Russian I

Last Update: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Language Tutorials • English Linguistics • Assistants in France • About Me • Blog • Site Map

Donate €

Donate $

Russian Tutorial written by Stephen VanZuylen

Please note: this tutorial is intended as a primer and quick reference, not the final word on the subject; I am not a native speaker, and many areas are glossed over or simplified in the interest of brevity. My thanks to those who looked over the original version to correct my mistakes. Any remaining mistakes are, of course, my own. Finally, this page is formatted in UTF-8 and is best viewed at 1024x768 resolution; different codings and resolutions and can lead to viewing problems, particularly with the ample Cyrillic text and table-breaking.

1. Some Basic Phrases
(Bold syllables indicate stress)

Yes Да dah	No Нет nyet	Maybe Может быть moh-zhit bit'

Hello (Formal Usage) Здравствуйте zdrav-stvoo-tye	Hi (Informal Usage) Привет preev-yet	Good Day, Hello Добрый День doh-bry dzyen'

Good Evening Добрый вечер doh-bry vyecher	Good Night Доброй ночи *doh*-broo-y noh-tchi	Good Bye (General Usem more formal) До свидания duh-svee-dah-nya

See You (informal) Пока pah-kah	See you tomorrow До завтра dah zav-trah	Please/You're Welcome Пожалуйста pah-zhahl-stah

Thank You Спасибо spah-see-bah	Sorry Простите prah-stee-tye	Welcome Добро пожаловать dah-broh* poh-zhahl-oh-vat'*

How are you doing? Как дела? kahk dze-la?	(Not) bad (Не)плохо (neh)ploh-khah	As always Как всегда Kahk vseg-dah

Excellent Хорошо Khah-rah-sho	Pleased to meet you (lit. "it is very pleasant") Очень приятно oh-chen' pree-yaht-nah	How old are you? Сколько вам лет? Skohl-kuh vahm l-yet

I'm x years old Мне __ лет m-nyeh __ l-yet	Excuse me... Извините eez-vee-nee-tye	Do you speak English? Вы знаете английский? vi znah-yeh-tye an-glee-skee

What languages do you know? Kакие языки вы знаете? kahk-ee-ye yah-zik-ee vi znah-ye-tye?	How do you say x n Russian? Как по-русски...? Kahk pah-roos-kee	I don't understand Я (не) понимаю yah (nyeh-) poh-nee-mah-yoo

I (don't) know Я (не) знаю yah (neh-) znah-yoo	Where are you from? Откуда вы? aht-koo-dah* vi?*	What is your name? Как вас зовут? kahk vas zah-voot

My name is... Меня зовут meen-yah* zah-voot...*	What time is it? Cколько времени? skohl-kuh vreh-meh-nee?	How much does it cost? Сколько стоит? skohl-kuh stoy-it

Do you know where x is? Вы знаете где...? vi znah-yeh-tye g-dze	Do you want...? Ты хочешь? Ti kho-tchesh	Is that everything? Это всё? eh-ta f-syoh?

No,that isn't necessary Нет, не надо nyet, neh nah-duh	Help me! Помогите! pah-mah-gee-tyeh	Bless you! (after cough or sneeze) Будьте здоровы! Boodz-tye z-dah-roh-vi

Could You Repteat that? Повторите! (пожалуйста) Pav-toh-ree-tye! (pah-zhahl-stah)

2. Pronunciation & Alphabet

The Russian Alphabet, known as Cyrillic or Кириллица (Ki-reel-lee-tsa) has 33 letters; 21 consonants, 10 vowels and two signs. The letters are: А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ ъ ы ь Э Ю and Я. In order to make this explanation easier, the letters are broken down into specific groups. While many who are unfamliar with the alphabet dismiss it as being too hard, the alphabet is deceptively simple, as the phonetic principle is very prominent, and successive reforms have removed excess letters and greatly simplified the spelling system.

