Russian Tutorial

written by Stephen VanZuylen

1. Basic Phrases Yes dah Hello (Formal Usage) zdrav-stvoo-tye Good Evening doh-bry vyecher No nyet Hi (Informal Usage) preev-yet Good Night doh-broo-y noh-tchi Maybe moh-zhit bit' Good Day, Hello doh-bry dzyen' Good Bye (General use/more formal) duh-svee-dah-nya Please/You're Welcome pah-zhahl-stah Welcome dah-broh poh-zhahl-oh-vat' As always Kahk vseg-dah How old are you? ? Skohl-kuh vahm l-yet

See You (informal) pah-kah Thank You spah-see-bah How are you doing? ? kahk dze-la? Excellent Khah-rah-sho

See you tomorrow dah zav-trah Sorry prah-stee-tye (Not) bad () (neh)ploh-khah Pleased to meet you (lit. "it is very pleasant") oh-chen' pree-yaht-nah Excuse me...

I'm x years old __

Do you speak English? ?

m-nyeh __ l-yet

eez-vee-nee-tye

vi znah-yeh-tye an-gleeskee

What languages do you know? K ? kahk-ee-ye yah-zik-ee vi znah-ye-tye? I (don't) know () yah (neh-) znah-yoo My name is... meen-yah zah-voot... Do you know where x is? ...? vi znah-yeh-tye g-dze No, that isn't necessary , nyet, neh nah-duh

How do you say x in Russian? I don't understand -...? () Kahk pah-roos-kee yah (nyeh-) poh-nee-mahyoo

Where are you from? ? aht-koo-dah vi? What time is it? C ? skohl-kuh vreh-meh-nee? Do you want...? ? Ti kho-tchesh Help me! ! pah-mah-gee-tyeh

What is your name? ? kahk vas zah-voot How much does it cost? ? skohl-kuh stoy-it Is that everything? ? eh-ta f-syoh? Bless you! (after cough or sneeze) ! Boodz-tye z-dah-roh-vi

Could you repeat that? ! () Pav-toh-ree-tye! (pahzhahl-stah)

Bold syllables indicate stress.

2. Pronunciation & Alphabet The Russian Alphabet, known as Cyrillic or (Ki-reel-lee-tsa) has 33 letters; 21 consonants, 10 vowels and two signs. The letters are: and . In order to make this explanation easier, the letters are broken down into specific groups. While many who are unfamiliar 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 -- Beh Best -- Veh Vent -- Geh Gift -- Deh Deep -- Zheh Pleasure -- Zeh Zebra -- i York kratkoye King -- Kah Lion -- El Mend -- Em Next -- En Pet -- Peh trilled r -- Err Sink -- Es Tape -- Teh Find -- Ef Kh, like German -- Khah machen -- Tseh Boots -- Cheh Chair -- Shah Ship -- Shchah See note* *I have heard two ways of pronouncing the letter , which I will assume to be regional variances. The first is to begin with a sound with a 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 semismile.

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 -Like , but voiced -Push your lower lip upwards so the inside touches the lower front portion of your front teeth

 - 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." -This is, in theory, a voiced version of , but is rarely spoken as anything other than , and is marked by , not , for reasons explained later. -Push your lower jaw forward a little, and/or press the first centimeter or so of your tongue just behind your front teeth. -Use the whole front portion of your tongue to make an l sound like that in French or German. -Press the front of your tongue against the top of your mouth, just behind the front teeth; sounds like Spanish . -Like the p in "computer" -Similar to a regular , but with more aspiration. -This is a devoiced version of the soft . -Sounds a bit like but with the front of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. The t in the French "tu" makes the same sound. -Like , but devoiced.

"Soft" Vowels Yeh Yes Yoh Yodel Ee Feet Yu Youth Yah Yacht is always stressed "Hard" Vowels Eh Enter Oh Note * Ooh Boot Ah 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, is the same sound as , and if you know Polish, it is the same sound as y. A similar vowel is found in the Turkish l, but is made further forward in the mouth.)

Pronunciation With 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. Further Notes on Pronunciation The "Signs" The , or ("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 , or ("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 , 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 (stressed on a) which means "to write," can have its meaning suddenly and easily changed to , (stress on ) 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 Rule: an unstressed before the point of stress is pronounced like the i in if, whereas a finial 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 final 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 , , , , , , & , write instead of The 5-Letter Rule After , , , , , dont write O if its unstressed; write E instead The Hush Rule After , , , , dont write or ; use or instead Note that the letters , and are always soft, and , , and are always considered hard; this means that after the former two, a is always pronounced as , is always pronounced like , and so on, while after the latter three, sounds like , and sounds like . 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 or , of there is a hard vowel, the two "blend" to form the soft variant This table shows it how it works: When Meets You And plus equals this... this... get... this... this... this... / /

One little thing: or plus o always makes e unless it is stressed; only then does it become To illustrate this, I will use the adjective (Dark Blue) Notice the soft H. Say I want to make the feminine-nominative form: Take , and add the proper adjective ending, -. Thus we get + or . However, +=, so we get Or say I want the neuter-genitive: Take and the proper ending, . Thus we get . However + when unstressed as here =, so we get Rule # 2: After or , if there is a soft vowel, the former is removed and the latter left on its own. Take for instance . Want the plural? Add -, and you get , but the soft sign gets absorbed, so we end up with 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 (family) becomes 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 "" (letter,) the standard is to remove the finial o, leaving us with "." However, the actual form in the genitive plural is "." 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 -; the genitive plural is -. 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 (father,) in the genitive singular: ; the dative singular: ; and the genitive plural: . 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, ( ) Feminine ( ) and Neuter ( ). 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 Feminine nouns end in -, -, or - Neuter nouns end in -, -, or - 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 (man,) (uncle,) (grandfather,) and the like, or "familiar" forms of masculine names, like , , 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 -. 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: (burden,) (time,) (udder,) (banner,) (given name,) (flame,) (tribe,) (seed,) (stirrup) and (crown.) -Neuter nouns ending in - or - that are direct imports from foreign languages, such as , , or 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 - and can be either masculine or feminine. There are generally few ways to predict this, however, if a noun ends in -, such as (fortress,) or it ends in a hush-plus-soft-sign, (-, -, -, -) it is feminine. Masculine nouns with a - ending decline like those ending with . 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 They (plural/ formal)

Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

Prepositional Instrumental

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 Case Nominative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl. Masc. That/Those Fem. Neut. Pl.

Accusative /

/ /

Notes on : 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 . (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 sound strange at times; if you wish to indicate that you are speaking about a specific thing, you can use the , , or . 9. Possessive Pronouns Possessive Pronoun My/Mine

Case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental

Masc. /

Fem.

Neut.

Pl. /

Pronouns that decline like this one: (your/yours informal) Note that the possessive pronouns (his,) (her,) (their) do not decline.

Possessive Pronoun Our/Ours Case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl.

