42971499 russian tutorial

8/3/2019 42971499 Russian Tutorial

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Russian Tutorial written by Stephen VanZuylen

1. Basic Phrases

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 v yecher

Good Night

Доброй ночи

doh-broo-y noh-tchi

Good Bye (Generaluse/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 alwaysКак всегда

Kahk vseg- dah

ExcellentХорошо

Khah-rah- sho

Pleased to meet you (lit. "it isvery 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

Excuse me...

Извините

Do you speak English?

Вы знаете английский?



m-nyeh __ l-yet eez-vee- nee-tye 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 in 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 repeat that?

Повторите! (пожалуйста) Pav-toh- ree-tye! (pah-

zhahl -stah)

Bold syllables indicate stress.

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 МН О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ ъ ы ь Э Ю and Я. In order to make this explanationeasier, 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 lettersand 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 сТ т

Ф ф

Х х

Ц ц

Ч ч Ш ш

Щ щ

Бэ -- Beh

Вэ -- VehГэ -- Geh

Дэ -- Deh

Жэ -- Zheh

Зэ-- Zeh

И краткое-- ikratkoye

Ка-- KahЭл-- El

Эм-- Em

Эн -- En

Пэ-- PehЭрр -- Err

Эс -- EsТэ -- Teh

Эф -- Ef

Ха -- Khah

Цэ -- Tseh Че -- Cheh

Шэ -- Shah

Ща -- Shchah

Best

VentGift

Deep

Pleasure

Zebra

York

King

LionMend

Next

Pet

trilled rSink

Tape

Find

Kh, like Germanmachen

Boots Chair

ShipSee 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 formost 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: eitherthrough 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" orthe d in the French "jeudi."

Жж -This is, in theory, a voiced version of Щ, but israrely 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 behindyour front teeth.

Ль -Use the whole front portion of your tongue tomake 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 thetongue 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

EeYu

Yah

Yes

Yodel

FeetYouth

Yacht

Ё is always stressed

"Hard" Vowels

Э э

О о

ы

У у

А а

EhOh

Еры* Ooh

Ah

EnterNote

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 themouth.)



PronunciationWith 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 canbe 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 letterforms 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 lettersindividually, 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 ь, or мягкий знак ("soft sign,") as noted before, denotes a soft consonant whenthere 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 followingit. 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, theverb писать (stressed on a) which means "to write," can have its meaning suddenly andeasily 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 commonlyheard in and around the Moscow region, and is thus considered the "standard" form of

Russian.

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--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", thoughany 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 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 consideredhard; 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 soundslike 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 softconsonants 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 onits 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 thangrammatical, 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 uswith "письм." However, the actual form in the genitive plural is "писем." Where did thate 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 upwith an e.

One little trick is usually right: if you get an awkward consonant cluster, say the wordout 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 spelledcorrectly, 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

http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/spelling.html






more confident or curious, you can apply the alternation rule, which is best explainedhere.

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 thenew ending placed after the consonant. These seem unpredictable at first, but withpatience, 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 Romancelanguages, 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 exclusvelywith 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 nounshave 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 uniquedeclension 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 asкафе, 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 isfeminine. Masculine nouns with a -ь ending decline like those ending with й. Thefeminine ones have their own declension class, detailed below.

7. Personal Pronouns

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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 Этого 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 thepredicative 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 noarticles (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

этот, тот, or один.

9. Possessive Pronouns

Possessive Pronoun Мой My/Mine



Case Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl.

Nominative Мой Моя Моё Мои

Accusative Мой/Моего Мою Моё Мои/Моих

Dative Моему Моей Моему Моим

Genitive Моего Моей Моего Моих

Prepositional Моём Моей Моём Моих

Instrumental Моим Моей Моим Моими

Pronouns that decline like this one: Твой (your/yours informal)

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

Possessive Pronoun Наш Our/Ours


Nominative Наш Наша Наше Наши

Accusative Нашего Нашу Наше Наших

Dative Нашему Нашей Нашему Нашим

Genitive Нашего Нашей Нашего Наших

Prepositional Нашем Нашей Нашем Наших

Instrumental Нашим Нашей Нашим Нашими

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

10. The Pronoun Обе/Оба (Both)

In Russian, there are two ways of sayng "both" as we would know the word. Here, it isused 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 SlavicLanguage, 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 oftenignored, 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. Theanswer 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 orindirect) 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 nothave 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 bewritten 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 caseЕй - "her;" indirect object; dative case

It would then be written as "Он дал его ей" or any combination of those words, so longas 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 tofeel 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'ssay 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 manyproblems.

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 onlypronouns, 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 ortwo 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 additionalresources, 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:

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 comparisonsfollowing 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

Newending

-ы -и -и -ы -и -ии -и

Example Телевизор Музей Король Машина Земля Фамилия Милость

Plural Телевизоры Музеи Короли Машины Земли Фамилии Милости



Neut. о Neut. е Neut. -ие Neut. -я

New ending -а -я -ия -ена

Example Озеро Платье Мнение Время Plural 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 easiestway 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. Becareful, however, not to confuse them with the gentive-singular forms, which often look

exactly the same.

Examples:

Мост -Bridge - Моста - BridgesГо род -City - Города - Cities

In addition, there are a number of words that end in -нин; these decline regularly exceptin the nominative plural, where it becomes -не, and in the genintive plural, where itbecomes -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 iscomplicated by the fact that it is, in effect, five cases; masculine nouns are the same asthe 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 femininenouns 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 isanimate, in which case it takes the genitive.

Forming the singular:

Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -

й

Masc. -ь Fem. -а Fem. -

я

Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

Newending

-- -- -я -у -ю -ию -ь

Example Телевизор Музей Король* Машина Земля Фамилия Милость

Телевизор Музей Короля Машину Землю Фамилию Милость

*animate, thus the endings are genitive




New ending -о -е -ие -я

Example Озеро Платье Мнение Время

Озеро Платье Мнение Время

Forming the plural:

Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -

й


я

Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

New

ending

-ы -и -ей -ы -и -ии -и

Example Телевизор Музей Король* Машина Земля Фамилия Милость Телевизоры Музеи Королей Машины Земли Фамилии Милости

*animate, thus the endings are genitive


New ending -а -я -ия -ена


Озера Платья Мнения Времена

14. The Dative Case (Дательный Падеж)

The Dative is used to mark the indirect object in the sentence or phrase, that is, therecipient 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 neuternouns take -у or -ю as the ending, depending on whether or not it is hard or soft, and

Feminine nouns take -е regardless. There is a caveat here: if the (feminine) word ends in -ь, it takes -и in the dative, and if it ends in -ия, it takes -ии. The plural is even easier: allnouns take -ам or -ям, depending on a hard or soft ending .


Masc. Masc - Masc. -ь Fem. -а Fem. - Fem.-ия Fem. -ь



(consonant) й я

Newending

-у -ю -ю -е -е -ии -и


Телевизору Музею Королю Машине Земле Фамилии Милости

Neut. о Neut. е Neut. -ие Neut -я

New ending -у -ю -ию -ени


Озеру Платью Мнению Времени

Forming the plural:

Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -й Masc. -ь Fem. -а Fem. -я Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

New

ending

-ам -ям -ям -ам -ям -иям -ям


Телевизорам Музеям Королям Машинам Землям Фамилиям Милостям


New ending -ам -ям -ям -енам


Озерам Платьям Мнениям Временам

15. The Genitive Case (Родительный Падеж)

The Genitive is perhaps the most versatile of all of the cases in Russian; it showsownership or possession (комната моей сестры -- my sister's room,) construction

involving "of" (фотография нового дома -- A photo of the new house,) amounts of

things (много людей -- many people,) in conjunction with numbers (пять братьев -- fivebrothers,) and more. It's formation in the singular is highly regular; masculine and neuter

nouns take -а or -я depending on whether it is hard or soft; feminine nouns take the letter -ы or - и, 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 -овand those ending in й take -ев or -ёв, but masculine nouns ending in -ь, -ш, -щ, -ж, and -

ч, all take the ending -ей. Feminine and neuter nouns ending in -а and -о lose that letter, -

я and -е take- ь, and feminine and neuter nouns ending in-ия and -ие both take the -ий.

