1. Your Very First Russian Words by eLearnRussian.comIf youre learning a new language, the first word to learn is simply thank you, so in Russian: [spaseeba] [ If youre listening to this as well as reading it, you will , ].very quickly be able to read Russian phonetically. Trust me, dont waste time with thetransliteration. And dont waste time learning the alphabet first. After all, does learning A-B-Chelp you with the pronunciation for through and though?Most people want or believe they need to see the words written with the English alphabet(Roman alphabet), but you really dont, and it will actually slow you down. And you dontreally need an explanation of what sound each letter makes because you immediately makeassociations on your own.With the word [spaseeba] (thank you), you immediately see that c sounds like s, and the name of the letter is even s like it is in English. So what if it looks like a c. Thesimilar appearance simply makes it easier to remember. Learning Japanese hiragana is muchmore difficult since theres no reference to help you remember. is a p sound and a is an a sound the same as they are in English. In this case, they match the sound of the English letter equivalents but not the name. Is that important toknow? Of course not!Learning the letters and sounds bit by bit (word by word) is much more effective than startingwith the whole alphabet. Can you remember 26 new letters and sounds all in one go? No. So,start with one word and 6 letters.C [spaseeba] (thank you) is the perfect start for learning to understand, read andspeak Russian. When you see the letter [ee] you perhaps think it looks like a backwardscapital N and after hearing it several times you will automatically associate it with the soundee.Likewise with the letter It sounds and even looks a bit like the letter b in English, or .perhaps you think it looks like the number 6. It doesnt matter what association you makesince you will very quickly be reading it phonetically without need for any associations.Seeing the letters in capitals is also important since the shapes change, as they do with anyalphabet. ; ; ; ... ( A a ; B b ; C c ; D d )So do you remember the word for thank you in Russian? Most people wont, so youre doinggreat if you do. C [spaseeba] (thank you). Spaced repetition is the best way toreally learn a new word. And when you learn this way, rather than by making associations orother memory tricks, you wont forget the word, even years later.This is physical learning; like learning a sport or how to play a musical instrument. Youreliterally training your eyes, ears and mouth.Now lets take a look at the last letter in the word [spaseeba] [ Its ].exactly the same as the o in English, only, in the word it makes an a sound. As ,in English, some letters make multiple sounds and instead of learning a long list of rules, itsbest to simply learn the word and its associated sound. For example chair and choir. Doyou know the rules for how to pronounce words in English? So I think youll agree its best toskip the rules for now.The letter o in Russian makes either an o sound, like in English but with a small inflection,or an a sound, and learning to use it properly is no harder than learning in English to matchthe letter c with the s sound or the k sound.Whats the Russian word for thank you?

2. C . Did you remember? And were you able to read it and pronounce it correctly without looking above? No problem if you had to cheat, most people will forget and a goodlanguage program recognizes this and provides an effective solution.The second word to learn in any language is hello, [preeveeyet] [ ]. It almost sounds like there are three syllables, but its essentially only two. Immediately you seethat the p in Russian, sounds like an r but looks like a p in English. Similarly, the lookslike a capital B but sounds like a v, and the Russian letter looks and sounds like T inEnglish. Note that the Russian r is rolled liked in Spanish and other languages.I need to point out that the word [pree veeyet] [ ] is actually like hi in English. Its casual and used with friends. The more polite form of hello is [strasvyite] but trying to tackle that word at this point is pretty challenging, so lets stick withthe simple form for now. When creating a program for learning a new language, its important to really understand thedifficulties of a student and the simple facts of how our minds work. For example, when youturn the page, what you learned on the previous page is typically gone. Simply telling youand showing you once isnt enough. You need the spaced repetition and physical practice ofseeing, hearing and speaking.You perhaps remember the Russian word for thank you, [spaseeba] [ ].And how about hi? ! [preeveeyet] [ ] To create a dialogue or exercise to use these words many times, over and over, is essentiallyimpossible. Thats why the next best step