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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 =
1. Word-initially; Yelizovo
2. after vowels; 2. Чапаевск =
3. after й; Chapayevsk;
Ye (ye) 3. Майер = Mayyer;
Е (е) 4. after ь;
5. after ъ. 4. Юрьев = Yur’yev;
5. Съезд = S”yezd.
● quantitative - the length of the vowel of the stressed syllable is longer than the lengths of
unstressed vowels
● dynamic - the stressed syllable is more powerful, intensive and loud in pronunciation,
sometimes this type is falsely called expiratory since the strength of the syllable is thought
to depend on the amount of exhaled air, but these are different phenomena not
determining each other
● quality of the vowel - the stressed vowel gets clear and distinct and therefore acquires
special quality
● tonic - pitch of the stressed syllable is higher
There are languages which don't have word stress. Syllables do not differ at all. These are Even,
Evenk, Kalmyk and others. But the most languages do have it. Each language usually has not only
one type of stress, but different types play a certain role in a language. For example, in Japanese
and Swedish the tonic stress plays the main role. It did in Ancient Greek as well but it is displaced
by dynamic stress in contemporary Greek.
Now as we have considered the phonetic nature of stress let's consider its placement in a word.
There are two types of stress regarding the association of it with a certain syllable of the word:
● fixed stress - the stress is always associated with a certain syllable of the word, for example
in Finnish, Hungarian, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Polish it falls
on the last but one syllable, in French it falls on the last syllable
● free stress - the stress can fall on any syllable of the word, but each word, of course, has its
definite stressed syllable. This type of stress is in Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian,
Lithuanian.
Languages either with fixed or free stress can have one of two following types of stress:
● stable stress - the stress does not change its place within the paradigm (the set of word
worms) of the word while being declined or conjugated and in all derived words as well,
i.e. if a noun has its ending stressed it will have its ending stressed in all possible cases, the
same is true for root or prefix
● moving stress - the stress does change its place within the paradigm of the same word, for
example, if a noun in singular form has its root stressed then it can have its ending stressed
in plural form. Note, that languages with fixed stress can have moving stress, for example
in Polish word "polski" (Polish) the first (last but one) syllable is stressed which belongs to
the root, but in Genitive case "polskiego" the second syllable (also last but one) is stressed
which belongs to the ending, not to the root
Russian language has free and moving stress which is the most difficult to study. You must learn
the stress of each word otherwise you might be not understood or misunderstood. So in this
course I will mark the stress of each word by making the stressed vowel bold, for example город
(town), корова (cow), молоко (milk), трубопровод (pipeline), палеонтология (palaeontology).
You see that in these words stress falls on different syllables, from 1st to 5th. But please don't fall
into despair, Russian stress is very simple compared to Lithuanian where the stress is free and
moving and in addition there are 3 different types of stress marked with acute, grave or circumflex
each of which changes the intonation of the word. Even Russian people can hardly deal with the
stress, there are a lot of common errors, for example a lot of people say звонит instead of звонит
((he) phones), договор instead of договор (agreement, contract), торты instead of торты (cakes)
etc. And for this reason there are pronunciation dictionaries in Russia usually intended not for
transcribing the words but mainly for marking their stress; all the forms of each word that can
make people doubt are included in such dictionaries and there are very many of them, for
example in the entry "дать" (to give) there are 34 forms of this verb. There are words which have
two accepted in the literary language ways of stressing, for example творог and творог (curds) are
both right. You should note that changing the stress in some words leads to totally different
meaning, e.g. замок (castle) and замок (lock), дорогой (Instrumental case of дорога - road) and
дорогой (expensive, dear), уже (narrower) and уже (already), потом (Instrumental case of пот -
sweat) and потом (then, afterwards). As already mentioned above, Russian has moving stress, but
however some words have stable and some words have moving stress, for example words собака
(dog), лимон (lemon), пожар (fire) have stable stress since all their forms and words derived from
them have their stress on the second vowel of the root (а, о, а respectively) and words рука (hand,
arm), гора (mountain) have moving stress, since their plural forms руки (hands, arms) and горы
(mountains) have their stress on the root and not on the ending. The place of stress in a word can
change during historical evolution of the language, for example word музыка (music) was in 19th
century pronounced as музыка.
4 Pronunciation
Russian Pronunciation Guide
Here all aspects of Russian pronunciation will be considered. Right on this chapter you will find
only basic pronunciation rules which might be enough for you to pronounce Russian words more
or less correct.
Now let's discuss each letter of the Russian alphabet in their alphabetic order and see in what
ways it can be pronounced. As already mentioned in Basic facts about Russian language Russian
language is almost phonetic that is there is one-to-one correspondence between the letters of the
alphabet and the sounds. But this almost means that there are some exceptions. The most
important of them are discussed here.
Well, first to be mentioned, there is no division into long and short vowels in Russian, that means
that it is no matter how you pronounce a vowel: long or short, it won't change the word's
meaning.