Finally, feminine nouns ending in -ь, as well as neuter and feminine nouns with -ь just prior to the final vowel, such as платье, all take the ending ей.


Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -

й

Masc. -

ь

Fem. -а Fem. -

я

Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

New

ending

-а -я -я -ы -и -ии -и


Телевизора Музея Короля Машины Земли Фамилии Милости


New ending -а -я -ия -ени


Озера Платья Мнения Времени

Forming the plural:

Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -

й


я

Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

Newending

-ов -ев -ей -- --ь -ий -ей


Телевизоров Музеев Королей Машин Земель Фамилий Милостей

Neut. о Neut. -ие Neut. -я

New ending -- -ий -ён



Example Озеро Мнение Время

Озер Мнений Времён

16. The Prepositional Case (Предложный Падеж)

This is probably the easiest case to learn other than the nominative. It is used purelywith prepositions; it is never used on its own, hence its name. The prepositions are в(in/at) на (on/at/in) о (about) при (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 -ь, in which case it becomes -и, or -ие or -ия, which become -ии. The plural is -ах or -ях depending on the stem.


Masc.

(consonant)

Masc -

й

Masc. -

ь

Fem. -а Fem. -

я

Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

Newending

-е -е -е -е -е -ии -и


Телевизоре Музее Короле Машине Земле Фамилии Милости


Еnding -е -е -ии -ени


Озере Платье Мнении Времени

Forming the plural:

Masc.(consonant)

Masc -й

Masc. -ь Fem. -а Fem. -я Fem.-ия Fem. -ь

New

ending

-ах -ях -ях -ах -ях -иях -ях




Телевизорах Музеях Королях Машинах Землях Фамилиях Милостях


Еnding -ах -ях -иях -енах


Озерах Платьях Мнениях Временах

There is an exception here; in the singular masculine, there are a number of nouns that

take a stressed -у or -ю, but this is ONLY when used with the prepositions в or на; if youuse o or при, you use the regular prepositional ending.

Examples:Лес -- Forest - в Леcу - In the Forest, при Лесе - Near the Forest

Бал -- Ball - на Балу - At the Ball, о Бале - About the Ball

17. The Instrumental Case (Творительный Падеж)

This is the final case you need to learn. It is used to indicate how an action is carriedout, roughly the same as the English "by" or "with," the German "per," or the French

"par." It is also used f ollowing the verb быть (to be,) or following certain verbs where it

acts as the word "as," like работать официанткой, "to work as a waitress," as well as inthe sense of "by" in the passive voice, discussed later. It is also used in time referenceslike вечером (in the evening) or осенью (in the autumn). The formation is rather straightforward: masculine and neuter nouns take -ом or -ем depending on the ending;feminine nouns ending in -а and -я take the ending -ой or -ей, while those ending in -ия

take the ending -ией. The main exception is feminine nouns ending in -ь, which take theending -ью. The plural is even easier to form: simply add -ами or -ями depending on theoriginal ending.


Masc.

(consonant)


New

ending

-ом -ем -ем -ой -ей -ией -ью


Телевизором Музеем Королём Машиной Землей Фамилией Милостью




Еnding -ом -ем -ием -енем


Озером Платьем Мнением Временем

Forming the plural:

Masc.

(consonant)


Еnding -ами -ями -ями -ами -ями -иями -ями


Телевизорами Музеями Королями Машинами Землями Фамилиями Милостями


Еnding -ами -ями -иями -енами


Озерами Платьями Мнениями Временами

18. Summary of Regular Noun Case Endings

Мужской Женской Средний

N -- -ы -й -и -ь -и -а -ы -я -и -ия -ии -ь -и -о -а -е -я -ие -ия

A -n/g

-n/g -n/g

-n/g -n/g

-n/g -у -n/g -

ю -n/g -

ию -n/g -ь -n/g -о -а -е -я -ие -ия

D -у -ам -ю -ям -ю -ям -е -ам -е -ям -ии -иям -и -ям -у -ам -ю

-ям -ию

-иям

G -а -ов -я -ев -я -ей -ы -- -и -ь -ии -ий -и -ей -а -- -я -ь -ии -ий

P -е -ах -е -ях -е -ях -е -ах -е -ях -ии -иях -и -ях -е -ах -е -ях -ии -иях

I -

ом -

ами -

ем -

ями -

ем -

ями -

ой -

ами -

ей -

ями -

ией -

иями -

ью -

ями -

ом -

ами -

ем -

ями -

ием -

иями



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 ого,the genitive endings are pronounced as though they were written ово. However, this isonly for endings associated with the genitive case. Also, some masculine-nominative

nouns have -ой instead of ый as its ending. This does not change the declension patterns,however.

Hard Stem Adjective ( Чёрный - Black/dark)


Nominative Чёрный Чёрная Чёрное Чёрные

Accusative Чёрный / ого Чёрную Чёрное Чёрные / ых Dative Чёрному Чёрной Чёрному Чёрным

Genitive Чёрного Чёрной Чёрного Чёрных

Prepositional Чёрном Чёрной Чёрном Чёрных

Instrumental Чёрным Чёрной Чёрным Чёрными

Soft Stem Adjective (Средний - Medium/middle)

Case Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl.Nominative Средний Средняя Среднее Средние

Accusative Средний / его Среднюю Среднее Средние / их

Dative Среднему Средней Среднему Средним

Genitive Среднего Средней Среднего Средних

Prepositional Среднем Средней Среднем Средних

Instrumental Средним Средней Средним Средними

You should know that a number of adjectives, such as учёный (scientist) or рабочий(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:



MasculineFeminineNeuter

Plural

Чёрн Чёрна Чёрно

Чёрны

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 onlybecause 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 Past-Perfect

Present

Future- Imperfect Future-Perfect

The main feature that distinguishes Russian verbs from English is the notion of Aspect.

Russian has two aspects: the imperfective, or несовершенный вид, which indicates anaction 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; andthe perfective, or "совершенный вид," 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: "Кто ел мой сыр?!" -- 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: ""Кто съел мой сыр?!"" -- 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 isperfective.

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 morethan 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 читать, but theperfective is прочитать (this is the most common form)

2-Change in the stem/suffix -- The imperfective of "to understand" is понимать, and the perfective is понять (common, but less so than 1 and 3)

3-Change in the finial vowel -- The imperfective of "to enro ll/join" is поступать, and the perfective is поступить (these are fairly common)

4-Use of -ыв- or -ив- -- The imperfective of "to order" is заказывать, perfective,заказать (used mostly on prefixed verbs and are easy to spot after some practice)

5-Completely different verb -- The imperfective of "to say/speak" is говорить, theperfective сказать (fortunately, these are not very common)

(If the idea of aspect is still puzzling, an excellent explanation can be found here.)

http://russianmentor.net/gram/mailbag/topics/verbs1.htm






21. Russian Verbs - Present Tense

This refers to actions which are going on, obviously, in the present. Since the action isongoing, 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, я вижу.

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 (e-

verbs) 1b (ё-verbs) and 2 (и-verbs) These three are very similar in appearance and the

form for each subject is distinctive; because there little room for confusion, pronouns arerarely repeated more than once in a sentence.

Conjugation 1a (e-

verbs)

Conjugation 1b (ё-

verbs)

Conjugation 2 (и-verbs)

Знать Читать Петь Звать Говорить Готовить

To Know To Read To Sing To Call ToSay/Speak

To Prepare

Я

Ты Он/Она/Оно

Мы Вы

Они

Знаю

Знаешь Знает

Знаем Знаете

Знают

Читаю

Читаешь Читает

Читаем Читаете

Читают

Пою

Поёшь Поёт

Поём Поёте

Поют

Зову

Зовёшь Зовёт

Зовём Зовёте

Зовут

Говорю

Говоришь Говорит

Говорим Говорите

Говорят

Готовлю*

Готовишь Готовит

Готовим Готовите

Готовят

*See 23. Verb notes for information

The only difference here is the vowel preceding the ending, and deciding which one isthe real trick to all of this; in many cases, it's fairly obvious: verbs ending in -ать are

usually 1st Conjugation, and verbs ending in -ить are usually 2nd Conjugation. Verbsending in -еть can be either, and verbs ending in -сти 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 verbin your dictionary, look at the ты or он 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 rememberthe 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-PerfectiveRefers 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 -ть and add -л plus the appropriate vowel reflecting thebiological 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 говорить (imperfective) -- сказать (perfective) as

examples.