Consonants
Б б В в Г г Д д Ж ж З з Й й К к Л л М м Н н П п Р р С с Т т Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ	Бэ -- Beh Вэ -- Veh Гэ -- Geh Дэ -- Deh Жэ -- Zheh Зэ-- Zeh И краткое-- i kratkoye Ка-- Kah Эл-- El Эм-- Em Эн -- En Пэ-- Peh Эрр -- Err Эс -- Es Тэ -- Teh Эф -- Ef Ха -- Khah Цэ -- Tseh Че -- Cheh Шэ -- Shah Ща -- Shchah	Best Vent Gift Deep Pleasure Zebra York King Lion Mend Next Pet trilled r Sink Tape Find Kh, like German machen Boots Chair Ship See note*

*I have heard two ways of pronouncing the letter щ, which I will assume to be regional variances. The first is to begin with a ш sound with a ч made just after without pause. (The example "fresh cheese" is most common.) The second is to make a "sh" sound, but push your jaw slightly forward and tighten the corners of your lips into a kind of semi-smile.

In addition to the above consonants, there are certain variations in the sound made for most consonants, referred to most often as "soft" consonants. Rather than add new letters to represent these sounds, the Russian Alphabet shows them in one of two ways: either through a softening vowel, or should there be no vowel, a soft sign, used below. An explanation of how to pronounce these individually are below as well. The signs have additional uses, explained later.

Soft Consonants

Бь -Like Пь, but voiced
Вь -Push your lower lip upwards so the inside touches the lower front portion of your front teeth
Дь - Use the frontal portion of your tongue rather than just the tip to make a sound similar to "dz" or the d in the French "jeudi."
Жж -This is, in theory, a voiced version of Щ, but is rarely spoken as anything other than ж, and is marked by жж, not жь, for reasons explained later.
Зь -Push your lower jaw forward a little, and/or press the first centimeter or so of your tongue just behind your front teeth.
Ль -Use the whole front portion of your tongue to make an l sound like that in French or German.
Нь -Press the front of your tongue against the top of your mouth, just behind the front teeth; sounds like Spanish ñ.
Пь -Like the p in "computer"
Рь -Similar to a regular Р, but with more aspiration.
Сь -This is a devoiced version of the soft З.
Ть -Sounds a bit like ц but with the front of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. The t in the French "tu" makes the same sound.
Фь -Like Вь, but devoiced.

"Soft" Vowels
Е е Ё ё И и Ю ю Я я	Yeh Yoh Ee Yu Yah	Yes Yodel Feet Youth Yacht

Ё is always stressed

"Hard" Vowels
Э э О о ы У у А а	Eh Oh Еры* Ooh Ah	Enter Note Boot Swan

*This is difficult to pronounce until you hear it, a sort of mix between the u in "under," the i in "if," and the ee in "feet;" until you have heard it a few times, pronounce it like the i in "if."
(If you know Romanian, ы is the same sound as î, and if you know Polish, it is the same sound as y. A similar vowel is found in the Turkish l, but ы is made further forward in the mouth.)

Pronunciation With Й
ай ей/эй ой уй	Wide Bay Boy Hooey

While most Cyrillic typefaces' letter forms may look only slightly different than the one used on this page, the letter forms of handwritten Russian are decidedly different, and can be easily comfused to those unfamiliar with them. My own handwriting being as terrible as it is, I would recommend downloading OdessaScript to get an idea of what the letter forms should look like, and Pushkin for a more stylized and "realistic" example. The key to learning the written script is practice; start by mimicking the OdessaScript letters individually, copying them out 20-30 times in a row before moving onto the next one. Then move on to words of 3-5 letters, and finally onto longer words. Copying out poems, newspaper articles and other short texts can be the final step, and aid greatly in keeping your skills up to par.

3. Futher notes on Pronounciation

The "Signs"

The ь, or мягкий знак ("soft sign,") as noted before, denotes a soft consonant when there is no vowel present to perform that function. However, when placed in front of a soft vowel, it not only shows a soft consonant, indicates a more strongly pronounced y (as in yoke) sound in the vowel following.

The ъ, or твёрдый знак ("hard sign,") fulfills the same latter function of the soft sign, but also indicates that the preceding consonant is hard, despite the soft vowel following it. This is, however, a rarely used letter and is seen mostly in verb prefixes, as in Съездить, Отъездить and the like, and can also be marked with a double quotation or ".