Consonant
Unpaired consonants
There are also six unpaired consonants, i.e. consonant sounds that do not come in both a plain
and a palatalised variety. These are the sounds ч щ ш ж ц (noisy consonant) and the sound /y/ (as
in 'boy' and чай).
The difference between Russian palatalised consonants and English consonants followed by y (as
in canyon) is that palatalisation (pronounced PALataliZAtion) is produced simultaneously with the
consonant, whereas in English the y-sound is a separate consonant. In other words, a palatalized н
in Russian is a single sound and takes no longer to say than a plain н, while in English the
combination ny is two sounds and takes longer to say than n alone.
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:
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).
There are two additional features of Russian pronunciation which even a beginner should know of:
• vowels in non-stressed positions are reduced more or less depending on a particlular
vowel: vowels [u], [ы] and [i] are not reduced very much (compare рука (hand,arm) - руки
(hands, arms), дышать (to breathe) - дышит ((he) breathes), зима (winter) - зимний
(wintry)); vowel [a] is reduced pretty much: in the syllable right before the stressed one it is
pronounced like "u" in "cut" (1st level reduction), e.g. замок (lock), in all other syllables
except the stressed one and the one right before stressed it is pronounced yet weaker (2nd
level reduction), e.g. караван (caravan) (here we have two unstressed syllables); vowel [o]
which is denoted by letter "о" is reduced very much in non-stressed syllables: in the
syllable right before stressed it gets identical with the vowel [a] in its 1st level reduction,
elsewhere with the vowel [a] in its 2nd level reduction, e.g. молоко (milk), дорогой
(expensive, dear).
• 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.
"Cь" = any soft consonant in the table above. To compare the use of the 'soft' vowels after
soft consonants (Cь) and the 'hard' vowels after hard consonants (C), examine the table
below. Женя is the nickname for Евгений "Eugene" or Евгения "Eugenia" and жена
means "wife". Table shows some of them in their various case forms.
Hard & Soft Consonants
Names of nations and languages are not capitalized, e. g. англичанин, английский, русский.
Names of months and days of the week are not capitalized, e. g. среда, суббота, воскресенье.
In titles, only the first word is capitalized (but names are still capitalized, of course), e. g. Война и
мир, Дети капитана Гранта, Том Сойер.
The first word in a sentence is always capitalized. The pronoun я is not capitalized unless it is the
first word in the sentence. The pronoun вы is capitalized only in personal correspondence.
Suffixes (Суффиксы)
The root defines the basic meaning of the word, e.g. the words научиться, учёный, учитель,
ученик, учёба, самоучитель, and учебник all have to do with learning. The prefix may add a
nuance to the basic meaning, e.g. научиться and выучиться signify that the process was
completed. The ending shows how the word functions in the sentence, e. g. to answer the
question О чём ты говорил? you'll say О газетее, but to answer the question Откуда ты это
знаешь? you'll say Из газеты. The word remains the same, but the grammatical construction, and
the endings are different, because the word учебник now serves a different function.
A suffix is the part of the word that is between the root and the ending. Like prefixes, they create
words with the same basic idea, but somewhat different specific meanings.
Here are a few common suffixes whose spelling you should remember:
-тель-: учитель, глушитель
-еньк-: маленький, тётенька (there're no -инький words in Russian, and only three -иньк words,
e.g. паинька)
-оньк-: сухонький
-онк-а: мальчонка, девчонка (always -о- after -ч ш ж щ-, i.e. noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)
-ёнк-а: сестрёнка, шестерёнка (-ё- after a non-noisy/sibilant/hissing consonant)
-ечк-а-: Наташечка, мальчишечка
-очк-а-: мамочка, дурочка
-ак-: дурак, земляк, бедняк
-щик-: барабанщик
-ов-щик-: часовщик
-чик-: лётчик, счётчик
-ник-: колхозник, спутник
-ик-: математик, винтик
-ец-: ленинградец, немец
-ан-ец-: американец
-ин-: болгарин, татарин, трещина, морщина
-ан-ин-: горожанин
-тор-: новатор (words in -тар do exist, but they never mean "someone who does what the root
signifies")
-ость-: активность, гордость (there's no -асть- suffix in Russian)
-от-а-: беднота, краснота
-ин-а-: ширина, глубина
-а-ни-е-: внимание, собрание
-е-ни-е-: чтение, удивление
-ев/ов-: боевой, строевой, полевой, трудовой, годовой, беговой
The adjectival suffixes -анн-ый, -янн-ый, -онн-ый, -енн-ый, -инн-ый, are always spelled with two
нн's.
Two verb suffixes deserve special attention. The suffixes in рисовал and списывал may sound
similar but these verbs behave very differently when conjugated: compare рисую and списываю.
If you are not sure about the spelling of a -ва- verb, you can tell the two types apart by conjugating
them:
-ова- and -ева-: рисовать / рисую, танцевать / танцую (the suffix changes form -ва- to -уй- when
conjugated)
-ыва- and -ива-: списывать / списываю, достраивать / достраиваю (the suffix stays the same).