Gender Ending Impf

Example

Pf

Example

Masc. -л говорил сказал

Fem. -ла говорила сказала

Neut. -ло говорило сказало

Pl. -ли говорили сказали

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, asthere 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 быть plus the infinitive of an imperfective verb.

Conjugation of "Быть"

Я буду

Ты будешь

Он/Она/Оно будет

Мы будем

Вы будете

Они будут

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:

Завтра я буду читать книгу.

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 animperfective 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:Завтра я прочитаю книгу.

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 youmay 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: любить ("to love"-impf,) -- (я) люблю, ("Ilove,") остановить ("to stop"-pf) -- (я) остановлю, ("I will stop [something],") and, as

we've already seen, готовить ("to prepare"-impf,) я готовлю, ("I prepare/am preparing.")The sounds of в and б, along with п and м, are what linguists call labials -words made

using your lips, and in Russian, an л is inserted after these consonants in the 1st personsingular (я,) 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 -овать. At first glance, the conjugation seems obvious; ремонтировать (to repair) should, in theory become я ремонтироваю. However correct

way would be я ремонтирую, ты ремонтируешь and so forth. This is one little quirk forverbs with the -овать ending, but is wholly predictable: all verbs with this ending take the

letter у plus the standard 1a ending when conjugated. Similarly, there are a number of verbs ending in -авать that lose the -ва- in conjugation and take the 1b endings. Thus

давать becomes даю, даёшь, etc.

Finally, you may notice an odd change in some verbs that seem fairly arbitraryinsertions of hushes (ш щ ж ч) in many verb conjugations. For instance простить (to

forgive) becomes (я) прощу but also has (он) простит, and рассказать (to tell-pf) becomes (я) расскажу and (ты) расскажешь. 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 inthe table below:

Г, З, Д become Ж

Х, С become Ш

Т, К become Ч

СХ, СТ become Щ

Тhese don't always apply to each form of the conjugated verb but these instances are alsohighly regularized.



In the 1st Conjugation, when the ending is -ать, all forms of the verb, я to они, change

according to the above rules (1). But when the verb stem ends in к, х, or г, only the я andони forms remain unchanged. (2) In the 2nd conjugation, however, only я changes (3).

(1) Рассказать (2) Помогать (3) Простить To Tell-pf To Help-pf To Forgive-pf

Я Расскажу Помогаю прощу

Ты Расскажешь Поможешь простишь

Он/Она Расскажет Поможит простит

Мы Расскажем Поможим простим

Вы Расскажете Поможете простите

Они Расскажут Помогают простят

25. Some Common Verbs

Брать-Взять

Видеть-Увидеть Включать-Включить

Вспоминать-Вспомнить

Вставать-Встать Встречать(ся)-

Встретить(ся)

Выбирать-Выбрать Выключать-

Выключить

Говорить-Сказать Давать-Дать

Досаждать-Досадить Думать-Подумать

Забывать-Забыть

Завтракать-

Позавтракать Заглядываться-

Заглядеться Заказывать-Заказать

Закрывать-Закрыть Знать

Ждать Жить

Искать-Поискать

Исправлять-Исправить

-

--

--

--

-

---

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

To Take

To SeeTo Switch on

To RememberTo Rise, Get

upTo Meet (with)

To Select,

ChooseTo Switch off To Say, Speak

To GiveTo Annoy

To Think To Forget

To EatBreakfast

To Stare atTo Order

To CloseTo Know

To Wait forTo Live

To Search forTo Correct

To LoveTo Please

Описывать-Описать

Открывать-Открыть Падать-упасть

Петь-Спеть Писать-Написать

Платить-ЗаплатитьПокупать-Купить

Помогать-Помочь

Предлагать-Предложить

Представлять-

Представить Приглашать-

Пригласить Пробовать-

Попробовать

Продолжать-

Продолжить Просить-Попросить

Работать Рассказывать-

Рассказать Слушать-послушать

Слышать-Услышать Смотреть-Посмотреть

Собирать-Собрать

Спать-поспать

-

--

--

--

-

---

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

To Describe

To OpenTo Fall

To SingTo Write

To PayTo Buy

To Help

To OfferТо Present,Represent

To InviteTo Try, Taste

To ContinueTo Ask, Make a

requestTo Work

To TellTo Listen to

To HearTo Watch

To GatherTo Sleep

To Ask To Try, Endeavor

To BecomeTo Build, Create



Любить Нравиться-

Понравиться

Обедать-Пообедать Обладать

Обсуждать-Обсудить Объяснять-Объяснить

- To Eat LunchTo PossessTo Discuss

To Explain

Спрашивать-Спросить

Стараться-

Постараться Становиться-стать

Строить-Построить Считать-посчитать

Ужинать-Поужинать Читать-Прочитать

- To Estmate, GuessTo Eat DinnerTo Read

*Нравиться is most often used impersonally to mean "like" or "enjoy," or a similar

sentiment that doesn't quite warrant the use of любить. Thus you wouldsay something like, "Мне понравился этот фильм" ("I liked that movie") or "Им

понравилась постановка ("they enjoyed the performance.")

A number of these verbs have some irregularities in conjugation, usually stem changes:

Жить Дать Давать Ждать Спать Петь Открыть Брать Бзять Ста

Я живу дам даю жду сплю пою открою беру возьму ста

Ты живёшь дашь даёшь ждёшь спишь поёшь откроешь берёшь возьмёшь стан

Он/Она/Оно живёт даст даёт ждёт спит поёт откроет берёт возьмёт ста

Мы живём дадим даём ждём спим поём откроем берём возьмём стан

Вы живёте дадите даёте ждёте спите поёте откроете берёте возьмёте стан

Они живут дадут дают ждут спят поют откроют берут возьмут стан

The past tenses of these verbs are formed regularly.

26. Interrogative Pronouns

The two main Russian interrogatives are Кто (who) Что (what) like nouns, these declineby case, but only in one gender and only on the singular.

Case Кто Что

NominativeAccusative

DativeGenitive

PrepositionalInstrumental

Кто Кого

Кому Кого

Ком Кем

Что Что

Чему Чего

Чём Чем

The declined forms are most often used with prepositions to specify the question, such asс кем (with whom?) от чего (from what?) or согласно кому (according to whom?)



Other interrogatives:Где -- Where?

Куда? -- To Where?Откуда? -- From Where?

Сколько? -- How many/much?

Чей? -- Whose? (declines like an adjective. Can also function as a relative-conjunction.)Какой -- Which? (declines like an adjective)Почему -- Why/What for? (Refers to past actions)

Зачем -- To What End? (Refers to a future or continuing action)

Как? -- How (This can also be a cunjunction meaning "as" or "like")

Что такое? -- What? (Used in this case, the person asking wishes to know facts, details,or a definition.)

Кто такой? -- Who? (Like что такое, this is used when you want a description of orinformation about someone.)

Что это за... ? -- What kind of? (За is followed by a nominitive noun. ) Что он/она/они за...? -- What kind of? (Refers to person. Он/она/они can be replaced by

a name as well.)

