто. Note that only the tense of the verb can change in "who" questions. For example:

Question 1 -- past tense, masculime, singularКто смеялся? (Who was smiling?)Possible answersСмеялась девочка. Смеялся мальчик. Смеялись дети.(A girl was smiling. A boy was smiling. Children were smiling.)Question 2 -- present tense, masculime, singularКто смеётся? (Who is smiling?)Possible answersСмеётся девочка. Смеётся мальчик. Смеются дети.

(A girl is smiling. A boy is smiling. Children are smiling.)

"What" Questions

Use the interrogative pronoun что followed by a neuter singular verb in the form of the past, present or future tense. Let's say we want to ask about a recent event.

Question (neuter, singular, past tense) Что произошло? What happened?

Какой

The interrogative pronoun какой (what kind) is used in exclamatory sentences:

Какой сегодня жаркий день! (What a hot day it is today!)This pronoun is also used to ask about features and quality:

Какая завтра погода? (What weather is going to be tomorrow?)Какие книги вы приобрели? (What kind of books did you buy?)

Который

The interrogative pronoun который (what/which) is used to aks about something in a sequence of similar objects. For example, here are the ways to ask about time.

Который час? What time is it? В котором часу? At what time?

Чей, Чья, Чьё, Чьи

The pronouns чей, чья, чьё, чьи are used to aks about the owner of an object.

Чья это кепка? (Whose cap is this?)Чей зонтик? (Whose umbrella is this?)

Сколько

This pronoun is used to ask about the number of things or people.Сколько жителей в этом городе? (How many residents is there in this city?)Сколько книг вы прочитали? (How many books did you read?)

Conclusion

In other situations, however, we need to know who did what to whom if not even when and where and how and why. The boldface words in the previous sentence are the English interrogative pronouns; their Russian counterparts are listed on the right-hand side of the following table, taken from the demonstrative pronoun page.

T-K Pronominal PairsDemonstrative Pronouns Interrogative Pronounsтот, то, та; те that, those кто, что who, what(Possessional Pronouns) чей, чья, чьё, чьи whoseтакой, такая, такиеthat kind of

какой, какая, какиеwhich, what kind of

так thus, so как howтам, туда, оттудаthere, to there, from there

где, куда, откудаwhere, where to, from where

тогда then когда whenстолько that much/many сколько how much/manyпотому for that reason почему why

Notice that this table has a new member, чей "whose", that has no demonstrative correlate. That is because the answer to this interrogative pronoun must always be a personal pronoun: мой, твой, его, её, наш, ваш, их.

Here are some sentences illustrating how they are used in actual questions.

Кто открыл дверь? | Who opened the door?Что открыло дверь? | What opened the door?

Чья это лягушка? | Whose frog is that?

Какая она женщина? | What kind of woman is she?

Как сказать по-русски [like]? | How do you say 'like' in Russian?

Где ты нашла его? | Where did you find him?Куда он девался? | Where did he get to?Откуда ты взяла его? | Where did you get him from?

Когда он родился? | When was he born?

Сколько ты хочешь за машину? | How much do you want for your car?

Почему ты хочешь её настолько? | Why do you want it so much?

Remember that the nominal (кто, что and the adjectival pronouns (какой, чей) are sensitive to case just like lexical nouns and adjectives. The following examples illustrate this.

На чём сидит твоя лягушка? What is your frog sitting on?Кому ты дал свою лягушку? To whom did you give your frog?Каким ножом он кушает? Which knife does he eat with?С чьей индейкой он идёт? Whose turkey is he going with?

Reflexive Pronouns

The Russian Personal Reflexive Pronoun

Most languages have a special pronoun which is used exclusively in predicates to replace a pronoun that would refer to the same object as the subject refers to. In English these pronouns usually contain self, e.g. I love myself, she loves herself, they love themselves.

Unfortunately, in English these pronouns have the same form as the nominal emphatic pronouns which simply emphasize some noun the the clause, e.g. I did it myself. In this sentence myself merely emphasizes the fact the I did it and not someone else. This function is expressed a different way in Russian.

The genuine reflexive is expressed in Russian by себя.

Russian Personal Reflexive PronounCase Example Gloss

Genitive Он сейчас у себя в комнате. He is in his room right now.Accusative Он видел себя в зеркало. He saw himself in the mirror.Dative Она купила себе подарок. She bought herself a present.Prepositional Они думают только о себе. They think only about themselves.Instrumental Она довольна собой. She is satisfied with herself.

The Russian Possessive Reflexive Pronoun

In addition to the personal reflexive pronoun, there is also a possessive version in Russian: свой, своя, свое, свои. Again, this pronoun is used to refer to a possessor identical with the subject of a sentence. English has no correlate of the possessive reflexive pronoun; in English the regular possessive pronoun is used regardless of whether the reference is identical with the subject. Again, since it is reflexive in this sense, it cannot be used in the subject but only in the predicate of a clause.

The Russian Possessive Reflexive PronounCase Example Gloss

Genitive Он сейчас живёт у своего брата. He lives with his brother right now.

Accusative Он видел свою сестру в зеркало. He saw his in the mirror.Dative Она купила своему брату подарок. She bought her brother a present.Prepositional Они думают только о своей подруге. They think only about their friend.Instrumental Она довольна своими студентами. She is satisfied with her students.

The possessive reflexive pronoun свой, своё, своя; свои is declined the same as мой and твой.

The Russian Reciprocal Pronoun

Finally, Russian contains a set of reciprocal pronouns corresponding to English each other: друг друга. There are only a couple of things you need to remember about this pair. First, only the second one declines and it follows the noun declension of masculine nouns. Second, when used with a preposition, the preposition stands between them, e.g. Они всё мечтают друг о друге "They are always dreaming about each other". If you keep these two quirks in mind, your reciprocals will always properly reciprocate.

The Russian Reciprocal PronounCase Example Gloss

Genitive Они бегут друг от друга. They run away from each other.

Accusative Они видели друг друга в зеркало. They saw each other in the mirror.

Dative Они купили друг другу подарки. They bought each other presents.Prepositional Они думают только друг о друге. They think only about each other.Instrumental Она довольна своими студентами. She is satisfied with her students.

Notice that the quantity negative pronoun, несколько, has a different meaning, "several, a few", which is much more prevalent than its quatificational meaning.

8 Verbs

IntroductionThe Russian verbal system differs from that of other European languages in one important way: it is built primarily on the distinction of Aspect rather than Tense.

Tenses

Russian verbs have only three Tenses: Past, Present and Future. However this is complicated by existence of the category of Aspect.

Aspects

There are two main types of verbs called Aspects: Imperfective and Perfective. When you are talking in the present tense there is only one, the Imperfective . You only need to think about aspects when you are speaking in the Past or Future tense. It usually causes difficulties for English speakers as verb aspect in English is completely different from that in Russian.

Aspects are used to indicate if an action was completed successfully or is ongoing. To do this in English we use extra verbs like “had” and “have”. For example, in the phrase “I ate.”, the action is completed. However, in a phrase like “I have been eating”, it is implied that action is not yet completed. Aspects are used to illustrate this difference, however their use in Russian is much more defined.

Conjugations

There are only two types of Russian verb Conjugations. It's the way a verb changes to agree with the person. it's referring to -- in English we say "I am" but "you are." The difference in the verb form is its conjugation. The conjugation patterns sometimes have different names, but we'll simply call them Conjugation I and Conjugation II. Another way which might be good is the "-Ё-" Conjugation and the "-И-" Conjugation, respectively.

Motion Verbs

In addition to being either of these, motion verbs are also broken down into two groups: Determinate and Indeterminate. The reason why this is complicated for English speakers is that we think of the verbs purely in terms of tense (or the time frame of the verb itself). For example, we have the present progressive -- "; I am writing a letter", "I write a letter" the simple past -- "; I wrote a letter" and the past progressive "I was writing a letter...". Russian doesn't have these tenses; it is more concerned with whether the action is completed or not.

AspectAs mention, Russian verbs have two Aspects: Imperfective Aspect (HCB - несовершенный вид) and Perfective Aspect (CB - совершенный вид). Aspect is the verbal category which refers to the view of the speaker toward the action he/she is describing. In most instances, a Russian speaker has a choice of two verbs to describe the same action but from a different view, or focus. So, aspect is a system of verb pairs. For example, the English verb "to look" has the corresponding Russian verb pair смотреть - посмотреть.

Verbs that are Imperfective focus on the process of an action, while Perfective verbs focus on the result of the action. Perfective verbs answer the question "что сделать?" (спеть, пригнуть, разбить), while Imperfective verbs answer the question "что делать?" (играть, рисовать, читать).

Imperfective - Incomplete, ongoing, or repeated actions

Perfective - Actions completed successfully.

Using an Imperfective aspect verb you can form the present tense, the past tense and the future tense. Using a Perfective aspect verb you can only form the past tense and the future tense. The following chart summarises the characteristics and uses of the Perfective and the Imperfective aspect:

Imperfective Aspect Perfective AspectAction as process Action as completionRepeated or habitual actions Single or momentary actionsSimultaneous actions Consecutive actionsActions which do not terminate in a result Actions which emphasise completion

It is possible for perfective and imperfective verbs to have equal vocabulary meaning, as the following verbs do: сажать (impf.) - посадить (pf.); удваивать - удвоить; достигать - достигнуть. But it is more common for them to have some shades of meaning, for example: читать (impf.) - прочитать (pf.) - вычитать (pf.); шить - расшить; строгать - обстрогать.

Forming Russian Aspect

Perfective verbs are formed from imperfective verbs with the help of:

• prefixes (бежать - прибежать, петь - спеть) • suffixes (прыгать - прыгнуть, стирать - стереть) • accent (отрезать - отрезать) • stem change (ловить - поймать, класть - положить, искать - найти)

On the other hand, imperfective verbs are formed from perfective verbs with the help of such suffixes as -ыва, -ива, -а, -ва (пересчитать - пересчитывать, раскачать - раскачивать, расстелить - расстелать, подлить - подливать).

Usage of Russian Verbs

Past

TENSE AND ASPECT USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

PAST TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE

ASPECT

Used to designate an action that began and ended at a particular time in the past; the

result is not important for the speaker

Вчера вечером он читал книгу.

Used for an action that occurred over period of time but was completed in the past; the

action, not duration, is emphasized

Он плавал в бассейне весь день.

Used for an activity that took place regularly in the past

Во время каникул мы ходили в кино каждое

утро.

Used for actions occurred over period of time simultaneously but were completed in the

past

Когда я читал книгу, брат смотрел телевизор.

Used when the result of an action is nullified, i.e. an opposite action occurred

В комнате холодно, потому что я открывал окно. (i.e.открыл и закрыл)

Used for an action that occurred over period of time but was completed in the past. The

duration is emphasized

Он строил дом целый месяц.

TENSE AND ASPECT USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

PAST TENSE, PERFECTIVE

ASPECT

Used to emphasize the result of an action that began and ended at a particular time in

the past

Вчера вечером я прочитал книгу от начала до конца.

Used for a past action that had a result before another past action that also had a

result

Когда мы пришли в класс, учитель уже ушёл домой.

Мы успели сыграть партию в шахматы до того,

как пришёл Андрей.

Used when the result of an action remainsОн надел новую рубашку. (i.e. он надел и сейчас она

надета)

Used to designate an action that began and ended at a particular time in the past; the

time during which the result was achieved is emphasized

Он построил дом за месяц.

Present

TENSE AND ASPECT USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

PRESENT TENSE,

IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT

Used for a present state of affairs Андрей живёт в Москве.

Used for a general fact

Волга впадает в Каспийское море.

Солнце встаёт на востоке.

Used for habitual actions Каждое утро он читает газеты.

Used for future timetables and arrangements

Поезд отходит в 12:00.

Решено. Мы идём в кино.

Used for a specific action that is occurring На улице идёт сильный дождь.

Used for an activity that takes place over period of time specified

Они играют в теннис уже 2 часа.

Future

TENSE AND ASPECT USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

FUTURE TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE

ASPECT

Used for an action that will be ongoing or repeating at a particular time in the future,

but it is not known whether will be finished of not

Завтра утром я буду играть в теннис.

Вечером она будет готовить ужин.

FUTURE TENSE, PERFECTIVE

ASPECT

Used for an action that will be finished at a particular time in the future

Скоро он узнает хорошие новости.

Вечером она приготовит ужин.

The General Nature of the Russian Verb The Russian verb is always composed of two parts: (1) a stem and (2) a conjugational ending. Two basic types of stems and two types of endings determine the present-future form. Neither stems nor endings occur alone, but always in conjunction with one another.

StemIn linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants. The two major types of verb stems are Consonant Stems and Vowel Stems.

• Consonant Stems are those verb stems which end on a consonant. There are two significant types: 'wimpy' consonant stems and 'tough' consonant stems. (You'll see in the next section why they are wimpy or tough; for the time being, just remember them.)

Wimpy consonant stems end on в, н, м or й.

жив- "live"стан- "become, begin"плыв- "swim, float, sail"делай- "do, make"

Tough consonant stems may end on any other consonant.

ид- "go"мог- "can, may"нёс- "carry (on foot)"грёб- "row"

• Vowel stems are those verb stems which end on a vowel. There are two significant types of these: front-vowel * and back-vowel ** stems.

Front-vowel stems end on either и or е.

смотре- "watch, look"виде- "see"говори- "talk, tell"купи- "buy"

Back-vowel stems end on а, у, or о.

жда- "wait-for"писа- "write"верну- "return"коло- "stick, impale"

*A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

** A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

Stem Exceptions

Because the Russian language is so easy, it runs the risk of becoming boring to learn. For that reason, the Russians have spiced their language with a few interesting exceptions. Clever as they are, however, the Russian exceptions are based on a rule that you will do well to remember.

Most Russian exceptional verbs have two stems, a present-future stem and a past stem. The present-future stem underlies the present-future tense, the imperative (except for the ава-verbs), and the present participles. The past stem underlies the past tense, the infinitive, and the past participles. The exceptionality of these verbs is that some letter or group of letters is present in one of these stems but not in the other.

дад- (дасть) ед- (есть)'give' 'eat'

я дам мы дадим я ем мы едимты дашь вы дадите ты ешь вы едитеон(а/о) даст они дадут он(а/о) ест они едят

Past Tense дал, дала, дало; дали ел, ела, ело; ели

буд- (быть) йд- (идти) ед- (ехать)'be' 'go, walk, move' 'ride'

я буду мы будем я иду мы идём я еду мы едемты будешь вы будете ты идёшь вы идёте ты едешь вы едетеон(а) будет они будут он(а) идёт они идут он(а) едет они едут

Past Tense был, была, было; были шёл, шла, шло; шли ехал, ехала, ехало; ехали

хоте- (хотеть) бежа- (бежать) возьм- (взять)'want' 'run, move' 'take'

я хочу мы хотим я бегу мы бежим я возьму мы возьмёмты хочешь вы хотите ты бежишь вы бежите ты возьмёшь вы возьмётеон(а) хочет они хотят он(а) бежит они бегут он(а) возьмёт они возьмут

Past Tense хотел, хотела, хотело; хотели бежал, бежала, бежало; бежали взял, взяла, взяло; взяли

What Are Conjugations?A verbal conjugation comprises the set of endings added to any verb in a language to distinguish the grammatical categories of Person, Number, and Gender. In Russian, Gender is indicated only by the Past Tense conjugations. In the Present Tense, however, each verb must bear one of six verbal endings indicating whether the subject of the verb is singular or plural, and whether it is the speaker (1st Person), the listener (2nd Person) or some object not participating in the conversation.

The English language has lost all but one of its Present Tense conjugation endings, the -s of 3rd Person Singular:

Singular Plural1st Person I work we work2nd Person you work yall work3rd Person he work-s they work

Russian, however, like most other European languages, maintains a separate suffix for each of these forms.

Singular Plural1st Person я работа-ю мы работа-ем2nd Person ты работа-ешь вы работа-ете3rd Person он работа-ет они работа-ют

The set of suffixes for a given stem is referred to as that stem's 'conjugation'. Russian has two such sets, Conjugation I (First conjugation) and Conjugation II (Second conjugation).

Present- Future and The ConjugationsThere are two sets of endings used on Russian verbs to mark the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs: those of the First or E-conjugation and those of the Second or И-Conjugation. The endings of the two conjugations are almost identical except for the initial vowel of all the endings. In the First Conjugation that vowel is e except in the 1st person singular and 3rd person plural, where they have у or ю. In the Second Conjugation the vowel is и everywhere except also 1st person singular and 3rd person plural where they contain у, ю, a or я.

The First (E) Conjugation

The First (E) ConjugationThe Present-Future Endings

First Person Singular (я) -у/-ю First Person Plural (мы) -ём Second Person Singular (ты) -ёшь Second Person Plural (вы) -ёте Third Person Singular (он она оно) -ёт Third Person Plural (они) -ут/-ют

First (Е) Conjugation Endings are added to (the accent is underlined):

(1) consonant stems like (н, в, д, с, г )

стан- : стану "I will become"жив- : живу "I live"идти- : идёшь "you're going"нёсти : несёт "(s)he's carrying"мог- : могут "they can"

(2) back-vowel stems (у, о, а*), unless the vowel is -а preceded by ш ж ч or щ

ждать : ждёшь "you're waiting" but слышать : слышишь"you're hearing"

писать : пишет "(s)he's writing" but стучать : стучит"(s)he's knocking"

вернуть : вернём "we will return" but держать : держим"we keep, hold"

The Second (И) Conjugation

The Second (И) ConjugationThe Present-Future Endings

First Person Singular (я) -у/-ю First Person Plural (мы) -им Second Person Singular (ты) -ишь Second Person Plural (вы) -ите Third Person Singular (он она оно) -ит Third Person Plural (они) -ат/-ят

Second (И) Conjugation Endings are added to (the accent is underlined):

(1) front-vowel stems (и, е)купи-ть "buy"(он купит)смотре-ть "look" (он смотрит) ходи-ть "go"

(2) stems on -a preceded by ш ж ч or щдержа-ть "hold, keep"слыша-ть "hear"(ты слышишь)стуча-ть "knock"

When using the Second (И) Conjunction, sometimes the last letter of the stem (infinitive without "ить") for the first person singular (Я) changes. Change this letter according to the following table (Remember, this only applies to the 1st Person Singular (Я)) :

д becomes ж ходить (to walk) : Я хожу

з becomes ж

c becomes ш писать (to write) : я пишу

ct becomes щ

т becomes ч {хотеть (to want) : я хочу пить (1st (Е)/2nd (И) Conjugation)}

б, в, м, п, ф add the letter л любить (to love): я люблу

Reminder. The Spelling Rule 1, "Never write Ы, Ю, or Я after the letters 'Г, К, Ж, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ' instead use И, У, А".

The Past Tense Endings The Past Tense of a verb indicates that the action indicated by the verb occurred in the past. The Past Tense ending for both conjugations is -л + gender marker, -o for neuter, -a for feminine, nothing for masculine, in the singular and -и in the plural. The past tense of сказа- "say, tell" is сказа-л-, as shown below.

(он) сказал "he/it said" (она) сказала "she/it said" (оно) сказало "it said" (они) сказали "they said"

The stem does not change if the past tense ending is added to a vowel stem; however, this ending doesn't like consonants and usually makes some adjustments to consonant stems which we will examine further along.

The Rules of Stem-Ending CombinationThe simplicity of the Russian language has been mentioned before in this grammar. Unfortunately, Russians cannot control every aspect of their grammar and one aspect of verb formation causes a few problems. While vowels and consonants get along quite well in Russian, vowels don't like other vowels and most consonants don't get along with each other.

This means that when endings are added to stems, so long as the stem ends in a vowel and the ending begins with a consonant, or vice versa, the process of building a verb from stems and endings is a simple matter. When you add an ending beginning with a vowel to a stem ending on one, however, one of them has to go--and it is usually the one on the stem.

Consonants are different, however; they are stronger than vowels and all but four of them put up a fight. The weaklings are й в н м; like vowels they simply vanish from the stem in the presence of a vowel on any ending. The remainder manage some sort of resistance, and sometimes they pay the price and sometime the invader on the ending pays. This page will give you the specific rules for adjusting the vowels and consonants when combining endings and stems.

The General Rule Of Combination

The basic rules for combining endings with stems of all forms in both conjugations are simply these:

(1) When an ending beginning with a vowel is attached to any stem ending on a vowel, the stem vowel is removed. This rule of combination will be coded red in the following examples. The Basic Spelling Rules are coded yellow. (You can control the motion of the verb forms on some browsers by pressing the button in the scroll bar on the right of the screen.)

"s/he/it returns" "I look, watch"

(2) When an ending beginning with a consonant is added to a stem with a wimpy consonant (в й м н), the stem consonant is removed.

"lived" "to become, begin"

(3) When an ending beginning with an tough consonant (all others beside the wimpy ones fingered above), either the stem consonant or the ending consonant may be dumped, or the stem consonant may be significantly altered. The rules of combat are laid out in the concomitant rules to follow.