Stress

Whenever you learn a new word, be sure to remember the stress patterns, as unlike Polish, Czech, and some other Slavic languages, syllable stress in Russian is free, unpredictable, and sometimes mobile; two-syllable neuter words, for instance, almost always change stress in the plural. For a graphic example of the importance of stress, the verb писать (stressed on a) which means "to write," can have its meaning suddenly and easily changed to писать, (stress on и) which means "to piss," so be careful!

Vowel Reduction

As with any language, there are certain differences in vowel pronounciation to be heard in different areas of Russia. Many of the boundaries of these differences remain a subject of debate, but below are the common changes in vowel pronunciation commonly heard in and around the Moscow region, and is thus considered the "standard" form of Russian.

--The O rule: an unstressed o, before the point of stress, is pronounced like an a, and after the point of stress, makes an "uh" sound, a schwa in linguistic terms.
--The И Rule: an unstressed и before the point of stress is pronounced like the i in if, whereas a finial и is pronounced normally.

--The E rule: at the beginning of a word, e is always pronounced as "ye," regardless of stress. An unstressed e, unless preceded by a vowel is pronounced like a "schwa", though any preceding consonant is still softened.

In virtually all spoken forms, all finial consonants are devoiced.

4. Spelling & Combination Rules

There are three main spelling rules that you have to know in Russian; they are fairly simple and easy to remember, so don't forget them!

The 7-Letter Rule
After Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, Г, Х, & К, write И instead of Ы

The 5-Letter Rule
After Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, Ц, don’t write O if it’s unstressed; write E instead

The Hush Rule
After Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, don’t write Я or Ю; use А or У instead

Note that the letters Щ, and Ч are always soft, and Ж, Ш, and Ц are always considered hard; this means that after the former two, a is always pronounced as я, у is always pronounced like ю, and so on, while after the latter three, и sounds like ы, е and sounds like э.

Rules of Combination

Once you start changing words as required by inflection (nouns, adjectives, pronouns) or conjugation (verbs) you not only have to apply the three rules above, but also the rules of vowel combination. Don't worry though; once you understand hard and soft consonants and the vowels/signs that reflect them, this makes absolute sense.

Rule # 1: After й or ь, of there is a hard vowel, the two "blend" to form the soft variant

This table shows it how it works

When this...	Meets this...	You get...	And this...	plus this...	equals this...
й	а	я	ь	а	я
й	э/е	е	ь	э/е	е
й	у	ю	ь	у	ю
й	о	е	ь	о	е
й	о	ё	ь	о	ё
й	ы	и	ь	ы	и

One little thing: й or ь plus o always makes e unless it is stressed; only then does it become ё

To illustrate this, I will use the adjective Синий (Dark Blue) Notice the soft H.

Say I want to make the feminine-nominative form:
Take Синий, and add the proper adjective ending, -ая. Thus we get Синь+ая or Синьая. However, ь+а=я, so we get Синяя

Or say I want the neuter-genitive:
Take Синий and the proper ending, ого. Thus we get Синього. However ь+о when unstressed as here =е, so we get Синего

Rule # 2: After й or ь, if there is a soft vowel, the former is removed and the latter left on its own.
Take for instance часть. Want the plural? Add -и, and you get частьи, but the soft sign gets absorbed, so we end up with части

Keep in mind, however, that if there is a soft sign in front of a soft vowel already in the singular-nominative form, leave it alone, as it performs a phonetic, rather than grammatical, function. For instance: The singular-nominative Семья (family) becomes Семьи in the plural; the soft sign was in front of the vowel already and so it stays there.

If you need some more help with this, I would suggest checking out this page.

5. The Fleeting Vowel

    Every once in a while you'll notice how sometimes words gain or lose a penultimate e or o outside of regular declension or conjugation. For instance, if I wanted the genitive plural of the word "Письмо" (letter,) the standard is to remove the finial o, leaving us with "письм." However, the actual form in the genitive plural is "писем." Where did that e come from?. The e is actually an unstressed, softened o; the o is added based on an alternating paradigm left over from ancient Russian. However in this case, because of the soft sign, and because the stress is on the first syllable and not the new letter, we end up with an e.