27. Cardinal Numbers and Their Declensions

(Bold text shows stress)

один one четы рнадцать fourteen восемьдесят eighty

два two пятнадцать fifteen девяносто ninety

три three шестнадцать sixteen сто one hundred

четы ре four семнадцать seventeen двести two hundredпять five восемнадцать eighteen триста three hundred

шесть six девятнадцать nineteen четы реста four hundred

семь seven двадцать twenty пятьсот five hundred

восемь eight двадцать один twenty-one шестьсот six hundred

девять nine тридцать thirty семьсот seven hundred

десять ten сорок forty восемьсот eight hundred

одиннадцать eleven пятьдесят fifty девятьсот nine hundred

двенадцать twelve шестьдесят sixty тысяча one thousand

тринадцать thirteen семьдесят seventy

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 nounsdescribed by two, three, and four take the genitive singular, and nouns described by five

and up take the genitive plural:

один рубль one rouble одна книга one book

два рубля two roubles две книги two books

пять рублей five roubles пять книг five books

тридцать два рубля

thirty-tworoubles

тридцать две книги

thirty-twobooks

2) Numbers also decline by case in the same way as regular nouns do. The most complexis один, which takes the same general declension as an adjective:

Masc. Fem. Neut. Plural

Nom. один одна одно одни

Acc. один/одного одну одно одни/одних Dat. одному одной одному одним

Gen. одного одной одного одних

Prep. одном одной одном одних

Inst. одним одной одним одними

The numbers two, three, and four are somewhat simpler:

Two Three Four

Nom. два/две* три четыре Acc. два/две три четыре

Dat. двум трём четырём

Gen. двух трёх четырёх

Prep. двух трёх четырёх

Inst. двумя тремя четырьмя

*Два is for masculine and neuter nouns; две is for feminine nouns

The remainder of cardinal numbers decline like feminine nouns ending in -ь.

Thus when using numbers with prepositions, the number declines according to the caseof the preposition, while the noun described by the number takes the case dictated by the

number. For instance, "The Three Musketeers" in Russian is "Три Мушкетёра,"whereas "about the Three Musketeers" is "о трёх мушкетёрах."



28. Ordinal Numbers

These decline just like adjectives, and must agree in gender, number, and case with thenoun they describe.

пе рвый first шестнадцатый sixteenth

второй second семнадцатый seventeenth

третий third восемнадцатый eighteenth

четвёртый fourth девятнадцатый nineteenth

пятый fifth двадцатый twentieth

шестой sixth двадцать пе рвый twenty-first

седьмой seventh тридцатый thirtieth

восьмой eighth сороковой fortieth

девятый ninth пятидесятый fiftieth

десятый tenth шестидесятый sixtieth

одиннадцатый eleventh семидесятый seventieth

двенадцатый twelfth восьмидесятый eightieth

тринадцатый thirteenth девяностый ninetieth

четы рнадцатый fourteenth сотый hundredth

пятнадцатый fifteenth тысячный 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.

И -- And -У меня в моей комнате есть телевизор и DVD-плеер -- In my room there is a

television and a DVD player

А -- And/But -Моя мать - секретарша, а отец - менеджер -- My mother is a secretary, but my father

is a manager.

И..., и – Both x and y -Да, я пригласил и Анну, и Лену! -- Yes, I invited both Anna and Lena!



Или -- Or - Я купил бы красный или серый. -- I would buy the red one or the gray one.

Или..., или -- Either...or

- Я буду встречаться с ними или в Декабре, или в Январе -- I will be meeting withthem either in December or in January.

Не...не...а – Nether x nor y, but z -Моя машина не красная, не чёрная, а зелёная. -- My car is neither red nor black, but

green.

Не...ни...ни – Neither...nor - Я не хочу ни твоего присутствия, ни твоего совета -- I want neither your prescence

nor your advice.

Чтобы- (in order) to, for...to, so that -Надо работать, чтобы получать деньги... -- You have to work (in order) to get

money... (Verb infinitive used)-Мама хочет, чтобы ты убрала комнату -- Mom wants (for) you to clean your room.

(Verb in past tense used)-Мы тебе сказали, чтобы ты зналa правду. -- We told you so that you would know the

truth. (Verb in past tense used)

Cловно-as though -Он говорит о компьютерах, словно изобрёл их -- He talks about computers as

though he invented them!

А то-or else -Мы должны идти, а то опоздаем в театр. -- We have to go or else we will be late for

the theatre.

Если-if -Если будет дождь, я останусь дома сегодня. -- If it's raining, I will stay inside today.

Ли-whether (or not)я

- Я не знаю, идёт ли дождь -- I don't know whether it's raining or not, or I don't knowif it's raining.

(Despite the use of "if" in the latter translation, ли and если cannot be usedinterchangeably; if you can use "whether" in English, then you must use ли.)

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 не and нет.



The word не means "not" or "am not," and can be used with or without verbs, asbelow:

Я не юрист -- I'm not a lawyer Я вас не знаю -- I don't know you.

Although it is written as a separate word, не is pronounced as though it were a part of the following word, and thus assumes the pronunciation based of the stress patterns of theword 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.

Нет 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 shiftedsomewhat, but it usually pays to be somewhat unambiguous.

Some examples:

Его здесь нет. -- He's not here.На улице нет машин. -- There are no cars on the street.

B этой пицце нет сыра! -- There's no cheese on this pizza!

Also, you should note that in Russian, the use of double negatives, even large numbersof them, is not only allowed, but also necessary in circumstances involving negative

pronouns, (никогда, никуда, and so on; see section 46 for a longer list.) Indeed, you areonly limited by what it is you want to say:

Она никогда не даëт ничего никому -- "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 sayingthat while in my list of common phrases I said that "сколько времени?" 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

"который час?" instead.

Secondly, when used in writing and/or print, the 24-hour clock (often called "militarytime" 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, wherespoken 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-stopsinstead 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 четыре часа, десять. The second, while much morecomplicated 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 час,

"hour." In telling time, on its own is 1 o'clock, but becomes часа after 2, 3, or 4, and

часов after 5 and up. To say "at" such-and-such time, use the preposition в (accusative.)

Thus:

-13.00 -- Час-16.00 -- Четыре часа

-18.00 -- Шесть часов

For times in the top half of the hour (that is, .01 to .29) you would say however manyminutes, (минута, 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 catchyour bearings:

- 15.10 -- десять минут четвёртого. (Literally "five minutes of the fourth")

- 11.17 -- семнадцать минут двенадцатого. - 9.03 -- три минуты десятого

- 7.22 -- двадцать двe минуты восьмого.

For "half- past" times, you use the word половина plus an ordinal in the manner we saw just now. Thus:

- 6.30 -- половина седьмого.

- 14.30 -- половина третьего. - 21.30 -- половина десятого.

Note that when used with the preposition в, половина must decline accordingly,

becoming в половину, "at half-past..." In colloquial Russian, however, it can often beheard as в половине. When in doubt, I would suggest saying в половину.

For times in the bottom half of the hour, you take the minutes remaining until the next

hour with the preposition без, followed by the next hour in the nominative-cardinal form.Thus:

- 10.47 -- без тринадцати минут одиннадцать. - 8.58 -- без двух минут девять

- 23.35 -- без двадцати пяти минут двенадцать

And finally for times of "quarter to" and "quarter past, you use the wor d четверть in thesame manner as the minutes are above:

- 7.15 -- Четверть восьмого -7.45 -- Без четверти восемь

In all cases, you can use the adverbs утром (in the morning,) днём (in the afternoon,) or



вечером (in the evening,) if you feel that there may be ambiguity over which one, orwish to add emphasis to the fact. Also, instead of 12.00 and 24.00, you can say полдень

or полночь, 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 Months

Monday Понедельник September Сентябрь* March Март

Tuesday Вто рник October Октябрь* April Апрель*

Wednesday Среда November Ноябрь* May Май

Thursday Четве рг December Декабрь* June Июнь

Friday Пятница January Янва рь* July Июль

Saturday Суббота February Февраль* August Август

Sunday Воскресенье

*indicates a stress shift to the final syllable in declension

To say "on" a specific day, you use the preposition в (accusative,) while for months you

use в in the prepositional case.

To give a specific date, you would first say the day (if necessary) then the date andmonth, both in the genitive case, and the year plus the word год ("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 inthe neuter-nominative.

For example, if asked my birthday I would say "Я родился тридцать первого июля тысяча девятьсот восемьдесят шестого года " (Literally, "I was born of the thirty-first

of July, of the one thousand eight hundred and eighty sixth year." Whereas if one was tosay "today is the 31st of July," it would be written as "Сегодня тридцать первое июля."

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 asabove, but the last number and год 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 "in1986" it would be written as "в тысяча девятьсот восемьдесят шестом году." In many

cases, года and году are abbreviated as г. or г.г. in writing, and dates are always writtenday/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 thenew 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.--Шестнадцатого января тысяча пятьсот сорок седьмого года.