Pronouns that decline like this one: - (your/yours formal, plural)

10. The Pronoun / (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 ..., discussed in section 29. Case Masc./Neut. Fem Nominative o o Accusative o/ o/o Dative Genitive

Prepositional Instrumental

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: - "he;" subject; nominative case - "to give" past tense, masculine - "it;" direct object; accusative case - "her;" indirect object; dative case It would then be written as " " 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. 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: (television), (museum), (king), (car), (land, earth), (surname), (kindness), (lake), (dress), (opinion), and (time). 12. The Nominative Case ( ) This case is used to indicate the subject of the sentence, as well as in comparisons following , 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. Masc - Masc. - Fem. - Fem. - Fem.- (consonant) New ending - - - - - - Fem. - -

Example Plural

Neut. New ending Example Plural -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

There are a few exceptions for masculine nouns ending in a consonant; rather than ending in , 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: -Bridge - - Bridges -City - - Cities In addition, there are a number of words that end in -; these decline regularly except in the nominative plural, where it becomes -, and in the genintive plural, where it becomes - 13. The Accusative Case ( ) 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 - or - become - and -, while those ending in - 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) New ending Example - Masc - Masc. - Fem. - Fem. -- - - Fem.- - Fem. - -

*animate, thus the endings are genitive

Neut. New ending Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

Forming the plural: Masc. (consonant) New ending Example - Masc - Masc. - Fem. - - - - Fem. - Fem.- - - Fem. - -

*animate, thus the endings are genitive Neut. New ending Example - Neut. - Neut. - - Neut. - -

14. The Dative Case ( ) The Dative is used to mark the indirect object in the sentence or phrase, that is, the recipient or "benefactor" of the action. It can also represent the opinion statements "to me..." or "for me..." Forming the Dative in Russian is very easy; Masculine and neuter nouns take - or - as the ending, depending on whether or not it is hard or soft, and Feminine nouns take - regardless. There is a caveat here: if the (feminine) word ends in , it takes - in the dative, and if it ends in -, it takes -. The plural is even easier: all nouns take - or -, depending on a hard or soft ending . Forming the singular: Masc. Masc - Masc. - Fem. - Fem. - Fem.- Fem. -

(consonant) New ending Example -

- - -

- - -

Neut. New ending Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut - -

Forming the plural: Masc. Masc - Masc. - (consonant) New ending - - - Fem. - - Fem. - - Fem.- - Fem. - -

Example

Neut. New ending Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

15. The Genitive Case ( ) The Genitive is perhaps the most versatile of all of the cases in Russian; it shows ownership or possession ( -- my sister's room,) construction involving "of" ( -- A photo of the new house,) amounts of things ( -- many people,) in conjunction with numbers ( -- five brothers,) and more. It's formation in the singular is highly regular; masculine and neuter nouns take - or - depending on whether it is hard or soft; feminine nouns take the letter - or- , again depending on whether it's hard o soft.

The genitive plural, however, is probably the most difficult aspect of noun declension; there are even jokes about it in Russian. Masculine nouns ending in consonants take - and those ending in take - or -, but masculine nouns ending in -, -, -, -, and , all take the ending -. Feminine and neuter nouns ending in - and - lose that letter, and - take- , and feminine and neuter nouns ending in- and - both take the -. Finally, feminine nouns ending in -, as well as neuter and feminine nouns with - just prior to the final vowel, such as , all take the ending . Forming the singular: Masc. (consonant) New ending Example - Masc - Masc. - - Fem. - - Fem. - Fem.- - - Fem. - -

Neut. New ending Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

Forming the plural:

Masc. (consonant) New ending Example -

Masc - Masc. - Fem. - Fem. - Fem.- - - --- -

Fem. - -

Neut. New ending --

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

Example

16. The Prepositional Case ( ) This is probably the easiest case to learn other than the nominative. It is used purely with prepositions; it is never used on its own, hence its name. The prepositions are (in/at) (on/at/in) (about) (near/next to/in the time of/on one's person). To form it, masculine neuter and feminine nouns take -e in the singular, unless it is feminine and ends in -, in which case it becomes -, or - or -, which become -. The plural is or - depending on the stem. Forming the singular: Masc. (consonant) New ending Example - Masc - Masc. - Fem. - Fem. - Fem.- - - - - - Fem. - -

Neut. nding Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

Forming the plural:

Masc. (consonant) New ending -

Masc - Masc. - - -

Fem. - Fem. - - -

Fem.- -

Fem. - -

Example

Neut. nding Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

There is an exception here; in the singular masculine, there are a number of nouns that take a stressed - or -, but this is ONLY when used with the prepositions or ; if you use o or , you use the regular prepositional ending. Examples: -- Forest - c - In the Forest, - Near the Forest -- Ball - - At the Ball, - About the Ball 17. The Instrumental Case ( ) This is the final case you need to learn. It is used to indicate how an action is carried out, roughly the same as the English "by" or "with," the German "per," or the French "par." It is also used following the verb (to be,) or following certain verbs where it acts as the word "as," like , "to work as a waitress," as well as in the sense of "by" in the passive voice, discussed later. It is also used in time references like (in the evening) or (in the autumn). The formation is rather straightforward: masculine and neuter nouns take - or - depending on the ending; feminine nouns ending in - and - take the ending - or -, while those ending in - take the ending -. The main exception is feminine nouns ending in -, which take the ending -. The plural is even easier to form: simply add - or - depending on the original ending.

Forming the singular: Masc. (consonant) New ending Example - Masc - Masc. - - - Fem. - Fem. - Fem.- - - - Fem. - -

Neut. nding Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

Forming the plural:

Masc. (consonant) nding Example -

Masc - -

Masc. - -

Fem. - -

Fem. - -

Fem.- -

Fem. - -

Neut. nding Example -

Neut. -

Neut. - -

Neut. - -

18. Summary of Regular Noun Case Endings N -- - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A - -n/g - -n/g - -n/g - -n/g - -n/g - -n/g - -n/g - - - - - - n/g n/g n/g D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - G - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - I -- - - - - P - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

19. Adjectives Adjectives must agree with the nouns that they modify in gender, number and case. Adjective endings are distinctive for each case. One more thing: although written as , the genitive endings are pronounced as though they were written . However, this is only for endings associated with the genitive case. Also, some masculine-nominative nouns have - instead of as its ending. This does not change the declension patterns, however.

Hard Stem Adjective ( - Black/dark) Case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental Masc. / Fem. Neut. Pl. /

Soft Stem Adjective ( - Medium/middle) Case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental Masc. / Fem. Neut. Pl. /

You should know that a number of adjectives, such as (scientist) or (worker) and decline like adjectives but are otherwise treated as nouns.

There are also four short form adjectives, used only in the nominative. They appear as follows:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Their usage is discussed in section 35.

20. Russian Verbs - Introduction & Aspect Russian Verbs have a reputation of being difficult to learn, and this is true, but only because the concepts governing them are very different from the norms of Germanic or Romance languages. Fortunately, there is a logic to the verb system, and highly irregular verbs are rare. Here is a quick overview of the verb tenses of Russian: Past-Imperfect Present Future- Imperfect Future-Perfect Past-Perfect

The main feature that distinguishes Russian verbs from English is the notion of Aspect. Russian has two aspects: the imperfective, or , which indicates an action which is either a) in progress, b) not yet finished c) done repeatedly d) may or may not be completed in the near future or e) may or may not be repeated in the future; and the perfective, or " ," which indicates actions that are a) completed once, and successfully or b) an action that will be completed once in the near future. For instance, I'll use the example of my first year Russian professor: -Imperfective: " ?!" -- Roughly "who's been eating my cheese?" -- The implication is that said person has taken cheese more than once over a period of time. -Perfective: "" ?!"" -- Roughly "who ate my cheese?" -- The idea here, by contrast, is that the cheese, (all of it,) was eaten all at once, and thus the action is perfective. Russian verbs thus form perfective and inperfective pairs, which have to be memorized. There is sometimes no logic in the verb pairs, as Russian used to have more than just two aspects, but there are patterns that emerge. There are about five ways to distinguish between the two: 1-Use of a prefix -- For instance, the imperfective of "to read" is , but the perfective is (this is the most common form) 2-Change in the stem/suffix -- The imperfective of "to understand" is , and the perfective is (common, but less so than 1 and 3) 3-Change in the finial vowel -- The imperfective of "to enroll/join" is , and the perfective is (these are fairly common) 4-Use of -- or -- -- The imperfective of "to order" is , perfective, (used mostly on prefixed verbs and are easy to spot after some practice) 5-Completely different verb -- The imperfective of "to say/speak" is , the perfective (fortunately, these are not very common) (If the idea of aspect is still puzzling, an excellent explanation can be found here.)