Personal pronouns
я I мы we
ты you вы you
он, она, оно he, she, it они they
Possessive pronouns
мой my наш our
твой your ваш your
его, её, его his, her, its их their
Numbers
ноль zero
двадцать
один one одиннадцать eleven twenty one сто hundred
один
два two двенадцать twelve двадцать два twenty two двести two hundred
thre twenty three
три тринадцать thirteen двадцать три триста
e three hundred
четыре four четырнадцать fourteen тридцать thirty четыреста four hundred
пять five пятнадцать fifteen сорок forty пятьсот five hundred
шесть six шестнадцать sixteen пятьдесят fifty шестьсот six hundred
seve seventee seven
семь семнадцать шестьдесят sixty семьсот
n n hundred
восемнадцат
восемь eight eighteen семьдесят seventy восемьсот eight hundred
ь
девять nine девятнадцать nineteen восемьдесят eighty девятьсот nine hundred
десять ten двадцать twenty девяносто ninety тысяча Thousand
Months
Note that all the months are written with the first small letter in Russian.
январь January
февраль February
март March
апрель April
май May
июнь June
июль July
август August
сентябрь September
октябрь October
ноябрь November
декабрь December
Colours
белый white
черный black
красный red
зелёный green
синий, голубой blue
жёлтый yellow
оранжевый orange
коричневый brown
фиолетовый violet
серый gray
7 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.
The personal pronouns do not change by number, they belong to either singular or plural number.
я, ты, он, она, оно are always singular. мы, вы, они are always plural.
Finally, you have to remember to insert and н before all the third person pronouns when the occur
after prepositions.
Without Prep With 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.
possessor
singular plural
1 (я) 2 (ты) 3m (он) 3f (онаŒ) 1 (мы) 2 (вы) 3 (ониŒ)
мой твой наш ваш
мояŒ твояŒ на›ша ва›ша
nom моё твоё на›ше ва›ше
моиŒ твоиŒ на›ши ва›ши
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.
Some Tricks Demonstratives Do For You
True to their name, demonstrative pronouns exhibit a pronounced presence in the Russian
language. They serve a lot of functions other than demonstrating. Two very common places you
find them is in the expressions for "the same" and "the wrong". Here's how they work.
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.
Какой, Который, Чей
The interrogative pronouns какой (what kind of), который (which), чей (whose) change by
gender, number and case like adjectives. Besides, you should distinguish between animate and
inanimate forms when using the accusative case. This is demonstrated in the tables below.
Change by gender and number
masculine feminine neuter plural (any gender)
какой какая какое какие
который которая которое которые
чей чья чьё чьи
Change by cases
Case "какой" "который" "чей"
Nominative какой который чей
Genitive какого которого чьего
Dative какому которому чьему
Accusative какой, какого который, которого чей, чьего
Instrumental каким которым чьим
Prepositional о каком о котором о чьём
"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?
Какая она женщина? | What kind of woman is she?
Как сказать по-русски [like]? | How do you say 'like' in Russian?
Где ты нашла его? | Where did you find him?
Куда он девался? | Where did he get to?
Откуда ты взяла его? | Where did you get him from?
Когда он родился? | When was he born?
Сколько ты хочешь за машину? | How much do you want for your car?
Почему ты хочешь её настолько? | Why do you want it so much?
Remember that the nominal (кто, что and the adjectival pronouns (какой, чей) are sensitive to
case just like lexical nouns and adjectives. The following examples illustrate this.
На чём сидит твоя лягушка? What is your frog sitting on?
Кому ты дал свою лягушку? To whom did you give your frog?
Каким ножом он кушает? Which knife does he eat with?
С чьей индейкой он идёт? Whose turkey is he going with?
Reflexive Pronouns
The Russian Personal Reflexive Pronoun
Most languages have a special pronoun which is used exclusively in predicates to replace a
pronoun that would refer to the same object as the subject refers to. In English these pronouns
usually contain self, e.g. I love myself, she loves herself, they love themselves.
Unfortunately, in English these pronouns have the same form as the nominal emphatic pronouns
which simply emphasize some noun the the clause, e.g. I did it myself. In this sentence myself
merely emphasizes the fact the I did it and not someone else. This function is expressed a different
way in Russian.
The genuine reflexive is expressed in Russian by себя.
The possessive reflexive pronoun свой, своё, своя; свои is declined the same as мой and твой.
The Russian Reciprocal Pronoun
Finally, Russian contains a set of reciprocal pronouns corresponding to English each other: друг
друга. There are only a couple of things you need to remember about this pair. First, only the
second one declines and it follows the noun declension of masculine nouns. Second, when used
with a preposition, the preposition stands between them, e.g. Они всё мечтают друг о друге
"They are always dreaming about each other". If you keep these two quirks in mind, your
reciprocals will always properly reciprocate.
