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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
Russian
Romanization Special provision Examples
letter
Азов = Azov
А (а) A (a) None
Тамбов = Tambov
Барнаул = Barnaul
Б (б) B (b) None
Кубань = Kuban’
Владимир = Vladimir
В (в) V (v) None
Ульяновск = Ul’yanovsk
Грозный = Groznyy
Г (г) G (g) None
Волгодонск = Volgodonsk
Дзержинский =
Д (д) D (d) None Dzerzhinskiy
Нелидово = Nelidovo
1. Елизово = Yelizovo
1. Word-initially;
2. Чапаевск =
2. after vowels; Chapayevsk;
3. after й;
Ye (ye) 3. Майер = Mayyer;
Е (е) 4. after ь;
5. after ъ. 4. Юрьев = Yur’yev;
5. Съезд = S”yezd.
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.
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
Consonant
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.
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:
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:
Э as in net
This sound is close to e in pet. Practice these words:
Я as in yahoo
This vowel is pronounced like English ya in yahoo. Practice these words:
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:
Ikanie
In 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
И as in meet
This letter is pronounced like ee in meet. Practice these exercises:
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
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).
• 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.
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.
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.
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
-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).
Personal pronouns
я I мы we
ты you вы you
он, она,
he, she, it они they
оно
Possessive pronouns
мой my наш our
твой your ваш your
его, её, his, her,
их their
его its
Numbers
ноль zero
одиннадца двадцать twenty
один one eleven сто hundred
ть один one
двенадцат двадцать twenty two
два two twelve двести
ь два two hundred
thre тринадцат thirtee двадцать twenty three
три триста
e ь n три three hundred
четы четырнадц fourtee четыре four
four тридцать thirty
ре ать n ста hundred
пятнадцат five
пять five fifteen сорок forty пятьсот
ь hundred
шест шестнадца шестьс six
six sixteen пятьдесят fifty
ь ть от hundred
s
семнадцат sevent шестьдеся seven
семь eve sixty семьсот
ь een т hundred
n
восе eigh восемнадц eightee восемьс eight
семьдесят seventy
мь t ать n от hundred
девя девятнадц ninetee восемьдеся девятьс nine
nine eighty
ть ать n т от hundred
десят
ten двадцать twenty девяносто ninety тысяча Thousand
ь
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,
blue
голубой
жёлтый yellow
оранжевый orange
коричневый brown
фиолетовый violet
серый gray
7 Pronouns
Pronouns 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.
Finally, you have to remember to insert and н before all the third person
pronouns when the occur after prepositions.
Without Prep With Prep
Я 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.
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 Pronouns
We 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 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.
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.
Interrogative Pronouns
кто, что who, what
чей, чья, чьё, чьи whose
какой, какая, какие which / what kind of
который what/which
как how
где, куда, откуда where, where to, from where
когда when
сколько, насколько how much/many, to what extent
почему 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
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.
"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, singular
Кто смеялся? (Who was smiling?)
Possible answers
Смеялась девочка. Смеялся мальчик. Смеялись дети.
(A girl was smiling. A boy was smiling. Children were smiling.)
Question 2 -- present tense, masculime, singular
Кто смеётся? (Who is smiling?)
Possible answers
Смеётся 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?
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.
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?
Сколько ты хочешь за машину? | How much do you want for your car?
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.
The possessive reflexive pronoun свой, своё, своя; свои is declined the same as мой and
твой.
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
Introduction
The 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.
Aspect
As 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 Aspect
Action as process Action as completion
Repeated or habitual actions Single or momentary actions
Simultaneous actions Consecutive actions
Actions which do not terminate in a result Actions which emphasise completion
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).
TENSE AND
USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
ASPECT
Used to emphasize the result of an action
Вчера вечером я прочитал
that began and ended at a particular time in
книгу от начала до конца.
the past
Когда мы пришли в класс,
учитель уже ушёл домой.
Used for a past action that had a result
before another past action that also had a Мы успели сыграть
PAST TENSE, result партию в шахматы до того,
PERFECTIVE как пришёл Андрей.
ASPECT
Он надел новую рубашку.
Used when the result of an action remains (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 Он построил дом за
time during which the result was achieved is месяц.
emphasized
Present
TENSE AND
USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
ASPECT
Used for a present state of affairs Андрей живёт в Москве.
Волга впадает в
Каспийское море.
Used for a general fact
Солнце встаёт на востоке.
Future
TENSE AND
USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
ASPECT
Завтра утром я буду
Used for an action that will be ongoing or играть в теннис.
FUTURE TENSE,
repeating at a particular time in the future,
IMPERFECTIVE
but it is not known whether will be finished of Вечером она будет
ASPECT
not готовить ужин.
жив- "live"
стан- "become, begin"
Wimpy consonant stems end on в, н, м or й.