21. Russian Verbs - Present Tense This refers to actions which are going on, obviously, in the present. Since the action is ongoing, only imperfective verbs are used in the present tense. These correspond to all English present tenses; for instance "I see" and "I am seeing" as well as "I do see" have only one corresponding form in Russian, . Russian verbs are generally broken down into two or three groups or "conjugations" generally the first and second; for the sake of clarity, I will use a slight variant: 1a (everbs) 1b (-verbs) and 2 (-verbs) These three are very similar in appearance and the form for each subject is distinctive; because there little room for confusion, pronouns are rarely repeated more than once in a sentence. Conjugation 1a (everbs) To Know // To Read Conjugation 1b (verbs) To Sing To Call Conjugation 2 (-verbs) To Say/Speak To Prepare

* *See 23. Verb notes for information

The only difference here is the vowel preceding the ending, and deciding which one is the real trick to all of this; in many cases, it's fairly obvious: verbs ending in - are usually 1st Conjugation, and verbs ending in - are usually 2nd Conjugation. Verbs ending in - can be either, and verbs ending in - are almost always 1b, though their stems tend to be irregular. The easiest way to find out for sure is when you look up a verb in your dictionary, look at the or form, and look to see which vowel is used; the same series of endings are always used otherwise, the rest is easy. Be sure to remember the spelling rules! 22. Russian Verbs - Past Tenses The Past-Imperfective Refers to an action in the past which was repeated, left unfinished, or both The Past-Perfective Refers to an action, successfully completed once, and now done with. Both of these tenses are formed in the same way, and the aspect of the verb does the

rest; simply remove the - and add - plus the appropriate vowel reflecting the biological gender (sex) of the subject if it is human, or the gender of the noun itself otherwise. The table below explains this; I'll use (imperfective) -- (perfective) as examples. Gender Ending Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl. - - - - Impf Pf Example Example

About 90% of Russian Verbs form their past tense this way, and for those that don't, usually only the stem changes. However, be careful in choosing which aspect to use, as there are a number of nuances to the meaning of each. 23. Russian Verbs - Future Tenses The Future-Imperfective: refers to an action which will, in the future of course, be repeating, or that may or may not be completed. This is formed using the appropriate conjugation of the verb plus the infinitive of an imperfective verb. Conjugation of "" //

For example, if I want to say that tomorrow, I will be reading a book, but don't think I'll finish it, or don't plan on doing so, I would say: . The Future-Perfective Refers to an action that will be completed once in the near future This tense is formed by conjugating a perfective verb in the same fashion as an imperfective verb in the present tense; for this reason, you'll sometimes see them referred to as "Future-Present" endings.

So if I was sure I'd finish reading the book tomorrow, or very determined to do so, I'd say: . 24. Verb Irregularities Unfortunately, Russian verbs have a few irregularities to cover, such as added or changed letters that appear during conjugation. However, the good news is that while you may not always be able to predict WHEN such changes occur, 9 times out of 10, you can predict HOW they occur. For the first item, let's try a few verbs: ("to love"-impf,) -- () , ("I love,") ("to stop"-pf) -- () , ("I will stop [something],") and, as we've already seen, ("to prepare"-impf,) , ("I prepare/am preparing.") The sounds of and , along with and , are what linguists call labials -words made using your lips, and in Russian, an is inserted after these consonants in the 1st person singular (,) but only here! Next, are a number of verbs, usually of foreign origin, though there are a number of native Slavic ones, which end in -. At first glance, the conjugation seems obvious; (to repair) should, in theory become . However correct way would be , and so forth. This is one little quirk for verbs with the - ending, but is wholly predictable: all verbs with this ending take the letter plus the standard 1a ending when conjugated. Similarly, there are a number of verbs ending in - that lose the -- in conjugation and take the 1b endings. Thus becomes , , etc. Finally, you may notice an odd change in some verbs that seem fairly arbitrary insertions of hushes ( ) in many verb conjugations. For instance (to forgive) becomes () but also has () , and (to tell-pf) becomes () and () . This process is called palatalization, and occurs when the syllable stress shifts onto or off of the stem during conjugation. Unfortunately, this means that you cannot always predict wth certainty when palatalization occurs, when it does happen, it's always following a set pattern, outlined in the table below: , , , , , become become become become

hese don't always apply to each form of the conjugated verb but these instances are also highly regularized.

In the 1st Conjugation, when the ending is -, all forms of the verb, to , change according to the above rules (1). But when the verb stem ends in , , or , only the and forms remain unchanged. (2) In the 2nd conjugation, however, only changes (3). (1) To Tell-pf / (2) To Help-pf (3) To Forgive-pf

25. Some Common Verbs - - - - ()() - - - - - - - - - - To Take - - To Describe To See - - To Open To Switch on - - To Fall - - To Sing To Remember To Rise, Get - - To Write up - - To Pay - - To Buy To Meet (with) To Select, - - To Help Choose - - To Offer To Switch off - Present, To Say, Speak - - Represent To Give - To Invite - - To Try, Taste To Annoy To Think - To Continue To Forget - - To Ask, Make a To Eat - request Breakfast - - To Work To Stare at - To Tell To Order - - To Listen to To Close - To Hear To Know - - To Watch To Wait for - To Gather To Live - - To Sleep To Search for - - To Ask To Correct - - To Try, Endeavor To Love - - To Become To Please - - To Build, Create

- - To Estmate, Guess To Eat Dinner - To Read - - - - - * is most often used impersonally to mean "like" or "enjoy," or a similar sentiment that doesn't quite warrant the use of . Thus you would say something like, " " ("I liked that movie") or " ("they enjoyed the performance.") A number of these verbs have some irregularities in conjugation, usually stem changes:

- To Eat Lunch - To Possess To Discuss - To Explain - -

//

The past tenses of these verbs are formed regularly.

26. Interrogative Pronouns The two main Russian interrogatives are (who) (what) like nouns, these decline by case, but only in one gender and only on the singular. Case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental

The declined forms are most often used with prepositions to specify the question, such as (with whom?) (from what?) or (according to whom?)

Other interrogatives: -- Where? ? -- To Where? ? -- From Where? ? -- How many/much? ? -- Whose? (declines like an adjective. Can also function as a relative-conjunction.) -- Which? (declines like an adjective) -- Why/What for? (Refers to past actions) -- To What End? (Refers to a future or continuing action) ? -- How (This can also be a cunjunction meaning "as" or "like") ? -- What? (Used in this case, the person asking wishes to know facts, details, or a definition.) ? -- Who? (Like , this is used when you want a description of or information about someone.) ... ? -- What kind of? ( is followed by a nominitive noun. ) // ...? -- What kind of? (Refers to person. // can be replaced by a name as well.) 27. Cardinal Numbers and Their Declensions (Bold text shows stress) one two three four five six seven eight nine ten twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twenty-one thirty forty fifty sixty seventy eighty ninety one hundred two hundred three hundred four hundred five hundred six hundred seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred one thousand

eleven

While the numbers themselves are fairly straightforward, using them properly in Russian is much more complex, for two reasons:

1) Nouns described by the number one take the nominative singular, while nouns described by two, three, and four take the genitive singular, and nouns described by five and up take the genitive plural: one rouble one book two roubles five roubles thirty-two roubles two books five books thirty-two books

2) Numbers also decline by case in the same way as regular nouns do. The most complex is , which takes the same general declension as an adjective: Masc. Fem. Neut. Plural Nom. Dat. Gen. Prep. Inst. Acc. / /

The numbers two, three, and four are somewhat simpler: Two Three Four Nom. /* Acc. / Dat. Gen. Prep.