    One little trick is usually right: if you get an awkward consonant cluster, say the word out loud; if you find yourself adding an "uh" sound, chances are, an o is needed, so add it in and go through the spelling rules checklist and the word should now be spelled correctly, though one common exception is words that end in -ство; the genitive plural is -ств. Also, sometimes it is an e, even when there is no soft sign present. For those a little more confident or curious, you can apply the alternation rule, which is best explained here.

    These "fleeting vowels" also disappear in declension. Take for instance отец (father,) in the genitive singular: отца; the dative singular: отцу; and the genitive plural: отцов. Normally when a word ends with an e or o plus consonant, the e/o is dropped and the new ending placed after the consonant. These seem unpredictable at first, but with patience, they are not a problem.

6. Nouns and Gender

Russian nouns belong to one of three genders: Masculine, (мужской род) Feminine (женской род) and Neuter (средний род). Unlike German and some of the Romance languages, the gender of a noun can be easily assessed, simply by looking at the ending in the nominative case.

Masculine nouns end in consonants or й
Feminine nouns end in -а, -я, or -ия
Neuter nouns end in -е, -о, or -ие

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but they are easy to spot:

-There are a few masculine nouns that end in a; these are usually associated exclusvely with males, such as мужчина (man,) дядя (uncle,) дедушка (grandfather,) and the like, or "familiar" forms of masculine names, like Володя, Боря, and so on. These nouns have one attribute that is easy to remember: they decline like feminine nouns, but any demonstratives, adjectives and the like decline like masculine nouns.

-There are 10 words which are neuter, yet end in -я. These have their own unique declension class, which is shown below, and all demonstratives, adjectives and the like use the standard neuter endings. The words are: бремя (burden,) время (time,) вымя (udder,) знамя (banner,) имя (given name,) пламя (flame,) племя (tribe,) семя (seed,) стремя (stirrup) and темя (crown.)

-Neuter nouns ending in -о or -и that are direct imports from foreign languages, such as кафе, кино, or такси do not decline at all, regardless of what case they ought ot be in, however any adjectives or demonstratives tied to them do.

-And finally, there are a number of nouns, which end in -ь and can be either masculine or feminine. There are generally few ways to predict this, however, if a noun ends in -сть, such as крепость (fortress,) or it ends in a hush-plus-soft-sign, (-шь, -щь, -жь, -чь) it is feminine. Masculine nouns with a -ь ending decline like those ending with й. The feminine ones have their own declension class, detailed below.

7. Personal Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Case	I/Me	You (singular/ informal)	He/It	She	We	You (plural/ formal)	They
Nominative	Я	Ты	Он/Оно	Она	Мы	Вы	Они
Accusative	Меня	Тебя	Его	Её	Нас	Вас	Их
Dative	Мне	Тебе	Ему	Ей	Нам	Вам	Им
Genitive	Меня	Тебя	Его	Её	Нас	Вас	Их
Prepositional	Мне	Тебе	Нём	Ней	Нас	Вас	Них
Instrumental	Мной	Тобой	Им	Ей	Нами	Вами	Ими

Note that when preceded by a preposition, those pronouns beginning with a vowel take an H- on the beginning.

8. Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns

	This/These				\|	That/Those
Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Pl.	\|	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Pl.
Nominative	Этот	Эта	Это	Эти	\|	Тот	Та	То	Те
Accusative	Этот/Этого	Эту	Это	Эти/Этих	\|	Тот/Того	Ту	То	Те/Тех
Dative	Этому	Этой	Этому	Этим	\|	Тому	Той	Тому	Тем
Genitive	Этого	Этой	Эого	Этих	\|	Того	Той	Того	Тех
Prepositional	Этом	Этой	Этом	Этих	\|	Том	Той	Том	Тех
Instrumental	Этим	Этой	Этим	Этими	\|	Тем	Той	Тем	Теми

Notes on Это: Not only is this word the neuter-nominative, it is also used in the predicative sense; that means if you want to say "this is" or "is this," you simply write это. (See section 36 for more on this.) Also, you may have noticed that there are no articles (a, an, the) in Russian, a fact that can make direct translations can sound strange at times; if you wish to indicate that you are speaking about a specific thing, you can use the этот, тот, or один.