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
It is possible for perfective and imperfective verbs to have equal vocabulary meaning, as the
following verbs do: сажать (impf.) - посадить (pf.); удваивать - удвоить; достигать -
достигнуть. But it is more common for them to have some shades of meaning, for example:
читать (impf.) - прочитать (pf.) - вычитать (pf.); шить - расшить; строгать - обстрогать.
On the other hand, imperfective verbs are formed from perfective verbs with the help of such
suffixes as -ыва, -ива, -а, -ва (пересчитать - пересчитывать, раскачать - раскачивать,
расстелить - расстелать, подлить - подливать).
Usage of Russian Verbs
Past
TENSE AND
USAGE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
ASPECT
Used to designate an action that began and
Вчера вечером он читал
ended at a particular time in the past; the
книгу.
result is not important for the speaker
Used for an action that occurred over period
Он плавал в бассейне весь
of time but was completed in the past; the
день.
action, not duration, is emphasized
Во время каникул мы
Used for an activity that took place regularly
ходили в кино каждое
PAST TENSE, in the past
утро.
IMPERFECTIVE
ASPECT Used for actions occurred over period of time
Когда я читал книгу, брат
simultaneously but were completed in the
смотрел телевизор.
past
В комнате холодно, потому
Used when the result of an action is nullified,
что я открывал окно.
i.e. an opposite action occurred
(i.e.открыл и закрыл)
Used for an action that occurred over period
Он строил дом целый
of time but was completed in the past. The
месяц.
duration is emphasized
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.
Stem
In linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its
inflected variants. The two major types of verb stems are Consonant Stems and Vowel Stems.
• Consonant Stems are those verb stems which end on a consonant. There are two
significant types: 'wimpy' consonant stems and 'tough' consonant stems. (You'll see
in the next section why they are wimpy or tough; for the time being, just remember
them.)
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.
Russian, however, like most other European languages, maintains a separate suffix for each of
these forms.
Singular Plural
1st Person я работа-ю мы работа-ем
2nd Person ты работа-ешь вы работа-ете
3rd Person он работа-ет они работа-ют
The set of suffixes for a given stem is referred to as that stem's 'conjugation'. Russian has two such
sets, Conjugation I (First conjugation) and Conjugation II (Second conjugation).
Present- Future and The 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 letter л любить (to love): я люблу
Reminder. The Spelling Rule 1, "Never write Ы, Ю, or Я after the letters 'Г, К, Ж, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ'
instead use И, У, А".
The Past Tense Endings
The Past Tense of a verb indicates that the action indicated by the verb occurred in the past. The
Past Tense ending for both conjugations is -л + gender marker, -o for neuter, -a for feminine,
nothing for masculine, in the singular and -и in the plural. The past tense of сказа- "say, tell" is
сказа-л-, as shown below.
(он) сказал "he/it said"
(она) сказала "she/it said"
(оно) сказало "it said"
(они) сказали "they said"
The stem does not change if the past tense ending is added to a vowel stem; however, this ending
doesn't like consonants and usually makes some adjustments to consonant stems which we will
examine further along.
"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 tense буду ходить будем ходить
The concept of the indicative mood was mentioned above. The indicative mood (изъявительное
наклонение) is used to talk about actions which occurred in past, occur presently, and will occur
in future. For example,
Школьник учит уроки. The schoolboy is learning his lessons.
Школьник учил уроки. The schoolboy was learning his lessons.
Школьник будет учить уроки. The schoolboy will be learning his lessons.
Russian verbs also change in person. The grammatical term "person" refers to those who take part
in speech eiher directly or indirectly.
The first person verbs designate that the action is being perfomed by a speaker, as in
В свободное время я читаю книги, общаюсь с друзьями, слушаю музыку, или
просто лежу на диване.
Here the verbs читаю ([I] read), общаюсь ([I] converse), слушаю ([I] listen), and лежу ([I] lie)
mean that the person who is speaking performs the actions.
The second person verbs designate that the action is being performed by a collocutor.
Ты, волна моя, волна!
Ты пуглива и вольна;
Плещешь ты, куда захочешь,
Ты морские камни точишь,
Топишь берег ты земли,
Подымаешь корабли --
Не губи ты нашу душу:
Выплесни ты нас на сушу!
In this excerpt from a poem by Pushkin, the verbs плещешь ([you] slpash), точишь, топишь
(sink), подымаешь (raise), губи (ruin), and выплесни (splash out) are used to show that the
actions are performed by the wave.
The third person designates that the action is being performed by someone or something that is
being talked about, i.e. by an indirect participant of speech. For example,
Черёмуха душистая, развесившись, стоит,
А зелень золотистая на солнышке горит.
Here стоит ([it] stands) and горит (burn) refer to the object which is spoken about, namely
черёмуха (the cherry).
In Russian, verb endings indicate person and number of the verb.
Remember: Second person singular verbs are to be written with ь, for example: читаешь ([you]
read), гордишься ([you] are proud), целишься ([you] aim).
Test yourself:
a. Define the person of the verbs in the following sentences?
1. О, вы не знаете украинской ночи!
2. Дерево растёт в лесу.