Inst.

* is for masculine and neuter nouns; is for feminine nouns The remainder of cardinal numbers decline like feminine nouns ending in -. Thus when using numbers with prepositions, the number declines according to the case of the preposition, while the noun described by the number takes the case dictated by the number. For instance, "The Three Musketeers" in Russian is " ," whereas "about the Three Musketeers" is " ."

28. Ordinal Numbers These decline just like adjectives, and must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. first second third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth sixteenth seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth twentieth twenty-first thirtieth fortieth fiftieth sixtieth seventieth eightieth ninetieth hundredth thousandth

29. Conjunctions There are a number of conjunctions in Russian, and while they do tend to make sense, they also tend to re-use particles seen elsewhere, so you should pay attention in at least recognizing their forms so you don't mistranslate. They are listed in no particular order. -- And - DVD- -- In my room there is a television and a DVD player -- And/But - - , - -- My mother is a secretary, but my father is a manager. ..., Both x and y -, , ! -- Yes, I invited both Anna and Lena!

 -- Or - . -- I would buy the red one or the gray one. ..., -- Either...or - , -- I will be meeting with them either in December or in January. ...... Nether x nor y, but z - , , . -- My car is neither red nor black, but green. ...... Neither...nor - , -- I want neither your prescence nor your advice. - (in order) to, for...to, so that - , ... -- You have to work (in order) to get money... (Verb infinitive used) - , -- Mom wants (for) you to clean your room. (Verb in past tense used) - , a . -- We told you so that you would know the truth. (Verb in past tense used) C-as though - , -- He talks about computers as though he invented them! -or else - , . -- We have to go or else we will be late for the theatre. -if - , . -- If it's raining, I will stay inside today. -whether (or not) - , -- I don't know whether it's raining or not, or I don't know if it's raining. (Despite the use of "if" in the latter translation, and cannot be used interchangeably; if you can use "whether" in English, then you must use .) 30. Negation Negation in Russian is very simple. There are a few words which indicate negation, but the two most common, and therefore most useful, are and .

The word means "not" or "am not," and can be used with or without verbs, as below: -- I'm not a lawyer -- I don't know you. Although it is written as a separate word, is pronounced as though it were a part of the following word, and thus assumes the pronunciation based of the stress patterns of the word it negates. In "proper" Russian, the direct object of the negated verb is supposed to be put into the genitive case regardless of gender. This doesn't always happen in speech, but it is nonetheless recommended, particularly in writing. on the other hand means "no" or "there is/are no" and is more complicated, since the word it negates takes the genitive case. In some cases, word order can be shifted somewhat, but it usually pays to be somewhat unambiguous. Some examples: . -- He's not here. . -- There are no cars on the street. B ! -- There's no cheese on this pizza! Also, you should note that in Russian, the use of double negatives, even large numbers of them, is not only allowed, but also necessary in circumstances involving negative pronouns, (, , and so on; see section 46 for a longer list.) Indeed, you are only limited by what it is you want to say: -- "She never doesn't give nothing to nobody," or more accurately "She never gives anything to anybody." 31. Times and Dates In my experience, learning how to tell the time and date is one of the harder aspects of learning any language, and Russian, sadly, is no exception, so it helps to try and learn fairly early on. I've tried to include plenty of examples to help. Let me begin by saying that while in my list of common phrases I said that " ?" is how one asks for the time, this is true mainly for street language; if you're looking to appear more "educated" or are in the presence of a person of authority, I would recommend saying " ?" instead. Secondly, when used in writing and/or print, the 24-hour clock (often called "military time" in North America ) is used, but not when spoken; it may read as 16:10, but you would say it as though it read 4:10. (This of course is barring military usage, where spoken use of the 24-hour system over the 12-hour is apparently universal.) And finally, time is often written with hours, minutes and seconds are separated by periods/full-stops instead of colons. I will use this format from now on. Time can be told in one of two ways; the first is to simply say the numbers displayed,

so 16.10 (that is, 4:10pm) would be , . The second, while much more complicated to an English-speaker's eyes and ears, is much more common. To give an on-the-dot o'clock time, you say the hour plus a declension of the word , "hour." In telling time, on its own is 1 o'clock, but becomes after 2, 3, or 4, and after 5 and up. To say "at" such-and-such time, use the preposition (accusative.) Thus: -13.00 -- -16.00 -- -18.00 -- For times in the top half of the hour (that is, .01 to .29) you would say however many minutes, (, feminine-singular,) then the ordinal of the following hour in the genitive-singular. That's quite a mouthful, so here are some examples to help you catch your bearings: - 15.10 -- . (Literally "five minutes of the fourth") - 11.17 -- . - 9.03 -- - 7.22 -- e . For "half-past" times, you use the word plus an ordinal in the manner we saw just now. Thus: - 6.30 -- . - 14.30 -- . - 21.30 -- . Note that when used with the preposition , must decline accordingly, becoming , "at half-past..." In colloquial Russian, however, it can often be heard as . When in doubt, I would suggest saying . For times in the bottom half of the hour, you take the minutes remaining until the next hour with the preposition , followed by the next hour in the nominative-cardinal form. Thus: - 10.47 -- . - 8.58 -- - 23.35 -- And finally for times of "quarter to" and "quarter past, you use the word in the same manner as the minutes are above: - 7.15 -- -7.45 -- In all cases, you can use the adverbs (in the morning,) (in the afternoon,) or

 (in the evening,) if you feel that there may be ambiguity over which one, or wish to add emphasis to the fact. Also, instead of 12.00 and 24.00, you can say or , respectively. Dates are a somewhat different animal, and are, for better or worse, equally as complex. To say them, you must first learn the months of the year and the days of the week: Days Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday September October November December January February Months * * * * * * March April May June July *

August

*indicates a stress shift to the final syllable in declension

To say "on" a specific day, you use the preposition (accusative,) while for months you use in the prepositional case. To give a specific date, you would first say the day (if necessary) then the date and month, both in the genitive case, and the year plus the word ("year,") also in the genitive case. Years are said in full, such as "one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine." If you are simply referring to the day, as in saying "today is..." the date is given in the neuter-nominative. For example, if asked my birthday I would say " " (Literally, "I was born of the thirty-first of July, of the one thousand eight hundred and eighty sixth year." Whereas if one was to say "today is the 31st of July," it would be written as " ." The year would be written the same. If you are referring solely to a year and want to say "in x-year" you say the year as above, but the last number and take the prepositional case. Note that you cannot use this form with days and months; those always take the genitive. So, if I were to say "in 1986" it would be written as " ." In many cases, and are abbreviated as . or .. in writing, and dates are always written day/month/year, with Roman Numerals sometimes used to abbreviate the names of months. For summary examples, below are a few dates in Russian history. All dates are in the new style calendar. Genitive endings are used because the ideas is that "X happened of