-Election of Mikhail Romanov, foundation of the Romanov Dynasty -- February 21,1613.--Двадцать первого февраля тысяча шестьсот тринадцатого года.

-Founding of St. Petersburg -- May 27, 1703.

--Двадцать седьмого мая тысяча семьсот третьего года.

-Birth of Aleksandr S. Pushkin -- June 6, 1799.--Шестого июня тысяча семьсот девяносто девятого года.

-Battle of Borodino -- September 7, 1812.

--Седьмого сентября тысяча восемьсот двенадцатого года.

-Birth of Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky -- November 11, 1821.--Одиннадцатого ноября тысяча восемьсот двадцать первого года.

-Birth of Lev N. Tolstoy -- September 9, 1828.

--Девятого сентября тысяча восемьсот двадцать восьмого года.

-Abdication of Nicholas II -- March 15, 1917.--Пятнадцатого марта тысяча девятьсот семнадцатого года.

-Surrender of Nazi leaders to Marshal Zhukov -- May 9, 1945.

--Девятого мая тысяча девятьсот сорок пятого года

-Declaration of the Russian Federation -- June 12, 1990.--Двенадцатого июня тысяча девятьсот девяностого года.

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 tothe 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 andnature 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, theimperfective, 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 "Iam 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: Сегодня вечером, Саша идёт наконцерт -- "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 tablesbelow, these verbs are in blue text. For example Каждый день я хожу на работу --"Every day I go to work." or Мария ходила в библиотеку -- "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 thetime 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: Катяпошла в магазин -- "Katya went to the store (and has yet to return)"

Movement on Foot Movement by Vehicle

Идти Ходить Пойти Ехать Ездить Поехать

Я иду хожу пойду Я еду езжу поеду

Ты идёшь ходишь пойдёшь Ты едешь ездишь поедешь

Он/Она идёт ходит пойдёт Он/Она едет ездит поедет

Мы идём ходим пойдём Мы едем ездим поедем

Вы идёте ходите пойдёте Вы едете ездите поедете Они идут ходят пойдут Они едут ездят поедут

Past

Tense

шёл,

шла,шли

ходил(а)/(и) пошёл,

пошла,пошли

Past

Tense

ехал(а)/(и) ездил(а)/(и) поехал(а)/(и)

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 идти/ходить.

Additional Verbs of Motion

There are a number of other verbs that either are or behave like the Verbs of Motion

above. The идти/ходить and ехать/ездить pairs are repeated below to more clearly show

the equivalents.

Meaning Verb 1 Я Ты Past



To Go (on foot) Идти иду идёшь шёл, шла, шли

To Go (by vehicle) Ехать еду едешь ехал, ехала, ехали

To Run Бежать бегу бежишь бежал, бежала, бежали

To Wander, Stroll Брести бреду бредёшь брёл, брела, брели

To Carry (by vehicle), Deliver Везти везу везёшь вёз, везла, везли

To Lead, Conduct Вести веду ведёшь вёл, вела, вели

To Chase, Drive Гнать гоню гонишь гнал, гнала, гнали

To Climb Лезть лезу лезeшь лeз, лезла, лезли

To Fly Лететь лечу летишь летeл, летeла, летeли

To Carry Нести несу несёшь нёс, несла, несли

To Swim, Sail Плыть плыву плывёшь плыл, плыла, плыли

To Crawl Ползти ползу ползёшь полз, ползла, ползли

To Drag Тащить тащу тащишь тащил, тащила, тащили

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

поехать and пойти.

Meaning Verb 2 Я Ты Past

To Go (on foot) ходить хожу ходишь ходил, ходила, ходили

To Go (by vehicle) ездить езжу ездишь ездил, ездила, ездили

To Run бегать бегаю бегаeшь бегал, бегала, бегали

To Wander, Stroll бродить брожу бродишь бродил, бродила, бродили

To Carry (by vehicle), Deliver возить вожу возишь возил, возила, возили

To Lead, Conduct водить вожу водишь водил, водила, водили

To Chase, Drive гонять гоняю гоняeшь гонял, гоняла, гоняли

To Climb лазать лазаю лазаeшь лазал, лазала, лазали

To Fly летать летаю летаeшь летал, летала, летали

To Carry носить ношу носишь носил, носила, носили

To Swim, Sail плавать плаваю плаваeшь плавал, плавала, плавали To Crawl ползать ползаю ползаeшь ползал, ползала, ползали

To Drag таскать таскаю таскаeшь таскал, таскала, таскали



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 thefuture.)

The verb "to eat" in Russian is есть in the infinitive-imperfective, and съесть in theperfective. Be careful not to confuse this verb with its homophone which means "is."

Present-Future Past

Я ем съем Masc. ел съел

Ты ешь съешь Fem. ела съела

Он/Она ест съест Neut. ело съело

Мы едим съедим Pl. ели съели Вы едите съедите

Они едят съедят

However, these aren't the only verbs associated with food and drink. Some are regular,others not.

Готовить-Приготовить

(To Cook/Prepare)

Пить-Выпить

(Drink)

Жарить-Пожарить

(Grill/Fry)

Я Готовлю-Приготовлю Пью-Выпью Жарю-Пожарю

Ты Готовишь-Приготовишь Пьёшь-Выпьешь Жаришь-Пожаришь

Он Готовит-Приготовит Пьёт-Выпьет Жарит-Пожарит

Мы Готовим-Приготовим Пьём-Выпьем Жарим-Пожарим

Вы Готовите-Приготовите Пьёте-Выпьете Жарите-Пожарите

Они Готовят-Приготовят Пьют-Выпьют Жарят-Пожарят

Печь-Испечь (Bake)

Жечь-Сжечь (Burn)

Замораживать-Заморозить (Freeze)

Я Пеку-Испеку Жгу-Сожгу Замораживаю-Заморожу

Ты Печёшь-Испечёшь Жжёшь-Сожжёшь Замораживаешь-Заморозишь

Он Печёт-Испечёт Жжёт-Сожжёт Замораживает-Заморозит

Мы Печём-Испечём Жжём-Сожжём Замораживаем-Заморозим



Вы Печёте-Испечёте Жжёте-Сожжёте Замораживаете-Заморозите

Они Пекут-Испекут Жгут-Сожгут Замораживают-Заморозят

The past tense of Печь is irregular: Пёк (masc.,) Пекла (fem.,) Пекло (neut.,) Пекли(pl.) As is that of Жечь: Жёг (masc.,)Жгла (fem.,) Жгло (neut.,) Жгли (pl.)

34. The Imperative Mood

The Imperative Mood is used when giving instructions, orders, or advice to anotherperson. 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 theimperatives 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 agroup of people.

3--Informal-Plural: Used when talking to a group of people, when you have no desire toindcate 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, andnumber 2 is simply adding -те 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.

--и -If the stress moves at any point during conjugation.i.e. Входить (the я вхожу ты входишь) Входите!

--ай -If the stress is on the ending and doesn't shift in conjugation; most, but not all, verbshave -ать infinitive endings.

i.e. Передать - The stress is on the ending (a,) and does not change in conjugation, so it becomes Передай.

--ь -If the stress is on the stem rather than the ending, and the ending itself has a softening

vowel, such as -ять, -еть, or -ить. i.e. Доставить - The stress is on the stem, and does not change in conjugation, and so it

becomes Доставь.

--уй - for verbs ending in -овать. i.e. голосовать, which becomes голосуйте.

--ой - for verbs ending in -ыть, excluding быть.

i.e. Закрыть becomes закройте.



Number three is simply the infinitive form of the verb.

Aspect is also very important when using infinitives, and while Russians don't alwaysfollow 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 thecommand use the imperfective. That said, if the imperative is used in conjunction with an

adverb that indicates the repetition of (i.e. всегда, etc.) or manner of doing said action(i.e. быстрее, громче, 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 isgenerally 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 theaction in question.

Don't be afraid to use imperatives in public situations as they are not necessarily

considered rude, though adding пожалуйста dampens even that.

Пусть

In addition to the above forms, there is also the word пусть, which translates as "let"and used in the same way it is in English. For example:

"Пусть они едят торты," ("Let them eat cake.") Note how the verb is conjugated inagreement with the subject, and not changing due to пусть.