3. Одну молитву чудную твержу я наизусть.
А. First 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.
- еть (7 verbs):
Я – у/- ю Мы – ем Я – у, - ю Мы – им
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
Test Yourself:
a) Assuming that 1st conjugation verbs end in -у(-ю), -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут(-ют), what is the
conjugation of the following verbs?
1. Верт__шь головой 2. Бре__шься по утрам 3. Беж__шь быстро 4. Хоч__т конфет
(A. 1st conjugation B. 2nd conjugation C. can be both A. and B)
b) The verbs of what tense conjugate, i.e. change in person and number?
1. Present tense verbs
2. Past tense verbs
3. Future tense verbs
Answers:
a) 1B (вертишь головой), 2A (бреешься по утрам), 3C (бежишь быстро), 4C (хочет
конфет); b) 1 and 3
Present Tense
The Russian present tense form is very simple. Verb forms like "I am working" , "I do work", "I have
been working" do not exist in Russian. Instead, the form similar to that of English present simple
tense is used.
I 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
Мы -ем -им
Вы -ете -ите
A Full Example
Infinitive: читать (НСВ) 'read' прочитать (СВ) 'read'
Present Tense Past Tense Future Tense
НСВ НСВ СВ НСВ СВ
Я читаю буду читать прочитаю
Ты читаешь читал/а/о прочитал/а/о будешь читать прочитаешь
Он / Она / Оно читает будет читать прочитает
Мы читаем будем читать прочитаем
Вы читаете читали прочитали будете читать прочитаете
Они читают будут читать прочитают
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:
First (Е) Conjugation stems ending on the velars к, г, х, before е only, undergo palatalization, i. e.
everywhere except in the 1st person singular and 3rd person plural:
мочь (ке/ге/хе>че/же/ше) may, can
могу можем
можешь можете
может могут
Second (И) Conjugation stems (those ending on и and е) palatalize in the 1st person singular only:
Видеть (ду>жу)* to see
вижу видим
видишь видите
видит видят
*See the above Table
Past Tense
The Russian past tense is used to talk about actions and situations which took place at any point in
the past. There is only one past tense form in Russian compared to numerous forms in English.
She ate/ She did eat/ She had eaten/ She was eating/ She has eaten
Она ела/съела
The Suffix 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 сохли/морозили
морозил морозила морозило
Future Tense
In Russian, past tense and present tense, as well as future tense refer to the indicative mood.
Future tense denotes that the action marked by the verb will happen after the moment of
speaking.
Future tense has two forms: simple and compound. Future simple forms are formed by the verbs
of the perfective aspect with the help of personal endings.
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
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).
The first thing you will notice is that there are two similar Russian words corresponding to one
English word. This is because Russians also indicate weather they are going in one direction or
making a return trip. As it is often the case in Russian, you are able to say a lot with few words.
Each verb conjugates in the normal way, click on the link next to the verbs to view the fully
conjugated forms.
Multidirectional (Indefinite) Verb
The verb on the left (Ходить, Ездить) is the Multidirectional (return trip, in general) verb.
Technically known as the Indefinite. Use the multidirectional form when are talking about actions
in more than one direction, for example a return trip. Also use this form when you are talking in
general about going to somewhere, or when there is no motion, or the number of directions is
irrelevant.
Examples (Ходить, Ездить):
Каждый день я хожу в кино. - Everyday I go to the cinema. (Talking in general)
Мы ходили по городу. - We walked around the town.
(moving in a number of different directions)
Вчера мы ездили в Лондон. - Yesterday we went to London.
(by transport) (the return trip is implied)
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.
• -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.
The very most commonly used in this construction is хотеть "want". Мне (не) хочется "I don't feel
like . . ." is a milder form of я (не) хочу "I don't want . . . " and is used as frequently as the stronger
alternate.
Another way of expressing the optative in Russian is with the conditional: я бы поел кашу "I feel
like eating kasha" or "I wouldn't mind eating some kasha".
9 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.
Russian Genders' Table
Russian Gender's Table
Masculine Feminine Neuter
ending consonant -а, -я -о, -е
нос, брат, осёл, козёл, сестра, труба, семья, море, письмо,
examples
кот, стол профессия дерево
ь (should remember)
-а, -я - persons of
exceptions ь (should remember)
masculine gender
or Russian male names
учитель (teacher) - should
remember ending ь,
exceptions дедушка (grandpa) - дочь (daughter), печь
examples person of masculine (oven)
gender, Ваня - Russian
male name
Plural Nouns
Nouns can be used in the singular and in the plural number. Some nouns have the singular form
only: одежда (clothes), происхождение (origin).
Some nouns have the plural form only макароны (macaroni), брюки (trousers).
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).
In Russian, the instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done. In English we
commonly use the words "by" or "with" to do this. You would use the instrumental in a sentence
like "we went there by car".