this day," rather than "this day is such-and-such of this month." -Ivan IV crowned Tsar, the first ruler crowned as such -- January 16, 1547. -- . -Election of Mikhail Romanov, foundation of the Romanov Dynasty -- February 21, 1613. -- . -Founding of St. Petersburg -- May 27, 1703. -- . -Birth of Aleksandr S. Pushkin -- June 6, 1799. -- . -Battle of Borodino -- September 7, 1812. -- . -Birth of Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky -- November 11, 1821. -- . -Birth of Lev N. Tolstoy -- September 9, 1828. -- . -Abdication of Nicholas II -- March 15, 1917. -- . -Surrender of Nazi leaders to Marshal Zhukov -- May 9, 1945. -- -Declaration of the Russian Federation -- June 12, 1990. -- . 32. Verbs of Motion Now that we've examined regular Russian verbs, it is necessary to get to know a special group of verbs in Russian: verbs of motion. These forms are similain concept to the German verbs gehen and fahren in that they tell you how the action was carried out (on foot or by vehicle,) but in Russian, they also give information about the direction and nature of the motion itself, which can be further narrowed by the addition of prefixes, not discussed here. These verbs have what amounts to three aspects: the progressive, the imperfective, and the perfective; the progressive however, is only used in the present tense. The imperfective-progressive typically refers to an action in progress, that is, like "I am going," but like English, these can also be used like future tense verbs. In the tables

below, these verbs are in black text. For example: , -- "This evening, Sasha is going to a concert." Imperfective verbs refer to motions which follow more than one direction (i.e. a round trip/there and back), happens habitually or more than once (i.e. the daily commute) or has no real destination but the starting point (i.e. a stroll through the park). In the tables below, these verbs are in blue text. For example -"Every day I go to work." or -- "Maria went to the library (and has since returned)" Perfective verbs refer to an motion in the past that occurred once and in one direction, such as a direct flight, or such an action that will occur in the future. Also important with the perfective here is the method of completion; if a person goes somewhere, and at the time you describe the action has yet to return, the perfective, barring any contextual nuance, is used. Likewise these verbs are marked with red text. For example: -- "Katya went to the store (and has yet to return)"

Movement on Foot /

Movement by Vehicle

Past , ()/() , Tense , ,

Past ()/() ()/() ()/() Tense

Note: If you can't decide whether to refer to motion on foot or motion by vehicle, and there is no illogic in choosing one or the other, simply use /. Additional Verbs of Motion There are a number of other verbs that either are or behave like the Verbs of Motion above. The / and / pairs are repeated below to more clearly show the equivalents. Meaning Verb 1 Past

To Go (on foot)

, , , ,

To Go (by vehicle) To Run To Carry (by vehicle), Deliver To Lead, Conduct To Chase, Drive To Climb To Fly To Carry

, , , , , , , , e e, , e, e, e , ,

To Wander, Stroll , ,

To Swim, Sail , , To Crawl , , To Drag , ,

Adding the prefix - to the verbs in the "Verb 1" column gives the equivalents for and .

Meaning

Verb 2

Past

To Go (on foot) To Go (by vehicle) To Run To Carry (by vehicle), Deliver To Lead, Conduct To Climb To Fly To Carry

, , , , e , , , , , , e , , e , , , ,

To Wander, Stroll , ,

To Chase, Drive e , ,

To Swim, Sail e , , To Crawl e , , To Drag e , ,

33. Food-related verbs There are a number of verbs associated with food in Russian, many of which have slight to major irregularities in conjugation, so it makes sense to show them here. (The word-list for foods from the previous edition will be added to a second edition in the future.) The verb "to eat" in Russian is in the infinitive-imperfective, and in the perfective. Be careful not to confuse this verb with its homophone which means "is." Present-Future / Past Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl.

However, these aren't the only verbs associated with food and drink. Some are regular, others not. - (To Cook/Prepare) - - - - - - - (Drink) - - - - - - - (Grill/Fry) - - - - - -

- (Bake) - - - -

- (Burn) - - - -

- (Freeze) - - - -

- -

- -

- -

The past tense of is irregular: (masc.,) (fem.,) (neut.,) (pl.) As is that of : (masc.,) (fem.,) (neut.,) (pl.) 34. The Imperative Mood The Imperative Mood is used when giving instructions, orders, or advice to another person. There are three forms, depending on how well you know the person/people involved, how many people there are, and how polite you want to be. We can break the imperatives down into three groups via this criteria: 1-- Informal: used when you know the person well or when talking to children. 2--Formal/Plural: Used when talking to a person you just met, a person of authority, or a group of people. 3--Informal-Plural: Used when talking to a group of people, when you have no desire to indcate formality. Most often used in the Army and similar circumstances. How to form the Imperative: For number 1, you have would add one of the following four endings to the stem, and number 2 is simply adding - onto number 1. This is, admittedly, easier said than done, since the endting to be added is dependent on factors of syllable stress and stem endings. -- -If the stress moves at any point during conjugation. i.e. (the ) ! -- -If the stress is on the ending and doesn't shift in conjugation; most, but not all, verbs have - infinitive endings. i.e. - The stress is on the ending (a,) and does not change in conjugation, so it becomes . -- -If the stress is on the stem rather than the ending, and the ending itself has a softening vowel, such as -, -, or -. i.e. - The stress is on the stem, and does not change in conjugation, and so it becomes . -- - for verbs ending in -. i.e. , which becomes . -- - for verbs ending in -, excluding . i.e. becomes .

Number three is simply the infinitive form of the verb. Aspect is also very important when using infinitives, and while Russians don't always follow the general rules in place, (but then who does all the time?) they are as follows: -When the imperative is not negated (that is, it's a "do" command, not a "don't do" command) the perfective is generally used first, and successive repetitions of the command use the imperfective. That said, if the imperative is used in conjunction with an adverb that indicates the repetition of (i.e. , etc.) or manner of doing said action (i.e. , , etc.) or if you simply want the action done right away, the imperfective is generally used. -In cases where the imperative is negated ("don't do" rather than "do") the situation is generally reversed; in the majority of cases, the perfective is used, while the imperfective generally serves as a warning of some dire circumstance should we end up doing the action in question. Don't be afraid to use imperatives in public situations as they are not necessarily considered rude, though adding dampens even that. In addition to the above forms, there is also the word , which translates as "let" and used in the same way it is in English. For example: " ," ("Let them eat cake.") Note how the verb is conjugated in agreement with the subject, and not changing due to . The " imperative" Alongside the second-person imperative we have already seen, Russian also posesses a first-person. For verbs of motion, this can be as simple as taking the form of the verb, while omitting the subject pronoun, and so can be as simple as " !" (let's go there!) When used with more than two people, the sufffix - can be added, though in conversational speech only, the result being " ." More often, however, for both regualr verbs and verbs of motion, the word () comes before. The word itself is the imperative form of the verb (to give,) but aside from the literal meaning is one of the most versatile words in Russian; depending on context it can mean "let's go," "hurry up,""get going," or a host of other meanings beyond the scope of this tutorial. As a result, to say "let's go see a movie,"you could say "() ," () ," or "() ." The Past Imperative The final imperative form to learn is the past-imperative. Unlike the other imperative

forms, however, the past-imperative is mostly restricted to the verbs . We are already familiar with the formation of the past tense, here, as always dependent only on gender and number, so all you need to remember are the three main uses: -An emphatic way of saying "let's go" or "let's get going." -A direct (and, depending on whom you are talking to, impolite) way of saying "get going" or "get moving." -A response to a request to go somewhere or do something, meaning "on the way" or "right away." 35. Relative Pronouns and Conjunctions Relative clauses in Russian are difficult for two main reasons, the first being that full relative clauses are rarely used in either spoken or written English; the second that there are three different relative constructions in use in Russian, which cannot be used interchangeagbly. Each is examined individually below. But first, what is a relative clause? Relative clauses are a part of speech, which describes the subject or an object in the sentence, usually wth the am of specifying one among many, with the use of a relative pronoun to replace the subject and a verb and predicates to describe it. They are, in effect, mini-sentences within a sentence. For instance, look at the sentence "The woman, who was standing on the corner, is my friend's wife." "...who was standing..." is the relative clause in this example. Notice both how it s used to specifiy which woman is the one you are talking about, and how the word "who" takes the place of the noun in question, while the remainder of the words in the sentence follow as though "who" was simply a repetition of the word described. Russian relative pronouns work on this same principle, but must be used in Russian, both written and spoken, unlike in English. is equivalent to the English pronouns which, who, and whom, and is used in much the same way, and is the most straightforward of the relative pronouns use. As the final two letters imply, declines according to the gender and number of the word described, as well as with any preposition you use, following the same paradigm as most adjectives. However, must be used when the subject of the relative clause is a noun, rather than a pronoun. Now, let's see the above sentence in Russian: ", , ." Notice how both the relative pronoun and verb both agree with the word being described () in gender and number. The same applies if you use a preposition with : ", , o." (The woman I went to