Concomitant Rules

Concomitant Changes In The Present-Future Tense And Imperative:

1. (ва) is dropped before the present-future endings (but not in the imperative where there is no ending for these verbs):

давать give : (в)ставать get up (у)знавать find outдаю даём встаю встаём узнаю узнаёмдаёшь даёте встаёшь встаёте узнаёшь узнаётедаёт дают встаёт встают узнаёт узнают

but давай! Give! but вставай! Get up!

but узнавай! Find out!

2. (ов)/(ев) are replaced by уй and юй, respectively, before the present-future ending.

паковать "pack" пакуешь пакует горевать "worry" горюешь горюет

3. (e) is dropped in consonant stems, but retained in stems ending on -a in the present-future tense.

зап(е)р- запру "I will lock" выб(е)ра- выберу "I will (s)elect"

4. In the Imperative, е replaces ь in the non-syllabic stems like пьй- : пей! "drink!", бьй- : бей! "beat!"

Concomitant Changes In The Past Tense And Infinitive:

1. д and т are removed before -л: and so on: вела, вело, вели "led, took".2. After all other fixed consonants, -л is dropped if no vowel follows it (in cases of

the zero masculine gender marker). but мог-ла мог-ло мог-ли "could" but вез-ла вез-ло вез-ли "hauled"

3. Before a й which is removed from a monosyllabic or asyllabic stem:

replace о with ы мой-ть > мыть "to wash"replace е with и брей- > брить "to shave"replace ь with и пьй- > пить "to drink"

EXCEPTION: пой- : петь, пел, пела, пели "sang"

4. In non-syllabic roots (stems without any affixes), н and м are replaced by а before consonant endings.

начн-у, начн-ёшь, начн-ёт but "to begin" жм-у, жм-ёшь, жм-ёт but "to squeeze"

Concomitant Changes Of Fleeting Vowels:

Fleeting vowels realize themselves in Russian prefixes before non-syllabic verb stems or in verbs stems which themselves have fleeting vowels when the fleeting vowel is not present.

с(о)йд-: сойти but сойду, etc. "come down"с(о)б(е)ра-: собрать but сберу, etc. "gather"от(о)з(о)ва-: отозвать but отзову, etc. "call away"

Fleeting vowels in verb stems which end on the vowel a are realized in the present-future forms and not in the infinitive and past tense. For consonant stems on p, the rule is reversed: the vowel is pronounced in the past tense and infinitive but not in the present future. The following table illustrates.

Infinitive Past Tense Present-Future Tense

выб(е)ра-ть > выбрать выб(е)ра-у > выберу

выз(о)ва-ть > вызвать выз(о)ва-у > вызову

ум(е)р-ть > умереть ум(е)р-у > умру

зап(е)р-ть > запереть зап(е)р-у > запру

This completes the basic system of the Russian verb. Ready to show off your mastery? Here are a few exercises to see how well you are doing.

Infinitive Every changeable Russian word has the initial form. For example, the nominative singular form is initial for nouns (студент). The infinitive is the initial form of verbs.

The infinitive is a specific verb form that answers such questions as "что делать?" (читать, писать) and "что сделать?" (прочитать, написать). The infinitive only designates an action or condition but does not show tense, person or number. Therefore all dictionaries give Russian verbs in the infinitive form.

Note: The infinitive is an unchangeable verb form.

The Infinitive Endings

The infinitive form of most of Russian verbs ends in -ть or -ти. These endings are called suffixes of the infinitive (строить, вести). Some infinitive forms end in -чь that is not a suffix but a part of the root (беречь, жечь). The part of a word without the suffix -ть or -ти comprises the stem (веселить, плести).

The Infinitive corresponds to verb phrases beginning with to in English, e. g. I want to read (Russian: я хочу читать). Whenever an auxiliary is used in Russian, the main verb must be an infinitive whether it is in English or not, e. g. I must read versus Russian я должна читать.

Forming the infinitiveHere are the rules for forming the Russian infinitive:

-чь is used after fixed consonant stems on к or г. The consonant of the stem is then dropped.

мог-чь (мог-у “I can”) becomes мочь "can, may"пек-чь (пек-у “I bake”) becomes печь "to bake"

-ти is used after fixed-consonant stems which are end-accented. As you can see, т, д, з, п, б are regularly replaced by c before the -ть or -ти of the infinitive.

вёд-ти becomes вести "to lead, accompany"вёз-ти becomes везти "to haul, carry (by vehicle)"греб-ти becomes грести "to row"

-еть is then added to the consonant stems on “р” and the “e” of the stem is realized, as in

ум(е)р- : умереть "to die".

Elsewhere the infinitive ending is -ть: сказ-а- : сказать. Like the past tense ending -л, this ending, too, does not like consonants (too much like itself) and so changes them to suit its liking.

Uses of Infinitive● to construct compound future tense

Мы будем работать.

● with present tense verbs which designate the beginning, continuation or ending of an action

Мы начали разговаривать.Он продолжал работать.Она кончила читать.

● with the words должен, рад, готов, обязан, намерен

Мы готовы встрeтить гостeй.

● with adverbs and adjectives

Вам нужно приехать.Им некуда приехать.

● with such verbs of motion as идти, ходить, ездить, лететь, поехать

Мы поехали кататься на лыжах.

Note: The infinitive is never used with the verb знать.

Test Yourself

a. At what proverb the infinitive form of a verb is used?

1. Со счастьем хорошо и по грибы ходить.

2. У кого много дел вперёд, тот назад не оглядывается.

b. What of the following is characteristic of the infinitive?

1. shows tense

2. shows aspect

3. designates action

4. none of the above

c. Indicate what sentence uses the infinitive in combination with a verb of motion.

1. Комар летит трубить свою победу по лесам.

2. Спешить – дело губить.

3. Жизнь прожить – не поле перейти.

Answers: a.1, b.3, c.1 ("дело", "жизнь", "поле" are nouns)

Indicative Mood All forms of the Russian verb, except the infinitive, change in number. There are singular and plural verb forms. To illustrate this, let's look at past, present and future tense forms of the indicative verb "ходить" (to go).

Change of the verb in person and number

Singular Plural

Past tense ходил ходили

Present tense хожу ходим

Future simple tense пройду пройдём

Future compound tense буду ходить будем ходить

The concept of the indicative mood was mentioned above. The indicative mood (изъявительное наклонение) is used to talk about actions which occurred in past, occur presently, and will occur in future. For example,

Школьник учит уроки. The schoolboy is learning his lessons. Школьник учил уроки. The schoolboy was learning his lessons. Школьник будет учить уроки. The schoolboy will be learning his lessons.

Russian verbs also change in person. The grammatical term "person" refers to those who take part in speech eiher directly or indirectly.

The first person verbs designate that the action is being perfomed by a speaker, as in

В свободное время я читаю книги, общаюсь с друзьями, слушаю музыку, или просто лежу на диване.

Here the verbs читаю ([I] read), общаюсь ([I] converse), слушаю ([I] listen), and лежу ([I] lie) mean that the person who is speaking performs the actions.

The second person verbs designate that the action is being performed by a collocutor.

Ты, волна моя, волна!Ты пуглива и вольна;Плещешь ты, куда захочешь,Ты морские камни точишь,Топишь берег ты земли,Подымаешь корабли --Не губи ты нашу душу:Выплесни ты нас на сушу!

In this excerpt from a poem by Pushkin, the verbs плещешь ([you] slpash), точишь, топишь (sink), подымаешь (raise), губи (ruin), and выплесни (splash out) are used to show that the actions are performed by the wave.

The third person designates that the action is being performed by someone or something that is being talked about, i.e. by an indirect participant of speech. For example,

Черёмуха душистая, развесившись, стоит,А зелень золотистая на солнышке горит.

Here стоит ([it] stands) and горит (burn) refer to the object which is spoken about, namely черёмуха (the cherry).

In Russian, verb endings indicate person and number of the verb.

Remember: Second person singular verbs are to be written with ь, for example: читаешь ([you] read), гордишься ([you] are proud), целишься ([you] aim).

Test yourself:a. Define the person of the verbs in the following sentences?

1. О, вы не знаете украинской ночи!2. Дерево растёт в лесу.3. Одну молитву чудную твержу я наизусть.А. First personB. Second personC. Third person

b. Define if the following verbs are to be written the "ь" letter or without?1. Молчиш...2. Заиграеш...3. Скроеш...ся4. Проговориш...сяА. with "ь"B. without "ь"

Answers:a.1-B 2-C 3-A; b. 1,2,3,4-A (молчишь, заиграешь, скроешься, проговоришься)

Conjugations of Verbs* (..Maybe I have to merge some headings)Changes, which Russian verbs undergo depending on person and number, are called conjugation. There are two conjugations in Russian, called the 1st Conjugation and the 2nd conjugation (or E-Conjugation and И-Conjugation, respectively).

The 1st Conjugation (E-Conjugation)

The 1st conjugation verbs are those, which have the letter "е" in their endings, for example:

читать (to read)ты (you - singular) читаешь

он (he) читает

мы (we) читаем

вы (you - plural) читаете

The 2nd Conjugation (И-Conjugation)

The 2nd conjugation verbs have the letter "и" in their endings.

верить (to believe)ты (you - singular) веришь

он (he) верит

мы (we) верим

вы (you - plural) верите

You will need to determine the conjugation of the verb in order to write correct personal endings. Usually, there is no problem with this for verbs which have stressed endings. For such verbs the same letter is used in writing as in speaking. For example, in words спишь, гребёшь the same letter is written as is heard.

Remember: Conjugation is typical only for present and future tense verbs used in indicative mood. Past tense verbs change only by gender and number.

However if the stress is on the base rather than ending, choosing correct ending will be a bit challenging. You will need to determine the conjugation of the verb by looking at its infinitive and applying the following rule.

The 2nd conjugation verbs with unstressed ending are:

1. those, which end in -ить, like заправить, клеить, беспокоить. Exceptions are: брить, стелить, побрить, постелить, выстелить, etc.

2. seven verbs ending in -еть: смотреть, видеть, ненавидеть, зависеть, терпеть, вертеть, обидеть + all verbs derived from them, like посмотреть, увидеть, вытерпеть, завертеть, перетерпеть, etc.

3. four verbs ending in -aть: гнать, дышать, держать, слышать + all verbs derived from them, like прогнать, задышать, удержать, расслышать, etc.

The 1st conjugation verbs are the remaining verbs (not mentioned in points 1. to 3.).

Table Of Conjugations

Conjugation Verbs ending Exceptions

1st conjugation

– ать 4 verbs (2nd conj.)

- еть 7 verbs (2nd conj.)

- оть, - уть, - ть and others

- ить (3 verbs):

- брить (to shave)- стелить (to spread e.g. cloth)- зиждиться (to be based on) – rarely used

2nd conjugation

- ить 3 verbs (1st conj.)

- еть (7 verbs):

- смотреть (to look)- видеть (to see)- ненавидеть (to hate)- терпеть (to suffer; to bare)- обидеть (to offend)- вертеть (to twirl)- зависеть (to depend)

- ать (at’) – 4 verbs:

- гнать (to speed along)- держать (to hold)- слышать (to hear)- дышать (to breath)

1st conjugation 2nd conjugation

Я – у/- ю Мы – ем Я – у, - ю Мы – им

Ты – ешь Вы – ете Ты – ишь Вы – ите

Он/Она/Оно – ет Они – ут/ют Он/Она/Оно – ит Они – ат/-ят

Note: There are some verbs of “mixed conjugation”, which can have the endings of both the 1st conjugation and the 2nd conjugation. These are the verbs хотеть, бежать and those derived from them (захотеть, добежать, etc.):

The Verbs Хотеть, Бежать

хотеть (to want)

Singular Plural

1st person хочу хотим

2nd person хочешь хотите

3rd person хочет хотят

бежать (to run)

Singular Plural

1st person бегу бежим

2nd person бежишь бежите

3rd person бежит бегут

And two more verbs rarely used with – ать ending . Дышать (to breath), Пробовать (to try):

Дышать (to breath) – ending – ать,

Я дышу Мы дышимТы дышишь Вы дышитеОн дышит Они дышат

Пробовать (to try) – ending – ать

In this case we have suffix – ов between the root and the ending. To conjugate verbs like this we need to change it for suffix – у.

Я пробую Мы пробуемТы пробуешь Вы пробуетеОн пробует Они пробуют

Test Yourself:

a) Assuming that 1st conjugation verbs end in -у(-ю), -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут(-ют), what is the conjugation of the following verbs?

1. Верт__шь головой 2. Бре__шься по утрам 3. Беж__шь быстро 4. Хоч__т конфет(A. 1st conjugation B. 2nd conjugation C. can be both A. and B)

b) The verbs of what tense conjugate, i.e. change in person and number?

1. Present tense verbs2. Past tense verbs3. Future tense verbs

Answers:a) 1B (вертишь головой), 2A (бреешься по утрам), 3C (бежишь быстро), 4C (хочет

конфет); b) 1 and 3

Present Tense The Russian present tense form is very simple. Verb forms like "I am working" , "I do work", "I have been working" do not exist in Russian. Instead, the form similar to that of English present simple tense is used.

I workI do workI am workingI have been working

} Я работаю

The present tense is used to express:

● Actions which are happening at the time of speaking Она едет на работу --> She is driving to work

● Actions which occur regularlyЗемля вращается вокруг солнца -->The earth goes round the sun

● Habitual actions Каждое утро я встаю в 8 часов -->I get up at 8 o'clock every morning

● Actions which began in the past and are still happening or just stopped Я живу в Москве уже целый год -->I have been living in Moscow for a whole year

Ending of Present Tense The endings of the present tense verbs (like "работаю" in the above example) change depending on person and number. In order to find correct ending you need to perform the following steps.

I. Determine the conjugation of the verb.

The 1st (Е) Conjugation includes verbs that have the following letters before the infinitive ending in -ть:

class I а*, я (читать, менять) class II e (болеть) class III ова (торговать) class IV ну (махнуть)

*except the combinations ша, жа, ча, ща (слыша-ть "hear" (ты слышишь))

The 2nd (И) Conjugation includes verbs that have и before -ть

class V и (ходить, говорить)

II. Determine the stem of the verb. First, remove the last character from the verb form for I (я), for example я работаю --> я работа. Second, remove the last three characters from the verb form for familiar you (ты), for example ты работаешь --> ты работа. Then, compare two remainders. If they are the same, this is the stem you need. If they are different, use as the stem that remained from familiar you form.

III. Determine the ending to be added to the stem using this table.

Person First Conjugation (-Е) Second Conjugation (-И)

Я -у / -ю -у / -ю

Ты -ешь -ишь

Он / Она / Оно -ет -ит

Мы -ем -им

Вы -ете -ите

Они -ут / -ют -ат / -ят

Examples

1st Conjunction's Example

To form the verb for each person you need to drop the last two letters of the infinitive (normally "ть"), and add the appropriate ending ("ю", "ешь", "ет", "ем", "ете" or "ют").

работать - To work. (infinitive, dictionary form) Я работаю - I work Ты работаешь - You work Он/Она/Оно работает - He, She, It works. Мы работаем - We work Вы работаете - You work. Они работают - They work.

2nd Conjunction's Example

Verbs where the infinitive ends in "ить" use the second conjunction. There are also other verbs that use this conjunction. The second conjunction uses the endings "ю" (or "у") "ишь" "ит" "им" "ите" "ят" (or "ат"), which replace " ить ".

говорить - To speak. (infinitive, dictionary form) Я говорю - I speak. Ты говоришь - You speak. Он/Она/Оно говорит - He, She, It Speaks. Мы говорим - We speak. Вы говорите - You speak. Они говорят - They speak.

A Full Example

Infinitive: читать (НСВ) 'read' прочитать (СВ) 'read'Present Tense Past Tense Future Tense

НСВ НСВ СВ НСВ СВЯ читаюТы читаешьОн / Она / Оно читает

читал/а/о прочитал/а/обуду читать прочитаю

будешь читать прочитаешьбудет читать прочитает

Мы читаемВы читаетеОни читают

читали прочиталибудем читать прочитаембудете читать прочитаетебудут читать прочитают

PalatalizationThe Table identifies the consonants which undergo palatalization in Russian today. Once you have mastered the alternations caused by palatalization, you will need to learn where these changes take place. The sounds to the left of the angle bracket ">" are replaced by the one to the right of it when palatalization occurs.

Russian PalatalizationLabials Dentals Velars Palatals Examples Glosses

п > пль I stepб > бль люби+у > люблю I love

ф > фль графи+у > графлю I graphв > вль стави+у > ставлю I put

м > мль греме+у > гремлю I roarт к > ч прята+у > прячу I hide

д з г > ж виде+у > вижу I seeс х > ш носи+у > ношу I carry

ст ск > щ (шч) иска+у > ищу I look-for The mutant consonants (ш ж ч щ) are easy to spot because they are unlike any Latin or Greek consonants and larger than other Russian consonants. They are sometimes called 'hushes' because of the sounds they represent. Historically, all were once soft, hence the rule which forces us to write и а and у and never ы я or ю after them. However, now ш and ж are hard and so any и following them are pronounced exactly like ы even though it is not written. Щ is now pronounced like a soft ш in Moscow but it and ч are always pronounced soft everywhere.

Where Does Palatalization Occur?Now that you are familiar with the sounds that palatalize and how they palatalize, you need to know in which environments these sounds palatalize. Palatalization is not triggered by other sounds alone but specific sounds in specific morphological contexts. Here are the contexts.

The Present-Future Conjugations

Palatalization applies throughout the Present-Future of the First (Е) Conjugation verbs ending on a:

Писать (са>шу/е)* to write

пиш у пишемпишешь пишетепишет пишут

*See the above Table

First (Е) Conjugation stems ending on the velars к, г, х , before е only , undergo palatalization, i. e. everywhere except in the 1st person singular and 3rd person plural:

мочь (ке/ге/хе>че/же/ше) may, canмог у можемможешь можетеможет могут

Second (И) Conjugation stems (those ending on и and е ) palatalize in the 1st person singular only :

Видеть (ду>жу)* to seeвижу видимвидишь видитевидит видят

*See the above Table

Past Tense The Russian past tense is used to talk about actions and situations which took place at any point in the past. There is only one past tense form in Russian compared to numerous forms in English.

She ate/ She did eat/ She had eaten/ She was eating/ She has eaten

Она ела/съела

The Suffix ЛCombining the stem of the infinitive with the suffix л forms the past tense verbs.

Example морозить (freeze):

мороз-и-ть + л --> мороз-и-лзелен-е-ть + л --> зелен-е-л

Note: Use the same vowel ('е', 'и', 'а') in the past tense verb form as in the infinitive form before -ть. For example, зависеть - зависел, бросить - бросил, спрятать - спрятал.

Exception

There is an exception in forming the past tense form for some verbs which have the infinitive ending in -чь, -ти, -нуть. The suffix л is not used to form the past tense form of such verbs if they are used with singular masculine subjects (i.e. nouns and pronouns), like in

беречь --> мальчик берёг,сохнуть --> он сох

However, the suffix л is used for the same verbs if they are used with singular feminine and neutral, as well as all plural subjects. For example,

беречь --> она берегла, оно берегло, они береглисохнуть --> она сохла, оно сохло, они сохли

Past Plural (-ли)

The past tense verbs change by number. The ending -и is an indicator of plural number

(писал --> писали). It is the same for all genders.

Only singular forms of the past tense verbs change by gender. Singular masculine forms have no ending after the suffix л (туман упал). An indicator of singular feminine forms is the ending а (роса упала). An ending o is used with singular neutral forms (дерево упало).

Past TenseSingular

Masculine (-/-л) Feminine (-ла) Neuter (-ло)Plural (-ли)

он сох/ она сохла/ оно сохло/ они сохли/морозили

морозил морозила морозило

Future Tense In Russian, past tense and present tense, as well as future tense refer to the indicative mood. Future tense denotes that the action marked by the verb will happen after the moment of speaking.

Future tense has two forms: simple and compound. Future simple forms are formed by the verbs of the perfective aspect with the help of personal endings.

She will readShe will have read } Она

прочитает

Future compound forms are formed by the verbs of the imperfective aspect. This group is called compound, because it consists of two words: future simple tense form of the verb "быть" (to be) and the infinitive of the perfective verb. The Russian compound future tense is remarkably similar in structure to the English simple future tense.

She will readShe will be reading } Она будет читать

The verbs in the form of future tense change in person and number.

Singular Plural

First person Я буду читать. Мы будем читать.

Second person Ты будешь читать. Вы будете читать.

Third person Он(а) будет читать. Они будут читать.

Test yourself:

a) Define tense and aspect of the verb.

1. А теперь взглянём от России на запад.2. На листву, как на чудо, я гляжу благодарно.A. Present tense, imperfective aspectB. Future tense, perfective aspect

b) Define the tense of the verbs in the sentences?