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
(1) the word путь - ‘path’ (N/A: путь, G/D/L: пути, I: путём)
(SG: N/A: время, G/D/L: времени, I: временем; PL: N/A времена, G: времён, D: временам,
L: временам, I: временами -’time’) Other neuter nouns with this declension include:
имя -’name’, знамя -’banner’, пламя -’flame’, вымя -’udder’, семя -’seed’, бремя -’burden’,
N улгаковы
A улгаковых
G улгаковых
D улгаковым
L улгаковых
I улгаковыми
(6) There are several word forms in CSR that are formally adjectival but semantically behave as
nouns. Included in this group are many Russian family names. Note the following examples:
ванная ‘bathroom’
булочная ‘bakery’
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
как я встретился с женой. before
Notice in the Russian table that the preposition до+Gen cannot serve as an adverb at all and when
it serves as a conjunction, it must have a dummy pronoun, то bearing the genitive case marker,
-ого. This is because conjunctions introduce entire sentences and sentences cannot bear case.
Russian is forced to use dummy pronouns to reflect the case required by any preposition which is
used as a conjunction.
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.
Genitive Prepositions Indicating Non-Existence
The genitive case is associated with non-existence and negation. That is why the objects of
sentences with negated verbs are placed in the genitive case if non-existence is implied. The
prepositional meanings "without", "against", "except", and "instead of" also imply negation or
non-existence of their objects. All these prepositions require the genitive in Russian.
1. The preposition без+Gen is very simple, even for Russian. In virtually every context it
means "without". Its antonym is с(о)+Ins "with".
Она это сделала без труда. She did that without difficulty.
Он вышел без шапки. He went out without his cap.
Без сомнения он это сделает. Without a doubt he will get it done.
2. The preposition против+Gen is a bit more complicated for it may mean either "opposite"
or "across from" in the physical sense of location or "against" in the sense of "if I am not for
it I am against it". In this sense it is the antonym of за+Acc. This same preposition may also
be used to indicate spatial location, in which case it means "opposite (of)"; however, in this
sense young Russians are more likely to use напротив+Gen. Here are a few examples to
illustrate what I mean.
Я не против этого. I'm not against that.
Он боролся против капитализма. He fought against capitalism.
Он всегда сидит (на)против меня. He always sits opposite me.
Они живут (на)против нас. They live across from us.
3. The preposition кроме+Gen means "except" or "but", when but is used as a preposition.
Я никого не знаю кроме тебя. I don't know anyone except you.
Все кроме него пришли. Everyone came but him.
4. The preposition вместо+Gen (Don't confuse it with the adverb вместе "together"!) means
"instead of" or "in place of". Here are some examples.
Пусть она поёт вместо меня. Let her sing instead of me.
Вместо физики он выбрал музыку. In place of physics he chose music.
This table shows that Russian lacks prepositions meaning specifically "from", "at", and "to".
Rather it uses ambiguously the prepositions meaning specifically "out of", "off of", "away
from" and "in", "on", "by", and "into", "onto", "up to" , for expressing "from", "at", and
"to". Which set of 3 is used depends on the animacy of the noun serving as object of the
preposition and whether it is a flat place or an object with an interior. The important point
to remember is that if a noun uses any one of these prepositions because it is flat, has an
interior, or is animate, it uses all three in the set. The sets cannot under any circumstances
be mixed.
• To express "from" when the noun is animate, you use от+Gen, e.g. от Ивана "from
Ivan's", от Татяны "from Tatyana's".
• To say "from" a place that humans or animals normally phycially go inside of, you
say, из+Gen: из дома "from home", из школы "from school". There are a couple of
exceptions.
• To say "from" under all other circumstances (if the noun refers to a flat, open space
or if it is abstract), use с+Gen, e.g. с поля "from the field", с лекции "from class".
14.The instrumental prepositions под+Ins "under" and за+Ins "behind" have genitive
prepositions compounded with из, indicating the direction "from": из-под+Gen "from
under" and из-за+Gen "from behind". There are no genitive prepositions corresponding to
the other two directional instrumental prepositions, над+Ins "over, above" and перед+Ins
"before, in front of".
Both of these prepositions have alternative meanings. In addition to "from under", из-
под+Gen is occasionally used to indicate the use for which an object is intended: банка из-
под варенья "a jar for jam" or "an empty jam jar". If the jar contains jam, the simple
genitive is used: банка варенья. Из-за+Gen can also mean "because of" when referring to
an unfortunate or disappointing result: Из-за снега мы опоздали на работу "because of
the snow, we were late for work". (If the result is positive or fortunate, Russians use
благодаря+Dat.)
Кошка выскочила из-под дивана. The cat jumped out from under the couch.
На столе кувшин из-под кваса. On the table is the pitcher (we use) for kvas.
Кошка выскочила из-за дивана. The cat jumped out from behind the couch.
Я сделала ошибку из-за него. I made a mistake because of him.
15.The preposition после+Gen "after" has something of a temporal origin sense. It is used
everywhere and only where English after is used and so requires no comment. Here are
two examples.
Она вернулась домой после работы. She returned home after work.