плыв- "swim, float, sail"
делай- "do, make"
ид- "go"
мог- "can, may"
Tough consonant stems may end on any other consonant.
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.
*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.
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 Conjugations
There 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.
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 любить (to love): я люблу
letter л
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.
"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
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.
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.
-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.
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.
Singular Plural
Past tense ходил ходили
Present tense хожу ходим
Future simple tense пройду пройдём
Future compound буду будем
tense ходить 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 person
B. Second person
C. Third person
b. Define if the following verbs are to be written the "ь" letter or without?
1. Молчиш...
2. Заиграеш...
3. Скроеш...ся
4. Проговориш...ся
А. 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).
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.
Table Of Conjugations
- еть (7 verbs):
Я – у/- ю Мы – ем Я – у, - ю Мы – им
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.):
Singular Plural
1st person хочу хотим
2nd person хочешь хотите
3rd person хочет хотят
And two more verbs rarely used with – ать ending . Дышать (to breath),
Пробовать (to try):
Дышать (to breath) – ending – ать,
Я дышу Мы дышим
Ты дышишь Вы дышите
Он дышит Они дышат
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 work
I
I
I
do work
am working
have been working
} Я работаю
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.
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.
Palatalization
The 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 Palatalization
Labials Dentals Velars Palatals Examples Glosses
п > пль I step
б > бль люби+у > люблю I love
ф > фль графи+у > графлю I graph
в > вль стави+у > ставлю I put
м > мль греме+у > гремлю I roar
т к > ч прята+у > прячу I hide
д з г > ж виде+у > вижу I see
с 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:
She ate/ She did eat/ She had eaten/ She was eating/
She has eaten
Она ела/съела
The Suffix Л
Combining the stem of the infinitive with the suffix л forms the past tense
verbs.
Example морозить (freeze):
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
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,
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 Tense
Singular
Plural (-ли)
Masculine (-/-л) Feminine (-ла) Neuter (-ло)
он сох/ она сохла/ оно сохло/ они
морозил морозила морозило сохли/морозили
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.
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.
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 aspect
B. Future tense, perfective aspect
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
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 Russian
There 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.
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).
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.
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 enter
выходить / выйти - to go out, to leave, to exit
взходить / взoйти - to go up, to ascend
доходить / дойти - to get to, to get as far as, to reach
заходить / зайти - to drop in, to stop by
обходить / обойти - to walk around, to bypass
отходить / отойти - to walk away
переходить / перейти - to go across, to turn
подходить / подойти - to approach
приходить / прийти - to arrive, to come
проходить / пройти - to go by, to go past
сходить / сойти - to go down, decend
уходить / 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
Moscow
Самолёт улетает из Москвы. - The plane departs (fly from) Moscow
The Imperative Mood
The 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 --> изогни
войдут --> войди
Adding the ending -те to the singular imperative verb form forms the plural
imperative verb.
войти --> войдите
изогни --> 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.
• 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 Mood
Verbs 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.
In other words, the verbs of subjunctive mood are usually predicates and agree
with a subject in person and number.
subject predicate
Старик и сейчас не стал бы вырубать кусты.
Genuine Reflexives
Real 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 Correlate
Александра купает детей. Александра купается.
Alexandra is bathing the kids. Alexandra is bathing (herself).
Борис Сергеевич бреет брата. Борис Сергеевич бреется.
Boris Sergeevich is shaving his brother. Boris Sergeevich is shaving (himself).
Маша одевает дочку. Маша одевается.
Masha is dressing her daughter. Masha is dressing (herself).
Паша умывает собаку. Паша умывается.
Pasha is washing up the dog. Pasha is washing up.
Шимпанзе причёсывает друга. Шимпанзе причёсывается.
The chimpanzee is combing her friend. The chimpanzee is combing herself.
9 Nouns
A 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.
Cases
Cases 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.
Masculine gender
Nouns 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
Exercise
1. 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)
Answers
1. (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.
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)
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.
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).
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.
Declension
Nouns 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).
PL
PL
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.
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.
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:
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.
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 before
Ваня раньше меня видел. Adverb before
Ваня видел меня до того,
Conjunction before
как я встретился с женой.
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.
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 Case
There 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.
Now let's take a closer look at how the genitive prepositions operate in
phrases.
Накануне революции Ленин был в On the eve of the Revolution Lenin was
Финляндии. in Finland.
Prepositions Governing the Accusative Case
Let 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.
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.
He always looks through his
Он всегда смотрит на это сквозь палцы!
fingers (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.
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 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.
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
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 Numerals
Students 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).