school with is now a doctor, or more accurately, the woman, with whom I went to school, now works as a doctor.) Again, notice how the ending on follows the gender and number of the word described (femnine, singular) and the case dictated by the preposition c (instrumental.) In this sentence, however, the verb ending corresponds with that of rather than , since the description within the relative clause is based not around the action of the person in question, but the speaker. The real difficulty comes when you do just that, and describe in a relative clause based on your own experience; must be declined in accordance not only with the word being described, but how fits into the relative clause, as though it were a standalone sentence; the gender and number come from the word beng described, but everything else is determined by the relation to the verb of the relative pronoun. For instance: -", ..." (The woman, whom I know...) In this instance, the relative pronoun is the direct object of the verb with the speaker as the subject, and thus it takes the accusative case. And: -", ..." (The woman, to whom he gave the gift...) Here, it takes the place of the indirect object, and so takes the dative case, since in the relative clause the woman is the recipient of the gift, regardless of the case of the word in the rest of the sentence. The pronoun , however, is only used when the thing described is written as a noun in the sentence. There are of course instances where the use of a noun is impractical or simply repetitive. In such cases, you would use a , or , construction, depending on whether you are referring to a thing or person, respectively. The best way to learn them is to see examples of how they are used: , /, /, The construction , along with its counterpart , are somewhat more difficult to learn to use properly. They translate as "that, which" or "they, who." Either pronoun can be declined according to context, with or without prepositions. In addition, they are used in instances where in English you can attach prepositions to an action or verb instead of a noun or pronoun as a result of weak case governance and the expansion of roles of participles. Russian, along with most languages, however, does not allow this, as a preposition must be tied to a noun or pronoun, no exceptions. , is really more of a conjunction than a relative pronoun, but I include it here due to the similarities with , and , . - , . -- "I don't know what you are talking about." - , . -- "The teacher asked us about what we were doing." - , . -- "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

- , . -- "Cats love those who feed them." - , . -- "God helps those who help themselves." - , , . -- "Take only that which is necessary to survive." - o c , . -- "We would like to thank you for coming here today." - , y , . "Before I leave for work, every morning I make coffee for the rest of the family." - , , . - "In his book The Social Contract, the philosopher Rousseau writes about how to build the perfect democracy." Also, if you use a pronoun other than to one of its declensions such as , or and so forth, the same applies. 36. Expressing "To Be" While Russian does have a verb "to be," it is unique in both the Slavonic family, as well as Indo-European languages as a whole in that it is generally omitted in Russian in the present tense, a phenomenon present in Turkish, Hebrew and Arabic as well. Therefore, not only does Russian have no articles, it also has no common words for "is" or "are." In writing, the "is," among other things, is represented by a dash, but not always. Thus you get statements such as: " - " or "Your girlfriend is a beautiful young woman." Spoken Russian can be quite terse, as a result, but understanding it is not overly difficult once you get used to the idea, however. To express "there is," the infinitive plus the nominative case. The verb can also be used to emphasize the "is" or "are," especially when the phrase would otherwise be the repetition of two words. The word also literally means "is," and is used to represent "is" or "are" for cases of particular strong emphasis. To express "to be" something, you would use the verb plus the instrumental case. Thus, " ." (After university, I want to be the editor of a newspaper.) If you're using adjectives, you may use the short forms to express "is" or "are." For instance, (the flowers are beautiful) or ! (It was good to meet you!) However, for most adjectives, short form usage is restricted to written and/or formal Russian, long forms being more common, as well as less ambiguous in certain instances; and sound the same, though admittedly, so do and . Otherwise, you speak as you would normally, just omitting "is" or "are." 37. School-related verbs

There are a half-dozen verbs related to education that are very similar in root and/or possible translations, but each has a specific meaning not always interchangeable with the others. Verb Meaning Cases

-To study, to be a student. -Intransitive; comliments require Often used to describe where prepositions, commonly you go to school. prepositional. -To study (field or discipline.) -That being studied takes the accusative; other compliments require prepositions. -To teach -Those being taught take the genitive; what is being taught takes the dative if it's a noun. -Objects take the accusative. -That being learned takes the dative.

-To memorize -To learn

-To study, (as for a test,) or to -Objects take the Instrumental case. occupy one's time in general

38. Expressing "To Have" and "To Want" and Modality To Have: Possession is usually shown by using the genitive preposition plus the possessor, then and the object possessed in the nominative case. For example "I have a book" is " ." (Literally, "At me there is a book") If needs be, the word order can be changed a little, but keep the preposition y in front of the possessor. To Want: -The verb "to want" is one of only a few truly irregular verbs in Russian, and is used in much the same way as in English. Be sure to remember the conjugation: /

Like English, however, Russian also contains ways of expressing desire in more polite forms. Two more are: - () ... I would like (Used for polite requests; more official)

- ... I would like (Used like ; but less official) To express modality, Russians tend to use "impersonal" or "subjectless" constructions. The basis of this is the "modal," the dative case form of the name or pronoun, and an infinitive verb. Thus, if I wanted to say "I need to finish reading this book," I would say " (dative of "") (modal) (infinitive verb) (object)" Literally translated, this comes out as "It is necessary for me to read this book." Such forms are the basis for expressing modality. Common modals include: -- "It is necessary" (Must, more colloquial) -- "It is necessary" (Must, proper) , -- "It is difficult" -- "It is easy" -- "It is impossible" -- "It is possible" (May/Can) (The verb --, , , , , -- can be used when it refers to physical ability) -- "It is impossible/forbidden" (Used with perfective verbs, this indicates that for the time being, the action is physically impossible to do, whereas the imperfective indicates that it is not allowed or that doing so is discouraged for whatever reason. ) Another common option is to use to express "must" or "have to," in conjunction with an infinitive verb. declines according to the subject; masculine - , feminine - , and plural - . If, however the thing needed is a noun, you would use the dative form of the subject, plus // plus the needed object in the Dative case. Note here that the form of that you choose is dependent on the gender/number of the object, not the subject.