Он всегда занимается после лекций. He always studies after class.
In addition to the more or less semantically ordered prepositions governing the genitive case,
there are six which do not fit the large semantic categories. Some of them are semantically
related, however; вне+Gen "inside" and внутри+Gen "outside" are antonyms and для+Gen and
ради+Gen both imply a beneficiary. The other two, до+Gen and the borderline preposition
накануне+Gen are simply left over.
16.The pair вне+Gen "outside" and внутри+Gen "inside" are recently derived from adverbs
since it is still possible to create adjectives from both of them: внешний "external, outer"
and внутренний "internal, inner". Their usage today pretty much follows that of English
inside and outside.
Он действует вне закона. He operates outside the law.
Внутри дома всё было чисто. Inside the house everything was clean.
17.The prepositions для+Gen "for" and ради+Gen "for the sake of" both indicate a
beneficiary of something; however, ради+Gen, just as English for, may be used to mark the
purpose of something or for which something is done and, also just as in English, it is more
often used when high purposes rather than ordinary ones.
Она делает всё для меня. She does everything for me.
Это — посуда для кваса. That is a container for kvas.
Ради бога, не плюй на пол. For God's sake, don't spit on the floor.
Он погиб ради родины. He perished for the sake of his country.
18.The preposition до+Gen has two meanings. It's temporal sense is simply "before" or
"until", the antonym of после+Gen. But it also can mean "as far as", differing from к+Dat in
that it implies "reaching" something as well as going up to it. If the verb of the clause
contains the prefix до-, too, often the entire phrase may be replaced by the English verb
reach.
Он часто занимается до лекции. He often studies before class.
Они доехали до Москвы к вечеру. They reached Moscow by evening.
Температура дошла до 28 градусов. The temperature went up to 28 degrees.
19.The preposition накануне+Gen "on the eve of" is a marginal preposition because the noun
канун "eve, time just before an event" still exists in the language, so in the spoken
language it may just be a prepositional phrase itself, that is, на кануне. It is common for
prepositional phrases and participles to develop into prepositions, however, since their
meanings are often similar.
Накануне революции Ленин был в 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.
To indicate the presence of an object at a place, use these prepositions with the prepositional or
instrumental cases. Many of these prepositions are used in time expressions as well. За+Acc can
also mean "for", the antonym of "against (something)".
Под+Acc has three minor uses aside from indicating direction 'under'.
a. It can mean "designated for" when used with a verb of motion: этот сарай предзначен
под сено "that barn is earmarked for hay".
b. Под+Acc can also refer to the nature of something artificial or fake: обстановка под орех
"artificial walnut furniture".
c. Finally, it may refer to an approximate time: приходить под вечер "arrive near evening".
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.
Prepositions Governing the Prepositional Case
The prepositional case is so named because it is is used only with prepositions, and only four
prepositions are currently used with this case: в+Prep "in, at", на+Prep "on, at", о(б)+Prep
"about", and при+Prep "on (one's person), during".
Notice that the first two have two meanings "in, at" and "on, at". This is because the Russian
people have discovered away of ridding their language of any preposition meaning "at": they
simply use these two prepositioins (and u+Gen) to mean "at". Because the meanings are so similar
(as you will soon see), there is never any confusion.
To keep the 'two' meanings distinct in the English-speaking mind, you need only to remember
where you are (easy enough if you're under 50). For example, if you are at home and someone
says, —Саша в школе, then they mean "Sasha is at school". Since the two places are totally
different, Russians can use the general meaning of в+Prep. If you are already at school, standing
out on the sidewalk, say, then the same sentence will mean "Sasha is inside the school". Clever,
huh? And it works every time. Here are some more examples; the 'at' examples are coded in blue.
(See the section on case for and explanation of the case endings.)
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.
No other prepositions currently govern the prepositional case. So let's move on to the
prepositions governing the last case, the instrumental.
Prepositions Governing the Instrumental Case
The basic function of the instrumental is to indicate the means by which an action is carried out.
This is what the instrumental alone signifies, usually corresponding to the English prepositions
with or by. However, the instrumental is also associated with the sense of accompaniment in
many languages and Russian is one of them. To indicate the person or things that accompanies
someone in Russian, a preposition is required: c+Ins 'with'. We will see how it works below. Finally,
the instrumental has come to be associated with five specific place relations: 'behind', 'before',
'above', 'under' and 'between/among'. All of these meanings require prepositions, too. Here are
the instrumental prepositions.
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
The Present Active Participle
The present active participle, like all present participles, is derived only from imperfective verbs,
since it refers to an action that is currently taking place or which takes place repeatedly. The
simplest way of deriving the Present Active Participle is to remove the final т from the 3rd Person
Plural form of the verb, add -щ plus the appropriate adjective agreement endings, i. e. -щий, -щая,
-щее, -щие. For example, the second conjugation stem for "divide" is дел-и-, so the present active
participle is formed like this: The verb делай- "do, make" ends on a consonant and so
is a first conjugation verb. It forms its present active participle like this: . Other
consonants stems, like вед- (вести) follow the same rule: .