when learning Russian, or any other language, iswith a simple dialogue of Whats this? Whats that? : (shto eta) ?You see again that the letter o sounds like o and a. The letter is like T in English. The new letter [cha] looks like the number 4 and normally sounds like ch but sometimes veryclose to sh. Does knowing the name for the letter [cha] help you to say (shto ?eta) (Whats this? Whats that?). Heck no! In fact it adds an extra level of confusion that isbest to avoid.There are actually several Russian letters that have an sh sound, so you need to focus onthe sound carefully and learn to make the distinction.With the word (what), make sure you get the sh sound at the beginning: [shto].The next word, [eta] means this, that or it. So literally, means What that? / ?What this? / What it?.Heres a sample of how the exercise works: [shto eta] (Whats this/that?) ? [shto] (What?) ? [eta] (This/That.) . [eta kneega] (Its a book.) .With the word for book, its important to make the k sound distinct and dont say ,knee and relate it to the English word.The distinct k sound is found in all Russian words, including (who), and its not 2syllables like ke-toe. Its said quickly (ktoe). Practice makes perfect, so doing Lesson 1 gives you a solid foundation of these basic words. (Whos this/that?) ? (Who?) ? (This/That.) . . (Thats Brad.) Make sure you dont say eto!! Its an a sound (eta). 3. Before reading further, you should try Lesson 1 which will help you continue to master theRussian alphabet and improve your listening and speaking abilities. Really focus on makingthe sounds as accurately as possible. And remember that the sound can changesubstantially when said quickly and naturally. For example in English: What do you want todo now? (Waddya wanna do now?). Focus on the sound!Proceeding to Lessons 2, 3 and 4 is recommended and when teaching Russian, we typicallycover all four lessons in the first ever lesson of 1 hour. At that point youll feel like youve hada serious workout, and will also feel like youve learned a lot. Now, lets do a warm downwith a few other important words and ideas.Another useful word when in a Russian speaking country is [moezshna] (may). So if you want to sit down somewhere you could say: ? [mozshna] (May I?) and they would say: [pazshalsta] (Go ahead./Please.), and youd say: (Thanks.) . .Now I hope you can see already the natural progression that can be made when learning anew language. When an entire program is set up this way, slowly feeding you new words andexpressions one by one, with a clear understanding of the ideas being expressed, then thelearning progress is dramatically improved.Using simple natural dialogues are an ideal way to learn, but it is vitally important that thedialogues are natural and simple, with a very limited vocabulary to begin with, and the ideabeing expressed must be clear and intuitive. Building a strong foundation will yield muchbetter long term results in a shorter time period.Notice your first example of intuitive learning. When you hear,- ?- ?- .your brain will automatically understand the words based on the context of the situation,especially if you see the actions in a video.Similarly, if you use photos of well known people, it really helps learn the Russian alphabetquickly. (Whos this?) ? (Thats Brad Pitt.) . , [nu da], lets carry on with some more words. From this youve already intuitivelyunderstood that means So then, or Anyway, . Again, thats what we mean by ,..natural learning. Actually, [nu] means well (well, so, well then), and the dictionarydefinition really doesnt help much. It gives you the basic hook, or the first bit ofunderstanding, but then, from seeing it used in situations where the idea is clearly understood,thats when you truly begin to understand the word and how its used.[da] means yes, and [neeyet] means no. So why combine them as [nu da]?It doesnt matter why. All languages have lots of expressions that dont make any sense,but theyre natural expressions so simply learn to use them. Match the expression to the idea.Now lets try a little exercise and see how many words you remember:thank you= ______________ [preeveeyet]hi = ______________(ktoe)what = ______________[eta]who= ______________ [spaseeba]this / that= ______________ [shto]Its also useful to begin learning to write in Russian. Again, the physical action helps lock itinto your memory. See the answers on the next page and dont worry if you didnt get themall. 4. If you got them all correct youre really doing well. If not, no problem, very soon you will havemastered them.thank you= [spaseeba]hi = [preeveeyet]what = [shto]who= (ktoe)this / that= [eta]And do you remember how to ask permission for something? May I? _______________And the reply: Please. Go ahead. ____________________If you remembered them youre doing really great.May I? = ? [mozshna] Go ahead.