1. Солнце жгло.2. Вверху на полке лежат интересные книги.3. Завтра я пойду в кино.4. С этого дня Том будет учить русский каждый день.A. Present tenseB. Future tenseC. Past tense

Answers:

a) 1B, 2A; b) 1C, 2A, 3B

Some Conjugated Russian Verbs

Любить / Полюбить - Love

Imperfective Aspect Perfective AspectEnglish loveInfinitive Любить Полюбить

Present Tense 1st Person Singular Люблю 2nd Person Singular Любишь 3rd Person Singular Любит 1st Person Plural Любим 2nd Person Plural Любите 3rd Person Plural Любят

Past Tense Masculine Любил Полюбил Feminine Любила Полюбила Neuter Любило Полюбило Plural Любили Полюбили

Future Tense 1st Person Singular Буду Любить Полюблю 2nd Person Singular Будешь Любить Полюбишь 3rd Person Singular Будет Любить Полюбит 1st Person Plural Будем Любить Полюбим 2nd Person Plural Будете Любить Полюбите 3rd Person Plural Будут Любить Полюбят

Работать / Поработать – Work

Imperfective Aspect Perfective AspectEnglish workInfinitive Работать Поработать

Present Tense 1st Person Singular Работаю 2nd Person Singular Работаешь 3rd Person Singular Работает 1st Person Plural Работаем 2nd Person Plural Работаете 3rd Person Plural Работают

Past Tense Masculine Работал Поработал Feminine Работала Поработала Neuter Работало Поработало Plural Работали Поработали

Future Tense 1st Person Singular Буду Работать Поработаю 2nd Person Singular Будешь Работать Поработаешь 3rd Person Singular Будет Работать Поработает 1st Person Plural Будем Работать Поработаем 2nd Person Plural Будете Работать Поработаете 3rd Person Plural Будут Работать Поработают

Verbal Accent in RussianThere are two basic types of accent in Standard Contemporary Russian (for nouns and adjectives as well as verbs): (1) fixed and (2) variable. If the accent falls on the same syllable of every form in a conjugation, it is fixed. Fixed accent may be fall on the same syllable of the stem or on the ending. If the position of the accent is not the same throughout the conjugation, it is said to be 'variable', and shifts between the first syllable of the ending and the last syllable of the stem.

Invariable (fixed) Stem Accent

Many verbs in Russian exhibit accent on one syllable of the stem where it remains no matter which ending is attached to the verb: present-future, past, imperative, infinitive. The following table illustrates the fixed accent pattern in the first and second conjugations with делай- 'do, make' and остави- 'leave (something)'. The accented syllable is indicated in the table below by boldface type.

делай- 'do, make' остави- 'leave (something)'делаюделаешьделаетделаемделаетеделают

'I do''you do''s/he does''we do''yall do''they do'

оставлюоставишьоставитоставимоставитеоставят

'I leave''you leave''s/he leaves''we leave''yall leave''they leave'

делать 'to do, make' оставить 'to leave'делал 'was doing' оставил 'left'Делай! 'Do (it)! Оставь! 'Leave (it)!'cделан 'done' оставлен 'left'

Invariable (fixed) Ending Accent

The accent of other verbs is fixed on the ending throughout the conjugation, so that regardless of the form, the first (or only) syllable of the ending is always accented. Among the Conjugation I verbs, вёд- "take, lead" is such a verb and among those of Conjugation II прости- "forgive" is a good example. As a rule of thumb, strong consonant stems have end accent while stems on й tend to have stem accent.

вёд- "lead, take" прости- "forgive"ве ду ве дёшь ве дёт ве дём ве дё те ве дут

"I lead""you lead""s/he leads""we lead""youse lead""they lead"

про щу про стишь про стит про стим про сти те про стят

"I forgive""you forgive""s/he forgives""we forgive""youse forgive""they forgive"

вести "to lead" простить "to forgive"

Веди! "Lead!" Прости! "Forgive (me)!"вёлвела

"he led""she led"

простилпростила

"he forgave""she forgave"

проведёнпроведена "conducted" прощён

прощена "forgiven"

Movable Accent

Variable accent is found most frequently among vowel stems. It falls on the suffix in (1) 1st person singular, (2) the infinitive, (3) the imperative, (4) the past tense (on the vowel preceding л), and moves one syllable back onto the stem in the other present-futute tense forms and in the past passive participle.

мог- "may, can" люби- "love"могу можем люблю любимможешь можете любишь любитеможет могут любит любят

By now you should have a firm lock on the (as usual) very simple principle of Russian verbal accent.

Verbs of MotionSome people think learning about the verbs of motion is one of the hardest concepts in the Russian language. The truth is, it is not so difficult if you just try to understand them one step at a time. However it is quite an important concept, as motion verbs are among the most used in any language. We have broken this into several parts, so just learn one part at a time if there is too much information in this lesson.

A Verb of Motion, as the name suggests, is simply a verb that will take you from one place to another. For example verbs like “go”, “walk”, “run”, “swim” or “fly”. The reason they are special in Russian is that Russian uses special prefixes or different forms to explain even more with one word.

The verbs denoting motion are a special case in Russian. Instead of the usual aspectual pair of forms, verbs of motion have three aspectual forms:

Perfective Aspect Imperfective Indefinite Aspect (Progressive Imperfective/Return trip/Multidirectional)Imperfective Definite Aspect (Iterative Imperfective/On-way/Unidirctional)

Don't fret! There is a system to help you remember these forms. The perfective is always formed by simply adding the prefix по- to the progressive form. The iterative imperfective usually ends on и- or ай-.

We will first discuss these verbs without the use of prefixes, then we will discuss the prefixes later. (A ‘prefix’ is the couple of letters you put at the front of a word to add to it’s meaning).

Part 1 - Motion verbs without prefixes. - To GoLet’s start by looking at the words that could correspond to the English word “go”. Essentially there is no word in Russian that is like the English “go”. Instead Russians always indicate how they are going somewhere. Here are the two most important words.

Ходить / Идти - To go by foot (walk). (View Conjugations)Ездить / Ехать - To go by transport (drive, train, bus, etc.). (View Conjugations)

The first thing you will notice is that there are two similar Russian words corresponding to one English word. This is because Russians also indicate weather they are going in one direction or making a return trip. As it is often the case in Russian, you are able to say a lot with few words. Each verb conjugates in the normal way, click on the link next to the verbs to view the fully conjugated forms.

Multidirectional (Indefinite) Verb

The verb on the left (Ходить, Ездить) is the Multidirectional (return trip, in general) verb. Technically known as the Indefinite. Use the multidirectional form when are talking about actions in more than one direction, for example a return trip. Also use this form when you are talking in general about going to somewhere, or when there is no motion, or the number of directions is irrelevant.

Examples (Ходить, Ездить):

Каждый день я хожу в кино. - Everyday I go to the cinema. (Talking in general)Мы ходили по городу. - We walked around the town. (moving in a number of different directions)Вчера мы ездили в Лондон. - Yesterday we went to London. (by transport) (the return trip is implied)

Unidirectional (Definite) Verb

The verb on the right (Идти, Ехать ) is the Unidirectional (one-way) verb. Technically known as the Definite. Use the unidirectional form when you are going in 1 direction, or talking specifically about going in 1 direction. This form often corresponds to the continuous tenses in English, ie when you say 'I am' or 'we are'.

Examples (Идти, Ехать ):

Я иду на работу. - I am going to work. (by foot)Мы едем в Москву. - We are going to Moscow. (by transport)Завтра мы едем в Лондон. - Tomorrow we are going to London. (by transport)Куда вы идёте? - Where are you going? (by foot)

You should now be comfortable using these motion verbs in the present tense. These are to two most important verbs of motion, and you will find them very useful even as a beginner-intermediate Russian speaker.

Part 2 - Other unprefixed verbs of motionNow that you are comfortable with the concept learnt in part 1, you can easily apply this same concept to the other verbs of motion. With these verbs the action is more specific than with the first two verbs you have learnt. There are no new concepts to learn in this part. Here are the verbs, click the link to see how they are congugated.

Бегать / Бежать - To Run. (View Conjugations)Бродить / Брести - To Stroll. (View Conjugations)Гонять / Гнать - To Drive. (View Conjugations)

Лазить / Лезть - To Climb. (View Conjugations)Летать / Лететь - To Fly. (View Conjugations)Плавать / Плыть - To Swim, To Sail. (View Conjugations)Ползать / Ползти - To Crawl. (View Conjugations)

Part 3 - Other unprefixed verbs of motion -To CarryThe last set of unprefixed verbs of motion are verbs that indicate the concept of ‘carrying’. These verbs are a little different because there is an object that is transported or carried. For example “the train transports passengers to Moscow”. You will normally see these words translated as ‘to carry’, but there meaning is more general and they could mean ‘to transport’ or ‘to take’. You should translate them back to English depending on the context. Let’s have a look at these verbs:

Возить / Везти - To Carry (by vehicle). (View Conjugations)Носить / Нести - To Carry, To Wear (View Conjugations)Водить / Вести - To Lead, To Accompany. (View Conjugations)Таскать / Тащить - To Drag, To Pull. (View Conjugations)

Let's have a quick look at how each one is used:

Возить / Везти - Generally this word corresponds 'to transport'. Or 'to take' by some means of vehicle. For example in a sentences like “The train transports passengers to Moscow” or “Ivan takes his daughter to school”.

Носить / Нести - Generally this word corresponds to 'to carry' when the person is carrying the object by walking. It's used in sentences like "The driver carried our bags to the taxi". This verb can also mean 'to wear', but it isn't really a used like a verb of motion in theis sense.

Водить / Вести - This word generally means 'to lead', or 'to take on foot' where the object itself is also walking. For example "The dog leads the blind man to the shop". The verb has a number of other uses, where is may not be considered to be a verb of motion.

These verbs work the same was as those above, either multidirectional or unidirectional. Initially don’t worry too much if you are not sure exactly when to use each of these verbs, this is something that is best learnt naturally as you read or hear them in real situations. As long as you are aware of the different concepts involved. In simple conversation it is less likely you will use these words compared to the verbs in part 1.

Part 4 - Prefixed verbs of motionThis brings us to one of the most hated parts of Russian for learners. However it is not so difficult at all. To all of the verbs above it is possible to add different prefixes. By placing a few extra letters at the front of these verbs, you can increase its meaning. This normally adds a direction to its meaning. For example you could change the meaning of “walk” to “walk in”.

As you can see in the above example we normally achieve this in English by adding an adverb after the verb. Words like “in”, “down”, “through” or “across”. Often it is also possible to do this by using a different verb, “walk in” could be replaced by “enter”. Now that we know what we are trying to do in English lets have a look our how we can do it in Russian...

If you find the concept of ‘prefixes’ difficult you could just remember each of these verbs. Treating

each verb as it’s own word, rather than a set of related verbs. This would be good for learners with a good memory for words. Other learners, who may be more conceptually minded, may choose to remember how all the pre-fixes work. We think it’s best to do a little of both. Once you understand this concept, you might find that you can suddenly decipher a whole lot of Russian verbs, and the language may really open up to you.

Let’s take a look at these prefixes.

в- - in вы- - out до- - as far as, reach за- - drop in, stop by об- - aroundот- - away пере- - across под- - approach при- - arrival про- - through, pass с- - down from у- - from

Now let's see some examples of the prefixes in use. This is how you can use them with the promary motion verb: Ходить / Идти. (Note that Идти becomes йти when used with pre-fixes.)

входить / войти - to go in, to enterвыходить / выйти - to go out, to leave, to exitвзходить / взoйти - to go up, to ascendдоходить / дойти - to get to, to get as far as, to reachзаходить / зайти - to drop in, to stop byобходить / обойти - to walk around, to bypassотходить / отойти - to walk away переходить / перейти - to go across, to turnподходить / подойти - to approachприходить / прийти - to arrive, to comeпроходить / пройти - to go by, to go pastсходить / сойти - to go down, decendуходить / уойти - to go from, to leave, depart

OK, now here is the interesting bit: As these new verbs already indicate direction, they loose the concept of unidirectional or multi-directional that we learnt above. Instead the first word above is the imperfective aspect, and the 2nd is the perfective. (refer to the section on aspects for more info.). So in the present tense you will always use the first of these verbs above.

This part is difficult. It is a good idea to have an understanding of how the pre-fixes work. If you hate grammar you could simply remember each word, for example входить = enter. However, if you do understand some of the concepts and you came accross a word like "влетать" you could work out that it meant "to fly in".

Here are a couple of examples of how you could use the prefixes with different verbs:

Самолёт прилетает в Москву. - The plane arrives (arrives by flying) in MoscowСамолёт улетает из Москвы. - The plane departs (fly from) Moscow

The Imperative MoodThe verbs of imperative mood designate inducement to an action, order, appeal, advice or wish.

Не ходи туда. Don't go there.Пожалуйста, спойте нам песню. Please, sing us a song.

Adding the suffix -и to the base of a future-tense verb forms the singular imperative verb.

изогнут --> изогнивойдут --> войди

Adding the ending -те to the singular imperative verb form forms the plural imperative verb.

войти --> войдитеизогни --> изогните

The imperative mood can also be formed with the help of particles пусть, пускай, да.

Пускай идут побыстрее. Let them go quicker.Пусть он меня отпустит. Let him set me free.Да скажи ты ей где лежит книга. Well, tell her where the book is.

Remember: In the end of imperative verbs, the letter "ь" is to be written after consonants. The "ь" remains even before "-ся" and "-те". For example: назначь, назначьте, готовься, готовьтесь. Exceptions: ляг, лягте, приляг, прилягте.

1st Way To Form Imperative1. The imperative is also referred to as the 'command' form, because you use it when you

want to 'order' one (singular) or more (plural) persons to do something.

2. To form the imperative you need to know two forms of the present/future tense of the verb: the first person singular and third person plural.

3. The stem for the imperative will be the same as the stem for the third person plural, and the accent will be on the same syllable as in the first person singular.

4. If the stem in the third person plural ends in a vowel, to form the imperative you add the ending -й for the singular (when you command one person), and the ending -йте when you command more than one person.

5. The accent will be on the same syllable as in the first person singular:

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

читА-ю читА-ют читА-й читА-йте

слУша-ю слУша-ют слУша-й слУша-йте6. If the stem ends in a consonant, then you need to look at the accent of the first person

singular before you form the imperative.

7. If the stem ends in a consonant and the accent is on the ending of the first person singular

form, you add the ending -и for the singular form and -ите for the plural:

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

говор-Ю говор-Ят говор-И говор-Ите

спрош-У спрОс-ят спрос-И спрос-Ите8. If the stem ends in a consonant and the accent is on the stem of the first person singular

form, you add the ending -ь for the singular form and -ьте for the plural:

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

готОв-лю готОв-ят готОв-ь готОв-ьте

отвЕч-у отвЕт-ят отвЕт-ь отвЕт-ьте9. If the stem ends in a consonant cluster we use the endings -и, -ите (unaccented), instead of

the expected -ь, -ьте :

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

пОмн-ю пОмн-ят пОмн-и пОмн-ите10. The imperative of some verbs is irregular, and you simply have to memorize it:

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

поед-у поед-ут поезжа-й поезжа-йте11. To form the imperative of reflexive verbs you follow the same rules. Add the reflexive

particle after you have formed the imperative:

Present tense Imperative

1st singular 3rd plural 2nd singular 2nd plural

купа-юсь купа-ются купа-йся> купа-йтесь

2nd Way To Form The ImperativeThe Imperative Mood is used in issuing a command or order, e. g. Give me that book! or Open the door!. Here are the rules for forming the Imperative Mood in Russian.

• Nothing is added to (a) stems ending on й or (b) those whose accent always falls on the stem (fixed stem accent on the stem). In fact, if a stem with fixed stem accent ends on a vowel, the vowel is removed. (Keep in mind, however, if the preceding consonant is a soft one, you have to insert a soft sign ( ь ) to mark it when no vowel follows.)

пьй- : Пей молоко! "Drink your milk!"делай- : Делай это! "Do that!"открой- : Открой дверь! "Open the door!"постави- : Поставь его сюда! "Put it here!"

• There is one exception to the rule above. If a verb stem has fixed stem accent but its final consonant is part of a consonant cluster (2 or 3 consonants together), -и is added despite the rule above.

помн-и- : Помни это ! "Remember that!"кончи- : Кончи работу! "Finish your work!"

• -и is added to stems with movable accent and those with accent fixed on the endings. A good way to check for both of these types is 1st person singular; i.e. if the stem has end accent or movable accent the 1st person singular ending will always be accented.

• сказа- (скажу) : Скажи! "Tell!" (movable accent)говори- (говорю) : Говори! "Speak (up)" (fixed ending accent)

• Finally, don't forget that the final consonant in stems ending on -a- always undergo palatalization regardless of whether they use the ending и or not--but only stems ending on -a-, no others.

сказа- : Скажи! "Tell (me)!"реза- : Режь(те) "Cut (it)!"спрята- : Спрячь его! "Put it away!" or "Hide it!"

Subjunctive MoodVerbs of subjunctive mood designate actions which one wants to happen, or just possible ones, under certain circumstances. A sentence containing subjunctive verbs shows that an action has not happen, but it could have happened if certain circumstances took place. Look at an example:

Я бы пошёл в кино, если бы у меня был билет.I would have gone to the movie, if I had had a ticket.

Adding the particle "бы", either near a verb, or at any other place in a sentence, forms the subjunctive mood of a verb. Remember: The particle "бы" and a verb are to be written separately: прыгал бы, нарисовал бы.

The verbs of subjunctive mood change in number:

двигался бы - singularдвигались бы – plural

At the same time, singular verbs change in person.

он двигался бы - he would have movedона двигалась бы - she would have movedоно двигалось бы - it would have moved

In other words, the verbs of subjunctive mood are usually predicates and agree with a subject in person and number.

subject

Старик и сейчас неpredicate

стал бы вырубать кусты. Remember: The verbs in subjunctive mood do not change with tenses.

Reflexive VerbsRussian reflexive verbs are different than English reflexive verbs, because in English you can go without mentioning the direct object, for instance I shaved (you don’t need to say I shaved myself) but in Russian you can’t make that expression without inserting the “myself” the Russian way.

Russian uses a suffix (-ся, or сь) on the verb to indicate where a direct object is identical with the subject. So to express a reflexive form in Russian, a reflexive particle (-ся) is added after consonants and (-сь) after vowels to the verb. Russian has a certain number of verbs that can be used as reflexive verbs or regular verbs; also, many times Russian uses reflexive verbs where English doesn’t.

Normal Transitive Verb Reflexive CorrelateАлександра купает детей.Alexandra is bathing the kids.

Александра купается.Alexandra is bathing (herself).

Борис Сергеевич бреет брата.Boris Sergeevich is shaving his brother.

Борис Сергеевич бреется.Boris Sergeevich is shaving (himself).

Маша одевает дочку.Masha is dressing her daughter.

Маша одевается.Masha is dressing (herself).

Паша умывает собаку.Pasha is washing up the dog.

Паша умывается.Pasha is washing up.

Шимпанзе причёсывает друга.The chimpanzee is combing her friend.

Шимпанзе причёсывается.The chimpanzee is combing herself.

Despite their name, reflexive verbs do much more than reflect the reference of the subject in the object of a sentence. In fact, reflexive verbs are responsible for five distinct grammatical functions. The reflexive suffix -ся may mark any of the following functions:

1. Genuine Reflexive Он купает-ся. He is bathing (himself).2. Passive Voice Правила здесь соблюдаются. Rules are followed here.3. Reciprocal Они встретились в саду. They met in the garden.4. Optative Voice Мне не спится. I'm not sleepy.5. Middle Voice Комары кусаются The mosquitos are biting.

The suffix -ся is a reduction of the reflexive pronoun себя but it is reduced even more after vowels. The full suffix is pronounced only after consonants; after vowels, it is pronounced (and spelled) -сь. Take a look at the conjugation of бояться, a verb that only occurs with this suffix.

я боюсь "I'm afraid" мы боимся "we're afraid"ты боишься "you're afraid" вы боитесь "yall're afraid"он(а,о) боится "s/he/it's afraid" они боятся "they're afraid"он боялся "he was afraid" она боялась "she was afraid"оно боялось "it was afraid" они боялись "they were afraid"

Genuine ReflexivesReal reflexive verbs are verbs whose subject and direct object are identical, that is, refer to the identical thing in the real world. In English we often ignore the difference. We use the same verb

to say, The barber shaves my brother and My brother shaves, even though there is an understood direct object in the second sentence whose reference the same as that of the subject, my brother. Other verbs require a reflexive pronoun in English, e.g. He cut his brother versus He cut himself. You can't simply say, He cut in English in this case to mean "he cut himself" as we can say He shaved.

In Russian it is never possible to ignore reflexivity. Because Russian has such an strong case system, distinguishing subjects and objects is very important. However, as in all languages, repetition is frowned upon, so, Russian uses a suffix on the verb to indicate where a direct object is identical with the subject. That suffix is -ся. Here are some examples to illustrate the point.

Normal Transitive Verb Reflexive CorrelateАлександра купает детей.Alexandra is bathing the kids.

Александра купается.Alexandra is bathing (herself).