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.
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.
Nominative ый ая ое ые
Prepositionalом ой ом ых
Instrumental ым ой ым ыми
Endings for adjectives in the nominative singular and plural (stressed vowels are underlined)
Singular Plural
(any gender)
masculine neuter feminine
(-ые)
(-ый, -ой) (-oe) (-ая)
новый, красный новое, красное новая, красная
молодой, лесной
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
This is a list of adjectives:
So far we learned how to form long adjectives (красивый - beautiful, лёгкий - easy). In
addition, Russian adjectives have a short form. To be more precise, only qualitative adjectives
may have both long and short forms (лёгкий - лёгок, красивый - красив).
In today's conversational Russian the usage of long adjectives if preferred. However, you will
most likely have to use the short form of an adjective in the end of a sentence. For example:
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.
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’
For example, the word "новый" (new) ends in the letters -ый so we use the forular above.
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.
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.
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Short Adjectives - -а -о -ы or -и
For Example.
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.
15 Appendix
Vocabulary
In this lesson you will learn Russian Vocabulary such as: Food, Clothes in Russian, Family,
Questions in Russian, List of Adjectives, List of Adverbs in Russian, Time, Countries, Nationalities in
Russian.
Since the page has many words it may take sometime to display, please be patient, and try to
memorize them all if you can, I listed here only the most important stuff that you need to know.
So it will not be a waste of time if you memorize them because you will certainly need them in the
future.
Adjectives In Russian
bad плохой long, tall длинный
big, large большой loud громкий
cheap дешёвый low, short низкий
clean чистый narrow узкий
deep глубокий near близкий
difficult трудный old старый
dirty грязный poor бедный
early ранний quiet тихий
expensive дорогой rich богатый
far далёкий shallow мелкий
fat толстый short короткий
good хороший simple простой
hard твёрдый soft мягкий
heavy тяжёлый strong крепкий
high, tall высокий thin тонкий
late поздний weak слабый
light, easy лёгкий wide широкий
small маленький young молодой
Food In Russian
apple яблоко liver печень
apple juice яблочный сок mashed potatoes пюре
bananas бананы meat мясо
beans бобы milk молоко
beef говядина mineral water минеральная вода
beer пиво mushrooms грибы
boiled eggs варёные яйца omelet омлет
borsh (beetroot soup) борщ (russian soup) onion лук
bread хлеб orange апельсин
broth бульон orange juice апельсиновый сок
butter масло pasta макароны
cabbage капуста peas горох
cake пирожное pepper перец
carrots марковь pineapple aнанас
caviar икра pizza пицца
cheese сыр pork свинина
chicken курица potato картошка
chocolate шоколад red wine красное вино
coffee кофе rice рис
coffee with milk кофе с молоком roast beef ростбиф
cream сливки salad салат
cucumbers огурцы salmon лосось
cutlets котлеты salt соль
dessert десерт sandwich бутерброд
duck утка sausage сосиска
fish рыба shashlik шашлык
fried eggs яичница snacks закуски
fried potatoes жареная картошка soda лимонад
fruit фрукты soft drinks безалкогольные напитки
garlic чеснок soup суп
grape juice виноградный сок spinach шпинат
grapefruit грейпфрут steak бифштекс
grapes виноград sugar сахар
ground meat фарш sweets конфеты
ham ветчина tea чай
ice cream мороженое tomatoes помидоры
jam джем ukha (fish soup) уха
juice сок veal телятина
kasha каша vegetables овощи
kidneys почки water вода
lemon лимон wine вино
Clothes And Family In Russian
belt ремень aunt тётя
blouse блуза brother брат
clothes одежда children дети
coat пальто dad папа
dress платье daughter дочь
gloves перчатки family семья
handbag сумочка father отец
hat шапка granddaughter внучка
jacket куртка grandfather дедушка
jacket (top of a suit) пиджак grandmother бабушка
laces шнурки grandson внук
large большой husband муж
leather кожа mother мать
medium средний mum мама
necktie галстук parents подители
pants брюки sister сестра
raincoat плащ son сын
scarf шарф uncle дядя
shirt рубашка wife жена
shoes туфли
silk шёлк umbrella зонтик
skirt юбка wool шерсть
slippers домашние тапочки
small маленький
socks носки
suit костюм
sweater свитер
sweatshirt футболка
Questions In Russian
How much money? Сколько денег? Who? Кто?
How much/many? Сколько? What's the matter? В чём дело?
How? Как? What do you need? Что вам нужно?
What did you say? Что вы сказали? When? Когда?
What is this? Что это? Which? Какой?/ Который?
What time is it? Который час? What do you want? Что вы хотите?
What's the date today? Какое сегодня число? What are you doing? Что вы делаете?
Where from? Откуда? What's happened? Что случилось?
Where? Где? What? Что?
Who is this? Кто это? O.K.? Хорошо?
Why? Почему?
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)
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