9. Possessive Pronouns

Possessive Pronoun Мой My/Mine						Possessive Pronoun Наш Our/Ours
Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Pl.	\|	Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Pl.
Nominative	Мой	Моя	Моё	Мои	\|	Nominative	Наш	Наша	Наше	Наши
Accusative	Мой/Моего	Мою	Моё	Мои/Моих	\|	Accusative	Наш/его	Нашу	Наше	Наши/их
Dative	Моему	Моей	Моему	Моим	\|	Dative	Нашему	Нашей	Нашему	Нашим
Genitive	Моего	Моей	Моего	Моих	\|	Genitive	Нашего	Нашей	Нашего	Наших
Prepositional	Моём	Моей	Моём	Моих	\|	Prepositional	Нашем	Нашей	Нашем	Наших
Instrumental	Моим	Моей	Моим	Моими	\|	Instrumental	Нашим	Нашей	Нашим	Нашими
Pronouns that decline like this one: Твой (your/yours informal)						Pronouns that decline like this one: Ваш- (your/yours formal, plural)

Note that the possessive pronouns его (his,) её (her,) их (their) do not decline.

10. The Pronoun Обе/Оба ("Both")

In Russian, there are two ways of sayng "both" as we would know the word. Here, it is used as a semi-adjective and often with nouns, such as "both children" or "both players" and so on. If you wish to use the word both in the sense of "both x and y," you must use the conjunction и...и, discussed in section 29.

Case	Masc./Neut.	Fem
Nominative	oба	oбе
Accusative	oба/обоих	oбе/oбеих
Dative	обоим
Genitive	обоих
Prepositional	обоих
Instrumental	обоими

11. The Case System; Introduction to Inflection

To those who have studied languages such as German, Greek, Latin or another Slavic Language, you are already familiar with the concepts of inflection and can likely skip this introduction, but if you haven't, it helps to receive a quick introduction.

To give a dictionary style answer, inflection is the process where a word is changed (declined) relative to its role as a part of speech in a sentence. Thus in Russian, nouns and other declining words have different forms depending on whether they are the subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessor. English has lost most of it's ancient inflection system, but there are a few remnants to build off of. Let's start with a common, and often ignored, mistake in English: "Me and my friend went to a movie." We are often told that this is properly written as "My friend and I wend to a movie," but rarely told why. The answer is that the pronoun I is in the subjective (or nomnative) form, or case, while me is in the objective (accusative/dative) case; that is, marking the sucject and object (direct or indirect) respectively. "Me," thus, cannot be used as the subject of a sentence! Here is a quick summary of the personal pronouns in English:

Subjective	I	You	He	She	We	They
Objective	Me	You	Him	Her	Us	Them

If a pronoun is the subject, it must be in the subjective case, and when it is an object, it must be in the objective case; sounds simple enough. Unfortunately, English does not have separate pronouns to disambiguate the direct and indirect objects, thus relying on prepositions and word order to do the job instead. The direct and indirect objects can be written one of two ways:
-"He gave her it."
-"He have it to her."
(The direct object is bold, the indirect is italic)

In Russian, the word break-down for the same sentence would look like this:
Он - "he;" subject; nominative case
Дал - "to give" past tense, masculine
Его - "it;" direct object; accusative case
Ей - "her;" indirect object; dative case

It would then be written as "Он дал его ей" or any combination of those words, so long as they remain in their proper case.