Борис Сергеевич бреет брата.Boris Sergeevich is shaving his brother.

Борис Сергеевич бреется.Boris Sergeevich is shaving (himself).

Маша одевает дочку.Masha is dressing her daughter.

Маша одевается.Masha is dressing (herself).

Паша умывает собаку.Pasha is washing up the dog.

Паша умывается.Pasha is washing up.

Шимпанзе причёсывает друга.The chimpanzee is combing her friend.

Шимпанзе причёсывается.The chimpanzee is combing herself.

Optative Reflexive VerbsThe optative mood is one which suggests a desire or inclination to do something. In English we say I would like to V or I feel like V-ing in the same situations where the optative would be used in languages with this mood. Russian optatives are always impersonal constructions with the subject in the dative case followed by the 3rd person singular form of the verb. In English, we would say I'm sleepy, for example, meaning I feel like sleeping; Russians would say мне спится. Here are some more examples to consider. (Notice that this mood is usually used in the negative.)

Ивану сегодня не работается. Ivan doesn't feel like working today.Мне не сидится дома. I don't like to stay home.Мне не пишется сейчас. I don't feel like writing now.

The very most commonly used in this construction is хотеть "want". Мне (не) хочется "I don't feel like . . ." is a milder form of я (не) хочу "I don't want . . . " and is used as frequently as the stronger alternate.

Another way of expressing the optative in Russian is with the conditional: я бы поел кашу "I feel like eating kasha" or "I wouldn't mind eating some kasha".

9 NounsA noun is a thing, name or place. Example: dog, cat, Moscow, cup, paper, pen. Russian nouns change their forms and get different endings by using the 6 Cases and 3 Genders which help us know the role a noun is playing in a sentence.

These Cases are the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional. Once you understand how cases work, you need to know the endings on the nouns (and adjectives) which mark these cases. First, keep in mind that the ending signifying a given case depends upon the Declension Class of the noun.

Russian Nouns have Gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). It's a grammatical category.

The number of a noun is either singular or plural.Finally, a noun can be either animate or inanimate.

CasesCases are a grammatical way of determining what a noun does in a sentence. In English we do this by having a strict word-order. In Russian we use 6 cases.

Like German and some other languages, Russian has something called cases, basically they’re changes that occur to nouns and their endings, to show what role they’re playing in a sentence.

There are 6 cases in Russian: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, and prepositional.

Before going into details let’s review them very quickly:

● The nominative case (the subject of the sentence) answers the questions "who?/what?". (I speak Russian, Russia is a nice country) the blue font shows the position of the Russian nominative case The Russian nominative is the basic form found in dictionaries for nouns. The nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence. It’s the basic case and also the easiest, the only changes required are for the plural (add the letters “и”, “ы”, “я” or “а”).

● The accusative case designates the object of an action. (I speak Russian). The blue front shows the position of the accusative case.

● The genitive case refers to things belonging to other people. Just like when you use (of) or (the possessive ‘s). In Russian the possessor always follows the object possessed, while in English it may be both, (the story of Edward, or Edward’s story). The Russian genitive usually answers the question (of whom? Кого?/ of what? Чего? Whose…?... чья?).

Это автомобиль чья? (whose car is this?).

Это автомобиль Надя (that's Nadia's car./ That's the car of Nadia).

● The dative case refers to things given or addressed to a person (object). (Give it to me). The Russian dative case is used as the indirect object of a sentence. “Peter is teaching Russian to John”, John is the indirect object and therefore takes the dative case, and it usually answers the question as (to whom? Кому? / for what? Чему?).

● The instrumental case is used to refer to an instrument that helps to make something. In general the Russian instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done or the means by which an action is carried out, usually in English it’s expressed by the prepositions "by, with". I learn Russian with books, and I practice it by chatting.

● The prepositional case is used after the prepositions “о” (about), “в” (in), “на” (at) to refer

to a place. Nouns take the prepositional case when they’re used to refer to a place, or time... (these prepositions are used sometimes with other cases). The nouns answering the question "where" are often used with the prepositions в and на.

Russian Case ExampleИван написал письмо другу ручкой.

Ivan wrote a letter to (his) friend with a pen.

Russian Nouns Case Analysis

Nominative Accusative Dative Instrumental

Subject Verb Object Ind. Obj. By/With

Ivan написал письмо другу ручкой

Russian Nouns GendersIn Russian, as with many other languages, each noun is assigned a gender. Gender is a grammatical category that indicates the sex of the object referred to by the noun (its 'referent'). Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter (neutral). In the cases of words like “father” these relate to physical gender. In the case of other objects like “pen”, “cup”, “house”, there is no physical meaning attached to the gender. However you will still need to know the gender because it affects how words are formed. Luckily, unlike many languages, in Russian it is almost always possible to tell what the gender of a noun by it’s spelling. This is not true in some other languages where you just have to memorise them.

When you use a noun as the subject of a sentence, it will be in it’s dictionary form. In this form you can easily work out it’s gender. If the noun is in another part of the sentence the ending is changed to suit the case.

From the dictionary form of a noun, here is how you can tell what the gender is:

Masculine genderNouns ending in a consonant (й is consonant) or -ь.

паспорт (passport), документ (document), брат (brother), Хлеб (bread)The ending of masculine nouns in the nominative case is called zero ending (0). Masculine Exception is words ending in -а, -я. These words denote persons of the masculine gender: дедушка (grandpa), папа (father), дядя (uncle). The gender of a nickname is masculine if the noun refers to a male: Ваня, Петя, Коля.

Feminine gender Feminine nouns end in -а, -я or -ь.

Сестра (sister), мама (mother), подруга (girl friend), семья (family)

газета (newspaper), Россия (Russia), Дочь (daughter)

Neuter gender Nouns ending in -о, -е, ь .

Письмо (letter), окно (window), дерево (tree), радио (radio),

метро (metro), здание (building)

Keep in mind that both masculine and feminine may end in -ь. You should memorize these words.

There are very few exceptions to these rules. But there are five notable exceptions, this occurs mainly because of physical gender.

Папа - (Daddy, Papa) – Is Masculine

Дядя - (Uncle) – Is Masculine

Дедушка - (Grandfather) – Is Masculine

Мужчина - (Man) – Is Masculine

Кофе - (Coffee) – Is Masculine

Exercise1. For each of the following Russian nouns, work out their gender.a. Собака - (dog)b. Бар - (bar)c. Лимонад - (lemonade)d. Пиво - (beer)e. Вода - (water)f. Туалет - (toilet)g. Торт - (cake)h. Журнал - (magazine)i. Газета - (newspaper)j. здание - (building)k. радио - (radio)l. телевизор - (television)m. Англия - (England)n. Письмо - (letter)o. Паспорт - (passport)p. виза - (visa)q. школа (school)

Answers1. (a) F, (b) M, (c) M, (d) N, (e) F, (f) M, (g) M, (h) M, (i) F, (j) N, (k) N, (l) M, (m) F, (n) N, (o) M, (p) F, (q) F.

Russian Genders' Table

Russian Gender's TableMasculine Feminine Neuter

ending consonant -а, -я -о, -е

examples нос, брат, осёл, козёл, кот, стол

сестра, труба, семья, профессия

море, письмо, дерево

exceptions

ь (should remember)-а, -я - persons of masculine gender

or Russian male names

ь (should remember)

exceptions examples

учитель (teacher) - should remember ending ь, дедушка (grandpa) - person of masculine

gender, Ваня - Russian male name

дочь (daughter), печь (oven)

Plural Nouns Nouns can be used in the singular and in the plural number. Some nouns have the singular form only: одежда (clothes), происхождение (origin). Some nouns have the plural form only макароны (macaroni), брюки (trousers).

Nouns in plural in Nominative Case ending in -ы, -и, -а, -я. Masculine and Feminine Nouns have the ending -ы, -и. Neuter nouns ending -а, -я.

Masculine and feminine nouns endings -ы, -и.-И -Ы

if noun in singular ending in к, г, х, ж, ш, ч, щ, й, ь or -я or preceded by consonants к, г, х, ж, ш, ч, щ in other cases

звук - звукипирог - пирогизапах - запахи

нож - ножиплащ - плащиврач - врачи

трамвай - трамваисловарь - словарифонарь - фонари

кухня - кухнисобака - собакикнига - книгиниша - ниши

стол - столыинженер - инженеры

компьютер - компьютерыстрана - страны

бабушка - бабушкиподруга - подруги

кукла - куклы

Exceptions: some masculine nouns ending in -а, -я.адрес - адреса

дом - домадиректор - директора

проректор - проректорасорт - сорта

номер- номераNeuter plural

ending -а, -я ending -МЯ in singular change to -МЕНА in plural письмо - письма

море - моряокно -окна

озеро - озёра

время - временасемя- семена

племя - племенаимя - имена

Remember Special Cases: сосед - соседисын - сыновьябрат - братьядруг - друзьядочь - дочеримать - материстул - стульячудо - чудесадерево - деревья

The Nominative Case The nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. In the sentence “I love her”, the word “I” is the subject. The nominative case is the dictionary form for nouns, so there is nothing special to learn here.

The only time you need to change the ending is to form the plural. In English we make a plural by adding “s”. In Russian, in the nominative case, you make a plural by using the letters “и”, “ы”, “я” or “а”.

Some examples:студент (student) becomes: студенты (students)газета (newspaper) becomes: газеты (newspapers)здание - (building) becomes: здания (buildings)

The Accusative Case To form simple sentences like “I want a dog”, you need to use the accusative case also. The accusative case is used for the object of a sentence, in this case the word “dog”. The only time we use the accusative case in English is with pronouns. We use “me” instead of “I” and “him” instead of “he”. Russian uses the case for all nouns.

Russian is very free about word order. For example, in Russian it may be possible to change the order of the words in a sentence, without changing the actual meaning. This doesn’t work in English because we rely on the subject always coming first. However, in Russian it still makes perfect sense because the object will still be in the accusative case. It is normal in Russian to use the same word ordering as English.

Accusative Case Form Here are the rules for forming the accusative case from the dictionary (nominative) form.

Masculine Nouns:

1. If the noun in inanimate, there is no change.2. If noun is animate and ends in a consonant, add “а”.3. If noun is animate, replace “й”, with “я”.4. If noun is animate, replace “ь”, add “я”.

Feminine Nouns:1. Replace “а” with “у”.2. Replace “я” with “ю”.

Neuter Nouns:1. Inanimate nouns do not change (almost all neuter nouns are inanimate).

Instrumental Case (With, By)

In Russian, the instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done. In English we commonly use the words "by" or "with" to do this. You would use the instrumental in a sentence like "we went there by car".

Forming the Instrumental Case

Masculine Nouns:1. If the noun ends in “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ”, then add “ем” if unstressed, if stressed add “ом”.2. Other consonants, add “ом”.3. Replace “й”, with “ем”, if stressed “ём”.4. Replace “ь”, add “ем”, if stressed “ём”.

Feminine Nouns:1. If the stem of the noun ends in “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ”, replace “а” with “ей” 2. Otherwise, replace “а” with “ой” (or rarely “ою”)3. Replace “я” with “ей”, if stressed “ёй”.4. Replace “ь” with “ью”.

Neuter Nouns:1. Add “м”

The phrase "if stressed" in this case, means if the end of the word is stressed.The exceptions for “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ” are to comply with the spelling rule.

DeclensionNouns can be classified as to the form of the endings that can be tacked onto them. For

example, in English some nouns take the plural ending -s (cat-s) and some take -es (ditch-es), thus forming two classes of nouns. (Although we don’t call them declension classes, this is the principle upon which such classification is made, i.e. On the form of the endings.) Russian nouns are classified into four groups, based on the form of the endings that can be added to them. These groups are called declension classes. The endings also depend on the Russian Spelling Rules (see Russian Spelling System).

Noun Declension Table

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Nominative - —/й/ь -а/я , -ь -о/е Masc: -ы/и Neu: -а/я Fem: -ы/и

Accusative Inanimate: like nom. Animate: like gen. -у/ю -о/е , -я Inanimate: like nom.

Animate: like gen.

Genitive -а/я -ы/-и -а/я , -ени Masc: -ов/ев , but -ж/ч/ш/щ/ь gets -ей Neu: - —/й Fem: - —/ь

Dative -у/ю -е/и -у/ю , -ени -ам/ям Prepositional -е -е/и -е , -ени -ах/ях Instrumental -ом/ем -ой/ей /ью -ом/ем , -енем -ами/ями

Mnemonic Rules of Cases

Russian Accusative CaseFor a masculine noun: For a feminine noun: Neuterwhen the noun in inanimate, no change is necessary.when the noun is animate and ends with a consonant, add “а”.when the noun is animate, replace “й”, with “я”.when the noun is animate, replace “ь”, add “я”.

replace “а” with “у”.replace “я” with “ю”

Almost all neuter noun is inanimate, so no change is necessary

Russian Genitive CaseFor a masculine noun: For a feminine noun: For a neuter noun:for nouns ending in a consonant add “а”.replace “й”, with “я”.replace “ь”, add “я”.

replace “а” with “ы”.replace “я” with “и”.replace “ь” with “и”.

replace “о” with “а”.replace “е” with “я”.

Prepositions associated with the Russian genitive Russian Verbsбез,для,до, из,

without,for, up to, from,

из-за, кроме, на, с, со,

because of,except for,on,with,

у, недалеко от, позади,

at,near to,behind,

ждать, достигать,желатьпросить, хотеть

wait,reach,wish,ask, want

Russian Dative CaseFor a masculine noun: For a feminine noun: For a neuter noun:for nouns ending with a consonant, add “у”.replace “й”, with “ю”.replace “ь”, add “ю”.

replace “а” with “е”.replace “я” with “е”.replace “ь” with “и”.

replace “о” with “у” replace “е” with “ю”

Prepositions associated with the Russian Dative Russian Verbs (dative)к, по,

to, on,

подобно, согласно,

similarly to,according to,

благодаря, вопреки,

owing to, contrary to,

ДаватьПомогать

give,help,

СоветоватНравиться

advise,like,

Russian Prepositional (Locative) CaseFor a masculine noun: For a feminine noun: For a neuter noun:- simply add “е” - replace “а” with “е”.

- replace “я” with “е”.- replace “ь” with “и”.

- replace “о” with “е”.- no need to replace “е” if it’s ending the word.

Russian Instrumental CaseFor a masculine noun For a feminine noun neuter noun- for nouns ending with “ж”, “ш”, “щ”, “ц”, “ч” add “ем” if unstressed, if stressed add “ом”.- for other consonants, add “ом”. - replace “й”, with “ем”, if stressed “ём”.- replace “ь”, add “ем”, if stressed “ём”.

- for stems of nouns end with “ж”, “ш”, “щ”, “ц”, “ч” replace “а” with “ей” - for the rest replace “а” with “ой”- replace “я” with “ей”, if stressed “ёй”.- replace “ь” with “ью”.

simply add “м”

I Declension - Masculine Paired Consonants

SG 'student' 'table' 'bullock' 'teacher' 'dictionary'N студент стол вол учитель словарьA студента стол вола учителя словарьG студента стола вола учителя словаряD студенту столу волу учителю словарюL студенте столе воле учителе словареI студентом столом волом учителем словаремPLN студенты столы волы учителя словариA студентов столы волов учителей словариG студентов столов волов учителей словарейD студентам столам волам учителям словарямL студентах столах волах учителях словаряхI студентами столами волами учителями словарями

I Declension - Masculine Unpaired Consonants

SG 'person' 'pencil' 'hero' 'American' 'scenery'N человек карандаш герой американец сценарийA человека карандаш героя американца сценарийG человека карандаша героя американца сценарияD человеку карандашу герою американцу сценариюL человеке карандаше герое американце сценарииI человеком карандашом героем американцем сценариемPLN люди карандаши герои американцы сценарииA людей карандаши героев американцев сценарииG людей карандашей героев американцев сценариевD людям карандашам героям американцам сценариямL людях карандашах героях американцах сценарияхI людьми карандашами героями американцами сценариями

I Declension – Neuter

SG 'window' 'field' 'building' 'freak'N окно поле здание чудовищеA окно поле здание чудовищеG окна поля здания чудовищаD окну полю зданию чудовищуL окне поле здании чудовищеI окном полем зданием чудовищемPLN окна поля здания чудовищаA окна поля здания чудовищG окон полей зданий чудовищD окнам полям зданиям чудовищамL окнам полях зданиях чудовищахI окнами полями зданиями чудовищами

II Declension - Feminine (and some masculine and epicene)

SG ‘room’ ‘sister’ ‘murderer’ ‘article’ ‘book’ ‘lecture’

N комната сестра убийца статья книга лекция

A комнату сестру убийцу статью книгу лекцию

G комнаты сестры убийцы статьи книги лекции

D комнате сестре убийце статье книге лекции

L комнате сестре убийце статье книге лекции

I комнатой сестрой убийцей статьёй книгой лекцией

PL

N комнаты сёстры убийцы статьи книги лекции

A комнаты сёстры убийцы статьи книги лекции

G комнат сестёр убийц статей книг лекций

D комнатам сёстрам убийцам статьям книгам лекциям

L комнатах сёстрах убийцах статьях книгах лекциях

I комнатами сёстрами убийцами статьями книгами лекциями

III Declension – Feminine only

SG ‘church’ ‘square’ ‘door’ ‘mother’ ‘daughter’

N церковь площадь дверь мать дочь

A церковь площадь дверь мать дочь

G церкви площади двери матери дочери

D церкви площади двери матери дочери

L церкви площади Двери * матери дочери

I церковью площадью дверью матерью дочерью

PL

N церкви площади двери матери дочери

A церкви площади двери матерей дочерей

G церквей площадей дверей матерей дочерей

D церквям площадям дверям матерям дочерям

L церквях площадях дверях матерях дочерях

I церквями площадями дверьми матерями дочерьми

* в/на двери but о двери

2.2.3 Exceptions within declensional paradigms:

The major exceptions to the I declension given above are

(1) the word путь - ‘path’ (N/A: путь, G/D/L: пути, I: путём)

(2) neuter nouns ending in the grapheme я:

(SG: N/A: время, G/D/L: времени, I: временем; PL: N/A времена, G: времён, D: временам, L: временам, I: временами -’time’) Other neuter nouns with this declension include:

имя -’name’, знамя -’banner’, пламя -’flame’, вымя -’udder’, семя -’seed’, бремя -’burden’,

племя -’tribe’, стремя -’stirrup’, темя -’crown of the head’

(3) masculine family names with the suffixes -ov, -in require the adjectival desinence in the

instrumental singular (ушкин/ушкиным -’Pushkin’; ванов/вановым -’Ivanov’)

(4) feminine family names with the suffixes -ova. -ina utilize the pronominal declensional paradigm:

‘this’ ‘Akhmatova’ ‘Axmadulina’

N эта Ахматова Ахмадулина

A эту Ахматову Ахмадулину

G этой Ахматовой Ахмадулиной

D этой Ахматовой Ахмадулиной

L этой Ахматовой Ахмадулиной

I этой Ахматовой Ахмадулиной(5) Plural family names require adjectival desinences in all non-nominative case forms:

‘Bulgakovs’

N улгаковы

A улгаковых

G улгаковых

D улгаковым

L улгаковых

I улгаковыми(6) There are several word forms in CSR that are formally adjectival but semantically behave as

nouns. Included in this group are many Russian family names. Note the following examples:

столовая ‘dining room, cafeteria’

ванная ‘bathroom’

булочная ‘bakery’

пирожковая ‘meat/vegetable pie shop’ 30

примерочная ‘fitting room’

парикмахерская ‘beauty salon’

Family names: олстая, олстой -’Tolstoy’, орький -’Gorky’, яземский -’Vjazemsky’, Анненский -’Annensky’

Many Russian adjectives in the neuter nominative form may also behave as nouns semantically:

прошлое ‘the past’

настоящее ‘the present’

будущее ‘the future’

Russian Names - Русские именаOne Russian person has three names: first name - имя, last name - фамилия, and patronymic name - отчество.

First Name

First names have many forms in Russian. In informal situations, and with children, Russians use a host of imaginative variations of a person's имя. For example, Михаил can appear as Миша, Мишенька, Мишка. Миха, Мишутка, Мишутонька, Мишуточка, and so on. Елена can be called Лена, Леночка, Ленка, Ленок, Ленуся. This is like using Nick for Nicholas or Mike for Michael, but the list can be very long, as Russians use the large range of suffixes available to them.

Here is the list of some Russian names with most common nick and affectionate forms.