39. Prepositions in the Accusative Prepositions are words or particles used to express ideas such as location, destination, origin, and a number of other qualities. There are a number of prepositions for each case, and when applied to a noun, it, and all adjectives, pronouns and the like must take the case ascribed to the preposition itself. I've tried to list as many as possible, particularly those I have found to be most common, but a number are not included, and some purposely left out. Pronunctiation is also important, as monosyllabic prepositions meld into the word that follows them rather than being pronounced separately; is vah-myer'-ee-kyeh, and not vuh ah-myer'-ee-kyeh. And finally, before a number of consonant clusters, single consonant prepositions add an o, as in ("on Tuesday") and the preposition o takes a before vowels, as in ("about the author"). For the preposition o, there is also a special form, when used with the pronoun . () -- Against (Contact) -- About -- Through -- through, across, after x amount of time 40. Prepositions in the Prepositional Case () -- About (Same as the accusative ) -- Near/close to/on one's person/in the time of* *There are a number of additional meanings for ; check your dictionary for proper contexts. 41. Prepositions in the Dative Case -- Thanks to -- Despite/in spite of -- Contrary to/ -- In accordance with, according to -- Judging by 42. Prepositions in the Instrumental Case -- beyond, behind -- Between -- Over, above -- In front of -- Under

43. Prepositions in the Genitive Case -- Close to -- Without -- Instead of -- Outside of -- Inside of -- Around (usually a circular area) -- for (use by, for the benefit of) -- up to, until -- By, past -- Near, around, approximately -- Besides, other than -- After (event, day, etc.) -- against, in opposition to 44. Prepositions of Motion and Location While most prepositions are fairly straightforward in their usage, the prepositions which indicate location, destination, or point of origin are more difficult to fully understand, especially for those new to language learning. Each preposition is given individual treatment here, and grouped according to which nouns/pronouns they modify. A summary table is available at the bottom of ths section. Also note that certain verbs may mandate specific prepositions, which may or may not conform to the logic normally applied. // -(accusative) and -(prepositional) refer to the motion into a closed space, and the location in it, respectively. As such it is used with nouns such as (elementary school), (dormitory), (appartment), (building), and so on. For instance, if I wanted to to say in Russian "Masha is going to the store," it would be " ," that is, using the accusative case; while we may not always say "into the store" in regular English speech, the implication is that Masha goes into the building. Likewise, if I were to say "Masha is at the store right now," it would be " ," the implicaton here being that she is inside the building, and not simply at it. If, however, you wished to say that she did not/is not going into/inside the store, but is going to an area near it, then you would use //, explained further down. -(genitive) refers to the same instances above, only the movement out of -that is, exiting- the place in question. can also mean "of" in the sense of "one of them" ( ) or "of/from" in the sense of "made of chocolate" or "made with chocolate" ( .)

// -(accusative) and -(prepositional) work in similar ways to , but are somewhat harder to learn to use properly. The simplest usage is in the context of being "on" something, such as , ("on the table;") that is resting on top of something. While "on" is a good equivalent, you have to be careful how you apply it; ("on television") wouldn't refer to a program on the TV screen, but rather to an object sitting on top of the TV set. The other major use is to indicate motion towards or location at an event or an activity, such as ("at the concert") or (at exercise(s)/class.) And finally there are some words that require the use of // as a matter of course such as , ("to the stadium,") , ("in the market,") or , ("in the kitchen.") As with most irregulars, you just have to remember them. -(gentive) is like , referring to the going from something, only it works in the situations described for . // -(dative) There are generally two situations where this set of prepositions is used; first is situations where in English you would say say a person is "at x's house," going "to x's place" or is "with so-and-so" However, in Russian it is standard to simply say // plus the person's name in the correct case. Thus I would say " ," (I'm going to Alexander's this afternoon,) " ," (I was at Marina's yesterday,) or " ( ) ," (Andrei is coming (to our place) from Lena's.) The other is for instances when you go "to," be "at" or come "from" and object but to not come into contact with it orpass through it, such as " ," (to stand at the window) or " " (to walk up to the chalkboard.) 45. Summary of Prepositions of Motion To Where? (accusative) (Accusative) (Dative) Where? ((Prepositional)) (Prepositional) (Genitive) From Where? Used with: (Genitive) Buildings, countries, vehicles, "in" places (Genitive) Activities, certain buildings and countries, "on" places

(Genitive) People, animate objects, approach with no contact, entry Others: - (Genitive) "Under"

(Accusative)

(Instrumental)

 (Instrumental) - "Beyond/Behind" (Accusative)* (Genitive)** *This can also mean "for" ** This can also mean "because of" 46. Countries & Nationalities Country Algeria Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada China Czech Republic Denmark Egypt Finland France Germany Greece Holland Hungary India Indonesia Ireland Italy Iran Israel Japan In Russian Adjective Citizen (m/f) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Afghanistan

Kenya Korea Lebanon Mexico Mongolia Norway Pakistan Poland Romania Scotland South Africa Spain Sweden Syria Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States of America

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Philippines

Switzerland

/ | |

47. Countries & Nationalities (Former USSR) Country USSR-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus In Russian Adjective Person (m/f)

- | | |

Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Moldova

| | | | | |

Russian / |/| Federation/Russia / Tadjikstan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekistan | | | |

& : While both of these words translate into English as "Russian," their meaning is quite distinct; the former is an ethno-linguistic term and refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of present or past citizenship, whereas the latter refers to citizens of the Russian Federation who may not be ethnic Russians, such as Poles, Ukrainians, Belorusians, Germans, Tatars, Yakuts, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, and others. A similar paradigm is found in the United Kingdom, where there are the ethnic terms English, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Manx, etc., and the umbrella term British. 48. Common Adjective-as-State Constructions The primary usage of short-form adjectives has been discussed elsewhere, but they are also used to describe individual states of being where one would otherwise simply use a long form adjective. Some are used on their own, and others can add additional information through the use of prepositions. /// /// /// /// /// Ill (illness takes the instrumental) Visible Guilty, to blame (transgression takes +prepositional Prepared, ready Satisfied (source of satisfaction takes instrumental) Married (said of a man, whom he is married to takes

+prepositional /// /// /// /// /// /// /// /// /// Alive Married (said of a woman, whom she is married to takes +instrumental Busy (what you're busy with takes c+instrumental) Healthy Look like, resemble (the person resembled takes +accusative) Correct Free, not busy Be in agreement, agree (what is agreed takes c+instrumental) Full, sated Certain (what you're certain of takes +prepositional)

All forms agree in gender and number with the sentence subject. 49. Reflexive and Reciprocal Pronouns In addition to the various personal pronouns, there are a number of additional ones you should know, or at least recognize. Reflexive This pronouns translates roughly as "-self" and is usually used with prepositions or in noun phrases (i.e. a sentence without a verb.) There is no plural form, and the pronoun before self, such as my-, your-, one-, her-, and so on, is indicated by the subject of the sentence. N A D G P I For instance, to say "How come you never talk about yourself" in Russian, you would say, " ?" (Notice the declension into the

prepositional case.)

Reciprocal Pronoun(s) This pronoun, , is largely unique to the Slavic family of languages, and is used to replace possessive pronouns when the subject and the possessor are the same thing. For instance, compare these two sentences: " " and " " Both of these sentences translate into English as "She is reading her book," but there is one important piece of information: whose book it is. In the first case it is obvious that whatever book she may be reading, the girl in question owns it, but in the second, "her" can refer to any female. While it may seem trivial simply looking at it just from these two sentences, in the wider context, it tends to cut down on confusion with possessive pronoun use. declines by case, gender and number in accordance with the word it describes, in the same fashion as or . 50. Useful Adverbs Motion and Location These adverbs generally share the same meanings as in English, though that includes archaic words such as "whence," or "thence." In either case, the roots are the same and the prefixes and suffixes are usually logical if you know your prepositions. Location "here" "there" Destination "(to) here" "(to) there" Origin "(from)here" "(from) there"

There are others that follow this pattern as well: Location Destination Origin "left" "right" "up" "down" "(to)left" "(to)up" "(from)left" "(from)up" "In front"

"(to)right" "(from)right"

"(to)down" "(from)down"

"from the front" "forwards"

Other Useful Adverbs Quickly Everywhere In Spring In the Evening Carefully In General Yesterday Even Far Away Tomorrow In Winter From Far Away By the Way In Summer

(+gen.pl.)