The "Мы 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 мы form of the verb,while omitting the subject pronoun, and so can be as simple as "пойдём туда!" (let's go

there!) When used with more than two people, the sufffix -те can be added, though inconversational speech only, the result being "пойдёмте туда."

More often, however, for both regualr verbs and verbs of motion, the word давай(те)

comes before. The word давай itself is the imperative form of the verb давать (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 othermeanings beyond the scope of this tutorial. As a result, to say "let's go see a movie,"you

could say "пойдём(те) в кино," давай(те) пойдём в кино," or "давай(те) сходим вкино."

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 пойти поехать. Weare 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 "getgoing" 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 fullrelative 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 usedinterchangeagbly. 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 oneamong 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 myfriend'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 theword "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.

Который

Который is equivalent to the English pronouns which, who, and whom, and is used inmuch the same way, and is the most straightforward of the relative pronouns use. As the

final two letters imply, который declines according to the gender and number of theword described, as well as with any preposition you use, following the same paradigm as

most adjectives. However, который must be used when the subject of the relative clauseis a noun, rather than a pronoun. Now, let's see the above sentence in Russian:

"Девушка, которая стояла на углу, жена моего друга."

Notice how both the relative pronoun and verb both agree with the word being

described (женщина) in gender and number. The same applies if you use a prepositionwith который:

"Девушка, с которой я учился, сейчас работает врачoм." (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 который 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 я rather than девушка,since the description within the relative clause is based not around the action of theperson 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; который must be declined in accordance not only with the wordbeing described, but how который fits into the relative clause, as though it were a

standalone sentence; the gender and number come from the word beng described, buteverything else is determined by the relation to the verb of the relative pronoun. For

instance:

-"Девушка, которую я знаю..." (The woman, whom I know...) In this instance, therelative pronoun is the direct object of the verb with the speaker as the subject, and thus it

takes the accusative case. And:-"Девушка, которой он дал подарок..." (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 relativeclause the woman is the recipient of the gift, regardless of the case of the word in the rest

of the sentence.

The pronoun который, however, is only used when the thing described is written as anoun 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 то, что or то, кто 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:

То, что/То, кто/То, как

The construction то, что along with its counterpart то, кто are somewhat moredifficult 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 expansionof 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. То, как is really moreof a conjunction than a relative pronoun, but I include it here due to the similarities with

то, что and то, кто.

- Я не знаю то, о чём ты говоришь. -- "I don't know what you are talking about."-Преподаватель спросил нам о том, что мы делали. -- "The teacher asked us about

what we were doing."- Я ещё не нашёл то, что я ищу. -- "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."



-Кошки любят тех, кто их кормит. -- "Cats love those who feed them."-Бог помогает тем, кто себе помогает. -- "God helps those who help themselves."

-Бери только то, что нужно, чтобы выжить. -- "Take only that which is necessary tosurvive."

-Мы хотели бы пoблагодарить ваc за то, что вы пришли сюда сегодня. -- "We

would like to thank you for coming here today."-Перед тем, как я ухожy на работу, я каждый день готовлю для семьи кофе. -"Before I leave for work, every morning I make coffee for the rest of the family."

-В своей книге Социальный Контракт, философ Руссо говорит о том, как строить

идеальную демокрацию. - "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 то to one of its declensions such as их, тебя or нас 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 inthe 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: "Твоя подруга - красивая девушка" 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 есть plus the nominative case. The verb есть canalso be used to emphasize the "is" or "are," especially when the phrase would otherwise

be the repetition of two words. The word есть also literally means "is," and is used torepresent "is" or "are" for cases of particular strong emphasis.

To express "to be" something, you would use the verb быть plus the instrumental case.

Thus, "После университета я хочу быть редактором газеты." (After university, I wantto be the editor of a newspaper.)

If you're using adjectives, you may use the short forms to express "is" or "are." For

instance, цветы красивы (the flowers are beautiful) or было приятно познакомться свами! (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 asless ambiguous in certain instances; крациво and красива sound the same, though

admittedly, so do красивы and красивый.

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/orpossible translations, but each has a specific meaning not always interchangeable with theothers.

Verb Meaning Cases

Учиться -To study, to be a student.Often used to describe where

you go to school.

-Intransitive; comliments require prepositions, commonly в-

prepositional.

Изучать-изучить -To study (field or discipline.) -That being studied takes theaccusative; other compliments

require prepositions.

Учить-Научить -To teach -Those being taught take the

genitive; what is being taught takesthe dative if it's a noun.

Учить-Выучить -To memorize -Objects take the accusative.

Учиться-

Научиться -To learn -That being learned takes the dative.

Заниматься-

Заняться

-To study, (as for a test,) or to

occupy one's time in general

-Objects take the Instrumental case.

38. Expressing "To Have" and "To Want" and Modality

To Have:

Possession is usually shown by using the genitive preposition у plus the possessor, then

есть and the object possessed in the nominative case. For example "I have a book" is "Уменя есть книга." (Literally, "At me there is a book") If needs be, the word order can bechanged a little, but keep the preposition y in front of the possessor.

To Want:

-The verb хотить "to want" is one of only a few truly irregular verbs in Russian, and isused in much the same way as in English. Be sure to remember the conjugation:

Я хочу

Ты хочешь

Он/Она хочет

Мы хотим

Вы хотите

Они хотят

Like English, however, Russian also contains ways of expressing desire in more polite

forms. Two more are:- Я хотел(а) бы... I would like (Used for polite requests; more official)



-Мне хочется... I would like (Used like хотел бы; 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

"Мне (dative of "Я") надо (modal) прочитать (infinitive verb) эту книгу (object)"Literally translated, this comes out as "It is necessary for me to read this book." Suchforms are the basis for expressing modality.

Common modals include:

Надо -- "It is necessary" (Must, more colloquial)Нужно -- "It is necessary" (Must, proper)

Трудно, Тяжело -- "It is difficult"Легко -- "It is easy"

Невозможно -- "It is impossible"Можно -- "It is possible" (May/Can) (The verb мочь --могу, можешь, может, можем,

можете, могут-- can be used when it refers to physical ability)Нельзя -- "It is impossible/forbidden" (Used with perfective verbs, this indicates that for

the time being, the action is physically impossible to do, whereas the imperfectiveindicates that it is not allowed or that doing so is discouraged for whatever reason. )

Another common option is to use должен to express "must" or "have to," in

conjunction with an infinitive verb. Должен declines according to the subject; masculine- должен, feminine - должна, and plural - должны.

If, however the thing needed is a noun, you would use the dative form of the subject,

plus нужен/нужна/нужны plus the needed object in the Dative case. Note here that theform of нужен 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 thecase ascribed to the preposition itself. I've tried to list as many as possible, particularlythose 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; в Америке 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 во вторнк ("on

Tuesday") and the preposition o takes a б before vowels, as in об авторе ("about theauthor"). For the preposition o, there is also a special form, обо when used with the

pronoun мне.

О(б) -- Against (Contact)

Про -- About

Сквозь -- Through

Через -- through, across, after x amount of time

40. Prepositions in the Prepositional Case

О(б) -- About (Same as the accusative про) При -- Near/close to/on one's person/in the time of*

*There are a number of additional meanings for при; check your dictionary for proper

contexts.

41. Prepositions in the Dative CaseБлагодаря -- Thanks to

Вопреки -- Despite/in spite of Наперекор -- Contrary to/

Согласно -- In accordance with, according toСудя по -- Judging by

42. Prepositions in the Instrumental Case

За -- beyond, behind

Между -- BetweenНад -- Over, above

Перед -- In front of Под -- Under



43. Prepositions in the Genitive Case

Близ -- Close to

Без -- Without

Вместо -- Instead of Вне -- Outside of Внутри -- Inside of

Вокруг -- Around (usually a circular area)

Для -- for (use by, for the benefit of)

До -- up to, untilМимо -- By, past

Около -- Near, around, approximatelyПомимо -- Besides, other than

После -- After (event, day, etc.)Против -- 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 fullyunderstand, 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 normallyapplied.

В/В/Из

В-(accusative) and В-(prepositional) refer to the motion into a closed space, and the

location in it, respectively. As such it is used with nouns such as школа (elementaryschool), общежитие (dormitory), квартира (appartment), здание (building), and so on.

