Preface to the Third Edition

When Professor Terence Wade died in 2005, he was already well advanced
in his plans to produce a third edition of A Comprehensive Russian Grammar.
This would have included appendices on geographical terms, irregular verbs,
irregular noun plurals, indeclinable nouns and abbreviations.
Since it remains unclear just what form these appendices would take
I have chosen not to attempt to second-guess. Indeed, it remains my
conviction that Professor Wade’s grammar is the most comprehensive and
illuminating of all Russian grammars currently available for student use.
It would not be advisable to make it unwieldy or too detailed for its own
good!
My purpose in preparing the third edition is not to seek to emulate
Professor Wade’s ambition, but rather to enhance the status and significance
of the grammar throughout the scholarly world by consolidation and a few
select additions. I have been guided by Professor Wade’s own desire, in
planning the third edition, to ‘ensure that the essential balance of the book
is maintained’. I have therefore chosen to expand the sources and reference
materials used, including writers and texts from well-known modern
Russian writers, as well as from the political and journalistic discourse
of post-Soviet Russia. In only one or two cases have explanations been
‘tweaked’, but the grammar itself remains largely as Professor Wade
presented it in the first edition in 1992.
I am indebted to colleagues from the Department of European Studies
and Modern Languages of the University of Bath for their advice and
support during my time spent working on this edition, and for their
invaluable help with recent developments in the language, especially
xxx Preface to the Third Edition

vocabulary. My fellow teachers Natasha Zhuravkina and Elena Kidd have

been particularly helpful. I would also like to thank staff and students of
Moscow State University who have studied on short courses at the
University of Bath in 2008 and 2009, especially Lidiia Polubichenko, Elena
Aleksandrova and Maria Guzenko.
David Gillespie
Bath, November 2009
Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the following for advising on aspects of the book: Natalya
Bogoslavskaya (University of Leeds), Sheelagh Graham (University of
Strathclyde), Larissa Ryazanova (Edinburgh University), who also read
the page proofs, Professor Dennis Ward (University of Edinburgh), Nijole
White (University of Strathclyde); also Dr Marina Kozyreva (Moscow and
Leeds Universities) for reading through a late draft and writing a helpful
report. I am particularly grateful to my specialist readers, Dr R. Bivon
(University of Essex, formerly of the University of East Anglia) and
Dr Svetlana Miloslavskaya (Pushkin Institute, Moscow) for writing detailed
reports at an early stage, thus enabling me to make substantial improvements.
I also valued a lengthy consultation with Svetlana Miloslavskaya which
allowed me to make amendments to the final draft. My editor, Professor
Michael Holman (University of Leeds), supplied helpful and detailed
critical analyses of each chapter during the writing of the grammar and
I am most grateful to him for his support and encouragement and for
the many insights that he provided. I should also like to thank Professor
Glanville Price (University College of Wales), general editor of Blackwell’s
series of grammars of European languages, for his comments on some early
chapters, particularly that on verbs. Any errors are, of course, entirely the
responsibility of the author.
I wish to thank my late mother, who first encouraged me to learn Russian.
The book is dedicated to my wife, May, who bore with me throughout the
thousands of hours and nine drafts that went into this grammar.
xxxii Acknowledgements

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the publishers of

the books I was able to consult (see bibliography): Akademiya nauk,
Birmingham University, Collets International, CUP, Dover Publications,
Durham University, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Hutchinson, Kniga, MGU,
Nauka, Oliver and Boyd, OUP, Pan Books, Pergamon, Progress Publishers,
Prosveshchenie, Russkii yazyk, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, University of
East Anglia, University of London Press, Vysshaya shkola.
TW
Acknowledgements to the
Second Edition

I am grateful to Russian colleagues who have helped with the new

edition, particularly Professor V. G. Kostomarov, Rector of the Pushkin
Institute, Moscow, for allowing me to carry out research at the Institute
on a number of occasions.
I wish to thank Professor G. Corbett (University of Surrey) and Professor
B. Scherr (Dartmouth College) for their valuable comments on the first
edition of the Grammar and suggestions for improving the second.
I also wish to express my thanks to Mrs Nijole White, my colleague at
the University of Strathclyde, who read the sections on word formation
in the Russian noun and gave valuable advice on presentation.
I should also like to thank editorial and production staff at Blackwell:
Tessa Harvey, Louise Spencely, Lorna Berrett, Brian Johnson, Helen
Rappaport, and proof reader Penny Dole for their work in producing this
second edition of the book.
Above all I am again indebted to my editor, Professor Michael Holman,
of the University of Leeds, who has supplied unstinting supportive and
professional assistance throughout, especially in preparing the new sections
on word formation in the Russian noun.
Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used:

acc. accusative
adj. adjective
cf. compare
dat. dative
f. feminine
fig. figurative
gen. genitive
imper. imperative
impf. imperfective
infin. infinitive
instr. instrumental
lit. literally
m. masculine
n. neuter
nom. nominative
part. participle
pf. perfective
pl. plural
prep. prepositional
sing. singular
theatr. theatrical
trans. transitive
Introduction