Many/Much Slowly Probably Finally On the Other Hand For Example Not Far Unexpectedly Normally At Night Usually In Autumn Especially Later

Meanwhile Day After Tomorrow Then (In that case) Directly, Straight Ahead Earlier/Previously Rarely Today Soon Too (i.e. too many) Completely Then (At that time) Only Exactly In the Morning Often

& -- "Too, As Well, Also" These two adverbs are a notoriously confusing aspect of learnng Russian, largely because while English has more than one construction to express one concept, they more or less mean the same thing in common usage and can be used more or less interchangeably. Not so in Russian, however, so it is important to remember the uses of each: -- Used when there is only one subject, but more than one object. - -, . -"My grandfather only speaks to me in English, but he also knows Dutch." -- Used when there is more than one subject, but only one object. -" ."" !" -- "I was born on the 13th of December." "I was born on the 13th too!" (In this instance, you could also just say " !" or " !" meaning something like "me too" or "so was I.") 51. Additional Pronouns * Some This * much/many - - - Something Anything Someone *- * Some kind of Any kind of (from)

Such, That kind of As far/much as Several Therefore Because

- - - - -

Anyone Somewhere Anywhere (to) somewhere (to) anywhere

somewhere (from) anywhere Never Nothing Nobody Nowhere

Those marked * decline like adjectives. While these pronouns are mostly straightforward in usage, there are a few things you need to remember. First and foremost, when using pronouns beginning with -, always add a just before the verb, with the pronoun before that. For those pronouns ending in - and -, usage is not exactly as the translations here imply; the former is used when you are sure of the existence of something, whereas the latter indicates doubt as to whether or not such a thing exists. For example, compare the following pairs: - -? (Did you tell him anything?) - -! (You told him something!) In the first example, - is used because the speaker does not know whether or not anything was said, nor what it was if so, whereas in the second, there is certainty on the part of the speaker that something was said, even though what was said may or may not be known. (Note that generally the latter provision, what exactly was said in this context, is not a determining criteria for which ending to use.) - - ? (Has anyone called me today?) - - ; , ? (Someone called me today; do you know who?) Again, in the first instance the speaker does not know whether or not anyone has called them, while in the second instance, the speaker knows that someone has called them, and is instead asking for more information about said person; the determning factor is, to reiterate, the existence, not specific knowledge, of something. There is also a specific construction to represent "each other," which while it generally functions much as its English counterpart, is unique in that prepositions go in between the two words instead of in front of them; thus it is , "towards each other" or "with each other," and so on. Accusative/Genitive Dative

 Prepositional Intstrumental

52. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives The comparative of adjectives, -er edjectives like bigger, darker, smaller, etc. in English, can be formed in one of two ways. The first is to use the comparative or ( is literally the comparative of , or big, though in the comparative can mean "more" as well as ,) plus the adjective you are using. The second is to use the specific comparative form of the adjective. The individual comparative form usually involves the addition of -ee as the adjective ending, such as with and . There are a number of irregulars, some of which, like , (louder, from ,) , (more expensive, from ,) or , (richer, from ,) involve following the consonant palatalization rules outlined in section 24 plus -e, while others like , (older,) or (farther) are completely irregular. For either, there are two ways to say "than," usually depending on the word coming after. Usually, if the word is a noun, adjective, pronoun, or number, then the word in question is simply declined into the genitive case. i.e. , (more than one,) , (older than you, from ,) or , (more beautiful than yours.) The other is to use the pronoun (not !) followed by either a nominative, or, as is most common, a word that cannot be declined as above such as a verb or construction beginning with a preposition. As you can see, comparative adjectives do not decline by either gender or case. Like the comparative, there are two ways to form the superlative adjective in Russian. The first and easiest is simply to use the adjective (most) plus the adjective in question. This method is most common in spoken Russian. The second is to form the individual superlatives, which unlike those of the comparatives, are highly regular and easy to form; there are two possible forms, which are dependent only on the adjective stem. If the stem ends in , , or , you add - after changing these letters to , , and respectively. For the remainder of adjectives, you simply add the ending -, such as (richest,) , (fastest,) , (lightest,) or , (tastiest.) These are more common in formal or written Russian than in spoken, though the latter does have occasional ones such as (closest), but even then superlative usage is still rather uncommon.

And finally, as in virtually all Indo-European languages, the comparative and superlative words for the adjectives "good" and "bad" are irregular in Russian: Good: Better: Best: Bad: Worse:

53. The Passive Voice & Rules of Word Order The passive voice indicates that the action of a sentence or phrase is performed ON the subject, and not BY the subject. The passive is usually formed by the addition of the reflexive suffix to the end of the verb: - (pronounced "-") after consonants, or - after vowels, while any words that indicate who or what is performing the action take the instrumental case. So, for instance, Active: ? -- "Where do they sell computers?" Passive: ? -- "Where are computers sold?" In theory, most verbs can be used as such, but a number are rarely, if ever seen anywhere. It should be noted, however, that the use of the suffix -/- is not primarily for use in the passive voice, even if that is where it is often seen. There are two groups of verbs that also use the same ending. The first are so-called "reflexive verbs" which always have /- regardless of logic. The other, and more numerous group are those verbs that are transtive (that must take a direct object) but used in a context that does not have one This does not include cases where the object has been noted in a previous construction. Usage of the passive voice in Russian versus that of English also brings up the issue of word order, which is much freer in Russian than in English, and so while the passive voice is often used in English to change the word order, you can do the same in Russian while keeping the active voice. That is not to say that pasive constructions are rare in Russian; they are quite often used in regular speech, particularly statements of want, need or like, along with various indirect or impersonal constructions. Nonetheless, there are a few general rules and trends that may help in deciding what to put where: -Prepositons must be placed before the noun or pronoun it is tied to; adjectives can be placed in between them, but the preposition must come before the noun/pronoun. -Information that is emphasized or that is newly introduced by the sentence goes at or near the end. -If the object of a sentence is a pronoun, word order is usually subject-object-verb; if the object is a noun, order is typically subject-verb-object.

Thus while theoretically more or less any order of words is possible, as noted in the section on inflection, deviation from the subject-verb-object or subject-object-verb structure is rare outside of prose and poetry. As it is in any language, the less complex the sentence structure, the greater chances of being understood in full. 54. The Anthem of the Soviet Union (These are my translations; others may differ according to the translator) Soviet National Anthem (1977 version) , ! : , , ! - ! , : , ! , ! Unbreakable union of free republics Joined for the ages by Great Russia. Long live the creation of the will of the people, The one, great, Soviet Union Refrain: Hail our free fatherland, A hopeful future of the friendship of the people! The Party of Lenin, the force of the people, Leads us towards the triumph of communism! Through the storms shone for us the sun of freedom And great Lenin lit the way for us: He set the people onto the right path, Inspired us in labor and achievement! Refrain In the victory of the invincible ideas of communism We see the future of our country, And to the red banner of our glorious fatherland, We will always be selflessly dedicated! Refrain

55. The Anthem of the Russian Federation (2000 version)

 - , - . , ! : , , , ! , ! ! . ! ! . . , !

Russia, our sacred nation, Russia, our beloved country. A powerful will, and great glory, Your possession for all time! Refrain: Hail our free fatherland, Of brotherly of peoples, centuries united Given the people's wisdom by our ancestors! Hail country! You make us proud! From the Southern seas to the open frontiers Stretch our forests and plains. You are one in the light! You, Our one Native land, protected by God! Refrain The wide space to dream, to live, The future years are open to us. Our fidelity gives might to the fatherland. As it was, is, and always will be! Refrain