= . [pashalsta] And how about the word for book? And yes and no? And the expression Anyway tocarry on with a conversation, etc. I cant imagine anyone remembering the word for booksince you only saw it once 2 pages back. But, thats exactly what happens with many booksand programs for learning languages. They tell you once and then never mention it again andassume its been learned.book = [kneega].yes= [da]no = [neeyet]Anyway,..= [nu da] ,With our program, theres no need to make a huge effort to memorize words. Simply followthe program, step by step, and everything gets learned naturally and easily. It may not feelvery easy yet, but have faith and stick with it. Locking words into your memory is a simple function of how your brain works. Short termmemory has the capacity for about 7 things, so weve already exceeded that and youprobably cant remember all 11 Russian words already introduced. No problem. After seeinga word about 5 to 7 times with a gradually increased space such that you almost forget, thenthe word will have generally been locked in and learned. Its a natural, physical occurrencethat works for everyone.As I mentioned earlier, its always important to focus on the idea being expressed by a wordor expression. For example its very common in Russian to say: . [da neeyet] (Yes no.) which makes absolutely no sense in English but actually means no, but its different thansimply saying no, Its more like of course not, or youd like it to be yes but its not, or it .would be nice if was true but its not.Another interesting expression youll hear when people didnt quite hear what you said, is: (What what?). A German guy I met living in Kiev adopted the English expression ?What what? instead of Pardon? (Pardon me?) (What was that?).If you start using some of these basic words everyday, it will help make it all natural and easy.So dont say thank you, say: Dont say, Pardon me?, say . ?.Heres another good one to use everyday.Okay.= [harasho] .And of course you can use it as a question also: (Okay?) ? 5. Lets try a short dialogue now and notice again that its intentionally set up so that the idea isclear, thus helping students to intuitively learn vocabulary and grammar.- ! - ! - ?- ?- .- - , .- ? - . - .Could you understand all that? Feels great to have made such progress already right? Andagain, using recognizable English words and names helps you to learn the Russian alphabetmore quickly.Youll often hear the Russian word A,.. at the beginning of sentences and it generallytranslates to And or But or Oh. Theres no need to translate it though. Simply get used tohearing it and using it.When youre really grateful for something, and want to say Thanks a lot. or Thank you verymuch., in Russian youd say: [spaseeba balshoy], which literally .means thanks big.Here you see the Russian letter, which I call, small b, which is called the soft sound andhas no actual sound. Theres no need or benefit in explaining it further at this point, simplyget used to seeing it and get used to using it when you write or type in Russian.Do you remember the word for okay? No problem if you dont and well done if you do. Letslearn one more new word, then well do a quick review. [harasho] ?Youll hear this word a lot in Russian: [davai] ( Come on. / Lets go. / Go! ) Its usedin a variety of situations so theres no specific translation in English. Thats not a problemhowever, since youll quickly become comfortable with this word and use it a lot.So, a quick review: [spaseeba] (thank you) [pazshalsta] (please; youre welcome) [balshoy] (large, big) [preeveeyet] (hi) [sdrasvootya] (hello) [da] (yes) [neeyet] (no) [shto] (what) [eta] (this/that/it) [kneega] (book) [ktoe] (who) [mozshna] (may, possible)[nu] (well, so, then)a [a] (and, but, oh) [harasho] (okay) [davai] ( Come on. / Lets go. / Go! ) 6. Youre now well on your way to having mastered your first 16 Russian words, and youll hearthem a lot. Many people say that the most common 100 words make up 50-80% of alanguage. Its probably true, which means its vital to rea lly know and understand thesewords well.Its also surprising and frustrating to sometimes see or hear an expression and know all thewords but have no idea what it means. Again, a good system will make sure you learn allthese small details. Weve already learned a few expressions: ,.. [nu da],.. (Anyway, ) . [da neeyet] (Of course not.) [shot shto] (Pardon?) ?Conversely, you might say something based on the pattern used in English but it may bestrange or even wrong to say it that way in Russian. And vice versa, Russians speakingEnglish will make strange expressions like go in for sport instead of play sports.Thats why you have to really get into the feel for using the language directly, withouttranslating. Building up a solid foundation and building on it slowly will help achieve that goal.Lets see what words you remember, and dont worry if you dont remember them all, or evenany. Simply continue following the program and no matter how bad you are at learninglanguages, youll soon discover that youre making great progress.Test yourself below by covering up the Russian words to the right, read the English, then saythe Russian word before sliding the cover down to read the word in Russian. And say theRussian word out loud again as you read it for extra physical learning!(thank you) [spaseeba] (please; youre welcome) [pashalsta](large, big) [balshoy](hi) [preeveeyet](hello) [sdrasvootya](yes) [da](no) [neeyet] (what) [shto] (this/that/it) [eta] (book) [kneega] (who) [ktoe] (may, possible) [mozshna](well, so, then)[nu](and, but, oh)a [a](okay) [harasho] ( Come on. / Lets go. / Go! ) [davai] Are you reading the Russian words now without looking at the transliteration beside them?Its very important to read Russian and not transliterate because transliterations arent exact.Its impossible to show the small inflections and other variations. For example in English, youcant show the th sound in any way except with th, and to make the sound you have to stickyour tongue out and bite it slightly then pull it back in as you say it.this, that, these is not dis, dat, dese or zis, zat, zese.The Russian words for you illustrate this situation. [tuee] (you) (casual, singular) [vuee] (you) (formal, plural) 7. Theyre usually transliterated as ty and vy but it really doesnt match the proper sound. (you) (casual, singular) (you) (form al, plural) Similarly, when you hear a Russian speaker answer the phone and say: (hello), youll o.recognize immediately that its been adapted from English, but there is a mysterious inflectionthat is very difficult to master yourself. The spelling when written can vary, and it , e,didnt help me with getting the sound right. Keep trying though and dont be satisfied until youget it.In English, theres no distinction between casual, formal and plural you, so it takes somepractice to do this naturally in Russian. Similarly, to master the change in verb endings takespractice. Once again, learning the rules is less important than practicing to the point that itbecomes natural and automatic.Heres the Russian for the common phrase: Do you know.? ...? [tuee znaiyesh] (casual) ...? [vuee znaiyetye] (formal, plural) And since you probably wont understand anything past these first two words, your easiestreply is simply: . [ya ne znaiyou] (I dont know.) And smile!! As with English, or any language, common expressions are said quickly, so try to say itquickly by copying the sound you hear. And often expressions get shortened: .(Dunno.)Try this next dialogue and see if you can read and understand it all. (Whos this?) ? (Thats Brad Pitt.) . ? (Whos he?) ?! ? (Whos he?! You dont know Brad Pitt?) ( (You dont know who Brad Pitt is?) ?)The final sentence is fairly complicated in structure but because it was presented in acompletely natural manner, you probably understood it completely, or at least vaguely, all onyour own. You also get an insight into how endings change even for names in Russian.Lets finish learning the pronouns:[on] (he, it masculine) [ana] (she, it feminine) [ano] (it neuter) [anee] (they) If youve gone through the lessons, youve already mastered these and discovered that ratherthan give the student all the pronouns at once, we prefer to focus on just three to begin with: , get them locked in, then continue with the others. Step by step, developing the , ,physical ability and making everything automatic.Once again you can see, Russian isnt 100% consistent with its phonetics, but trust me,English is infinitely worse, so consider yourself lucky not to be learning English.Lets do a quick review before introducing some new words. [harasho] (Okay?) ?Well give the Russian word first and you quickly check to see if you remember the meaningbefore its given, and make sure you repeat the word out loud in Russian, so you continue thephysical learning.As you begin working with the dialogues, youll discover that the traditional approach tolanguage learning and vocabulary building isnt necessary. Youll spend very little time withvocabulary lists or flash cards and such. Youll be learning intuitively and will simplyremember without even trying. And when you try speaking, words and expressions will justcome out without any conscious thinking. 8. , here are the words weve covered so far: [spaseeba] (thank you) , [pashalsta] (please; youre welcome) [balshoy] (large, big) [preeveeyet] (hi) [sdrasvootya] (hello) (hello) (on the phone) o.[da] (yes) [neeyet] (no) [shto] (what) [ktoe (who) [eta] (this/that/it) [kneega] (book) [mozshna] (may, possible)[nu] (well, so, then)a [a] (and, but, oh) [harasho] (okay) [davai] ( Come on. / Lets go. / Go! ) And now the pronouns:[ya] (I, me) [tuee] (you casual) [vuee] (you formal and plural) [muee] (we)[on] (he, it masculine) [ana] (she, it feminine) [ano] (it neuter) [anee] (they) We introduced an extra new word, [muee] (we), in order to give you the full list. And youcan see how the verb endings change with the verb to know, :( [znaiyou] (I know)) ( [znaiyesh] (you know)) ( , [znaiyet] (he/she knows) ) ( [muee zyaiyem] (we know)) ( [znaiyetye] (you know) (formal, plural)) ( ) [znaiyoot] (they know) (I know) (you know) (he/she knows) (we know) (you know) (formal, plural) (they know)Trying to memorize the changes, as with memorizing numbers and days of the week, etc, is adifficult task and quite unnecessary. By simply progressing through all the various materialand exercises, it will all become second nature. The learning process becomes much moreeffective and complete, and theres much less risk of error when you try and speak Russian. 9. For example you need to instinctively use or in order to avoid a slip in real life because youre busy trying to remember.In Russian, the reply to a question is often simply the verb again, instead of saying yes.- ( ?) ?- .This can be really tricky since you will tend to reply with the same word they used, which iswrong since its the you form. Practice makes it automatic.Quite a bit of Russian follows the same pattern as English, so that helps the learning process.For example: ? (Whos he?) (Whos she?) ? (Who are they?) ?And perhaps youve noticed already that Russian doesnt use the verb to be like we do inEnglish, even though it does exist and is used similarly in other situations.And if you say: ? (Who are you?), its a bit abrupt and rude as it is in English, and isused in exactly the same situations, like finding a stranger in your house, in which case youmight be even more emphatic and say: The definition of [takoi] is ? such, which doesnt help explain the meaning of the sentence at all, so dont worry about thedefinition. Focus on the idea being expressed, which is abundantly clear from the situation,and after seeing it several times youll be adding in exactly the right spots.Similarly, with the expression (Whats this/that?), you can make it more emphatic ?by saying (What the heck is this/that?) ?Lets review some short dialogues and make sure you repeat out loud, so you continuetraining the muscles in your mouth. [shto eta] (Whats this/that?) ? [shto] (What?) ? [eta] (This/That.) . [eta kneega] (Its a book.) .And this routine can be done with several other objects, in order to increase repetition, as isdone in the lessons. [shto eta] (Whats this/that?) ? . [eta zhoornal] (Its a magazine.) [shto eta] (Whats this/that?) ? . [eta gazyeta] (Its a newspaper.) [shto eta takoi] (What the heck is this?) ?If youre like me, youll have a tendency to mix up and , or think of them both as newspaper since youre making a word association thats familiar to you. And thats whythe physical practice is necessary to literally hard-wire your brain with the right connectionsand associations.Knowing that your memory bucket can only hold 5 to 7 items, theres no need to fill it up witha bunch of nouns. Whats more important is to develop the ability to use the language, andwhenever you dont know the word for a certain object, you can just ask: (Whats ?this?).And we intentionally chose the 3 objects: , and so that it leads naturallyinto the next step in the learning process. ? (Whats he doing?) (Hes reading a book.) . 10. You immediately recognize the word for book and see that its changed slightly. No big deal,and no need for a long explanation. Your brain registers it and thus you begin learning thegrammar rules in a natural and progressive manner. ? (Whats he doing?) . (Hes reading the newspaper.) ? (Whats he doing?) . (Hes reading a magazine.) becomes [kneegoo] becomes [gazeeyetoo], and stays the same: Clearly, if the last letter is -a, then it changes to -y. Pretty simple, but understanding the ruleand remembering to follow it are two entirely different things. Thus its again important tosimply make it automatic. Learn it physically, then you dont have to remember anything.And to learn everything physically, you simply need to follow the program; like hiking a trail inthe mountains, just stick to the trail and youll reach the summit.And do you remember the other short dialogue? ! ! ? ? . - , . ? . . And do you remember the formal way to say hello? . Another handy expression to know is Excuse me. . [eezveeneetya] So if you come up to a park bench with someone sitting on it, and you want to sit there also,you could say: (Excuse me please, may I?) And theyd likely reply: , ? And youd say: . .I hope you see now that language learning can be reasonably straight forward. Its still a lotof work and requires significant time and effort, but with a clear, systematic program thatsengaging and enjoyable, then the road to success is a lot less challenging.Thats the end of this introductory audio. I now recommend you listen and read throughLessons 1 through 4.