1 The Cyrillic alphabet

(1) The Russian Cyrillic alphabet contains 33 letters, including 20

consonants, 10 vowels, a semi-consonant/semi-vowel (й), a hard sign (ъ)
and a soft sign (ь).
(2) There are a number of different systems for transliterating the
Cyrillic alphabet. Three of these, that of the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO), that of the British Standards Institution (BSI)
(whose system is used throughout this Grammar), and that of the Library
of Congress (LC) are listed alongside the Cyrillic alphabet, as well as the
Russian names of the individual letters:
Cyrillic letters Letter name ISO BSI LC
Аа [а] a a a
Бб [бэ] b b b
Вв [вэ] v v v
Гг [гэ] g g g
Дд [дэ] d d d
Ее [е] e e e
Ёё [ё] ë ë ë
Жж [жэ] e zh zh
Зз [зэ] z z z
Ии [и] i i i
Йй [и крткое] j j j
Кк [ка] k k k
Лл [эль] l l l
2 Introduction 1–2

Cyrillic letters Letter name ISO BSI LC

Мм [эм] m m m
Нн [эн] n n n
Оо [о] o o o
Пп [пэ] p p p
Рр [эр] r r r
Сс [эс] s s s
Тт [тэ] t t t
Уу [у] u u u
Фф [эф] f f f
Хх [ха] h/ch kh kh
Цц [цэ] c ts u
Чч [че] a ch ch
Шш [ша] c sh sh
Щщ [ща] ca shch shch
Ъъ [твёрдый знак] ” ” ”
ЬІы [ы] y d y
Ьь [М@гкий знак] ’ ’ ’
Ээ [э оборBтное] z é b
Юю [ю] ju yu t
Яя [я] ja ya s

Note
(a) Certain letters with diacritics and accents which appear in the standard
BSI system (ё for ё, j for й, é for э, d for ы) are used without diacritics
and accents here.
(b) The ligatures used over certain combinations of letters in the standard
LC system (u, t s) are often omitted by other users.
(c) An apostrophe (’) for the soft sign (ь) is used only in the
bibliography.
(d) The endings -ый /-ий are rendered as -y in names.

2 The international phonetic alphabet (IPA)

The following symbols from the IPA are used in the Introduction for the
phonetic transcription of Russian words.

Vowels
i as in ил [il]
f as in пыл [pfl]
o as the first vowel in игл [o2gla]
p as the first vowel in дыр [dp2ra]
 2 Introduction 3

q as in лес [Fqs]
e as in весь [LeJ]
a as in рад [rat]
æ as in пять [IæK]
v as the first vowel in одIн [v2Bin]
m as the first vowel in хорошB [xmrv2Ro]
o as in мох [mox]
ö as in тётя [2KöKm]
u as in бук [buk]
ü as in ключ [kFütR]

Semi-consonant/semi-vowel
j as in бой [boj]

Consonants
p as in пол [pol]
I as in пёс [Ios]
b as in бак [bak]
A as in бел [Aql]
t as in том [tom]
K as in тем [Kqm]
d as in дом [dom]
B as in день [BeH]
k as in как [kak]
D as in кем [Dqm]
M as in гол [Mol]
E as in гид [Eit]
f as in флBра [2florm]
C as in фен [Cqn]
v as in вот [vot]
L as in винB [Lo2no]
s as in сам [sam]
J as in сев [Jqf]
z as in зуб [zup]
O as in зJбра [2Oqbrm]
R as in шум [ Rum]
Q as in жук [Quk]
x as in хам [xam]
N as in хIмик [2NiGok]
SS as in щек [ S So2ka]
ts as in цех [tsqx]
4 Introduction 2–3

tR as in чин [tRin]
m as in мол [mol]
G as in мел [Gql]
n as in нос [nos]
H as in нет [Hqt]
l as in лак [lak]
F as in ляг [Fak]
r as in рак [rak]
P as in рек [Po2ka]
j as in @ма [2jamm]

Pronunciation

3 Stressed vowels

Russian has ten vowel letters:

а э ы о у
я е и ё ю
(1) А is pronounced with the mouth opened a little wider than in the
pronunciation of ‘a’ in English ‘father’, e.g. зал [zal] ‘hall’.
(2) Э is pronounced like ‘e’ in ‘end’, but the mouth is opened a little wider
and the tongue is further from the palate than in articulating English ‘e’
in ‘end’, e.g. Kто [2qtm] ‘this is’.
(3) У is pronounced with the tongue drawn back and the lips rounded
and protruding. The sound is similar to but shorter than the vowel in ‘school’,
e.g. бук [buk] ‘beech’.
(4) О is also pronounced with rounded and protruding lips, but to a lesser
extent than in the pronunciation of у. The sound is similar to the vowel
in English ‘bought’, e.g. бок [bok] ‘side’.
(5) The vowel ы is pronounced with the tongue drawn back as in the
pronunciation of у, but with the lips spread, not rounded or protruding,
e.g. сын [sfn] ‘son’.
(6) The vowels я [ja], е [jq], ё [jo] and ю [ju] are ‘iotated’ variants of
a, э, o and y (i.e. they are pronounced like those vowels preceded by
the sound [j]). The vowel и resembles ‘ea’ in English ‘cheap’, but is a
‘closer’ sound, that is, the centre of the tongue is nearer to the hard
palate in articulation, e.g. мир [Gir] ‘world, peace’. After a preposition