For instance, if I wanted to to say in Russian "Masha is going to the store," it would be

"Маша идёт в магазин," 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 "Машасейчас в магазине," 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 thestore, but is going to an area near it, then you would use к/у/от, explained further down.

Из-(genitive) refers to the same instances above, only the movement out of -that is,

exiting- the place in question. Из can also mean "of" in the sense of "one of them" (одиниз них) or "of/from" in the sense of "made of chocolate" or "made with chocolate"

(сделано из шоколада.)



На/На/С

На-(accusative) and На-(prepositional) work in similar ways to в, but are somewhatharder to learn to use properly. The simplest usage is in the context of being "on"

something, such as на столе, ("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; на телевизоре ("ontelevision") wouldn't refer to a program on the TV screen, but rather to an object sittingon top of the TV set. The other major use is to indicate motion towards or location at an

event or an activity, such as на концерте ("at the concert") or на занятии (atexercise(s)/class.) And finally there are some words that require the use of На/На/С as a

matter of course such as на стадион, ("to the stadium,") не рынке, ("in the market,") or на кухне, ("in the kitchen.") As with most irregulars, you just have to remember them.

С-(gentive) is like из, referring to the going from something, only it works in the

situations described for на.

К/У/От

К-(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 к/у/от

plus the person's name in the correct case. Thus I would say "Иду к Александру сегодня днём," (I'm going to Alexander's this afternoon,) "Я был вчера у Марины," (I

was at Marina's yesterday,) or "Андрей придёт (к нами) от Лены," (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 "стоять у окна," (to stand at thewindow) or "подойдти к доске" (to walk up to the chalkboard.)

45. Summary of Prepositions of Motion

To Where? Where? From Where? Used with:

в (accusative) в((Prepositional))

из (Genitive) Buildings, countries, vehicles, "in"places

на

(Accusative)

на

(Prepositional)

с (Genitive) Activities, certain buildings and

countries, "on" places

к (Dative) у (Genitive) от (Genitive) People, animate objects, approach

with no contact, entry

Others:

под

(Accusative)

под

(Instrumental)

ис-под

(Genitive)

"Under"



за

(Accusative)*

за (Instrumental) из-за

(Genitive)**

"Beyond/Behind"

*This can also mean "for"** This can also mean "because of"

46. Countries & Nationalities

Country In Russian Adjective Citizen (m/f)

Afghanistan Афганистан Афганский Афганец|Афганка

Algeria Алжир Алжирский Алжирец|Алжирка

Argentina Аргентина Аргентинский Аргентинец|Аргентинка

Australia Австралия Австралийский Австралиец|Австралийка

Austria Австрия Австрийский Австриец|Австрийка

Belgium Бельгия Бельгийский Бельгиец|Бельгийка

Brazil Бразилия Бразильский Бразилец|Бразильянка

Canada Канада Канадский Канадец|Канадка

China Китай Китайский Китаец|Китайка

CzechRepublic

Чехия Чешский Чех|Чешка

Denmark Дания Датский Датчанин|Датчанка

Egypt Египет Египетский Египтянин|Египтянка

Finland Финляндия Финляндский Финн|Финка

France Франция Французский Француз|Француженка

Germany Германия Немецкий Немец|Немка

Greece Греция Греческий Грек|Гречанка

Holland Голландия Голландский Голландец|Голландка

Hungary Венгрия Венгерский Венгр|Венгерка

India Индия Индийский Индиец|Индианка

Indonesia Индонезия Индонезийский Индонезиец|Индонезийка

Ireland Ирландия Ирландский Ирландец|Ирландка

Italy Италия Итальянский Итальянец|Итальянка

Iran Иран Иранский Иранец|Иранка

Israel Израиль Израильский Израильтянин|Израильтянка

Japan Япония Японский Японец|Японка



Kenya Кения Кенийский Кениец|Кенийка

Korea Корея Корейский Кореец|Кореянка

Lebanon Ливан Ливанский Ливанец|Ливанка

Mexico Мексика Мексиканский Мексиканец|Мексиканка

Mongolia Монголия Монгольский Монгол|Монголка

Norway Норвегия Норвежский Норвежец|Норвежка

Pakistan Пакистан Пакистанский Пакистанец|Пакистанка

Philippines Филиппины Филиппинский Филиппинец|Филиппинка

Poland Польша Польский ПолякПолька

Romania Румыния Румынский Румын|Румынка

Scotland Шотландия Шотландский Шотландец|Шотландка

South

Africa Южная Африка Южноафриканский Южноафриканец|Южноафриканка

Spain Испания Испанский Испанец|Испанка

Sweden Швеция Шведский Швед|Шведка

Switzerland Швейцария Швейцарский Швейцарец|Швейцарка

Syria Сирия Сирийский Сириец|Сирийка

Taiwan Тайвань Тайваньский Тайванец|Тайванька

Turkey Турция Турецкий Турок|Турчка

United

KingdomВеликобритания Британский/Английский Англичанин|Англичанка

United

States of America

Соединённые-

Штаты-Америки

Американский Американец|Американка

47. Countries & Nationalities (Former USSR)

Country In Russian Adjective Person (m/f)

USSR-Union of

Soviet SocialistRepublics

СССР-Союз

СоветскихСоциалистических

Республик

Советский

Armenia Армения Армянский Армянин|Армянка

Azerbaijan Азербайджан Азербайджанский Азербайджанец|Азербайджанка

Belarus Беларусь Белорусский Белорус|Белоруска



Estonia Эстония Эстонский Эстонец|Эстонка

Georgia Грузия Грузинский Грузин|Грузинка

Kazakhstan Казахстан Казахский Казах|Казашка

Kyrgyzstan Кыргызстан Кыргызский Кыргыз|Кыргызка

Latvia Латвия Латвийский ЛатвиецЛатвийка

Lithuania Литва Литовский Литовец|Литовка

Moldova Молдова Молдавский Молдаванин|Молдаванка

Russian

Federation/Russia

Российская-

Федерация/Россия Российский/Русский Россиянин|Россиянка/Русский|Русс

Tadjikstan Таджикстан Таджикский Таджик|Таджичка

Turkmenistan Туркменистан Туркменский Туркмен|Туркменка

Ukraine Украина Украинский Украинец|Украинка

Uzbekistan Узбекистан Узбекский Узбек|Узбечка

Русский & Российский:

While both of these words translate into English as "Russian," their meaning is quitedistinct; 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 Federationwho may not be ethnic Russians, such as Poles, Ukrainians, Belorusians, Germans,

Tatars, Yakuts, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, and others. A similar paradigm is found in the UnitedKingdom, 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 arealso 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 additionalinformation through the use of prepositions.

Болен/больна/больно/больны Ill (illness takes the instrumental)

Виден/видна/видно/видны Visible

Виноват/виновата/виновато/виноваты

Guilty, to blame (transgression

takes в+prepositional

Готов/готова/готово/готовы Prepared, ready

Доволен/довольна/довольно/довольны Satisfied (source of satisfactiontakes instrumental)

Женат Married (said of a man, whom he

is married to takes



на+prepositional

Жив/жива/живо/живы Alive

Замужем Married (said of a woman, whomshe is married to takes

за+instrumental

Занят/занята/занято/заняты Busy (what you're busy with takes

c+instrumental)

Здоров/здорова/здорово/здоровы Healthy

Похож/похожа/похожо/похожи Look like, resemble (the person

resembled takes на+accusative)

Прав/права/право/правы Correct

Свободен/свободна/свободно/свободны Free, not busy

Согласен/согласна/согласно/согласны Be in agreement, agree (what is

agreed takes c+instrumental)Сыт/сыта/сыто/сыты Full, sated

Уверен/уверена/уверено/уверены Certain (what you're certain of

takes в+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 youshould know, or at least recognize.

Reflexive

This pronouns translates roughly as "-self" and is usually used with prepositions or innoun 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 thesentence.

N Себя

A Себя

D Себе

G Себя

P Себе

I Собой

For instance, to say "How come you never talk about yourself" in Russian, you wouldsay, "почему ты никогда не говоришь о себе?" (Notice the declension into the



prepositional case.)