Given name Nick name Affectionate name

used in formal situations and in one's ID used in informal situations and to address a friend

used to address a child as well as one's nearest and dearest

Men's Names Александр Алексей Анатолий Андрей Антон Борис Виктор Владимир Дмитрий Евгений Егор Иван Игорь Михаил Николай Олег Павел Пётр Роман Сергей Фёдор Юрий

Саша, Шура Лёша, Алёша Толя Андрюша Антоша, Тоша Боря Витя Володя, Вова Дима Женя - Ваня - Миша Коля - Паша Петя Рома Серёжа Федя Юра

Сашенька, Шурочка Лёшенька, Алёшенька Толенька Андрюшенька Антошенька, Тошенька Боренька Витенька Володенька, Вовочка Димочка Женечка Егорушка Ванечка Игорёк Мишенька Коленька Олежка, Олеженька Пашенька, Павлик Петенька Ромочка Серёженька Феденька Юрочка

Given name Nick name Affectionate name

used in formal situations and in one's ID used in informal situations and to address a friend

used to address a child as well as one's nearest and dearest

Women's Names Анна Алла Анастасия Антонина Варвара Дарья Екатерина Елена Елизавета Зинаида Инна Ирина Лариса Людмила Любовь Мария, Марья Наталия, Наталья Надежда Оксана Ольга Светлана Тамара Татьяна Юлия Яна

Аня - Настя Тоня Варя Даша Катя Лена Лиза Зина - Ира Лара Люда, Люся, Мила Люба Маша Наташа Надя - Оля Света Тома Таня Юля -

Анечка, Аннушка, Анюта Алочка Настенька Тонечка Варенька Дашенька Катенька, Катюша Леночка Лизонька Зиночка Иночка Ирочка Ларочка Людочка, Люсенька, Милочка Любочка Машенька Наташенька Наденька Оксаночка, Ксюша Оленька Светочка Томочка Танечка Юленька Яночка

Notes

Some given names have male and female variations. For example: Александр and Евгений are used for men and boys, Александра and Евгения - for women and girls. Their nick names and diminutives used for both male and female variations.

Some given names have no short (nick) names. For example: Егор, Игорь, Олег, Оксана, Алла, Инна, Яна. Though they all have diminutives.

Patronymics And Last Names

Patronimics names are used to address someone who is your senior or to denote respect. Adult Russians who are on formal terms will call each other by their first name and patronimic. Young people will address older people in this way. Patronimic name is formed from one's farther first name with the appropriate suffixes added: -ович or -евич for men and -овна, or -евна for women.

Examples: Иван Петрович Ivan, Peter's son

Михаил Сергеевич Michael, Sergey's son

Анна Петровна Anna, Peter's daughter

Ольга Сергеевна Olga, Sergey's daughter

Russian last (family) names take on a feminine ending for women. For example:

Владимир Путин Vladimir Putin but

Людмила Путина Ludmila Putina

Notes

Some Russian last names are derived from first names historically. For example, the most widespread Russian last names are Иванов and Петров. They should not be confused with patronimics. The suffixes will help you to distinguish them.

Here are some examples of full Russian names (first name + patronimic + last name). Note the difference between patronimic and last name suffixes.

Имя отчество фамилия

Иван Иванович Иванов

Павел Антонович Петров

Мария Ивановна Иванова

Татьяна Сергеевна Андреева

10 PrepositionsRussian prepositions extend and specify the meanings of the case system. For that reason, while cases may appear without prepositions, prepositions must be accompanied by a case. This means that prepositions in Russian may not appear alone, as adverbs or conjunctions, as they may in English.

In English, all the following are grammatically acceptable:

English Preposition-Adverb-ConjunctionJohn saw me before the ball. PrepositionJohn had seen me before. AdverbJohn had seen me before I met my wife. Conjunction

In Russian only the first two constructions are possible, Preposition + Noun or Pronoun, either of which must bear the appropriate case ending.

Russian Prepositions, Etc. Ваня видел меня до бала. Preposition beforeВаня раньше меня видел. Adverb beforeВаня видел меня до того, как я встретился с женой.

Conjunction before

Notice in the Russian table that the preposition до+Gen cannot serve as an adverb at all and when it serves as a conjunction, it must have a dummy pronoun, то bearing the genitive case marker, -ого. This is because conjunctions introduce entire sentences and sentences cannot bear case. Russian is forced to use dummy pronouns to reflect the case required by any preposition which is used as a conjunction.

The major linguistic principle to remember in connection with prepositions is this:

Prepositions must always have an object noun or pronoun which bears the case governed by the preposition.

To help you remember this rule—and to learn the cases associated with the Russian prepositions—all prepositions will be presented with the case they govern in the discussion of them which follows. Moreover, they will be presented according to the case the govern, beginning with the first case, the nominative.

Prepositions Governing the Nominative Case Only two Russian prepositions are used with the Nominative case and those are used semi-idiomatically.

1. The preposition за+Nom is used only in questions with the interrogative pronoun что, where it is a synonym of the adjectival pronoun какой in the sense of 'what kind of', as the following examples illustrate.

Что она за женщина?What kind of woman is she? Какая она женщина?

Что Володя за студент?What kind of student is Volodya? Какой студент Володя?

2. The other preposition which governs the nominative case is в+Nom, used exclusively with plural objects to indicate joining an organization of some type, as illustrated in the following examples.

Маша недавно вышла в рабочие. Masha recently became worker.

Дима пошёл в политики. Dima has become a politician.

Otherwise, the nominative case is used only to mark the subject of the clause or sentence. (Of course, it also is used to mark the citation form of a noun or adjective listed in the dictionary or used as a label on an object in the real world.)

Prepositions Governing the Genitive CaseThere are more prepositions associated with the Genitive case than any other case. In fact, the genitive has become the default case for new prepositions. The best way to approach mastering them all is to sort them out into semantic families or classes. That is what we will do here.

The Genitive case historically has been associated with three core meanings:

• non-existence (negation) • closeness • the origin direction ("from somewhere")

These three core meanings and a few others are associated with the use of the genitive without prepositions and so it comes as no surprise that they are associated with prepositions which govern the genitive. Let us begin our survey of the genitive prepositions with a review of all of them, then we will examine each one individually. There are about 24 altogether, listed below in the semantic order of the list above.

The Genitive Prepositions Non-Existence and Negation

без +Gen without

(на)против +Gen against, opposite

кроме +Gen except

вместо +Gen instead of

Closeness у +Gen by, at

близ +Gen near

вдоль+Genalong

возле +Gen by, near

мимо +Gen past, by

около +Gen near, around

(по)среди+Genamong

вокруг +Gen aroundOrigin

из(о)+Gen(out) from

с(о) +Gen (down) from

от(о) +Gen (away) from

после +Gen after

из-за+Genfrom behindbecause of

ис-под +Gen from under

&tc.вне+Genoutside

внутри +Gen inside

для +Gen for (benefit)

ради +Gen for the sake of

до +Gen as far as

накануне +Gen on the eve of

Now let's take a closer look at how the genitive prepositions operate in phrases.

Genitive Prepositions Indicating Non-ExistenceThe genitive case is associated with non-existence and negation. That is why the objects of sentences with negated verbs are placed in the genitive case if non-existence is implied. The prepositional meanings "without", "against", "except", and "instead of" also imply negation or non-existence of their objects. All these prepositions require the genitive in Russian.

1. The preposition без+Gen is very simple, even for Russian. In virtually every context it means "without". Its antonym is с(о) + Ins "with" .

Она это сделала без труда. She did that without difficulty.Он вышел без шапки. He went out without his cap.Без сомнения он это сделает. Without a doubt he will get it done.

2. The preposition против+Gen is a bit more complicated for it may mean either "opposite" or "across from" in the physical sense of location or "against" in the sense of "if I am not for it I am against it". In this sense it is the antonym of за + Acc . This same preposition may also be used to indicate spatial location, in which case it means "opposite (of)"; however, in this sense young Russians are more likely to use напротив+Gen. Here are a few examples to illustrate what I mean.

Я не против этого. I'm not against that.Он боролся против капитализма. He fought against capitalism.Он всегда сидит (на)против меня. He always sits opposite me.Они живут (на)против нас. They live across from us.

3. The preposition кроме+Gen means "except" or "but", when but is used as a preposition.

Я никого не знаю кроме тебя. I don't know anyone except you.Все кроме него пришли. Everyone came but him.

4. The preposition вместо+Gen (Don't confuse it with the adverb вместе "together"!) means "instead of" or "in place of". Here are some examples.

Пусть она поёт вместо меня. Let her sing instead of me.Вместо физики он выбрал музыку. In place of physics he chose music.

Genitive Prepositions Indicating ClosenessThere are 8 genitive prepositions indicating closeness or nearness in various forms. Some of them have other functions, as well. Here are the ways in which each is used.

5. The preposition у+Gen basically means "by, near" or "at". It is historically related to в+Loc and in some dialects these remain the same preposition, the consonant used before words beginning with a vowel, the vowel used before words beginning on a consonant. If the object of у is inanimate, it means "by, near", as in the top two examples in the table below.

a. If, however, the noun is animate, the meaning can also be "at someone's". So, rather than "near Masha" or "by Masha", у Маши is more likely to mean "at Masha's".

b. It is also possible for this preposition to simply imply possession, e.g. зуб у Маши болит simply means "Masha's tooth aches". If the prepositional phrase is used in the predicate with (an optional) есть, this possessive construction may be interpreted by the English verb "have", e.g. у меня (есть) Биг Мак "I have a Big Mac", that is, literally, "there is a Big Mac by me".

c. Finally, у+Gen can also be used to indicate the origin of something in certain contexts. Я узнал об этом у Саши means "I found out about that from Sasha." Here are some more examples to work on.

Их дом стоит у самой реки Their house is right by the river.Это — Дарья у руля. That is Darya at the wheel.Вчера я была у Маши. Yesterday I was at Masha's.Мы все ждали у него. We all waited at his place.У него есть всё. He has everything.У нее сестра заболела. Her sister got sick.Я купил машину у Льва. I bought the car from Leo.Я занял деньги у него. I borrowed money from him.

6. близ+Gen has the same meaning as the adjective it is derived from: близкий "near, close".

Их дом стоит близ леса. Their house is near the woods.Дарья живёт близ Наташи. Darya lives near Natasha.

7. The preposition Вдоль+Gen means "along(side), down" and is used with verbs of motion and nonmotional verbs.

Ребята бежали вдоль улицы The kids were running down the street.Вдоль реки тянулся ряд дубов. Along the river stretched a row of oaks.

8. The preposition возле+Gen means "by, near" and may also be used as an adverb (not all prepositions may): Он стоял возле "he stood near-by".

Их дом стоит возле реки. Their house is by the river.Дарья живёт возле нас. Darya lives next to us.

9. Мимо+Gen means "past, by" and is often used with verbs prefixed with про-:

Дима прошёл мимо церкви. Dima walked by the church.Мяч пролетел мимо его рук. The ball flew past his hands.

10.The original meaning of около+Gen was "around" in the physical sense. However, like the English preposition "around", it has taken on the metaphoric meanings of (1) "near" and (2) "approximately".

Боря нашёл деньги около завода. Borya found the money near the factory.

Ваня всегда сидит около меня. Vanya always sits near me.Наташа пришла около двух часов. Natasha arrived around two o'clock.Она живёт около 4 километров отсюда. She lives about 4 kilometers from here.

11.(По)среди+Gen comes from the same Old Church Slavonic stem as среда "Wednesday" (the day in the middle of the week) and the Russian variant середина "middle". Today it means "among" if its object is plural but also retains the original meaning of the phrase it is derived from, "in the middle of", with either singular or plural objects.

(По)среди поля стояла берёза. In the middle of the field stood a birch.Среди девушек я увидел подругу. Among the girls I saw my friend.

12.The preposition вокруг+Gen derives from круг "circle", so it originally meant "in a circle (of)". Today, however, it is used only in the physical sense of the English preposition "around".

Вокруг меня всё было тихо. Around me everything was quiet.

Все сидели вокруг стола. Everyone was sitting around the table.

Genitive Prepositions Indicating OriginThere are six genitive prepositions which indicate the origin or source of their objects: из(о)+Gen "(out) of", с(о)+Gen (down) from, от(о)+Gen "(away) from", из-за+Gen "from behind, because of", ис-под+Gen "from under", and после+Gen "after". In its drive for simplicity, Russian has avoided a single preposition meaning simply "from" in favor of three other more specific prepositions already in the language. That is, the first three prepositions in this list may mean either "from" in general or, specifically, "out of", "away from", and "down from", respectively. Clever, huh? This strategy reduces the number of Russian words needed to speak clearly. For more about how they pair with prepositions referring to the direction toward something, go here.

13.The threesome из(о)+Gen "(out) of", с(о)+Gen "(down) from", от(о)+Gen "(away) from" are interesting for several of reasons.

• First, notice that they have a fleeting vowel. Remember that the o is inserted if the preposition is followed by a pronoun or one of a select group of nouns that begins with a consonant cluster containing the same or a similar consonant (с, з, ш, ч, ж, щ for из and т, or д for от).

• Second, all these prepositions may also be used to refer to time. That use will not be discussed here but on a separate page on Time Expressions in Russian.

• Finally, these three prepositions form a class with the prepositions indicating where an object is at and where it it moving to. This class is best explained with the following important table, which you may have seen elsewhere in the grammar.

Prepositions Expressing Basic MotionsObject is Откуда? Где? Куда?

Inanimateиз(о)+Gen (out) of в+Prep in/at в+Acc (in)toс(о)+Gen (down) from на+Prep on/at на+Acc (on)to

Animate от(о)+Gen (away) from у+Gen by/at к+Dat to(ward)

This table shows that Russian lacks prepositions meaning specifically "from", "at", and "to". Rather it uses ambiguously the prepositions meaning specifically "out of", "off of", "away from" and "in", "on", "by", and "into", "onto", "up to" , for expressing "from", "at", and "to". Which set of 3 is used depends on the animacy of the noun serving as object of the preposition and whether it is a flat place or an object with an interior. The important point to remember is that if a noun uses any one of these prepositions because it is flat, has an interior, or is animate, it uses all three in the set. The sets cannot under any circumstances be mixed.

• To express "from" when the noun is animate, you use от+Gen, e.g. от Ивана "from Ivan's", от Татяны "from Tatyana's".

• To say "from" a place that humans or animals normally phycially go inside of, you say, из+Gen: из дома "from home", из школы "from school". There are a couple of exceptions.

• To say "from" under all other circumstances (if the noun refers to a flat, open space or if it is abstract), use с+Gen, e.g. с поля "from the field", с лекции "from class".

14.The instrumental prepositions под+Ins "under" and за+Ins "behind" have genitive prepositions compounded with из, indicating the direction "from": из-под+Gen "from under" and из-за+Gen "from behind". There are no genitive prepositions corresponding to the other two directional instrumental prepositions, над+Ins "over, above" and перед+Ins "before, in front of".

Both of these prepositions have alternative meanings. In addition to "from under", из-под+Gen is occasionally used to indicate the use for which an object is intended: банка из-под варенья "a jar for jam" or "an empty jam jar". If the jar contains jam, the simple genitive is used: банка варенья. Из-за+Gen can also mean "because of" when referring to an unfortunate or disappointing result: Из-за снега мы опоздали на работу "because of the snow, we were late for work". (If the result is positive or fortunate, Russians use благодаря+Dat.)

Кошка выскочила из-под дивана. The cat jumped out from under the couch.На столе кувшин из-под кваса. On the table is the pitcher (we use) for kvas.Кошка выскочила из-за дивана. The cat jumped out from behind the couch.Я сделала ошибку из-за него. I made a mistake because of him.

15.The preposition после+Gen "after" has something of a temporal origin sense. It is used everywhere and only where English after is used and so requires no comment. Here are two examples.

Она вернулась домой после работы. She returned home after work.Он всегда занимается после лекций. He always studies after class.

Miscellaneous Genitive Prepositions

In addition to the more or less semantically ordered prepositions governing the genitive case, there are six which do not fit the large semantic categories. Some of them are semantically related, however; вне+Gen "inside" and внутри+Gen "outside" are antonyms and для+Gen and ради+Gen both imply a beneficiary. The other two, до+Gen and the borderline preposition накануне+Gen are simply left over.

16.The pair вне+Gen "outside" and внутри+Gen "inside" are recently derived from adverbs since it is still possible to create adjectives from both of them: внешний "external, outer" and внутренний "internal, inner". Their usage today pretty much follows that of English inside and outside.

Он действует вне закона. He operates outside the law.Внутри дома всё было чисто. Inside the house everything was clean.

17.The prepositions для+Gen "for" and ради+Gen "for the sake of" both indicate a beneficiary of something; however, ради+Gen, just as English for, may be used to mark the purpose of something or for which something is done and, also just as in English, it is more often used when high purposes rather than ordinary ones.

Она делает всё для меня. She does everything for me.Это — посуда для кваса. That is a container for kvas.Ради бога, не плюй на пол. For God's sake, don't spit on the floor.

Он погиб ради родины. He perished for the sake of his country.18.The preposition до+Gen has two meanings. It's temporal sense is simply "before" or

"until", the antonym of после + Gen . But it also can mean "as far as", differing from к+Dat in that it implies "reaching" something as well as going up to it. If the verb of the clause contains the prefix до-, too, often the entire phrase may be replaced by the English verb reach.

Он часто занимается до лекции. He often studies before class.Они доехали до Москвы к вечеру. They reached Moscow by evening.Температура дошла до 28 градусов. The temperature went up to 28 degrees.

19.The preposition накануне+Gen "on the eve of" is a marginal preposition because the noun канун "eve, time just before an event" still exists in the language, so in the spoken language it may just be a prepositional phrase itself, that is, на кануне. It is common for prepositional phrases and participles to develop into prepositions, however, since their meanings are often similar.

Накануне революции Ленин был в Финляндии.

On the eve of the Revolution Lenin was in Finland.

Prepositions Governing the Accusative CaseLet us begin our review of the prepositions governing the accusative case by simply checking out all twelve of them and their general meanings.

Accusative Prepositions в +Acc (in)to с +Acc about на +Acc (on)to про +Acc about за +Acc [to] behind о +Acc against под +Acc [to] under сквозь +Acc through по +Acc up to через +Acc through, across

Now let's take a closer look at each of them and see how they work in sentences.

The Accusative with Verbs of MotionThe accusative case is associated with the direction of a motion, so the most prominent prepositions which demand the accusative case are those prepositions used with verbs of motion to indicate the direction of the motion. Four Russian prepositions govern the accusative case to indicate motion toward a place and either the prepositional or instrumental case to indicate presence at that place.

Accusative with Motion Verbs Куда? Где? Откуда?

в+Acc '(in)to' в+Prep 'in, at' из+Gen '(out) from' на+Acc '(on)to' на+Prep 'on, at' с+Gen (down) from за+Acc [to] 'behind' за+Inst 'behind' из-за+Gen 'from behind' под+Acc [to] 'under' под+Inst 'under' ис-под+Gen 'from under'

To indicate the presence of an object at a place, use these prepositions with the prepositional or instrumental cases. Many of these prepositions are used in time expressions as well. За+Acc can also mean "for", the antonym of "against (something)".

Под+Acc has three minor uses aside from indicating direction 'under'.

a. It can mean "designated for" when used with a verb of motion: этот сарай предзначен под сено "that barn is earmarked for hay".

b. Под+Acc can also refer to the nature of something artificial or fake: обстановка под орех "artificial walnut furniture".

c. Finally, it may refer to an approximate time: приходить под вечер "arrive near evening".

Other Prepositions Governing the Accusative1. The prepositions про+Acc and с+Acc mean "about", but in different senses. Про+Acc means "about" in the same sense as о+ Prep.

Ваня всё говорит о Наташе.

Ваня всё говорит про Наташу. Vanya talks about Natasha all the time

2. С+Acc is not quite so simple. The most colloquial way of indicating that a number is approximate in Russian is to reverse the number and the noun that it quantifies, for example,

Там было сорок человек.There were forty people there.

Там было человек сорок.There were about forty people there.

Пять студентов пришли.Five students came.

Студентов пять пришло.About 5 students came.

This creates a problem, though: how does one say "about one", since Russians do not use the number "one" (один) to indicate one thing normally. Одна неделя would usually be taken to mean "a certain week" rather than "one week". Неделя одна means the same thing. To say "about one" in Russian you use the preposition с+Acc, which otherwise indicates approximate number or size:

Она ростом с сестру. She is like her sister in size. Он пробыл с неделю у нас. He spent about a week with us. репа с баскетбольный мяч a turnip the size of a basketball. Мальчик с пальчик Tom (the size of a) Thumb

3. The preposition по+Acc means "up to" in the sense indicating the extent of an object's involvement measured against some other object. Here are some examples.

Она стояла по пояс в воде. She stood in water up to her waist. Я по шею в работе. I'm up to my neck in work.

The preposition по+Acc is also used in the distributive sense of по + Dat when the noun refers to more than one object: Папа дал детям по два яблока/по пятьсот рублей "Dad gave the kids two apples/500 rubles apiece".

4. The preposition о+Acc means "against" in the sense of coming in physical contact with another object.

Она ударилась головой о стену. She hit her head against the wall. Волны били о берег. The waves beat against the shore. Он опирался о стену. He was leaning against the wall.

5. The preposition сквозь+Acc indicates the object "through" which another passes.

Сквозь туман тускло светила луна. The moon glowed dimly through the fog.

Он всегда смотрит на это сквозь палцы! He always looks through hisfingers (the other way) at that!