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:
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 infinitive
любиться infinitive, reflexive
любил past, masculine, singular
любился past, masculine, singular, reflexive
любила past, feminine, singular
любилась past, feminine, singular, reflexive
любило past, neuter, singular
любилось past, neuter, singular, reflexive
любили past, plural
любились past, plural, reflexive
любив past, verbal adverb, short form
любивши past, verbal adverb
любивший past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singular
любившийся past, active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexive
любившего past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singular
любившегося past, active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexive
любившему past, active participle, dative, masculine, singular
любившемуся past, active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexive
любивший past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate
past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate,
любившийся
reflexive
любившего past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate
любившегося past, active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexive
любившим past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular
любившимся past, active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexive
любившем past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular
любившемся past, active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexive
любившая past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singular
любившаяся past, active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившей past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singular
любившей past, active participle, dative, feminine, singular
любившей past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любившей past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular
любившейся past, active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившейся past, active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившейся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившейся past, active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившую past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singular
любившуюся past, active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любившее past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singular
любившее past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singular
любившееся past, active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившееся past, active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившего past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singular
любившегося past, active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившему past, active participle, dative, neuter, singular
любившемуся past, active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившим past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular
любившимся past, active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившем past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular
любившемся past, active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexive
любившие past, active participle, nominative, plural
любившиеся past, active participle, nominative, plural, reflexive
любивших past, active participle, genitive, plural
любивших past, active participle, prepositional, plural
любившихся past, active participle, genitive, plural, reflexive
любившихся past, active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexive
любившим past, active participle, dative, plural
любившимся past, active participle, dative, plural, reflexive
любившие past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate
любившиеся past, active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexive
любивших past, active participle, accusative, plural, animate
любившихся past, active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexive
любившими past, active participle, instrumental, plural
любившимися past, active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexive
любившею past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любившеюся past, active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexive
любленный past, passive participle, nominative, masculine, singular
любленного past, passive participle, genitive, masculine, singular
любленному past, passive participle, dative, masculine, singular
любленный past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate
любленного past, passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate
любленным past, passive participle, instrumental, masculine, singular
любленном past, passive participle, prepositional, masculine, singular
любленная past, passive participle, nominative, feminine, singular
любленной past, passive participle, genitive, feminine, singular
любленной past, passive participle, dative, feminine, singular
любленной past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любленной past, passive participle, prepositional, feminine, singular
любленную past, passive participle, accusative, feminine, singular
любленное past, passive participle, nominative, neuter, singular
любленное past, passive participle, accusative, neuter, singular
любленного past, passive participle, genitive, neuter, singular
любленному past, passive participle, dative, neuter, singular
любленным past, passive participle, instrumental, neuter, singular
любленном past, passive participle, prepositional, neuter, singular
любленные past, passive participle, nominative, plural
любленных past, passive participle, genitive, plural
любленных past, passive participle, prepositional, plural
любленным past, passive participle, dative, plural
любленные past, passive participle, accusative, plural, inanimate
любленных past, passive participle, accusative, plural, animate
любленными past, passive participle, instrumental, plural
любленною past, passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
люблен past, passive participle, masculine, singular
люблена past, passive participle, feminine, singular
люблено past, passive participle, neuter, singular
люблены past, passive participle, plural
люблю 1st person, singular
любят 3rd person, plural
любятся 3rd person, plural, reflexive
любящий active participle, nominative, masculine, singular
любящийся active participle, nominative, masculine, singular, reflexive
любящего active participle, genitive, masculine, singular
любящегося active participle, genitive, masculine, singular, reflexive
любящему active participle, dative, masculine, singular
любящемуся active participle, dative, masculine, singular, reflexive
любящий active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate
любящийся active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate, reflexive
любящего active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate
любящегося active participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate, reflexive
любящим active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular
любящимся active participle, instrumental, masculine, singular, reflexive
любящем active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular
любящемся active participle, prepositional, masculine, singular, reflexive
любящая active participle, nominative, feminine, singular
любящаяся active participle, nominative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящей active participle, genitive, feminine, singular
любящей active participle, dative, feminine, singular
любящей active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любящей active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular
любящейся active participle, genitive, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящейся active participle, dative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящейся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящейся active participle, prepositional, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящую active participle, accusative, feminine, singular
любящуюся active participle, accusative, feminine, singular, reflexive
любящее active participle, nominative, neuter, singular
любящее active participle, accusative, neuter, singular
любящееся active participle, nominative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящееся active participle, accusative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящего active participle, genitive, neuter, singular
любящегося active participle, genitive, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящему active participle, dative, neuter, singular
любящемуся active participle, dative, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящим active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular
любящимся active participle, instrumental, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящем active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular
любящемся active participle, prepositional, neuter, singular, reflexive
любящие active participle, nominative, plural
любящиеся active participle, nominative, plural, reflexive
любящих active participle, genitive, plural
любящих active participle, prepositional, plural
любящихся active participle, genitive, plural, reflexive
любящихся active participle, prepositional, plural, reflexive
любящим active participle, dative, plural
любящимся active participle, dative, plural, reflexive
любящие active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate
любящиеся active participle, accusative, plural, inanimate, reflexive
любящих active participle, accusative, plural, animate
любящихся active participle, accusative, plural, animate, reflexive
любящими active participle, instrumental, plural
любящимися active participle, instrumental, plural, reflexive
любящею active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любящеюся active participle, instrumental, feminine, singular, reflexive
любя verbal adverb
люби imperative, singular
любите imperative, plural
любишь 2nd person, singular
любит 3rd person, singular
любится 3rd person, singular, reflexive
любим 1st person, plural
любите 2nd person, plural
любимый passive participle, nominative, masculine, singular
любимого passive participle, genitive, masculine, singular
любимому passive participle, dative, masculine, singular
любимый passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, inanimate
любимого passive participle, accusative, masculine, singular, animate
любимым passive participle, instrumental, masculine, singular
любимом passive participle, prepositional, masculine, singular
любимая passive participle, nominative, feminine, singular
любимой passive participle, genitive, feminine, singular
любимой passive participle, dative, feminine, singular
любимой passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любимой passive participle, prepositional, feminine, singular
любимую passive participle, accusative, feminine, singular
любимое passive participle, nominative, neuter, singular
любимое passive participle, accusative, neuter, singular
любимого passive participle, genitive, neuter, singular
любимому passive participle, dative, neuter, singular
любимым passive participle, instrumental, neuter, singular
любимом passive participle, prepositional, neuter, singular
любимые passive participle, nominative, plural
любимых passive participle, genitive, plural
любимых passive participle, prepositional, plural
любимым passive participle, dative, plural
любимые passive participle, accusative, plural, inanimate
любимых passive participle, accusative, plural, animate
любимыми passive participle, instrumental, plural
любимою passive participle, instrumental, feminine, singular
любим passive participle, masculine, singular
любима passive participle, feminine, singular
любимо passive participle, neuter, singular
любимы passive participle, plural
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".
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.
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:
Nominative ый ая ое ые
Prepositional ом 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, красный
молодой, 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).
Singular
Stem Plural
ends in masculine (any gender)
neuter feminine (-ие)
(-ий, -ой)
(-ое, -ое) (-ая)
маленький маленькое
к, г, х маленькая маленькие
морской, другой морское, другое
ж, ш, ч,
свежий свежее свежая свежие
щ
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:
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.
Singular
Plural
(any gender)
masculine neuter feminine
(-ы)
(no ending) (-o) (-а)
Remember !
Short adjectives can also refer to qualities with respect to a particular person, thing or
circumstances. For example:
низкий - низок
O before K: ("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):
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 Adjectives
Normal 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’
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 Plural
Nominative Case синий синяя синее синие
синий синие
Accusative Case синюю синее
синих (anim.) синих (anim.)
Genitive Case синего синей синего синих
Dative Case синему синей синему синим
Instrumental Case синим синей синим синими
Prepositional Case синем синей синем синих
Short Adjectives
The 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.
Comparative Adjectives
Often 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.
3. Without Чем
The 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 - Most
The 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
Food In Russian
apple яблоко liver печень
mashed
apple juice яблочный сок пюре
potatoes
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 борщ (russian
onion лук
soup) soup)
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
жареная
fried potatoes soda лимонад
картошка
безалкогольные
fruit фрукты soft drinks
напитки
garlic чеснок soup суп
виноградный
grape juice spinach шпинат
сок
grapefruit грейпфрут steak бифштекс
grapes виноград sugar сахар
ground meat фарш sweets конфеты
ham ветчина tea чай
ice cream мороженое tomatoes помидоры
ukha (fish
jam джем уха
soup)
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 granddaugh внучка
ter
jacket куртка grandfather дедушк
а
jacket (top of a пиджак grandmoth бабушк
suit) er а
laces шнурки grandson внук
large большой husband муж
leather кожа mother мать
medium средний mum мама
necktie галстук parents подите
ли
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
Questions In Russian
How much money? Сколько денег? Who? Кто?
How much/many? Сколько? What's the В чём дело?
matter?
How? Как? What do you Что вам
need? 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 Что вы хотите?
want?
What's the date Какое сегодня What are you Что вы
today? число? doing? делаете?
Where from? Откуда? What's Что случилось?
happened?
Where? Где? What? Что?
Who is this? Кто это? O.K.? Хорошо?
Why? Почему?
Colors In Russian
color цвет
black чёрный
blue синий
brow коричнев
n ый
gray серый
gree зелёный
n
pink розовый
red красный
whit белый
e
yello жёлтый
w
English see
Infinitive 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 Review
The 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-You
Never forget please and thank-you.
Спасибо - Thank-You
Пожалуйста - Please (and You're Welcome)
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
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?
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?
Conclusion
This 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