Reciprocal Pronoun(s)

This pronoun, свой, 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. Forinstance, compare these two sentences: "Она читает свою книгу" and "Она читает её книгу" 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 obviousthat 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 fromthese two sentences, in the wider context, it tends to cut down on confusion with

possessive pronoun use. Свой declines by case, gender and number in accordance withthe word it describes, in the same fashion as мой or твой.

50. Useful Adverbs

Motion and LocationThese 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 andthe prefixes and suffixes are usually logical if you know your prepositions.

Location Destination Origin

здесь сюда отсюда

"here" "(to) here" "(from)here"

там туда оттуда

"there" "(to) there" "(from) there"

There are others that follow this pattern as well:

Location Destination Origin

слева налево слева

"left" "(to)left" "(from)left"

справа направо справа

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

вверху вверх сверху

"up" "(to)up" "(from)up"

внизу вниз снизу

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

спереди вперёд впереди

"from the front" "forwards" "In front"



Other Useful Adverbs

Быстро

Везде Весной

Вечером Внимательно

Вообще Вчера

Даже Далеко

Завтра Зимой

Издалека Кстати

Летом

Quickly

EverywhereIn Spring

In theEvening

CarefullyIn General

YesterdayEven

Far AwayTomorrow

In WinterFrom Far

Away

By the WayIn Summer

Много

(+gen.pl.)Медленно

Наверное Наконец

Наоборот Например

Недалеко Неожиданно

Нормально Ночью

Обычно Осенью

Особенно

Позже

Many/Much

SlowlyProbably

FinallyOn the Other

HandFor Example

Not FarUnexpectedly

NormallyAt Night

UsuallyIn Autumn

Especially

Later

Пока

Послезавтра Потом

Прямо Раньше

Редко Сегодня

Скоро Слишком

Совсем Тогда

Только Точно

Утром

Часто

Meanwhile

Day AfterTomorrow

Then (In thatcase)

Directly, StraightAhead

Earlier/PreviouslyRarely

TodaySoon

Too (i.e. toomany)

Completely

Then (At thattime)Only

ExactlyIn the Morning

Often

Тоже &Также -- "Too, As Well, Also"

These two adverbs are a notoriously confusing aspect of learnng Russian, largelybecause 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:

Также -- Used when there is only one subject, but more than one object.-Дедушка говорит со мной только по-английски, но он также знает голландский. --

"My grandfather only speaks to me in English, but he also knows Dutch."

Тоже -- Used when there is more than one subject, but only one object.-"Я родилась тринадцатого .""Я тоже родился тринадцатого декабря!" -- "I was born

on the 13th of December." "I was born on the 13th too!" (In this instance, you could also just say

"Я тоже!" or "А я тоже!" meaning something like "me too" or "so was I.")

51. Additional Pronouns

*Некоторый Столько

*Такой

SomeThis

much/many

Что-то Что-нибудь

Кто-то

SomethingAnything

Someone

*Такой-то *Такой-

нибудь

Some kind of Any kind of

(from)



Насколько Несколько Потому

Потому что

Such, Thatkind of As far/much

asSeveral

ThereforeBecause

Кто-нибудь Где-то Где-нибудь

Куда-то Куда-нибудь

AnyoneSomewhereAnywhere

(to)somewhere

(to) anywhere

Откуда-то Откуда-нибудь

Никогда Ничего

Никто Нигде

somewhere(from)anywhere

NeverNothing

NobodyNowhere

Those marked * decline like adjectives.

While these pronouns are mostly straightforward in usage, there are a few things youneed to remember. First and foremost, when using pronouns beginning with Ни-, always

add a не just before the verb, with the pronoun before that.

For those pronouns ending in -то and -нибудь, usage is not exactly as the translationshere 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:- Ты ему сказала что-нибудь? (Did you tell him anything?)

- Ты ему сказала что-то! (You told him something!)

In the first example, -нибудь is used because the speaker does not know whether ornot 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 maynot 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.)

- Кто-нибудь мне сегодня позвонил? (Has anyone called me today?) - Кто-то мне сегодня позвонил; знаешь ты, кто? (Someone called me today; do you

know who?)

Again, in the first instance the speaker does not know whether or not anyone has calledthem, 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 re-iterate, 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 thetwo words instead of in front of them; thus it is друг к другу, "towards each other" or друг с другом "with each other," and so on.

Accusative/Genitive друг

друга

Dative друг



другу

Prepositional другдруге

Intstrumental друг

другом

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 больше or

более (больше is literally the comparative of большой, or big, though in thecom parative can mean "more" as well as более,) 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 aswith красивее and тяжелее. There are a number of irregulars, some of which, like

громче, (louder, from громкий,) дороже, (more expensive, from дорогой,) or богаче,(richer, from богатый,) involve following the consonant palatalization rules outlined in

section 24 plus -e, while others like старше, (older,) or дальше (farther) are completelyirregular.

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 inquestion is simply declined into the genitive case. i.e. Больше одного, (more than one,)

старше тебя, (older than you, from старый,) or красивее вашего, (more beautiful than

yours.) The other is to use the pronoun чем (not чём!) followed by either a nominative,

or, as is most common, a word that cannot be declined as above such as a verb orconstruction 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 самый (most) plus the adjective inquestion. 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 andeasy to form; there are two possible forms, which are dependent only on the adjective

stem. If the stem ends in к, г, or х, you add -айший after changing these letters to ч, ж,and ш respectively. For the remainder of adjectives, you simply add the ending -ейший,

such as богатейший (richest,) быстрейший, (fastest,) светлейший, (lightest,) or вкуснейший, (tastiest.) These are more common in formal or written Russian than in

spoken, though the latter does have occasional ones such as ближайший (closest), buteven then superlative usage is still rather uncommon.



And finally, as in virtually all Indo-European languages, the comparative andsuperlative words for the adjectives "good" and "bad" are irregular in Russian:

Good:

добрый

Better:лучше Best:

лучший

Bad:

плохой

Worse:хуже

53. The Passive Voice & Rules of Word Order

The passive voice indicates that the action of a sentence or phrase is performed ON thesubject, and not BY the subject. The passive is usually formed by the addition of the

reflexive suffix to the end of the verb: -ся (pronounced "-ца") after consonants, or -сь

after vowels, while any words that indicate who or what is performing the action take theinstrumental case.

So, for instance,Active: Где продают компьютеры? -- "Where do they sell computers?"

Passive: Где продаются компьютеры? -- "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 -ся/-сь is not primarily for use in

the passive voice, even if that is where it is often seen. There are two groups of verbs thatalso use the same ending. The first are so-called "reflexive verbs" which always have -

ся/-сь regardless of logic. The other, and more numerous group are those verbs that aretranstive (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 Russianwhile 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, needor like, along with various indirect or impersonal constructions.

Nonetheless, there are a few general rules and trends that may help in deciding what toput 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-verbstructure 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)

Союз нерушимый республик

свободных

Сплотила навеки Великая РусьДа здравствует созданный волейнародов

Единый, могучий Советский Союз!

Припев: Славься, Отечество наше свободное,

Дружбы народов надежный оплот!Партия Ленина - сила народная

Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведет!

Сквозь грозы сияло нам солнцесвободы,

И Ленин великий нам путь озарил:На правое дело он поднял народы,

на труд и на подвиги нас вдохновил!

Припев

В победе бессмертных идейкоммунизма

Мы видим грядущее нашей страны,

И красному знамени славнойОтчизныМы будем всегда беззаветно верны!

Припев

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 thepeople!

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

freedomAnd 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

communismWe 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)



Россия - священная наша держава, Россия - любимая наша страна. Могучая воля, великая слава -

Твое достояние на все времена!

Припев:Славься, Отечество наше свободное,

Братских народов союз вековой, Предками данная мудрость народная!

Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!

От южных морей до полярного края Раскинулись наши леса и поля.

Одна ты на свете! Одна ты такая -Хранимая Богом родная земля!

Припев

Широкий простор для мечты и для

жизни Грядущие нам открывают года.

Нам силу даёт наша верность Отчизне. Так было, так есть и так будет всегда!

Припев

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 unitedGiven 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

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