Смех сквозь слёзы Laughter through tears 6. The preposition через + Acc has two major functions. The first is to indicate the sense of "through" synonymous with сквозь+Acc, which Russians also use to indicate the path "across" something. In this latter sense it is omissible if accompanying a verb with the synonymous prefix пере- "across".

Они как-то пробрались через лес. They somehow managed to get through the woods. Я быстро перешёл через улицу. I quickly crossed the street. Я быстро перешёл улицу. I quickly crossed the street.

Через+Acc is also used in time expressions to indicate the duration of time before the beginning of an action. Click here for an explanation.

Prepositions Governing the Prepositional Case The prepositional case is so named because it is is used only with prepositions, and only four prepositions are currently used with this case: в+Prep "in, at", на+Prep "on, at", о(б)+Prep "about", and при+Prep "on (one's person), during".

Notice that the first two have two meanings "in, at" and "on, at". This is because the Russian people have discovered away of ridding their language of any preposition meaning "at": they simply use these two prepositioins (and u+Gen) to mean "at". Because the meanings are so similar (as you will soon see), there is never any confusion.

To keep the 'two' meanings distinct in the English-speaking mind, you need only to remember where you are (easy enough if you're under 50). For example, if you are at home and someone says, —Саша в школе, then they mean "Sasha is at school". Since the two places are totally different, Russians can use the general meaning of в+Prep. If you are already at school, standing out on the sidewalk, say, then the same sentence will mean "Sasha is inside the school". Clever, huh? And it works every time. Here are some more examples; the 'at' examples are coded in blue. (See the section on case for and explanation of the case endings.)

The Locative (Place) Prepositions The Preposition в+Prep

Саша у себя в комнате. Sasha is in her room.Я забыла ключи в машине. I left the keys in the car.Боря сейчас учится в университете. Borya is at college now.Валя работает в больнице. Valya works at the hospital.

The Preposition на+PrepБоря спит на диване. Borya is sleeping on the couch.Валя любит ездить на автобусе. Valya likes to take the bus.Васи не было на лекции. Vasya wasn't at the lecture.Я забыла пальто на концерте I left my coat at the concert.

You might have noticed something unusual about the phrases with на+Prep meaning "at". While the phrases with в+Prep meaning "at" refer to an object that people are normally inside when they are 'at' it, на+Prep is usually used with abstract nouns like concert, lecture, class, meeting. The reason has to do with the rule for choosing between в+Prep and на+Prep. The basic principle is this: f

The 'At' Rule for Russian

In expressing "at" in Russian, choose в+Prep if the location is an inanimate object which human beings are normally inside when they are 'at' it; otherwise, chose на+Prep. (If the

object of the preposition is animate, y + Gen is used.)

The rule as stated predicts that if the object is on something people are usually on when they are 'at it', e.g. на поле "in the field", на улице "on the street", or if the object of the preposition refers to an abstract concept like concerts, lectures, etc., на+Prep will be used. В+Prep and на+Prep are also used in various time expressions which require special explanation. They are also used with the accusative case when modifying verbs of motion. Just to spice up what might otherwise be a boringly simple system, the Russians tossed in a couple of exceptions.

The preposition о(б)+Prep means "about" and is used pretty much the same as about is used in English. The preposition при+Prep has two common meanings. The first is "on one's person", as in У меня нет ручки при себе "I don't have a pen on me". The other meaning is "in the time of, during the tenure of", as in Всё это случилось при Петре первом "That happened in the time (during the reign of) Peter I." Here are a few more examples.

Other Prepositional Case Prepositions Они говорили только о работе. All they talked about was work.О чём вы думаете? What are you thinking about?При тебе есть деньги? Do you have any money on you?При Сталине было ужасно. During Stalin's time is was horrible.

No other prepositions currently govern the prepositional case. So let's move on to the prepositions governing the last case, the instrumental.

Prepositions Governing the Instrumental Case The basic function of the instrumental is to indicate the means by which an action is carried out. This is what the instrumental alone signifies, usually corresponding to the English prepositions with or by. However, the instrumental is also associated with the sense of accompaniment in many languages and Russian is one of them. To indicate the person or things that accompanies someone in Russian, a preposition is required: c+Ins 'with'. We will see how it works below. Finally, the instrumental has come to be associated with five specific place relations: 'behind', 'before', 'above', 'under' and 'between/among'. All of these meanings require prepositions, too. Here are the instrumental prepositions.

The Instrumental Prepositionsс(о)+Ins (along) with между+Ins between, among над+Ins above, over перед +Ins in front of, beforeпод+Ins under, beneath за+Ins behind

1. С(о)+Ins. It is important to understand that the English preposition with has two distinct meanings which are expressed in two different ways in Russian. with may indicate the means or instrument by which an action is carried out: He made the table with his hands/by hand. Notice that this meaning is also borne by the preposition by in some contexts. The other meaning is accompaniment; the object of with in this sense merely accompanies the noun modified by the prepositional phrase: He made the table with Sue or Sue arrived with her toolbox. This is a crucial distinction in Russian for the instrumental alone (without a preposition) expresses the former sense and the preposition с(о)+Ins marks only the second, sociative meaning.

The preposition с(о)+Ins is also used in a related sense to indicate the manner in which something is done when manner may be expressed by a noun, e.g. Он ел рыбу с некоторой неохотой "He ate the fish with a notable unwillingness". Both of these senses of с(о)+Ins are antonyms of без + Gen "without".

Володя пришел с друзьями. Volodya came with his friends. Алла пришла с цветами. Alla arrived with flowers. Он ходит только с трудом. He can walk only with difficulty. Она одевается со вкусом. She dresses with taste.

2. Между+Ins. This preposition means either "between" or "among" — Russian does not distinguish between two objects and more than two objects in this sense as the English prepositions do (although, don't forget среди + Gen "among"). As usual, Russian dispenses with the little quirks that makes learning English so difficult.

Это—секрет между нами. That's a secret between us. Между ними—полное согласие. There is complete agreement between them.

3. Над+Ins. To express the relation "over" or "above" the Russians use над+Ins regardless of whether the verb is a verb of motion or not.

Её картина висит над камином. Her picture hangs over the fireplace. Тучи стояли над городом. Storm clouds hung over the city. Он повесил винтовку над камином. He hung his rifle over the fireplace. Птица летела над домом. A bird flew over the house.

4. Перед+Ins. To express the relation spatial "before" or "in front of" the Russians use перед+Ins, also regardless of whether the verb is a verb of motion or not. But перед+Ins is

also used to indicate responsibility for something, where English uses to.

Перед нашим домом красивый сад. In front of our house is a pretty garden. Дима стал в очепедь перед другом. Dima got in line in front of his friend. Долг перед семьёй Debt to one's family Ответственность перед родиной Responsibility to one's native land

5. Под+Ins. This preposition has several marginally related functions:

a. To express the relation spatial "under" or "beneath" the Russians use под+Ins if no motion is involved. The same preposition requires the accusative case if it accompanies a verb of motion.

Собаки лежат под крыльцом. The dogs are lying under the porch.Ребята пошли под дождём в кино. The kids went to the movies in the rain.b. Под+Ins can also mean "near" in the physical sense. (Под + Acc has the same

meaning in reference to time.)

Серёжа живёт под Москвой. Seryozha lives near Moscow.У нее дача под Воронежем. She has a dacha near Voronezh.

6. За+Ins. This is another multifunctional preposition. Its basic meaning is "behind" and "beyond", but is a busy little fellow that does a lot more than that.

a. To express the relation of being spatially "behind" or "beyond" something, Russian employs за+Ins if no motion is involved. The same preposition requires the accusative case if it accompanies a verb of motion.

Паша стоит за мной. Pasha is standing behind me. Его поля за лесом. His fields are beyond the woods. Даря живёт за городом. Darya lives outside town.

b. За+Ins is also used to express "for" in two senses, explained elsewhere.

c. За+Ins can also mean "at" in the sense of "occupied with".

Я часто застаю их за чтением. I often find them reading.Он смотрит телевизор за ужином. He watches TV at dinner.

11 Numerals

Numerals (numbers) designate quantity or order in counting. They are divided into ordinal, collective, fractional and cardinal numbers.

Cardinal numbers designate the number of people or things, and answer the question Сколько? (How many/much?). For example,

двадцать пять карандашей - 25 pencils

The good news is that Russian cardinal numbers only change by cases and do not have gender (except один, полтора, два) or number (except один).

The numeral один agrees with the related noun by gender, number and case, as in:

одна ягода (feminine singular nominative)один карандаш (masculine singular nominative)одно окно (neuter singular nominative)

All other numerals, when used in phrases and sentences with the genitive noun, should be put in the nominative. For example,

два друга - two friends (друга is the genitive noun)пять столов - five tables (пять is the nominative numeral)двадцать метров - twenty metres

The numerals from 5 to 20 and the numeral 30 change by cases just like nouns of the third declension do.

Declension of the numerals пять, пятнадцать, тридцать

Case пять пятнадцать тридцать

Nominative пять пятнадцать тридцать

Genitive пяти пятнадцати тридцати

Dative as Genitive as Genitive as Genitive

Accusative as Nominative as Nominative as Nominative

Instumental пятью пятнадцатью тридцатью

Prepositional as Genitive as Genitive as GenitiveThe numerals сорок (40), девяносто (90) and сто (10) have only two forms for all the cases:

• the nominative (сорок, девяносто, сто) • the genitive, dative, instrumental, prepositional (сорока, девяноста, ста)

When declining the numerals from 50 to 80 and from 200 to 900, two parts of the word change. The example demonstrating that such numerals have two parts is семьдесят (seventy).

Declension of the numerals семьдесят, двести, девятьсот

Case семьдесят двести девятьсот

Nominative семьдесят двести девятьсот

Genitive семидесяти двухсот девятисот

Dative семидесяти двумстам девятистам

Accusative семьдесят двести девятьсот

Instumental семьюдесятью двумястами девятьюстами

Prepositional (о) семидесяти двухстах девятистахWhen declining composite numerals like шестьсот двадцать четыре (624), each word must change.

Declension of the numeral шестьсот двадцать четыре

Case шестьсот двадцать четыре

Nominative шестьсот двадцать четыре

Genitive шестисот двадцати четырёх

Dative шестистам двадцати четырём

Accusative as Nominative

Instumental шестьюстами двадцать четырьмя

Prepositional (о) шестистах двадцати четырёхThe numeral тысяча (1,000) declines like nouns of the 1st declension type. The numerals миллион (1,000,000), миллиард (1,000,000,000), триллион (1,000,000,000,000) decline like nouns of the 2nd declension type.

Russian Cardinal Numbers

1 - один2 - два 3 - три 4 - четыре 5 - пять6 - шесть7 - семь8 - восемь9 - девять10 - десять

11 - одиннадцать12 - дванадцать13 - тринадцать14 - четырнадцать 15 - пятнадцать 16 - шестнадцать 17 - семнадцать 18 - восемнадцать 19 - девятнадцать20 - двадцать

21 - двадцать один (20+1)22 - двадцать два (20+2)30 - тридцать 40 - сорок 50 - пятьдесят 60 - шестьдесят 70 - семьдесят 80 - восемьдесят 90 - девяносто 100 - сто

200 - двести 300 - триста 400 - четыреста 500 - пятьсот 600 - шестьсот 700 - семьсот 800 - восемьсот 900 - девятьсот 1,000 - тысяча 1,000,000 - миллион

As you see on the table above Russian Cardinal numbers are very easy to form, for example the numbers 11-19 are simply formed by adding “надцать” to the numbers 1-9. (one small exception is number 14 where you need to drop the ending “е” in “4 четыре”),

The Russian numbers 21-99 are formed by placing numbers from (1-9) after (20-30-40-50…90), note that they’re not connected.

Now you can form some Russian numbers easily, example: (двести шестьдесят семь 267).

Zero is ноль (nol), a billion is миллиард (milliard)

Rules of NumeralsStudents are always comparing languages they speak with the one they're learning, even if teachers tell them not to. Well, why not? Finding a consistent pattern can be really useful. These

patterns are not always given as rules in textbooks, but they help all the same.

For a Russian-speaker memorizing "numeral-plus-noun" stuff is a piece of cake: one dog - two (or more) dogS. But if you are an English-speaker studying Russian, you'll have to memorize a bit more.

Here are some tips to help you build the "noun section" of your vocabulary faster and more effectively.

Tip 1. Did you notice that in Russian it's NOT ENOUGH just to remember how to pronounce "two dogs" (cats, birds, etc.) to be through with plural?

For example: 1 dog - одна собака; 2 dogs - две собаки; 3 dogs - три собаки; 4 dogs - четыре собаки; 5 dogs - пять собак; 6,7,8, 9…20 dogs - 6,7,8, 9…20 собак. Take almost any countable noun - with 2,3,4 there will be one ending in plural, and with 5 or more - another.

When memorizing a noun, you'd better remember two forms of its plural as well. How to? Just count the things you're memorizing, say, up to 10 (if the noun is countable, of course). Not only will you remember its two plurals, you'll memorize the word itself more effectively.

Tip 2. The same when numbers bigger than 20 end with 2, 3, and 4. If the number ends with 1, use singular form.

For example: 21 dogs - двадцать одна собака; 22 dogs - двадцать две собаки; 23 dogs - двадцать три собаки; 24 dogs - двадцать четыре собаки; 25 dogs - двадцать пять собак.

More examples:

51 - пятьдесят одна собака; 123 dogs - сто двадцать три собаки; 1,184 dogs - тысяча сто восемьдесят четыре собаки; 4,357,962 dogs - четыре миллиона триста пятьдесят семь тысяч девятьсот шестьдесят две собаки (I guess it's a bit too many).

If you already learn cases, the rules are:

• For 1 and numbers more than 20 which end with 1 - use nominative singular. E.g.одна собака, сто тридцать одна собака…

• For 2, 3, 4, use the genitive singular ending. E.g.две собаки; три собаки; четыре собаки. • For numbers more than 20 which end with 2, 3, 4, also use genitive singular. E.g. сорок три

собаки; двести шестьдесят четыре собаки. • For all other numbers, use genitive plural. Пять собак; десять собак; восемьдесят шесть

собак…

Numerals have plurals, too - that's why the rule is the same with words like thousand, million, billion (тысяча, миллион, миллиард). It's absolutely the same what to count - dogs or thousands…

… Because these nouns are of the same gender and get endings in different cases according to the same pattern. Russian word "тысяча" (thousand) is feminine (so is "собака", by the way), but "миллион" and "миллиард" (million and billion) are masculine.

Well, I meant GRAMMATICAL gender - masculine, feminine or neuter. Your teacher probably told you that unlike English, in Russian nouns have grammatical gender. In short, it means that "computer" is "he", "keyboard" is "she", "application" is "it", and nobody knows why. So,

Tip 3 Remember gender as well!

It will help you not to mix endings up when you'll be using this word.

When nouns form plurals, they must be in Genitive case. Masculine, feminine and neuter words most likely will have different endings in Genitive and belong to different declension patterns (patterns of changing endings when put in different cases). Sometimes even nouns of the same gender can belong to different declension patterns. (If you haven't yet started learning them, you probably will - pretty soon. For a beginner, whose native language is English, studying Russian system of declension can be pure horror. But don't give up and you'll make it:)

Russian Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers decline just like adjectives, and therefore must agree in gender and number, as well as case with the noun they describe. Russian ordinal numbers are formed from cardinal numbers, and they have some additional endings like (-ый, -ой, -ая, -ое, -ые), see the table below:

Russian Ordinal Numbers

1st - первый2nd - второй3rd - третий4th - четвёртый5th - пятый6th - шестый7th - седьмой8th - восьмой9th - девятый10th- десятый

11th - одиннадцатый12th - двенадцатый13th - тринадцатый14th - четырнадцатый15th – пятнадцатый16th - шестнадцатый17th - семнадцатый18th - восемнадцатый19th - девятнадцатый20th - двадцатый

21th - двадцать первый (20+ 1st)30th - тридцатый40th - сороковой50th - пятидесятый60th - шестидесятый70th - семидесятый80th - восьмидесятый90th - девяностый100th - сотый1000th - тысячный

12 Participles

Participles are the form verbs assume when they are used in complex tense-aspect combinations such as John has worked or as adjectives modifying a noun, e. g. a working woman, the bent stick. Adverbial participles have the strictly adverbial function of modifying verbs: Walking home, I fell and sprained my ankle. As in this example, the adverbial participial usually tells 'when' the action of the main verb takes place, while the adjectival participle helps us identify the noun that it modifies.

While English possesses only two participles, the present ( I am working) and the past (I have worked), the Russian language possesses four adjectival participles and two adverbial ones. The English adverbial and adjectival participles are formally the same; the Russian correlates are not. The Russian adjectival and adverbial participles are as follows:

1. The Present Active Participle

2. The Present Passive Participle

3. The Past Active Participle

4. The Past Passive Participle

5. The Present Adverbial Participle

6. The Past Adverbial Participle

Following a full example with six participles of verb “love” любить:

любить (verb, imperfective aspect, transitive)любить infinitiveлюбиться infinitive, reflexiveлюбил past, masculine, singularлюбился past, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбила past, feminine, singularлюбилась past, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбило past, neuter, singularлюбилось past, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбили past, pluralлюбились past, plural, reflexiveлюбив past, verbal adverb, short formлюбивши past, verbal adverbлюбивший past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singularлюбившийся past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбившего past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singularлюбившегося past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбившему past, active participle, dative, masculine, singularлюбившемуся past, active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбивший past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate

любившийся past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate, reflexive

любившего past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate

любившегося past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexiveлюбившим past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singularлюбившимся past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбившем past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singularлюбившемся past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбившая past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singularлюбившаяся past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившей past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singularлюбившей past, active participle, dative, feminine, singularлюбившей past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбившей past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singularлюбившейся past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившейся past, active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившейся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившейся past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившую past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singularлюбившуюся past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбившее past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singularлюбившее past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singularлюбившееся past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившееся past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившего past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singularлюбившегося past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившему past, active participle, dative, neuter, singularлюбившемуся past, active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившим past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singularлюбившимся past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившем past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singularлюбившемся past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбившие past, active participle, nominative, pluralлюбившиеся past, active participle, nominative, plural, reflexiveлюбивших past, active participle, genitive, pluralлюбивших past, active participle, prepositional, pluralлюбившихся past, active participle, genitive, plural, reflexiveлюбившихся past, active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexiveлюбившим past, active participle, dative, pluralлюбившимся past, active participle, dative, plural, reflexiveлюбившие past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimateлюбившиеся past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexiveлюбивших past, active participle, accusative, plural, animateлюбившихся past, active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexiveлюбившими past, active participle, instrumental, pluralлюбившимися past, active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexive

любившею past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбившеюся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбленный past, passive participle, nominative, masculine, singularлюбленного past, passive participle, genitive, masculine, singularлюбленному past, passive participle, dative, masculine, singularлюбленный past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimateлюбленного past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateлюбленным past, passive participle, instrumental, masculine, singularлюбленном past, passive participle, prepositional, masculine, singularлюбленная past, passive participle, nominative, feminine, singularлюбленной past, passive participle, genitive, feminine, singularлюбленной past, passive participle, dative, feminine, singularлюбленной past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбленной past, passive participle, prepositional, feminine, singularлюбленную past, passive participle, accusative, feminine, singularлюбленное past, passive participle, nominative, neuter, singularлюбленное past, passive participle, accusative, neuter, singularлюбленного past, passive participle, genitive, neuter, singularлюбленному past, passive participle, dative, neuter, singularлюбленным past, passive participle, instrumental, neuter, singularлюбленном past, passive participle, prepositional, neuter, singularлюбленные past, passive participle, nominative, pluralлюбленных past, passive participle, genitive, pluralлюбленных past, passive participle, prepositional, pluralлюбленным past, passive participle, dative, pluralлюбленные past, passive participle, accusative, plural, inanimateлюбленных past, passive participle, accusative, plural, animateлюбленными past, passive participle, instrumental, pluralлюбленною past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюблен past, passive participle, masculine, singularлюблена past, passive participle, feminine, singularлюблено past, passive participle, neuter, singularлюблены past, passive participle, pluralлюблю 1st person, singularлюбят 3rd person, pluralлюбятся 3rd person, plural, reflexiveлюбящий active participle, nominative, masculine, singularлюбящийся active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбящего active participle, genitive, masculine, singularлюбящегося active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбящему active participle, dative, masculine, singularлюбящемуся active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбящий active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate

любящийся active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate, reflexiveлюбящего active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateлюбящегося active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexiveлюбящим active participle, instrumental, masculine, singularлюбящимся active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбящем active participle, prepositional, masculine, singularлюбящемся active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexiveлюбящая active participle, nominative, feminine, singularлюбящаяся active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящей active participle, genitive, feminine, singularлюбящей active participle, dative, feminine, singularлюбящей active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбящей active participle, prepositional, feminine, singularлюбящейся active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящейся active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящейся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящейся active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящую active participle, accusative, feminine, singularлюбящуюся active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбящее active participle, nominative, neuter, singularлюбящее active participle, accusative, neuter, singularлюбящееся active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящееся active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящего active participle, genitive, neuter, singularлюбящегося active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящему active participle, dative, neuter, singularлюбящемуся active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящим active participle, instrumental, neuter, singularлюбящимся active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящем active participle, prepositional, neuter, singularлюбящемся active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexiveлюбящие active participle, nominative, pluralлюбящиеся active participle, nominative, plural, reflexiveлюбящих active participle, genitive, pluralлюбящих active participle, prepositional, pluralлюбящихся active participle, genitive, plural, reflexiveлюбящихся active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexiveлюбящим active participle, dative, pluralлюбящимся active participle, dative, plural, reflexiveлюбящие active participle, accusative, plural, inanimateлюбящиеся active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexiveлюбящих active participle, accusative, plural, animateлюбящихся active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexive

любящими active participle, instrumental, pluralлюбящимися active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexiveлюбящею active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбящеюся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveлюбя verbal adverbлюби imperative, singularлюбите imperative, pluralлюбишь 2nd person, singularлюбит 3rd person, singularлюбится 3rd person, singular, reflexiveлюбим 1st person, pluralлюбите 2nd person, pluralлюбимый passive participle, nominative, masculine, singularлюбимого passive participle, genitive, masculine, singularлюбимому passive participle, dative, masculine, singularлюбимый passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimateлюбимого passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateлюбимым passive participle, instrumental, masculine, singularлюбимом passive participle, prepositional, masculine, singularлюбимая passive participle, nominative, feminine, singularлюбимой passive participle, genitive, feminine, singularлюбимой passive participle, dative, feminine, singularлюбимой passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбимой passive participle, prepositional, feminine, singularлюбимую passive participle, accusative, feminine, singularлюбимое passive participle, nominative, neuter, singularлюбимое passive participle, accusative, neuter, singularлюбимого passive participle, genitive, neuter, singularлюбимому passive participle, dative, neuter, singularлюбимым passive participle, instrumental, neuter, singularлюбимом passive participle, prepositional, neuter, singularлюбимые passive participle, nominative, pluralлюбимых passive participle, genitive, pluralлюбимых passive participle, prepositional, pluralлюбимым passive participle, dative, pluralлюбимые passive participle, accusative, plural, inanimateлюбимых passive participle, accusative, plural, animateлюбимыми passive participle, instrumental, pluralлюбимою passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularлюбим passive participle, masculine, singularлюбима passive participle, feminine, singularлюбимо passive participle, neuter, singularлюбимы passive participle, plural

The Present Active Participle The present active participle, like all present participles, is derived only from imperfective verbs, since it refers to an action that is currently taking place or which takes place repeatedly. The simplest way of deriving the Present Active Participle is to remove the final т from the 3rd Person Plural form of the verb, add -щ plus the appropriate adjective agreement endings, i. e. -щий, -щая, -щее, -щие. For example, the second conjugation stem for "divide" is дел-и-, so the present active participle is formed like this: The verb делай- "do, make" ends on a consonant and so is a first conjugation verb. It forms its present active participle like this: . Other consonants stems, like вед- (вести) follow the same rule: .

The Present Passive Participle

Present passive participles, too, are formed only from imperfective verbs, since they refer to an activity which is currently taking place or which repeatedly takes place. The simplest way to form the present passive participle is to begin with the 1st person plural form of the verb and simply add the adjective endings to it—no suffix is necessary. Thus, if "we read" is (мы) читаем the present passive participle of читай- then is читаемый "being read". The present passive participles of люби- is derived from (мы) любим in the same way: любимый, любимая, любимое, любимые "beloved, favorite". The accent falls on the same syllable of first conjugation verbs as it does in the first person plural. However, for second conjugation verbs, it falls on the same syllable as it does in the 1st person singular: произвожу, производим : производимый "being produced".

The present passive participle has two major functions.

• First, it expresses action not carried out by the noun it modifies, but which is carried out on the noun it modifies. Thus человек, читающий газету means "a person reading the paper" but газета, читаемая человеком is "a paper being read by a person".

• This form also has the meaning of adjectives on -able in English and is used most widely with the negative prefix не- to express the quality of resistance to certain processes. In this function it is derived from perfective and imperfective stems.

Notice in the following examples that, unlike English which allows participial phrases only after the noun they modify, participial phrases in Russian may be placed before or after the noun.

машина, которую производят в Россииthe car that is produced in Russia

машина, производимая в Россииthe car (being) produced in Russia

о сцене, которая описывается в книгеthe scene, which is described in the book

о сцене описываемой в книгеthe scene described in the book

условия, которые все требуютconditions that everyone demands

всеми требуемые условияconditions demanded by everyone

газета, которую читает молодёжьthe paper that young people read

читаемая молодёжью газетаthe paper read by young people

The Past Active Participle The past active participle is formed by adding -(в)ший to a perfective or imperfective verbal stem. Since this is a past tense participle, it is more often derived from a perfective verb than an imperfective one but either is possible. All you have to remember is to apply the basic spelling rules and concomitant verb stem changes.

• No changes are necessary for stems ending on vowels, e.g. спроси- : спроси-вший > спросивший 'who had asked'.

• If the stem ends on a removable consonant (в й м or н), the removable consonant is, well, removed: 'being done'.

• If the stem ends on a fixed consonant, the в of the suffix is dropped: 'that had taken (something) away'.

• If the verb has two different stems for the present-future and past tenses, the stem of the past tense is used--приехать : приеду > приехавший '(the one) who had arrived'.

The function of the past active participles is to express the same relationship as the present active participles except in the past tense (and usually the perfective aspect). Another words, it expresses the sense of a который clause (in the past tense) in which который is the subject of the clause. If the verb is in the imperfective aspect, it will express an acton which occurred simultaneous to that of the past tense main verb, e.g. женщина, читавшая газету, думала о доме 'the woman reading the newspaper, was thinking of home'. If the verb is in the perfective aspect, however, this participle will refer to an action which occurred before the action of the main verb, e. g. женщина, прочитавшая газету, ушла домой 'the woman, who had read the paper, went home'.

Notice again that the entire participial phrase may be placed before or after the noun, although the position before the noun is used more in written style and the position after the noun is more common in spoken Russian.

Моя подруга, которая только что закончила работу, ушла домой.Моя подруга, только что закончившая работу, ушла домой.My friend who had just finished work left for home.Студент, который просмотрел всю выставку, зевнул и ушел.Студент, просмотревший всю выставку, зевнул и ушел.The student who had looked through the whole exhibit yawned and left.Мужчина, который запаковал чемодан, обратился ко мне.Запаковавший чемодан мужчина обратился ко мне.The man who had packed the suitcase turned to me.Собака, которая подбежала к нам, вдруг стала лаять.Подбежавшая к нам собака вдруг стала лаять.The dog that had run up to us suddenly started to bark.

13 Adjectives 1 Russian Adjectives are used just like in English to describe qualities to nouns, but they differ than English when it comes to their agreement with nouns. Russian adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in gender and number, also adjectives must agree in the case as well, adjectives may change their endings in each case of the six cases depending on which case the noun is using.

So to have the proper form of an adjective, you should know what case/ gender/ number is used by the noun, then form the adjective accordingly, which means that if the noun is in the accusative feminine singular, you will have to do the same with adjective.

For example, if you have a book (книга) and want to say that it is interesting (интересный), you must know that the noun книга is in the nominative-feminine-singular form. Then you should give the correct form to the adjective you are using. You will be on the right track if you say интересная книга (interesting book).

Note that in dictionaries all adjectives are given in the nominative masculine singular, like интересный, хороший, весёлый.

To form the proper form of an adjective, you should know how their endings change depending on number, gender and case. We listed the most common endings for adjectives in the nominative singular and plural forms, so that you be able to compose simple phrases.

The majority of Russian adjectives have a stem ending in a hard consonant. In other words, their last letter before the ending is a hard consonant (новый, белый). In the nominative case, such adjectives have the ending -ый if they are masculine singular, the ending -ое if they are neuter singular, and the ending -ая if they are feminine singular. The plural form of such adjectives is the same for all genders and always ends in -ые.

Common Adjective's Endings Below is a table of a very common ending which many adjectives take:

Common Adjective's EndingsCase Masculine FeminineNeuter Plural

Nominative ый ая ое ые

Accusative Nom or Genую Nom or GenNom or Gen

Genitive ого ой ого ых

Dative ому ой ому ым

Prepositionalом ой ом ых

Instrumental ым ой ым ыми

Endings for adjectives in the nominative singular and plural (stressed vowels are underlined)

Singular

masculine(-ый, -ой)

neuter(-oe)

feminine(-ая)

Plural(any gender)

(-ые)

новый, красныймолодой, лесной

новое, красное новая, красная

The adjectives with a stem ending in the soft н sound acquire the endings -ий, -ее, -яя, -ие in the nominative feminine singular, neuter singular, masculine singular, and plural respectively. These adjectives are called soft adjectives and always have a stress on the stem, as in синий.

The adjectives with a stem ending in letters к, г, х, ж, ш, ч, щ have the muscular singular ending -ий (маленький - small), the feminine singular ending in -ая (маленькая), and the plural ending -ие (маленькие). In the neuter singular such adjectives end in -oe after г, к, х (маленькое), and end in -ee after ж, ш, ч, щ if stress is on the stem (свежее молоко - fresh milk) otherwise is has the ending -oe (большое окно - big window).

There is a small group of adjectives called stressed adjectives. They have the ending -ой instead of -ый or -ий in the nominative masculine singular. This ending is always stressed on the letter o as in молодой (young), большой (big), другой (another).

Endings for adjectives with a stem in к, г, х and ж, ш, ч, щ(stressed vowels are underlined)

Stem ends in

Singular

masculine(-ий, -ой) neuter

(-ое, -ое)feminine

(-ая)

Plural(any gender)

(-ие)

к, г, х маленькийморской, другой

маленькоеморское, другое маленькая маленькие

ж, ш, ч, щ свежий свежее свежая свежие

This is a list of adjectives:

bad плохой high, tall высокий long, tall длинныйbig, large большой late поздний loud громкийcheap дешёвый light, easy лёгкий low, short низкийclean чистый small маленький narrow узкийdeep глубокий strong крепкий near близкийdifficult трудный thin тонкий old старыйdirty грязный weak слабый poor бедныйearly ранний wide широкий quiet тихийexpensive дорогой young молодой rich богатыйfar далёкий heavy тяжёлый shallow мелкийfat толстый short короткийgood хороший simple простойhard твёрдый soft мягкий

Long and Short Forms of Adjectives

So far we learned how to form long adjectives (красивый - beautiful, лёгкий - easy). In addition, Russian adjectives have a short form. To be more precise, only qualitative adjectives may have both long and short forms (лёгкий - лёгок, красивый - красив).

In today's conversational Russian the usage of long adjectives if preferred. However, you will most likely have to use the short form of an adjective in the end of a sentence. For example:

Long adjective Correct usage(short form)

Wrong usage(long form)

занятый (occupied)

Эта комната занята.(This room is occupied.)

Эта комната занятая.

согласный(agree)

Я с Вами согласен.(I agree with you.)

Я с Вами согласный.

Short adjectives change only by gender and number; they do not change by case as long adjectives do. Singular masculine short adjectives do not have an ending, singular feminine adjectives end in -a, and singular neuter adjectives end in -o. All plural short adjectives end in -ы.

Endings for short adjectives(stressed vowels are underlined)

Singular

masculine(no ending)

neuter(-o)

feminine(-а)

Plural(any gender)

(-ы)

веселмолод

веселомолодо

веселамолода

веселымолоды

Short adjectives usually describe temporary qualities, as opposed to long adjectives that refer to constant and general qualities. For example, we say:

Ольга -- счастливая девушка.(Olga is a happy girl.) -- constantlyВчера вечером она была очень счастлива.(She was very happy last night.) -- temporarily

Remember !

There are no short forms for the adjectives большой and маленький.

Use short forms for the adjectives великий and малый instead, i.e. the words велик and мал respectively.

Short adjectives can also refer to qualities with respect to a particular person, thing or circumstances. For example:

Папин костюм сыну велик.(The father's suit is big for the son.)

You already know that masculine short adjectives have no endings. But there is a special rule to form a short form of those masculine adjectives that become too hard to pronounce. In this case you should add a letter O before the last K, and letter E before the last H. Consider the following examples:

O before K:низкий - низок("низк" is hard to pronounce because it has two consecutive consonants in the end)

E before H: трудный – труден ("трудн" is also hard to pronounce) There are no short forms for the adjectives большой (big) and маленький (small). Use short forms for the adjectives великий (great) and малый (small) instead. These forms change by gender and number as follows (stressed vowels underlined):

• for большой (великий): masculine singular: великfeminine singular: великаneuter singular: великоplural: велики

• for маленький (малый):

masculine singular: малfeminine singular: малаneuter singular: малоplural: малы

Some Russian adjectives do not have a short form. In general, those are adjectives formed from nouns and ending in:

• -ский (братский, дружеский) • -овой, -евой (деловой, боевой) • -ной, -ный, -ний (главный, лишний, поздний)

There is also the short adjective рад (glad) that does not have a long form.

14 Adjectives 2

Adjectives are used to describe people and objects. Words like “fast”, “new” and “beautiful” are all adjectives. Adjectives always describe nouns. (Whereas adverbs describe verbs or actions).

In the Russian language there are many different forms of each adjective. (Relating to the 6 cases, 3 genders, plural, short and the comparative). This may sound daunting at first, but in reality, it is fairly simple once you learn the system. The key is to just to learn the stem, or dictionary form of each adjective and then you can quickly form the rest.

The dictionary form of a Russian adjective is normally the normal, nominative, masculine form. These will almost always end in the letters “-ый” or “-ий”

There are 3 main types of Russian adjectives. Normal, Short and Comparative.

Normal AdjectivesNormal adjectives are those that come before a noun. For example in a phrase like “beautiful girl”, or “new car”.

Normal adjectives always agree in gender, and case with the noun that they are describing. This means that there are several ending for each adjective.

There are two systems to make the adjectives. Use the ‘Soft Adjectives’ table for those adjectives ending in “-ний”, otherwise use the ‘Hard Adjectives’

Normal Adjectives - Hard (“-ый”, “-ой”, “-ий” (but not “-ний”))Hard Adjectives are by far the most common. Just substitute “-ый” for “-ой”, or “-ий” where needed. (other table entries remain the same).

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative Case -ый -ая -ое -ые

Accusative Case -ый -ых (anim.) -ую -ое -ые

-ых (anim.)Genitive Case -ого -ой -ого -ыхDative Case -ому -ой -ому -ымInstrumental Case -ым -ой -ым -ымиPrepositional Case -ом -ой -ом -ых

For example, the word "новый" (new) ends in the letters -ый so we use the forular above.

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative Case новый новая новое новые

Accusative Case новый новых (anim.) новую новое новые

новых (anim.)Genitive Case нового новой нового новыхDative Case новому новой новому новымInstrumental Case новым новой новым новымиPrepositional Case новом новой новом новых

Normal Adjectives - Soft (“-ний”)The soft form or normal adjectives is less common. It's for adjectives ending in “-ний”.

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative Case -ий -яя -ее -ие

Accusative Case -ий -их (anim.) -юю -ее -ие

-их (anim.)Genitive Case -его -ей -его -ихDative Case -ему -ей -ему -имInstrumental Case -им -ей (or -ею) -им -имиPrepositional Case -ем -ей -ем -их

You will notice that the soft adjectives simply use the soft form of the first added vowel. ("ы" becomes "и", "а" becomes "я", "о" becomes "е","у" becomes "ю"). Otherwise the hard and soft forms are basically the same.

Remember that "его", and "ого", the "г" is pronounced like the English letter "v"

For example, the word "синий" (dark blue) ends in the letters -ий so we use the forular above.

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative Case синий синяя синее синие

Accusative Case синий синих (anim.) синюю синее синие

синих (anim.)Genitive Case синего синей синего синихDative Case синему синей синему синимInstrumental Case синим синей синим синимиPrepositional Case синем синей синем синих

Short AdjectivesThe second main type of Russian adjectives are the ‘short form’. We don’t really have this form in English, but we do use adjectives the same way.

The short form is generally used to make a statement about something. In English it normally follows the word “is” or “are”. For example, “You are beautiful”, “He is busy”. Notice that the adjective is not followed by a noun. The use of the short form is generally limited to such simple sentences.

It is important to note that not all adjectives can have a short form, (but most do). One notable example is русский (Russian).

Cases are not relevant when using short adjectives, as you only need the nominative case when making such statements. The adjective should still agree in gender with the noun. Masculine nouns just use the stem of the adjective in the short form. Feminine adds “а”. Neuter adds “о”. Plural adds “ы” or “и”. If the adjective is masculine and the stem ends in two consonants, then add a vowel (“о”, “е” or “ё”) so that the word is easier to read.

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralShort Adjectives - -а -о -ы or -иFor Example.

Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralShort Adjectives красив красива красиво красивы

Comparative AdjectivesOften you may wish to use adjectives to compare one thing to another. To do this we normally use the comparative adjectives. These adjectives are just adapted from normal adjectives. However the are a couple of methods that you can use. All of these methods are relatively easy.

Method 1 : More / LessThe lazy way to compare two things is to use the Russian words for “more” and “less”. Here are the Russian words that you need to use.

более - more

менее - less

чем - than

When comparing adjectives using this method, use the normal adjectives. Here are some examples.

более красивый дом - A more beautiful house.

менее красивый дом - A less beautiful house.

Анна более красивая женщина, чем Елена. - Anna is a more beautiful woman than Elena.

Анна менее красивая женщина, чем Елена. - Anna is a less beautiful woman than Elena.

Method 2 : Comparative AdjectivesAlthough the above examples are acceptable, Russians will prefer to use the comparative adjectives most of the time. These are formed by adding either “ее” or “е” to the stem of the adjective. It is worth noting that these forms can also be used as comparative adverbs.

1. If the last consonant of the adjective is р, л, р, п, б, м, : Add “ее”

быстрый(fast) - быстрее(faster)

красивый(beautiful) - красивее(more beautiful, also: more beautifully)

трудный(difficult) - труднее(more difficult , also: more difficultly)

2. Otherwise add “е” (but the stem will display typical consonant mutation).

большой(big) - больше(bigger)

лёгкий(easy) - легче(easier)

дешёвый(cheap) - дешевле(cheaper)

дорогой(expensive) - дороже(more expensive)

3. As with English the words "good" and "bad" have irregular comparative forms.

хороший(good) - лучше(better)

плохой(bad) - хуже(worse)

Here are some examples.

Москва красивее, чем Лондон. - Moscow is more beautiful than London.

Анна красивее, чем Елена. - Anna is more beautiful than Elena.

3. Without ЧемThe third way to make comparisons is almost the same as method 2, except the we omit the word “Чем” (than). This method is popular in spoken Russian. In order to omit “Чем” we must use the second noun in the genitive case. When using this method the order of words in the sentence is important.

Москва красивее Лондона. - Moscow is more beautiful than London.

Анна красивее Елены. - Anna is more beautiful than Elena.

Superlative Adjectives - MostThe superlative is how we indicate something is the best, or the most. (Eg, “the most beautiful”, “smallest”, “oldest”). To do this we simply use the adjective “самый” (most) which declines like a normal adjective.

самый красивый дом - The most beautiful house.

самое дешёвое вино - The cheapest wine.

самая красивая женщина - The most beautiful woman

15 Appendix

Vocabulary

In this lesson you will learn Russian Vocabulary such as: Food, Clothes in Russian, Family, Questions in Russian, List of Adjectives, List of Adverbs in Russian, Time, Countries, Nationalities in Russian.

Since the page has many words it may take sometime to display, please be patient, and try to memorize them all if you can, I listed here only the most important stuff that you need to know. So it will not be a waste of time if you memorize them because you will certainly need them in the future.