    If you are translating from Russian, the subject and objects are easy to see, as the case is evident, but when trying to translate into Russian, it is often difficult at first due to the ambiguities of English grammar. Until you are familiar with these concepts enough to feel confident, it helps to use this methodology: when you come across a sentence, the first thing you should look at is the verb, which is key to finding the subject/object. Let's say the verb is "to take." Ask yourself the following questions:

--For the Subject: "Who or what did or is doing the taking?"
--For the Direct Object: "Who or what was/is being taken?"
--For the Indirect Object: "To whom or to what was the direct object taken?"

    Keep these questions in mind as you practice and learn and adapt them to the specific verb and subject/objects you are using at the time and you should not have too many problems.

   However, as you have seen form the tables just above this section, Russian has cases for more than just subjects and objects, for a total of six, and unlike English, not only pronouns, but also nouns and adjectives all change by case. The concept of case usage can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with the idea, so it helps to learn just one or two at the most at one time, and only moving on when you are comfortable in your knowledge, as learning all of them in one stretch can complicate matters greatly. Also, keep this in mind: if you were never taught these grammatical concepts before, it will take a little extra effort to fully comprehend it all, but there is a plethora of additional resources, both on-line and in print to help you understand, all of which are usually easy to find, so it is far from impossible; this site's webmaster's English grammar overview can help in this regard.

    In this tutorial, each of the six cases used in Russian is given an individual treatment with nouns of all genders, as they are more complicated than pronouns. For the examples, I have used the same series of words to show the patterns in inflection. They are: телевизор (television), музей (museum), король (king), машина (car), земля (land, earth), фамилия (surname), милость (kindness), озеро (lake), платье (dress), мнение (opinion), and время (time).

12. The Nominative Case (Именительный Падеж)

This case is used to indicate the subject of the sentence, as well as in comparisons following чем, and a few other instances, discussed later. If you look up a word in the dictionary, it is always in the nominative case unless stated otherwise.

Forming the plural:

	Masc. (consonant)	Masc -й	Masc. -ь	Fem. -а	Fem. -я	Fem.-ия	Fem. -ь	Neut. о	Neut. е	Neut. -ие	Neut. -я
New ending	-ы	-и	-и	-ы	-и	-ии	-и	-а	-я	-ия
Example	Телевизор	Музей	Король	Машина	Земля	Фамилия	Милость	Озеро	Платье	Мнение	Время
Plural	Телевизоры	Музеи	Короли	Машины	Земли	Фамилии	Милости	Озера	Платья	Мнения	Времена

There are a few exceptions for masculine nouns ending in a consonant; rather than ending in ы, they take a stressed a. There is no real way of predicting them, so the easiest way to memorize them, in my opinion, is to say the singular and plural forms out loud; you'll remember the different forms as you remember the pronunciation of the word. Be careful, however, not to confuse them with the gentive-singular forms, which often look exactly the same.

Examples:
Мост -Bridge - Моста - Bridges
Город -City - Города - Cities

In addition, there are a number of words that end in -нин; these decline regularly except in the nominative plural, where it becomes -не, and in the genintive plural, where it becomes -н

13. The Accusative Case (Винительный Падеж)

The Accusative is used to indicate the direct object of a sentence or phrase, that is the noun on which the action was performed. Simple as this may sound, this case is complicated by the fact that it is, in effect, five cases; masculine nouns are the same as the nominative form, unless they are animate, in which case t takes the noun takes the genitive case endings; neuter nouns are always the same as the nominative; and feminine nouns ending in -а or -я become -у and -ю, while those ending in -ь stay the same, all regardless of animacy, while in the plural, they are like the nominative plural, unless it is animate, in which case it takes the genitive.

Forming the singular:

	Masc. (consonant)	Masc -й	Masc. -ь	Fem. -а	Fem. -я	Fem.-ия	Fem. -ь	Neut. о	Neut. е	Neut. -ие	Neut. -я
New ending	--	--	-я	-у	-ю	-ию	-ь	-о	-е	-ие	-я
Example	Телевизор	Музей	Король*	Машина	Земля	Фамилия	Милость	Озеро	Платье	Мнение	Время
	Телевизор	Музей	Короля	Машину	Землю	Фамилию	Милость	Озеро	Платье	Мнение	Время

*animate, thus the endings are genitive

Forming the plural: