Russian

## External Resources

https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/index#wiki\_russian

## Alphabet 1

*We'll start with some simple sentences right away. Russian does not have articles, nor does it normally use the verb “to be” in the Present tense.*

###### AN EM-DASH IS USED INSTEAD OF "THE VERB “TO BE” BETWEEN THE TWO NOUNS: «МОККА — КОФЕ» ("A MOCHA IS COFFEE").

Russian uses a version of the Cyrillic Alphabet. Many letters look similar to their Latin counterparts. As Cyrillic typography was remodeled around 300 years ago, both alphabets have a similar style.

For information on how to install a Russian keyboard layout, please click here.

To switch Duolingo from Latin transliterations to Cyrillic, click the little Aa-Яя switch near the top of the screen during a lesson.

### LETTERS AND SOUNDS

К, О, М, Т, А sound similar to their Latin counterparts (to be more precise, "о" is the sound in "more"). However, in handwriting and typed italics, the letter Т can look rather like a lower case 'm' in the Latin alphabet. E.g. in the verb *просить* (to ask for, to request), *т* = t.

Е actually sounds more like "ye", as in "yell", not as in "Hear ye, hear ye!" (this will work for now; it's more complicated after a consonant).

В sounds like 'v', Б sounds like 'b'. Н is "n" and И is "i" ('eeh'). The remaining letters are included in the table below:

* ⁰ Ёё The umlaut-like double dots are optional in writing. Syllables containing this letter are always stressed.
* ¹ т, д, н, л are pronounced near your teeth
* ² х('kh') is somewhat similar to the H in "hue". It is like making the "sh" sound, only it is pronounced where you make the "K" sound.
* ³ ы has no equivalent in English. It is an "eeh"-like sound, but less distinct, sounds closer to "e" in "lover", and has your tongue deeper that in "heat" or "hit".
* ⁴ for ш and ж your tongue is lower than in English and slightly bent back. Щ has all your tongue raised—it is a longer and more hissy sound. Ч corresponds to щ (i.e. a bit different than "ch")
* ⁵ ъ and ь are separators and have no sound.

Л can have a flat top, like П, or a pointy top like А (it comes from the Greek Λ). Д and Л have a similar top in many fonts, though it's up to the designer. Handwritten Д looks like *D*, and д like a *g*or a *д* (the last two affect the italic shapes).

An Italic Г in lower case usually looks this: *г*.

Image here not available.

That's it with the introduction! We will discuss reading words in more detail in later skills.

P.S. In our notes, we use an accute accent to show you the stress (e.g., ра́дио). It is a standard practice in Russian textbooks for little children or foreign learners—and, generally, the most common way of marking the position of the stress.

## BASICS 1

WELCOME TO OUR COURSE!
Now you are ready to proceed to the main part of the tree!

We are happy that you have chosen our Russian course. Just to make it clear, we are using American English in this course—but don't worry, we will accept all versions of English where appropriate. Just be careful around expressions like "bathroom" or "1st floor", because these may mean different things than what you are used to.

As for Russian, we teach the standard language, which is based on the variation spoken around Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and we stick to the usage typical of these cities. Do not worry, though: for more than one reason Russian is rather uniform over the territory of Russian (still, there is some variation in pronunciation and a few items of everyday vocabulary). We try to stay neutral in style, with occasional trips into formal and informal language.

### CASES AND WORD ORDER

Russian is an inflected language, so the forms of nouns and modifying adjectives correspond to their role in the sentence.

These forms are called cases. Russian has 6 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Prepositional, Dative and Instrumental. The Nominative is the dictionary form; as for the others, we are going to cover them gradually, one by one.

This allows for a more loose word order. But not random! A typical word order is subject—verb—object. “Old” information (the things you tell about) is normally closer to the beginning of the sentence which is probably why pronouns are often found closer to the beginning of a sentence than a noun would be :

I know him. → Я его́ зна́ю.
I know Maria. → Я зна́ю Мари́ю.
That includes words like “here”, “in this way”, “then” and so on.sadf

Unlike English, adverbs are NOT universally grouped at the end. So pay attention to the typical positions for the expressions of time, place and manner. Eg. “very much” is typically in the end-position in English, but in Russian it is just before the thing that is "very" or “very much”:

She likes to read very much = Она́ о́чень лю́бит чита́ть
Good luck!

### VOWEL REDUCTION

Like in English, vowel letters aren't all pronounced just like in the alphabet. In Russian, unstressed syllables have vowels reduced:

А and О become the same uh-sound
И and Е (Э) become the same sound similar to "i" in "hit"
Я actually becomes an i-like sound, not an uh-like (except in a few words). This also affects "а" after ч,ш,щ,ж or ц in many words (sadly, not all).
So, when a vowel is not stressed, it becomes weaker, somewhat shorter, and also some vowels become indistinguishable.

The unstressed syllable is strongest just before the stress. In all other places it is even weaker than that (though, some long words, especially compounds, may acquire a secondary stress). This makes the system different from the English one, where stronger and weaker syllables tend to alternate.

### MORE ON THE CASE SYSTEM

For now, we only study simple sentences that either use the dictionary form, the Nominative case, or use the Accusative (direct object of an action), which has the same form for many classes of nouns.

The case is defined by its use. Nevertheless, these forms have names, usually calques from Latin that reflect some typical use (but not the only one):

Nominative (subject)
Accusative (direct object)
Genitive ("of" something)
Prepositional (place or topic)
Dative (recipient, "indirect" object)
Instrumental (means of action)
As you can see, these names are of little use until you know what sentence, verb or preposition requires that you use that particular form.

some nouns of foreign origin are indeclinable, i.e. all their forms are the same. This includes words like метро, Дженни or кафе.

## PHRASES 1

### HELLO

Russian has a more informal greeting «Приве́т» and a more formal «Здра́вствуй(те)». Here, we focus on the first, since it is the shorter one.

When on phone, use «Алло́» (Алё).

«Пожа́луйста» (please) has another popular position in the sentence—namely, after the verb (more on that later).

• you can also use «пожа́луйста» as a reply to "thanks", meaning "You are welcome!"

### HOW ARE YOU?

The phrase for "How are you?" literally means "How are your affairs (the stuff you do)?"

No one uses it as a greeting, i.e. you are not expected to use it with people you barely know (or those you know, for that matter). And be prepared for a person to actually tell you how they've been doing. ;)

### GOOD MORNING!

Morning typically starts at 4 or 5 a.m., afternoon at noon, evening at 5 p.m. (at 6 for some) and night at 11 or at midnight.

You only use "Good night" (Споко́йной но́чи) when parting before sleep (or saying your goodbyes really late, so it is implied you or the listener are going to bed soon after).

If you are advanced enough to have noticed oblique forms used in some phrases—you are right! Greetings and other similar expressions are often shortened versions of longer phrases, where words still retain their forms. For example, «Споко́йной но́чи» probably replaces the longer «Я жела́ю вам споко́йной но́чи!» (I wish you a peaceful night). Needless to say, the full version is never used.

## BASICS 2

### I HAVE A CAT

English prefers to express ownership and “possession” with the verb “have”. In Russian “existence” is almost universally used instead (in the official/academic style «иметь» to have is OK to use).

Use it like that:

У A есть X ~ by A there is an X → A has an X
The owner is in the Genitive case (more on that later) while X is formally the subject. For now we will only study the Genitive form for some pronouns.

### YOU HAVE WONDERFUL EYES!

Omit ”есть” if the existence of the object is obvious or not the point — very typical for describing traits or a number of objects (“Tom has a beautiful smile/large eyes”, “She has a very fat cat”). This also applies to expressing temporary states and illnesses (“She has a migraine”).

### I EAT/ SHE EATS

In English, the only way a verb changes in the present tense is that you add -s for the 3rd person singular. In Russian, all 6 forms are different and fit two regular patterns.

However, eat «есть» and want «хоте́ть» are two of the four verbs that are irregular (that is, do not strictly follow any of the 2 patterns).

Note that the "present" tense is formed from one stem and the "past" and infinitive from the second one. In general, these two are slightly different. For now, don't worry about the infinitive stem.

### HARD AND SOFT

Russian consonants are split into two groups of 15, which are pronounced in two different ways, palatalized (aka "soft") and non-palatalized (aka "hard"). We'll stick to the shorter "soft" and "hard" (sorry).

When a consonant is "soft" it means than you pronounce it with you tongue raised high; for "non-palatalized" consonants it stays low. Russian orthography has its history but, long story short, you can tell the "softness" of a consonant from a vowel letter spelled afterwards:

А, Ы, У, Э, О follow "hard" consonants

Я, И, Ю, Е, Ё follow palatalized ones

If there is nothing after a consonant, the soft sign Ь is used to show the softness. In consonant clusters palatalization is predictable from the softness of the last consonant. We aren't teaching it here. These days the trend is to only "soften" the last consonant in most clusters, while a hundred years ago some clusters were palatalized even without any obvious reason.

To show you how it works, here is an example, using an ad-hoc transcription:

же́нщина = [жэнʲщиᵉна]
стена́ = [стʲиᵉна] or [сʲтʲиᵉна]
There are dictionaries («орфоэпический словарь») that show the recommended pronunciation of words and contain general pronunciation rules, too.

### VOICING

Some consonants let your voice come out immediately (voiced) while others wait for the release of the consonant and only then let your voice escape (unvoiced). In Russian there are 6 pairs of such consonants: Б/П, В/Ф, Г/К, Д/Т, Ж/Ш, З/С.

whenever one of these consonants (except В) follows another, the second overrides or reverses the voicing of the first: сд = [зд], вс= [фс]

the end of the phrase is unvoiced: этот клуб [клуп]
rules apply between the word boundaries, too
Х, Ч, Ц, Щ also play this game, even though Russian lacks letters for their voiced partners ([ɣ], [дж'], [дз], [ж'ж']). They will devoice the preceding consonant or become voiced themselves.

UNLIKE UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN ONLY USES [Ɣ], [ДЖ'] AND [ДЗ] AS VOICED VARIANTS OF Х, Ч, Ц. UKRAINIAN HAS THEM AS FULL-FLEDGED CONSONANTS—THE ONES THAT ARE AN INTRINSIC PART OF A WORD AND CAN APPEAR ANYWHERE.

## PHRASES 2: NAME AND POLITE "YOU"

### THOU ART

Russian makes a distinction between ты, singular "you", and вы, plural "you" (y'all). The latter also doubles for "polite" you, with verbs also in plural. And don't forget that the "excuse" in "Excuse me" is a verb!

Use ты with friends and your family members

Use вы with adult strangers, your teachers and in other formal interactions (at the store, the doctor's, the airport etc.)

People use вы with those who are much older

Nobody is "polite" toward kids

CONTRARY TO WHAT MANY NATIVE SPEAKERS HAVE COME TO BELIEVE IN THE LAST TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS, THE POLITE "YOU" IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY CAPITALIZED IN RUSSIAN, AND NEVER WAS. SUCH CAPITALIZATION IS USED IN SOME FORMAL STYLES.

### GRANDSON, SON OF GRAND

As you might know if you ever read any Russian literature, Russians have three names; their first name and their surname—just like you have—and a patronymic (отчество), which is based on their father's name (отец = father). A very common 'polite' pattern is to use a person's first name and a patronymic:

Ива́н Иванович, вы за́няты? = Ivan Ivanovich, are you busy?

In this course, name+patronymic are always used with the polite вы-form.

### WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

«Как вас зову́т?» is literally "How (do) they call you?"

Russian has a casual diminutive form for many common names, : Ива̓н→Ва́ня, Мари́я→Маша, Алекса́ндр(Алекса́ндра)→Са́ша, Евге́ний(Евге́ния)→Же́ня, Еле́на→Ле́на, Алексе́й→Лёша, Пётр→Пе́тя. Needless to say, there's no "politeness" with these, but they are often used with some degree of affection.

### EXCUSE ME...

Russian has two very common polite patterns for questions that English does not:

negative questions give a shade of "by any chance": «Извини́те, вы не зна́ете Михаи́ла?» = Excuse me, do you happen to know Mikhail?

"Please tell" when asking for information: «Скажи́те, пожа́луйста, где музе́й?» = Excuse me, where is the museum?

### THANK YOU

«Спаси́бо» is the word. A fancier option would be «Благодарю́!» (a form of the verb «благодари́ть», "to thank"), though quite a number of people use it, if only for variety.

## PLURALS

Here is how the Nominative Plural is formed.

 и
 most consonant-ending masculines
 а/я
 some consonant-ending masculines

(so, the plural «я́блоки» is actually an uncommon way of doing it)

There are some irregular plurals too.

## SPELLING RULES

Or maybe not. Sometimes Russian forces your choice of vowel to spell or pronounce after a certain letter.

The 7-letter rule: Whenever you make any form of a word, and you need to write И or Ы, check this:

after К, Г, Х and Ш, Ж, Щ, Ч always use И

These are velars ("back" consonants) and hushes. For hushes, it is merely a spelling convention, owing to their former "soft" status. For velars, it is true to their pronunciation — i.e., these consonants always use the palatalized И where another consonant would use Ы:

страна́ → стра́ны

строка́ → стро́ки

Of these seven consonants, «К» should be your main concern for now. A lot of nouns have it as a suffix or a part of their suffix, forcing you to remember this rule.

The 8-letter rule: Whenever you make any form of a word, and you need to write А, У or Я, Ю after a consonant, follow the rule:

after К, Г, Х , Ш, Ж, Щ, Ч and Ц, always use А or У

## WHERE IS IT?

Russian words take different forms depending on their role in the sentence. These forms are called cases. A few forms may look the same (cf. "frequent rains" vs. "It rains often").

These forms have names (mostly calques from Latin) that describe some "prototypal" use of such case: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Prepositional, Dative and Instrumental. For you, these are just tags: the use is what defines a case.

As of now, you know the NOMINATIVE case: the dictionary form of a word. This form acts as the grammatical subject of the sentence, the "doer". It is also used for both nouns in "A is B" structure:

Мой па́па ест.

Том — мой брат.

You also know a few Genitive forms (у меня) but that's it. For now, we will tackle something easier.

### PREPOSITIONAL CASE

When we talk about things being somewhere, we typically use в(in) or на (on) with the Prepositional form of the noun. It doesn't work when you mean motion to that place!

The Prepositional case (a.k.a. Locative) is the only case that is never used on its own without a preposition, even though only four or five prepositions ever use it:

Я на конце́рте. = I am at a concert.

Я в шко́ле. = I am at (in) school.

ви́део о шко́ле = a video about school

Unlike English (“at/in school”), in Russian each "place" is associated with just one preposition. The rough overall rule is: use “в”(in, at) when talking about buildings and places with certain boundaries and use “на” (on, at) when talking about open spaces or events:

в до́ме (at home), в шко́ле (at school), в ко́мнате (in the room), в теа́тре (in the theater), в кино́ (at the cinema), в университе́те (at the university)

на ули́це (in the street, outdoors), на пло́щади (at the square), на конце́рте (at the concert), на уро́ке (at the lesson), на кора́бле (on a ship)

When you mean physically being inside/on top of some object, there is little ambiguity. "Places", unfortunately, require memorization.

### PREPOSITIONAL ENDINGS

Here is the rule that covers most nouns:

feminine nouns ending in ь take -и

nouns ending in -ия, -ий or -ие also take -и (so that they end in -ии instead)

all other nouns take -е

### WHAT ABOUT ME AND MY FRIENDS?

Use “у + Genitive” when talking about being at some person’s place: Да, я у дру́га = Yeah, I am at my friend’s place.

▲▼WC

The room with a toilet is туале́т. In this course, we stick to the North American "bathroom", even though a room with a bath is, technically ва́нная (it has ва́нна, "a bath"). Still, in Russian you would not ask for a "bath-room" unless you really mean it.

### AND WHAT IF I GOTTA GO AWAY?

We’ll deal with that later. But the pattern is consistent. When you are somewhere, going to that place and going away from that place, use the following triplets:

 на + Prep
 у + Gen

For example, if the place is used with на, the correct prepositions for the three uses are на–на–с.

## ANIMALS

### "SPELLING RULES"

Note how plurals of «соба́ка» and «ко́шка» end in И: соба́ки, ко́шки, even though you might expect А to turn into Ы.

There are some restrictions on which consonants are used with which vowels when making word forms. Here are the rules for и, а, у vs. ы, я, ю:

use only И, not Ы, after к, г, х/ ж, ш, щ, ч

use only А, У after к, г, х/ ж, ш, щ, ч and ц (and never use Я, Ю after them)

К, Г, Х are called velar consonants (i.e. made in the back) and Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч are often called hushes. The latter do not show palatalized/non-palatalized pairs in modern Russian, so the spelling rule does not affect pronunciation anyhow. It's just a convention.

### FLEETING VOWELS

It is not too important for you at the moment, but you may notice how О and Е sometimes appear in consonant clusters or disappear from them. For example:

Э́то лев. = This is a lion.

В зоопа́рке нет льва́. = There isn't a lion at the zoo.

Later you will encounter the Genitive plural (often used with numbers and words like "many" or "few"), which shows a simple pattern for -к-suffixed feminine nouns that do not have a vowel before "-ка":

много кошек = many cats

много девочек = many girls

много уток = many ducks

много тарелок = many plates

As you can see, the vowel (О or Е) depends on whether the previous consonant is palatalized or not. Hushes behave as if they were palatalzed, despite Ж and Ш having lost this quality in the modern language.

## GENITIVE 1

In Russian “I have” is expressed by «У меня (есть)» structure. The owner is in the Genitive case.

### GENITIVE

"The of-case". It is one of the most universal cases. How do you make the forms? Here is the regular pattern:

 zero-ending masc, -о/-е neut
 мышь

A zero ending means that the word ends in a consonant or a soft sign (which is just a way to show the final consonant is "soft"). In the Nominative singular, a Russian word can only have the following endings: а, я, о, е, ё or nothing ("zero ending").

### GENITIVE OF NEGATION

If you use «нет» to say that there is "no" something or you do not have it, the object is always in Genitive:

У меня́ есть я́блоко → У меня́ нет я́блока

Здесь есть рюкза́к → Здесь нет рюкзака́.

### MAJOR USES

"of" (possession): яблоко мамы = mom's apple

"of" (amount): чашка чая, много чая = a cup of tea, a lot of tea

A huge number of prepositions requires this case. Yes, «у меня есть», «У неё есть» only use «меня» and «неё» because «у» wants Genitive.

For он, она and оно Genitive doubles as a non-changing possessive "his", "her", "their": его, её, их.

initial «н» is used for him/her/them with the majority of prepositions (doesn't affect possessives)

### INDECLINABLE NOUNS

A little side note: some nouns of foreign origin are indeclinable. It means that all their forms are the same. Foreign nouns that end in о/е become like that (кофе, метро, радио, резюме), as well as all nouns that do not fit into Russian declension patterns (see above).

This includes female names that end in anything other than А or Я. A few -ь-ending names are an exception (Любовь and Biblical names like Юдифь).

So, all of the following names are automatically indeclinable: Маргарет, Мэри, Элли, Дженни, Рэйчел, Натали, Энн, Ким, Тесс, Жасмин.

### I AM AWAY

Russian also uses the Genitive to state that someone is "away", "not there": Мамы сейчас нет. In English such use would correspond to "There is no mom at the moment", or even "There is no me now". We are not hard on that particular construction in the course, but it is important to know it all the same.

Added bonus: when a verb directly acts on a noun, the noun is called a direct object and is in Accusative. In Russian, only -а/-я feminine nouns have a unique form for it. Others just reuse Genitive or don't change the word at all (Nominative)

### NOTHING

Russian uses.... let's call it "consistent" negation. It means that in negative sentences you are required to use "nothing" instead of "anything", "nowhere" instead of "somewhere" and so on. Let's meet the first of these pronouns:

У меня ничего нет. = I don't have anything.

Она ничего не ест. = She doesn't eat anything.

You'll also notice that, unlike standard English, Russian has no rule against using double negatives.

## POSSESSIVES AND GENDER

### RUSSIAN POSSESSIVES

There isn't much to say about words like "my" or "your" in Russian.

his/her/their do not change: его́, её, их (and they don't get an initial Н after prepositions!)

my/your/our roughly follow an adjectival pattern, i.e. they copy the gender and the case of the noun they describe. Just like этот:

мой/твой/наш папа

моя́/твоя́/на́ша ма́ма

Unlike English, no distinction is made between my and mine, her and hers etc.

Pronunciation: in «его», as well as in adjective endings and "сегодня" the letter Г is pronounced В. It is a historical spelling.

### GRAMMATICAL GENDER

Nouns in Russian belong to one of three genders: feminine, masculine or neuter. If a noun means a person of a certain gender, use that one. For all other nouns look at the end of the word:

 consonant
 "-о/-е"
 "-ь"

IF THERE'S A SOFT SIGN, IT ISN'T POSSIBLE TO PREDICT THE GENDER, AT LEAST, NOT ACCURATELY. HOWEVER, ABOUT 65-70% OF THE MOST USED NOUNS THAT END IN -Ь ARE FEMININE. ALSO, YOU CAN LEARN THE COMMON SUFFIXES ENDING IN A SOFT SIGN THAT PRODUCE A WORD OF A PREDICTABLE GENDER. THEY ARE:

-ость/-есть, -знь → feminine

-тель, -арь, -ырь → masculine

ALL NOUNS WITH -ЧЬ, ЩЬ, -ШЬ, -ЖЬ AT THE END ARE FEMININE. THE CONVENTION IS TO SPELL FEMININE NOUNS WITH A SOFT SIGN AND MASCULINE ONES WITHOUT ONE: НОЖ, ЛУЧ, МУЖ, ДУШ. IT DOESN'T AFFECT PRONUNCIATION, ANYWAY.

## PARTITIVE

As you know, the Genitive case has lots of uses in Russian.

One of them expresses an amount of something:

чашка чая = a cup of tea

тарелка риса = a plate of rice

корзина яблок = a basket of apples

With mass nouns it is also used to express "some" unspecified amount of that stuff when used instead of the Accusative:

Я хочу воды = I want (some) water.

Дайте, пожалуйста, риса. = Could I have some rice, please? (literally, "Give me, please, some rice").

Хочешь сока? = Want some juice?

Note that this usage is only characteristic for situations when you ask or hypothesize about using "some or other amount" of a substance. You cannot actually say that you are drinking "воды" right now—but you can say that you want some (or that you sipped some in the past—with a perfective¹, of course).

### ЧАШКА ЧАЮ

«Чай» has an alternative Partitive form «чаю»:

Хочешь чашечку чаю? = Want cup of tea?

It is optional. Actually, many short masculine nouns that denote substances used to have such form. However, «чай» is, probably, the only one where the form is immensely popular in spoken speech and does not sound old-fashioned or downright archaic.

### СТАКАН

Russian differentiates between a number of drinking vessels. Стака́н is what you call a "glass" in English: typically, a cylindrical vessel made of glass, with no handle. However, if you mean a measurement unit (quite popular in cooking), it corresponds to the English word "cup". In Russian you use do not a cup or rice or flour: you use a "glass" of rice or flour.

a beer or a wine glass is «бока́л»

a smaller wine glass is «рю́мка»

¹ PERFECTIVE IS AN ASPECT. RUSSIAN HAS VERBS OF TWO FLAVORS: THOSE THAT DENOTE "PROCESSES" AND THOSE THAT MEAN "EVENTS" (EVENTS ARE NEVER USED IN THE PRESENT). I WOULD ARGUE THAT ASPECT IS THE MAIN CULPRIT FOR CONSUMPTION VERBS HERE. YOU CAN WANT "ВОДЫ" FOREVER, BUT YOU AREN'T "DRINKING" IT AT ANY SPECIFIC MOMENT. SEMANTICALLY, "SOME" WATER ONLY BECOMES A REAL AMOUNT WHEN YOU ARE DONE, NOT WHILE YOU ARE STILL AT IT.

## ACCUSATIVE: THE DIRECT OBJECT

Until now, you've been using the base form of the word in sentence like «Он ест яблоко».

Actually, whenever a verb, like "read", "cut" or "want" acts directly on some noun, the latter is a direct object. Such nouns take the Accusative case.

### FORMATION

Only feminine nouns ending in -а / -я have a separate form. «Мама» is a good example of this class :

ма́ма → ма́му

Neuter nouns and feminine nouns with a final -ь (e.g., «мы́шь») use the Nominative form.

Now we are left with masculine nouns ending in a consonant (сок, медве́дь, брат). They use the same form as in Nominative or Genitive:

living beings ("animate") copy the Genitive

objects ("inanimate") stay Nominative

in plural this rule applies to all types of nouns

 -у/-ю

With "substances"(mass nouns) Genitive may be used instead to convey a meaning of "some" quantity.

VERBS THAT TAKE A DIRECT OBJECT ARE CALLED TRANSITIVE. UNFORTUNATELY, SOME VERBS THAT ARE TRANSITIVE IN RUSSIAN ARE NOT TRANSITIVE IN ENGLISH ("WAIT") AND VICE VERSA ("LIKE").

### I WANT SOME

Russian has two main verb form patterns, which we are going to introduce soon. Unfortunately, the verb «хоте́ть»(to want) is irregular and mixes both. On a brighter note, it is a very common verb, so you'll memorize it eventually.

The other notable thing is that it does not have a strong connotation of 'need', unlike the English verb '"want". Similarly, the Russian verb for "give"(да́ть) is totally OK for polite requests. Just use it with «пожа́луйста».

the one the 'giving' is directed towards is NOT a direct object in Russian. It is called an indirect object and takes the Dative. We'll deal with it later.

## VERBS IN THE PRESENT 1

### Е- AND И- CONJUGATION

The verbs in Russian change according to person and number. Each form has a different ending. There are only two patterns (apart from some phonetic changes).

 ты
 он/она́
 мы
 вы
 они́

We will learn these one by one. There are only four stems with irregular conjugation. The verbs хоте́ть, дать, есть, бежа́ть and all their derivatives follow neither the Е- nor the И-conjugation exactly.

Note that if the endings are stressed, Ё replaces Е. Fortunately, a non-past form has only 2 options:

fixed stress – on the stem (чита́ю, чита́ете, ви́жу, ви́дит) or on the ending (стою́, стои́т, стои́шь)

"я"-form has a stressed ending (Я пишу́). The stress falls on the stem everywhere else (ты пи́шешь, она пи́шет..)

A verb uses one stem to form Infinitive and Past tense forms. It uses the 2nd one, similar, for the non-past forms and the imperative. So you cannot predict all forms from the infinitive. You can make a good guess, though.

### MEALS

In this course we use the American English definitions:

за́втрак = breakfast, a morning meal

обе́д = lunch, a midday meal

у́жин = dinner, an evening meal

## THE INFINITIVE, LIKES, AND DISLIKES

### I LIKE/I LOVE ?

In Russian, you can express liking things and activities pretty much the same way as in English, with similar verbs. The usage differs a bit, though.

A a rule of thumb, «Я люблю́» means "I love" only when directed at a single person (or animal). Otherwise, it's just "I like".

"LOVE" люби́ть means a stable, lasting feeling (note the phonetic change for the 1st person singular: "люблю"). A normal, transitive verb, i.e. used with the Accusative. Use it for loving an individual or liking some things/people/activity in general (verbs take infinitive). Very much preferred in negations of such activities (i.e. "don't like to wait")

"LIKE" нра́виться means moderate "liking" something or someone, often something specific. Not transitive! The thing liked is the subject, acting indirectly on a person: «Мне нра́вится стол» = I like the table.

note that «Мне нра́вится стол» works in a similar way to the English verb "to seem": "The table seems good to me". The sentence is built as though the table "transmits" the feeling towards you. While rare in English, in Russian, this is pretty typical for feelings and experience to be expressed that way («Мне хорошо́»).

INFINITIVE «НРА́ВИТЬСЯ» AND 3RD PERSON SINGULAR «НРА́ВИТСЯ» ARE PRONOUNCED EXACTLY THE SAME, HOWEVER, FOR THE SAKE OF CONSISTENCY THEY ARE SPELT DIFFERENTLY (MOST INFINITIVES END IN «-ТЬ», SO -ТЬ + СЯ = -ТЬСЯ, NATURALLY)

When you refer to generic things and activities, both verbs can be used but «люби́ть» is mildly more useful.

### MAY I?

Possibility and/or permission are often expressed with words мо́жно and нельзя́.

Здесь мо́жно жить. = One may live here.

Здесь нельзя́ есть. = One cannot/should not eat here.

The English translation may vary. You can specify the person for whom the permission or recommendation applies, in the Dative (but you do not have to):

Мне нельзя́ спать. = I should not sleep.

Нам нельзя́ мно́го есть. = We should not eat a lot.

P.S. the -ся at the end of "нра́вится" is a reflexive particle and comes after the ending (in verbs, use -сь after a vowel, -ся after a consonant) . Technically, a reflexive verb is one where the subject of the verb acts on itself. As you can see, often this is not always reflected clearly in the meaning. «Нра́виться» is one of those verbs that are reflexive "just because".

Don't worry about it too much for now, as we'll be tackling reflexives in more detail further down the tree.

## FOOD

### YUMMY

«для»(for) always takes Genitive nouns

Food offers a delicious intake of mass nouns. Russian has them massed up even where English does not!

so карто́шка(potatoes), лук(onions), шокола́д are mass nouns in Russian

and you may recall that mass nouns may be used in Gen. instead of Acc. if you mean "some quantity":

Купи́ сы́ра/карто́шки. = Buy some cheese/potatoes.

### 'TATERS

The formal word for potato is карто́фель (German speakers, rejoice), but it's hardly ever used in speech. Use «карто́шка» instead.

The word for tomato is помидо́р. There is also the word тома́т, but it is

the plant's name, pretty formal; look on pricetags
the base stem for derivative products:

тома́тная па́ста = tomato paste

посуда is a word for different containers used for cooking , consuming and further storage of food. English, sadly, does not have the exact equivalent. However, it is obviously "dishes" that you wash and "cookware/tableware" that you buy.

### VERBAL WISDOM

In this skill, we used perfective verbs for "cook", "cut", "wash". The reason is simple: that's the verb you'd use when you want a single specific action, often with a result—rather than referring to "activity" (activity may be fun but, in some cases, pointless).

More on that later. For now, just go with the flow.

## ADJECTIVES BASICS AND SPELLING

In Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender/number and case. Out of 24 combinations only 12 forms are different. This system is completely regular, with no change of stress. The endings have “hard” and “soft” variants depending on the stem (for example, ый/ий or “ая/яя”).

Here is the Nominative and Genitive for “classic” hard- and soft-stem adjectives ("new"/"blue"):

`-
 masc
 neut
 pl.

note that masculine and neuter merge in all their forms different from the Nominative one (their Accusative will be the same as the Gen. or the Nom. depending on animacy). In the Nominative there is also -ОЙ masculine ending: большо́й (“big”). Only for ending-stressed adjectives.

ОГО/ЕГО are historical spellings: г actually sounds like [в]

unstressed -ая(яя) /-ое (ее) sound identical in standard Russian: си́няя and си́нее have no difference in pronunciation.

The following universal rules of Russian spelling will give you the rest of the endings for any adjective you ever meet (there exist 4 patterns at most):

After Г-К-Х (“velars”) and Ш-Щ-Ж-Ч (“hushes”) use И and never Ы

After Ц , Г-К-Х (“velars”) and Ш-Щ-Ж-Ч (“hushes”) use А, У and never Я, Ю

After Ц and Ш-Щ-Ж-Ч (“hushes”) use Е when unstressed and never О.

## CONJUNCTIONS

### А VS. И

In Russian, и is used to show similarity. Otherwise you should use а, which shows contrast. To be more specific, here are the typical patterns:

Я мальчик, а ты девочка. = I am a boy and you are a girl.

Я работаю в кафе, а ты в школе. = I work in a cafe, and you (work) in a school.

Я люблю спать, а ты нет. = I like sleeping, and you don't.

А ты? = And you? → often used to indicate a question.

### ЗАТО (NEGATIVE, ЗАТО POSITIVE)

A conjunction used for "compensating" for something unpleasant with something that, you imply, is good:

У нас нет молока, зато есть хлеб = We don't have milk but we do have bread.

Мальчик ещё не умеет писать, зато хорошо читает. = The boy cannot write yet but he reads well.

Not exactly the best thing to translate into English ("on the other hand"? "but at least"? "thankfully?"), so it is not often used in this course.

### ХОТЯ ('THOUGH')

Much like the English though/even though/although. It is often combined with "и" before the predicate (which is sometimes directly after «хотя»):

Он здесь, хотя (он) и не знает ничего.= Он здесь, хотя (он) ничего и не знает. = He is here, even though he doesn't know anything.

### КАК

This conjunction has a rather interesting use, to show when someone perceives someone else's action:

Я ви́жу, как она́ танцу́ет. = I see her dancing.

Они́ слу́шают, как музыка́нт игра́ет. = They listen to the musician playing.

For а, there is also "narrative" contrast pattern, largely absent from this course (but not from real-life Russian):

На столе чашка, а в чашке чай. = There is a cup on the table, and the cup has tea in it.

Он здесь, а это значит — воды нет. = He is here, and that means there's no water.

Такси — это машина, а машины не всегда хорошо работают. = A taxi is a car, and cars do not always work well. (here, you are making your point by introducing a new thought "unexpected" by a listener)

## THERE IS

### WORD ORDER

To say "there is/are" in Russian, do the following:

say THE PLACE

then the verb (if any)

then THE OBJECT

«есть» is not used, unless the sentence really has to emphasize the existence of the object. Some examples:

На столе́ ло́жка. = There is a spoon on the table.

На сту́ле ма́льчик. = There is a boy on the chair.

В до́ме никого́ нет. = There is no one in the house.

На столе́ лежи́т ко́шка. = A cat is lying on the table.

In the Present tense no verb is necessary; in the past, you would at least need a form of "to be". Note that even in the present Russian still uses verbs like "is situated", "stands", "lies" way more often than would be considered normal in English.

The most natural translation into English is a structure like "There is an apple on the table" or "An apple is on the table". The emphasis is on the object, not on the place.

Actually, such a sentence answers the question of WHAT is in the said place. For out-of-the-blue sentences about objects that have nothing unique about them it matches what English THERE-IS sentences are for. So this is what we have in this course.

### ACTIONS

The initial position of a "place" inside the sentence holds for many other structures, too. Whenever the place is not a part of the "message" of your sentence, it is usually somewhere at the beginning (that is, if the place frames your description of an action rather than providing crucial information).

If the whole point of uttering a sentence is telling someone about the place then, naturally, it takes the sentence-final position:

За́втра я в Нью-Йо́рке. = I am in New York tomorrow. (not somewhere else)

### LIES/STANDS

You don't have to translate verbs like "to stand" and "to lie" literally when they refer to objects. Such use is not, by a wide margin, nearly as standard in English as it is in Russian:

На столе́ стои́т ча́шка. = A cup is ("stands") on the table.

In English "to be" is perfectly fine, so we accept that.

## QUESTIONS

### WHERE

Russian makes a distinction between being somewhere (тут/здесь, там) , going there (сюда, туда) and coming from there (отсюда, оттуда)—so naturally question words follow suit:

Где? = Where (at)?

Куда? = Where to?

Откуда? = Where from?

### WHAT OR WHAT ARE YOU?

Russian uses «Кто»(who) when asking about identity and occupation and «Что» is used for objects rather than people. Since Russian nouns have cases, кто and что also change depending on their role in the implied sentence. As you will discover a little bit further down the tree, «Кто» behaves rather like a masculine adjective.

 Gen.
 Acc.
 Prep

### ПОЧЕМУ? AND ЗАЧЕМ?

Почему is used when asking a question about a cause of some event or action. It is a question that looks back at the past.

Зачем starts a question about the purpose of some action or some event that can have one. It is a question that looks towards a desired future.

In a few regions of Russia (Tatarstan, for example) people may use зачем for both questions if their usage of Russian is influenced by a major local language that makes no distinction between the two. In Standard Russian these are two clearly separate entities.

## PEOPLE 1

директор is usually the main boss, akin to CEO in English. Also the Principal or Head Teacher of a school.

ученик is a school student or a "follower" or "disciple" of some "teacher" in a more spiritual sense. AmE speakers may confuse it with "студент", which is strictly a college-level student.

коллега is your first word of common gender, i.e. its gender depends on who you are referring to.

## AROUND YOU

### DO THAT THE ENGLISH WAY

To express the idea of speaking some language, or something being written in that language, Russian has adverbs literally meaning "Russian-ly", "English-ly" etc.. :

Я не говорю́ по-ру́сски. = I do not speak Russian.

Вы говори́те по-англи́йски. = Do you speak English?

They are formed from -ский adjectives by attaching по- and changing the tail to bare -ски: по-ру́сски, по-италья́нски, по-япо́нски, по-вьетна́мски, по-америка́нски, по-францу́зски and so on.

And remember, these words actually mean something done "in a certain way", so «суши по-американски» (American-style sushi) should not surprise you!

### LOCATIVE 2

A relatively small group of short masculine nouns have an accented -у ending with в/на in the meaning of place (and only then):

Мы в аэропорту́. = We are at the airport.

Я сплю́ на полу́. = I sleep on the floor.

Our course has about a dozen of them (there are about 100 in the language). Also, there exists a very small group of feminine nouns, all "-ь"-ending, that have a stressed Locative-2 ending:

Твой сви́тер в крови́. = Your sweater is covered in blood.

All these nouns use their normal Prepositional form with "о" and "при".

### совсе́м

This word is used with qualities that manifest "totally"— usually with negatives:

Он совсе́м не рабо́тает. = He doesn't work at all.

Том совсе́м не ест. = Tom doesn't eat at all.

Мы совсе́м бли́зко. = We are really close (i.e. almost there).

### междунаро́дный

It comes from «ме́жду» + «наро́ды», i.e. "between"+"peoples", which is quite literally "international".

The loanword «интернациональный» means the same but has quite limited use in certain combinations like "international team" or "international debt" (mostly these are from political contexts). This course largely avoids this word.

Probably, "international team/orchestra" etc. is the context where you must use «интернациональный»).

### живо́тное

The word for an "animal" is a nominalised neuter adjective, and its case forms follow adjectival pattern. Of course, its gender is fixed:

Это живо́тные. = These are animals.

Я люблю́ живо́тных. = I like animals.

## PREPOSITIONS AND PLACES

### Verbs of motion

Russian distinguishes between "going" on foot and by some sort of vehicle. If you aren't moving within the city, use a 'vehicle verb' **ехать** (one-way movement) or **ездить** (repeated, round trip or in general). More on that later, in "Motion verbs".

### Into/onto... at-to?

Once again, with **в** and **на** you use Prepositional for *location*, and Accusative for *direction*:

* Я живу́ в *Ло́ндоне*. ~ I live in London.
* Я е́ду в *Ло́ндон*. ~ I am going (by vehicle) to London.

Here is a 'cheat sheet' of forms you'll need for places (no living beings, so—the easy Accusative for masculine):

 ∅/-о/-е
 -ь *feminine* | -ь
 **-ия** | -ию
 **-ие** | -ие

### Word choice

For "outdoors" Russians use **«на улице»** (literally, "on the street").

The preposition **о** (об) means "about" only as in the sense of "thinking/writing about". Don't use it for "approximately". With «*мне*» a special form is used, **обо**.

The contraction "USA" or "the U.S." is **США** (сэ-шэ-А, with the stress on the last vowel).

There is no difference drawn between "city" and "town".

In Russian it is typical to describe objects as "standing", "lying", "being situated", "hanging". This is rare in English, and often sounds unnatural, therefore in this course it is perfectly OK to translate a "whereabouts"-verb with a simple "is", "was" etc.

### Here and there, and here

For "here", the words **здесь** and **тут** are almost completely interchangeable in any imaginable context. **Тут** is considered a bit more informal, and is used in set expressions ( тут же~right away, тут и там). «Здесь» is somewhat less suitable for figurative meanings (when by "here" you mean the current situation rather than a place). In this course, they are completely interchangeable when not being used in a set expression.

**находиться** is a verb to denote the whereabouts of things, and, sometimes of people (when the emphasis is on exactly where they are). It could be translated as "to be situated" or "to be located", but as these verbs usually sound rather formal in English, so you can just use "to be".

**около** is almost the same as «возле». It can also be used in the sense of "about"(=approximately).

## VERBS PRESENT 2

### → and ⇆

There are two options for verbs of **going**: a specific 1-directional verb and also a repeated motion, multi-directional verb. For now, stick to this rule for **идти́ / ходи́ть**:

 *habitual* ⇆
 *generic* ↝↶↺

### Asking

* **проси́ть** → to ask for/beg for/request something
* **спра́шивать** → to ask a question (i.e. ask for information)

In other words, when using **про́сит**, one wants to be given something (or for something to be done). He who **спра́шивает** wants an answer.

By the way, "to ask a question" is, actually, «зада́ть/задава́ть вопро́с». Those who speak German may recall *eine Frage stellen*, which works in a similar way (apparently, "to ask an asking" is no good in German, either).

### Negative sentences

Remember that Russian sort of uses double and triple negatives. To be more precise, it is coordinated negation: when the sentence is negative, you should automatically negate every pronoun referring to *someone*, *anywhere*, *some time*, *anything*, *in some way* and so on:

* Мы никогда́ нику́да ни с кем не ходи́м = We never go anywhere with anyone (Literally, "We never to nowhere with nobody don't go").

All such words should change to *nobody, nowhere, never, nothing, by no means* and so on. *No one* and *nothing* will have the correct case.

### Adverbs

The typical position for **-о**(-е)-ending adverbs is *before* the verb. For example:

* «Он хорошо́ види́т»="He sees well".
* «Том бы́стро ушёл»="Tom left quickly"

### Consonant mutation.

You might have noticed that the consonant before the ending is sometimes different in the infinitive than in the personal forms. It is called *mutation* and is quite similar to the process that makes "tense" into "tension" (where an "s" turns into a "sh"). Here are the patterns you might encounter:

* Б, П, В, Ф, М adding **л** (люби́ть / люблю́)
* С, Х becoming **ш** (писа́ть / пишу́)
* Д, З becoming **ж** (ви́деть / ви́жу)
* Т, К becoming **ч** (плати́ть / плачу́)
* СК, СТ becoming Щ (пусти́ть / пущу́)

If there is alteration, there is a rule:

* **И-conjugation verbs** only have 1st person singular mutated. It is normal (e.g. люблю / любит)
* **Е-conjugation verbs** have mutation in ALL personal forms (if at all). It is *non-productive behavior*, which in practice means that a lot of popular verb stems still have it (e.g. писать, сказать). However, new Е-conjugation verbs never get this pattern.

рисовать → рисую, *on the other hand, is a regular transformation of* -овать/-евать *verbs*

### Playing

The verb «играть» is used as follows:

* **в** + Accusative for games
* **на** + Prepositional for musical instruments

For example, Я игра́ю в футбо́л / Я игра́ю на гита́ре.

## TIME AND NUMBERS

### Using numbers with nouns

Let's focus on the Nominative for now (this also works when Acc.=Nom). Russian numbers may seem a bit weird. The case of the noun depends on the last word of the number:

 два *(две)*, три, четы́ре
 Larger than that

Just like English, Russian has words for *eleven through nineteen*, so they fall into the "larger" category.

**Genitive plural** has a rather bizarre set of patterns, so a separate skill later on will teach you how to make it for most nouns.

### Expressions

* *I am 10 (years old)* = Мне де́сять (лет) Note the Dative "мне" and the number in the Nominative. The Genitive plural "лет" is irregular.

The Dative forms of он, она and они are ему, ей, им respectively.

* *at 9 o'clock* = в де́вять часо́в → the Accusative here (same as the Nominative)
* *at 2 in the morning* = в два (часа́) но́чи (in Russian 'morning' starts at about 4-5 a.m.)
* *in January, June. etc.* = в январе́, ию́не ... (Prepositional). Note that all the month names are masculine nouns.
* the beginning/end of July = нача́ло/коне́ц ию́ля

Why are Russian numbers so strange? Well, for 2-3-4 these are the remnants of the Dual number (which is between the singular and the plural). As for the larger numbers, they are essentially "nouns": *a heap of cats, a lot of cats, a thousand... of cats*.

### Сейчас

Russian uses two words for "now". One is «сейчас», which means "now, at the moment", and describes the current moment in a neutral manner, often implying that things change and the state described is attributed to this particular moment. It can change soon:

* Сейчас никого нет дома. = No one is home (right) now.
* Сейчас пять утра. = It is 5 a.m. now.

Теперь is the "now" you use when things are different from "before". You imply that the situation has changed. It is also associated with a more prolonged period of time, i.e. the state of affairs is different from before, and will stay so for now:

* Мы теперь работаем в главном офисе. = We now work at the main office. *(We did not, but now we are, and things are going to stay like that for some time)*

### время

The noun «время» ("time") belongs to a really small class of neuter nouns. Its Genitive form is времени, and all other oblique forms also retain the -ен part.

## FAMILY

Not much to say here, except that Russian does not have a special word for *siblings* or *grandparents*.

Unlike English, Russians rarely say "my mother", "my grandfather"; usually they omit "my".

### **свой** ~ one's own

...And when they don't, it is more natural to use reflexive "свой" (one's own). English does not have anything quite like that. Essentially, it is a substitute for *my, your, his, her* etc. that you use when it refers to the person (or thing) that is the subject of the sentence or, at least, the clause you are in. A few typical examples:

* Кошка ест из *своей* миски = The cat is eating out of *its* bowl.
* Мы у *(своих)* родителей = We are at *our* parents' place. (here you can omit "своих")
* Я думаю, он у *своих* родителей = I think he's at *his* parents' place.

Forms of «свой» follow the same mostly-adjectival pattern that «мой»,«твой», «ваш», «наш» and «этот» use: свой, своя, своё, свои → своего, свою, своих...

Since «свой» describes something belonging to the subject of the sentence, it cannot be used with the subject of the sentence itself. The exception is made when you are making generalisations, e.g. "One's (own) reputation is always more important"~«Своя репутация всегда важнее».

Pay attention to what the *grammatical subject* is. Sentences like «Мне нравится у своей сестры» are sort-of-OK sometimes, but you are really treading on thin ice here. This one sounds almost normal, while some others would immediately look unnatural.

### Mister!

In spoken Russian «дядя»(uncle) and «тётя»(aunt) are often used to refer to some adult "guy" or "woman". A special case is children's use, since they often use it even as a form of address ("тётя Маша!").

This course doesn't cover this. But it's still useful to know.

## PEOPLE 2

### A student

Russian has different words for a school student (aka *a pupil*, BrE) and a college-level student, which both have masculine and feminine versions:

* **учени́к / учени́ца** – a school student or a student/apprentice in general, especially in spiritual sense
* **студе́нт / студе́нтка** – a college or university-level student (attends a corresponding institution)

**Молоде́ц** is a word you use when someone "did a good job". It comes with a patronizing shade, so ideally you use it towards your friends or actual students/ subordinates (but not towards people whose work you are in no position to judge).

### 5 men

When you are counting people, use "челове́к" for numbers that end in «пять» (5) or more. Anywhere else use the normal Genitive plural "люде́й" (with *много* and *мало* both are possible, but I'd stick to *люде́й*).

### Learning and studying

Russian has a number of ways to express learning, but in this course we have **учи́ться**, **учи́ть**, and **занима́ться**. The 1st verb, **учи́ться**, is introduced in this skill. Here is a little more information:

 **учи́ться в**(на) + Prep.
 учи́ть + Acc.*subject* | to learn, to memorize something («наизу́сть» ="by heart")
 учи́ть + Acc + Dat

### Doctor

The usual word for a (medical) doctor is «**врач**». We also have «до́ктор», which is fine but informal. However, a "doctor" as a person with a corresponding degree is «до́ктор» (no alternatives).

## WEATHER AND NATURE

### It's raining

"To go" is the verb used for precipitation in Russian:

* Идёт дождь = It is raining.
* Идёт снег. = It is snowing.
* Идёт град. = it is hailing *(we don't have it in the course)*.

### in summer/winter

Russian has adverbs for "in spring", "in summer" etc. They are formed as the *Instrumental* case of a corresponding noun.

We'll cover the Instrumental in detail later. Right now just get used to the words themselves:

* Весно́й мо́кро. = It's wet in spring
* Зимо́й хорошо́ = It's good/nice in winter.
* О́сенью гря́зно. = It's muddy in the fall.
* Ле́том со́лнечно. = It is sunny in summer.