Adjectives In Russian

bad плохой long, tall длинный

big, large большой loud громкий

cheap дешёвый low, short низкий

clean чистый narrow узкий

deep глубокий near близкий

difficult трудный old старый

dirty грязный poor бедный

early ранний quiet тихий

expensive дорогой rich богатый

far далёкий shallow мелкий

fat толстый short короткий

good хороший simple простой

hard твёрдый soft мягкий

heavy тяжёлый strong крепкий

high, tall высокий thin тонкий

late поздний weak слабый

light, easy лёгкий wide широкий

small маленький young молодой

Food In Russian

apple яблоко liver печень

apple juice яблочный сок mashed potatoes пюре

bananas бананы meat мясо

beans бобы milk молоко

beef говядина mineral water минеральная вода

beer пиво mushrooms грибы

boiled eggs варёные яйца omelet омлет

borsh (beetroot soup) борщ (russian soup) onion лук

bread хлеб orange апельсин

broth бульон orange juice апельсиновый сок

butter масло pasta макароны

cabbage капуста peas горох

cake пирожное pepper перец

carrots марковь pineapple aнанас

caviar икра pizza пицца

cheese сыр pork свинина

chicken курица potato картошка

chocolate шоколад red wine красное вино

coffee кофе rice рис

coffee with milk кофе с молоком roast beef ростбиф

cream сливки salad салат

cucumbers огурцы salmon лосось

cutlets котлеты salt соль

dessert десерт sandwich бутерброд

duck утка sausage сосиска

fish рыба shashlik шашлык

fried eggs яичница snacks закуски

fried potatoes жареная картошка soda лимонад

fruit фрукты soft drinks безалкогольные напитки

garlic чеснок soup суп

grape juice виноградный сок spinach шпинат

grapefruit грейпфрут steak бифштекс

grapes виноград sugar сахар

ground meat фарш sweets конфеты

ham ветчина tea чай

ice cream мороженое tomatoes помидоры

jam джем ukha (fish soup) уха

juice сок veal телятина

kasha каша vegetables овощи

kidneys почки water вода

lemon лимон wine вино

Clothes And Family In Russian

belt ремень aunt тётя

blouse блуза brother брат

clothes одежда children дети

coat пальто dad папа

dress платье daughter дочь

gloves перчатки family семья

handbag сумочка father отец

hat шапка granddaughter внучка

jacket куртка grandfather дедушка

jacket (top of a suit) пиджак grandmother бабушка

laces шнурки grandson внук

large большой husband муж

leather кожа mother мать

medium средний mum мама

necktie галстук parents подители

pants брюки sister сестра

raincoat плащ son сын

scarf шарф uncle дядя

shirt рубашка wife жена

shoes туфли

silk шёлк umbrella зонтик

skirt юбка wool шерсть

slippers домашние тапочки

small маленький

socks носки

suit костюм

sweater свитер

sweatshirt футболка

Other House Stuff In Russian

cup чашка book книга

fork вилка magazine журнал

glass стакан newspaper газета

kettle чайник poetry поэзия

knife нож soap мыло

napkin салфетка breakfast завтрак

plate тарелка lunch второй завтрак

spoon ложка dinner обед

supper ужин watch часы

antibiotic антибиотик cream крем

aspirin аспирин deodorant дезодорант

bandage бинт hair spray лак для волос

eye drops глазные капли jewelry ювелирные изделия

plaster пластырь lipstick губная помада

thermometer градусник nail polish лак для ногтей

toothbrush зубная щётка pearl жемчуг

toothpaste зубная паста perfume духи

vitamin pills витамины shampoo шампунь

Questions In Russian

How much money? Сколько денег? Who? Кто?

How much/many? Сколько? What's the matter? В чём дело?

How? Как? What do you need? Что вам нужно?

What did you say? Что вы сказали? When? Когда?

What is this? Что это? Which? Какой?/ Который?

What time is it? Который час? What do you want? Что вы хотите?

What's the date today? Какое сегодня число? What are you doing? Что вы делаете?

Where from? Откуда? What's happened? Что случилось?

Where? Где? What? Что?

Who is this? Кто это? O.K.? Хорошо?

Why? Почему?

List Of Russian Adverbs

afterwards потом some Некоторый

almost почти some kind of Такой-то

already уже someone Кто-то

also, too также, тоже something Что-то

always всегда sometimes иногда

any kind of Такой-нибудь somewhere Где-то

anyone Кто-нибудь still (всё) ещё

anything Что-нибудь such Такой

anywhere Где-нибудь suddenly вдруг

as как then затем

as far/much as Насколько then тогда

because Потому что there там

entirely совершенно therefore Потому

everywhere везде this much/many Столько

here здесь, тут together вместе

immediately сразу usually обычно

never Никогда very очень

nobody Никто which/who/whom Который

nothing Ничего yet ещё

nowhere Нигде (from) anywhere Откуда-нибудь

quite совсем (from) somewhere Откуда-то

several Несколько (to) anywhere Куда-нибудь

so так, столько (to) somewhere Куда-то

Time Vocabulary In Russian

early рано Sunday воскресенье

later on позже week неделя

soon скоро month месяц

in time вовремя this month этот месяц

I'll be back in a moment. Я скоро вернусь. next month следующий месяц

second секунда January январь

minute минута February февраль

hour час March март

day день April aпрель

morning утро May май

noon полдень June июнь

evening вечер July июль

night ночь August август

tonight сегодня вечером September сентябрь

today сегодня October октябрь

yesterday вчера November ноябрь

the day before yesterday позавчера December декабрь

tomorrow завтра winter зима

the day after tomorrow послезавтра spring весна

Monday понедельник summer лето

Tuesday вторник autumn осень

Wednesday среда year год

Thursday четверг this year этот год

Friday пятница last year прошлый год

Saturday суббота next year следующий год

Countries & Nationalities In Russian

Afghani Афганец/ Афганка Indian Индиец/ Индианка

Afghanistan Афганистан Indonesia Индонезия

Algeria Алжир Indonesian Индонезиец/ Индонезийка

Algerian Алжирец/ Алжирка Ireland Ирландия

American Американец/ Американка Irish Ирландец/ Ирландка

Argentina Аргентина Israel Израиль

Argentinean Аргентинец/ Аргентинка Israeli Израильтянин/ Израильтянка

Australia Австралия Italian Итальянец/ Итальянка

Australian Австралиец/ Австралийка Italy Италия

Austria Австрия Japan Япония

Austrian Австриец/ Австрийка Japanese Японец/ Японка

Belgium Бельгиец/ Бельгийка Korea Корея

Belgium Бельгия Korean Кореец/ Кореянка

Brazil Бразилия Mexican Мексиканец/ Мексиканка

Brazilian Бразилец/ Бразильянка Mexico Мексика

British Англичанин/ Англичанка Mongolia Монголия

Canada Канада Mongolian Монгол/ Монголка

Canadian Канадец/ Канадка Morocco Mарокко

China Китай Moroccan Mарокканский

Chinese Китаец/ Китайка Norway Норвегия

Czech Чех/ Чешка Norwegian Норвежец/ Норвежка

Czech Republic Чехия Pakistan Пакистан

Danish Датчанин/ Датчанка Pakistani Пакистанец/ Пакистанка

Denmark Дания Poland Польша

Dutch Голландец/ Голландка Polish ПолякПолька

Egypt Египет Romania Румыния

Egyptian Египтянин/ Египтянка Romanian Румын/ Румынка

Finland Финляндия Scotland Шотландия

Finnish Финн/ Финка Scottish Шотландец/ Шотландка

France Франция Spain Испания

French Француз/ Француженка Spanish Испанец/ Испанка

German Немец/ Немка Sweden Швеция

Germany Германия Swedish Швед/ Шведка

Greece Греция Swiss Швейцарец/ Швейцарка

Greek Грек/ Гречанка Switzerland Швейцария

Holland Голландия Turkey Турция

Hungarian Венгр/ Венгерка Turkish Турок/ Турчка

Hungary Венгрия United Kingdom Великобританния

India Индия USA Соединённые-Штаты-Америки

Colors In Russian

color цвет

black чёрный

blue синий

brown коричневый

gray серый

green зелёный

pink розовый

red красный

white белый

yellow жёлтый

Index of Conjugated Russian Verbs

Russian Imperfective Russian Perfective English Бегать Побежать run (View Conjugations)Бродить Побрести stroll (View Conjugations)

Быть Побыть be (is, are, will, was) (View Conjugations)Видеть Увидеть see (View Conjugations)

Водить Повести lead, drive (View Conjugations)Возить Повезти carry (by vehicle) (View Conjugations)

Говорить Сказать speak, talk, say (View Conjugations)

Гонять Погнать drive (View Conjugations)Давать Дать give (View Conjugations)

Делать Сделать do, make (View Conjugations)Думать Подумать think (View Conjugations)

Ездить Поехать go (by vehicle) (View Conjugations)Есть Съест eat (View Conjugations)

Жить Прожить live (View Conjugations)Знать Знать know (View Conjugations)

Изучать Изучить study (View Conjugations)Иметь Иметь have (View Conjugations)

Лазить Полезть climb (View Conjugations)Летать Полететь fly (View Conjugations)

Любить Полюбить love (View Conjugations)Мочь Смочь can, able (to be able) (View Conjugations)

Носить Понести carry, wear (View Conjugations)Плавать Поплыть swim (View Conjugations)

Ползать Поползти crawl (View Conjugations)Понимать Понять understand (View Conjugations)

Работать Поработать work (View Conjugations)Сидеть Посидеть sit (View Conjugations)

Слушать (ся) Послушать (ся) listen (View Conjugations)Смотреть (ся) Посмотреть (ся) watch, look at (View Conjugations)

Спрашивать Спросить ask (View Conjugations)Становиться Стать become, begin (View Conjugations)

Стоять Постоять stand (View Conjugations)Таскать Потащить pull, drag (View Conjugations)

Ходить Пойти go (on foot) (View Conjugations)Хотеть (ся) Захотеть (ся) want, feel like (View Conjugations)

Читать Прочитать read (View Conjugations)

Видеть / Увидеть (to See)

Imperfective Aspect Perfective Aspect

English seeInfinitive Видеть Увидеть

Present Tense 1st Person Singular Вижу

2nd Person Singular Видишь 3rd Person Singular Видит 1st Person Plural Видим 2nd Person Plural Видите 3rd Person Plural Видят

Past Tense Masculine Видел Увидел Feminine Видела Увидела Neuter Видело Увидело Plural Видели Увидели

Future Tense 1st Person Singular Буду Видеть Увижу 2nd Person Singular Будешь Видеть Увидишь 3rd Person Singular Будет Видеть Увидит 1st Person Plural Будем Видеть Увидим 2nd Person Plural Будете Видеть Увидите 3rd Person Plural Будут Видеть Увидят

Language ReviewThe aim of our review Russian lesson is just to let you practice the language concepts that you already know. It is really a review lesson, although we may introduce some vocabulary, and show you some different ways of using it. We will avoid introducing new grammar in this lesson.

This Russian language lesson will be based on examples. We will try to use some Russian phrases and sentences that you might see in real situations. Review each Russian phrase or sentence to make sure that you understand both the vocabulary and the structure of the sentence used. Take particular notice of the use of the four cases that we have learnt so far.

Russian Names...Note the use of the genitive case for pronouns in this construction.

Как вас зовут? - What is your name?

Меня зовут Вера. - My name is Vera.

Как её зовут? - What is her name?

Её зовут Алёна - Her name is Alyona.

Как его зовут? - What is his name?

Его зовут Борис - His name is Boris.

Here are some other common Russian names for men...

Николай - Nikolay (Коля)

Борис - Boris (Воря)

Владимир - Vladimir (Володя, Вова)

Пётр - Pyotr, Peter.

Андрей - Andrey

Александр - Alexander (Саша, Шура)

Дмитрий - Dimitry (Дима)

Сергей - Sergey

Алексей - Aleksey

And here are some common Russian names for women.

Елена - Yelena (Лена)

Наталья - Natalya (Наташа)

Мария - Mariya (Маша)

Ольга - Olga (Оля)

Александра - Alexandra (Саша)

Оксана - Oxana

Екатерина - Yekaterina

Анастасия - Anastasiya (Настя)

Надежда - Nadezhda (Надя)

Анна - Anna (Аня)

Note: the form in brackets is the diminutive form of the name. This is like a pet name. (For example in English 'William' is also 'Will'). There are many diminuatives for each Russian name and they are commonly used. The diminuative is a more personal, or tender form, and should only be used when you are in close firendship. The exception is when a person intruduces themself using this form.

Russian Greetings...Here are some Russian greetings that we learnt in earlier lessons. You should be able to remember

all of these.

Здравствуйте - Hello

Привет - Hi (Informal)

Доброе утро - good morning

Добрый день - good afternoon

Добрый вечер - good evening

Спокойной ночи - goodnight (when going to bed)

Please and Thank-YouNever forget please and thank-you.

Спасибо - Thank-You

Пожалуйста - Please (and You're Welcome)

Really Small Russian WordsTo help you remember, here is a summary of those really small Russian words that we have learnt. Some of these may be new, but try to learn them all. In fact all of these words are from the 100 most used words in the Russian language

и - and

а - and/but (contrasting)

но - but

или - or

The word "а" is generally used when you could use either the English words "and" or "but". For example, in the sentence "I am in Moscow and he is in Kiev.", the statements are related but contrast each other so you could also use the word "but". In Russian we would use the word "а".

These prepositions are commonly used in Russian

с - with

у - near, by (also used in the "to have" construction)

в, во - in (+prepositional), to (+accusative)

на - on, at (+prepositional), onto, to (+accusative)

о, об - about

к - towards, to

за - for (+accusative), behind (+instrumental)

из - out of, from

от - from

по - along, (also used with languages)

You should already know these pronouns. Refer to lesson 5 if you have forgotten.

я - I

он - he, it

ты - you (informal)

вы - you (formal/plural)

его - him, it

её - her, it

их – them

Using the Russian LanguageNow we will give you some sample Russian sentences. You might also find some new words in these sentences. We will use only common words, so you should try to learn them all. Also pay attention to the different cases used for nouns and how verbs are formed.

Скажите, пожалуйста, где туалет? - Tell me please, where is the toilet?

У вас есть кофе? - Do you have coffee?

Кофе нет. - There is no coffee.

У вас есть чай? - Do you have tea?

Чая нет. - There is no tea.

Что вы хотите? - What do you want?

Я хочу чай, пожалуйста. - I want tea please.

Дайте, пожалуйста, кофе с молоком и с сахаром. - Give me please, coffee with milk and with sugar.

У вас есть водка? - Do you have vodka?

У Анны есть водка? - Does Anna have vodka?

У Ивана есть чай? - Does Ivan have tea?

Я знаю, что ты говоришь по-русски. - I know that you speak Russian.

Он любит говорить по-английски. - He loves to speak English

Моя мама любит музыку. - My mum loves music.

Твой брат говорит по-русски? - Does your borther speak Russian?

Да. Он хорошо говорит по-русски. - Yes. He speaks Russian well.

Собака не говорит по-английски. - The dog doesn't speak English.

Почему вы не говорите по-русски? - Why don't you speak Russian?

Я понимаю. - I understand.

Я не понимаю. - I don't understand.

Ты понимаешь? - Do you understand?

Я знаю, что вы понимаете. - I know that you understand.

Я думаю, что ты понимаешь. - I think that you understand.

Почему ты не понимаешь? - Why don't you understand?

Я живу в Лондоне - I live in London.

Он едет домой - He is going home.

Где? - Where?

Кто? - Who?

Что? - What?

Как? - How?

Когда? - When?

Почему? - Why?

Что ты знаешь? - What do you know?

Что ты думаешь? - What do you think?

Где он? - Where is he?

Где кафе? - Where is the cafe?

Кто он? - Who is he?

Я читаю журнал - I am reading a magazine.

Я изучаю русский язык - I am studying the Russian language.

Я слушаю музыку - I am listening to music.

Я очень люблю спорт - I really love sport.

Я очень люблю Москву - I really love Moscow.

Брат Адама любит Москву - Adam's brother loves Moscow.

Моя сестра читает газету - My sister is reading a newspaper.

Сестра Анны читает газету - Anna's siser is reading a newspaper.

Дедушка Ивана слушает радио - Ivan's grandfather is listenig to the radio.

Моя мама любит музыку - My Mum loves music.

Его нет дома - He is not home.

сколько стоит? - How much?

сто рублей - 100 roubles.

сколько стоит? - How much?

четыре доллара - 4 dollars.

сколько стоит? - How much?

двадцать один рубль - 21 roubles.

сколько стоит? - How much?

четыре рубля - 4 roubles.

ConclusionThis is mainy a review lesson, so you should make sure that you understand most of the Russian language above. Try learning the above phrases by covering up the English then translating for yourself. You should also try to form some of your own Russian sentences and phrases.

A. Verbs

писать (verb, imperfective aspect, transitive)писать infinitiveписаться infinitive, reflexiveписал past, masculine, singularписался past, masculine, singular, reflexiveписала past, feminine, singularписалась past, feminine, singular, reflexiveписало past, neuter, singularписалось past, neuter, singular, reflexiveписали past, pluralписались past, plural, reflexiveписав past, verbal adverb, short formписавши past, verbal adverbписавший past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singularписавшийся past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexiveписавшего past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singularписавшегося past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexive

писавшему past, active participle, dative, masculine, singularписавшемуся past, active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexiveписавший past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate

писавшийся past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate, reflexive

писавшего past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateписавшегося past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexiveписавшим past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singularписавшимся past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexiveписавшем past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singularписавшемся past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexiveписавшая past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singularписавшаяся past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшей past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singularписавшей past, active participle, dative, feminine, singularписавшей past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularписавшей past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singularписавшейся past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшейся past, active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшейся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшейся past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшую past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singularписавшуюся past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexiveписавшее past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singularписавшее past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singularписавшееся past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшееся past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшего past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singularписавшегося past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшему past, active participle, dative, neuter, singularписавшемуся past, active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшим past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singularписавшимся past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшем past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singularписавшемся past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexiveписавшие past, active participle, nominative, pluralписавшиеся past, active participle, nominative, plural, reflexiveписавших past, active participle, genitive, pluralписавших past, active participle, prepositional, pluralписавшихся past, active participle, genitive, plural, reflexiveписавшихся past, active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexiveписавшим past, active participle, dative, pluralписавшимся past, active participle, dative, plural, reflexiveписавшие past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate

писавшиеся past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexiveписавших past, active participle, accusative, plural, animateписавшихся past, active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexiveписавшими past, active participle, instrumental, pluralписавшимися past, active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexiveписавшею past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularписавшеюся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveписанный past, passive participle, nominative, masculine, singularписанного past, passive participle, genitive, masculine, singularписанному past, passive participle, dative, masculine, singularписанный past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimateписанного past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateписанным past, passive participle, instrumental, masculine, singularписанном past, passive participle, prepositional, masculine, singularписанная past, passive participle, nominative, feminine, singularписанной past, passive participle, genitive, feminine, singularписанной past, passive participle, dative, feminine, singularписанной past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularписанной past, passive participle, prepositional, feminine, singularписанную past, passive participle, accusative, feminine, singularписанное past, passive participle, nominative, neuter, singularписанное past, passive participle, accusative, neuter, singularписанного past, passive participle, genitive, neuter, singularписанному past, passive participle, dative, neuter, singularписанным past, passive participle, instrumental, neuter, singularписанном past, passive participle, prepositional, neuter, singularписанные past, passive participle, nominative, pluralписанных past, passive participle, genitive, pluralписанных past, passive participle, prepositional, pluralписанным past, passive participle, dative, pluralписанные past, passive participle, accusative, plural, inanimateписанных past, passive participle, accusative, plural, animateписанными past, passive participle, instrumental, pluralписанною past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singularписан past, passive participle, masculine, singularписана past, passive participle, feminine, singularписано past, passive participle, neuter, singularписаны past, passive participle, pluralпишу 1st person, singularпишут 3rd person, pluralпишутся 3rd person, plural, reflexiveпишущий active participle, nominative, masculine, singularпишущийся active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexive

пишущего active participle, genitive, masculine, singularпишущегося active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexiveпишущему active participle, dative, masculine, singularпишущемуся active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexiveпишущий active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimateпишущийся active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate, reflexiveпишущего active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animateпишущегося active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexiveпишущим active participle, instrumental, masculine, singularпишущимся active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexiveпишущем active participle, prepositional, masculine, singularпишущемся active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexiveпишущая active participle, nominative, feminine, singularпишущаяся active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущей active participle, genitive, feminine, singularпишущей active participle, dative, feminine, singularпишущей active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularпишущей active participle, prepositional, feminine, singularпишущейся active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущейся active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущейся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущейся active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущую active participle, accusative, feminine, singularпишущуюся active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexiveпишущее active participle, nominative, neuter, singularпишущее active participle, accusative, neuter, singularпишущееся active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущееся active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущего active participle, genitive, neuter, singularпишущегося active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущему active participle, dative, neuter, singularпишущемуся active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущим active participle, instrumental, neuter, singularпишущимся active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущем active participle, prepositional, neuter, singularпишущемся active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexiveпишущие active participle, nominative, pluralпишущиеся active participle, nominative, plural, reflexiveпишущих active participle, genitive, pluralпишущих active participle, prepositional, pluralпишущихся active participle, genitive, plural, reflexiveпишущихся active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexiveпишущим active participle, dative, plural

пишущимся active participle, dative, plural, reflexiveпишущие active participle, accusative, plural, inanimateпишущиеся active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexiveпишущих active participle, accusative, plural, animateпишущихся active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexiveпишущими active participle, instrumental, pluralпишущимися active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexiveпишущею active participle, instrumental, feminine, singularпишущеюся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexiveпиша verbal adverbпиши imperative, singularпишите imperative, pluralпишешь 2nd person, singularпишет 3rd person, singularпишется 3rd person, singular, reflexiveпишем 1st person, pluralпишете 2nd person, plural