*Russians usually assign each season 3 months, i.e. winter is December through February and spring is March through May (even if you have snow well into April).*

### Category of State

It is easier than it sounds. When expressing a "state", some modality, or one's opinion on the situation, Russian often uses these *impersonal* words, saying that such and such state is observed:

* Мне **хо́лодно**. = I'm (feeling) cold.
* На у́лице **тепло́**. = It is warm outside.
* **Хорошо́**, что вы тут. = It is good you are here.
* **Тру́дно** сказа́ть. = It is hard to say.

Many are homonymous with adverbs and short-form adjectives. So we'll study them later with adjectives. For now, we only have a handful of such words useful when discussing the weather.

Needless to say, these do not use any grammatical subject and are quite useful with verbs like "to be" and "to become" ("It's getting warmer").

## SPORT

### win/lose

Here you encounter two *perfective* verbs; these two very obviously refer to a specific result:

* Ты проигра́л! = You lost!
* Нам надо вы́играть. = We need to win.

Note the formation of the past. If you remember *был, была́*—all Russian past forms are essentially formed the same way. The endings correspond to gender and number:

We'll be practising many more past forms in the skill in the next row.

### Reflexive

As a reminder, if a verb has **-ся** at the end, you add it after the usual ending («-сь» is used after a vowel):

* ката́ться на лы́жах = to ski
* Я ката́юсь на лы́жах = I ski.

### «бежа́ть», to run

In this skill, we introduce the one-way verb "to run". You may not remember but it has one of the four irregular stems:

 Ты бежи́шь
 Он бежи́т

## ADJECTIVES 1

In Russian the adjective *agrees* with the noun it modifies in gender(number) and case. Fortunately, the system is *completely* regular and the stress stays the same. The forms for the cases you know are:

 Gen.
 Prep.

The plural ending in the Nominative is **-ые (ие)**. We will address the oblique forms later in the course.

A few examples:

* Я живу в большом городе. (Prep.,masc.)
* Дайте большого кота. (Acc.,masc.)
* Нам надо найти хорошую книгу. (Acc.,fem)

### velars and hushes

Adjectives with the stem on **-к, -г, -х, -ш, -щ, -ж, -ч** will use "и", "а", "у" instead of "ы", "я", "ю" so watch carefully ("русский", for instance).

We will tackle the endings one at a time.

### целый vs. весь

In Russian the idea of "the whole" of something can be expressed by either «целый» or «весь». The former is used when implying the unexpectedly "large" amount; it is the one we're teaching in this skill:

* Он целый день спит. (normally, a person should have been awake for a long time)

## PAST & INFINITIVE

### The infinitive stem

In Russian the Past tense and the Infinitive are formed from the same stem.

The forms are actually much easier than in the Present because there are only four forms in total for *masculine/feminine/neuter + plural*, similar to adjectives (the forms were participles once).

 есть

«идти» and all its derivatives (пойти́, прийти́, найти́..) has a strange, irregular past stem:

**walked, went**: он пошёл, она пошл**а́**, оно пошл**о́**, они пошл**и́**

For the masculine form, there is a phonetic simplification for verbs with infinitives in *-чь,-сти/-зти, -зть/-сть*. For example “мочь”(“can”), “ползти́”(crawl) and “лезть”(climb): *он **мог, полз, лез*** — no final **Л** here.

This skill mostly covers the past form of imperfective verbs (only «уста́ть» and «подожда́ть» are perfective). What it means for you is that when 2 or more such actions are mentioned, they all happened at the same time or in no particular order. Why? Imperfective verbs like «идти́», «жить», «говори́ть» are by nature unspecific about their exact time frame.

* they express repeated or prolonged action
* they express action in progress
* they can also express the fact that an action has or has not occured (with or without details on "when" it took place).

### What about the present form?

For some verb types the two stems are nearly identical (понима́ть, говори́ть). Which is a good thing for you!

## SHOPPING

### Give me that!

By now, you have probably noticed a surprising lack of "that one" in Russian. Russian mostly uses "этот" both for "this" and "that", unless you need to make a contrast between "this one here" and "that one there".

However, when you are really pointing at things, use whatever you like!

* «вот тут»~right here;«вот э́тот» ~ "this one here"
* «вон там»~over there; «вон тот» ~ "that one over there"

("вот" is acceptable with both)

### Clothing

* **оде́жда** is a mass noun for "clothes", **о́бувь** for footwear.
* **ту́фли** are also "shoes", but a more specific kind: "dress shoes" or the shoes you'd use with a gown
* **боти́нок** ...a dictionary will say it's a bit higher than a "dress shoe". In reality, especially in men's speech, the word is often used for shoes, too
* **сапо́г** is most definitely a boot
* **пальто́** is typically a long outer garment
* **ку́ртка** is more generic but usually refers to a shorter outer garment—with proportions not much different from a shirt
* **руба́шка** is the word used for shirt. «Соро́чка» is a formal word for a shirt that is worn as a part of a suit (eg. with pants, a jacket and a necktie), but people still use "руба́шка" anyway.

### a bigger/smaller shirt

From the **Adjectives** skill you might remember «бо́льше» and «меньше» as words for "more/bigger" and "less/fewer/smaller". Since these work as adverbs, it is problematic to use them with nouns.

Instead, the words **«побо́льше» / «поме́ньше»** are used AFTER a noun:

* Я хочу́ стол побо́льше/поме́ньше.
* Да́йте я́блоко побо́льше.

This works with some other popular adjectives: подлинне́е, покоро́че, полу́чше. When not used with nouns directly, these have a colloquial quality.

Actually, with adjectives other than *большо́й/мале́нький* you may resort to «бо́лее дли́нное пальто́». However, «бо́лее большо́е» is not used.

## DATIVE AND PLURALS

### The Dative Case in Russian

You have already seen that many **expressions of feelings and experience** use the Dative: *”Мне нра́вится...”, “Ма́ме хорошо́”, “Ему́ 5 лет”, “Мне ка́жется ...”* etc.

The Dative introduces an ***indirect object*** of an action: usually the person whom the action is directed towards. An example would be a sentence like “I handed a package to *my mom*”: “my mom” here is a recipient.

Actually, this depends on the verb, just like in English. Some popular verbs of speech, writing or “giving” will use the bare Dative for the recipient: ***говори́ть, сказа́ть, писа́ть, чита́ть, дать, принести́*** and so on.

### Dative prepositions

* **по**: the basic meaning is “movement along the surface”("covering" it) which may realize as “walking around the park”, “running down the street”, “looking for it all over the house” etc.
* **к**: towards, to. Often used when you are going towards somebody (“towards Anna” = «к Анне»)
* several bookish prepositional phrases like «благодаря́» (thanks to) or «вопреки́» (contrary to)

**По** has an additional meaning, “apiece” or "each" : «Они́ взя́ли по три я́блока»=”They took 3 apples each”.

*There is a bookish use of* «по» *meaning "upon". It goes with Prepositional, and is mostly used in set prepositional phrases like* «по оконча́нии» *(upon completion).*

### Cases in plural

Plurals generally have only **one pattern** shared by all nouns. The ending only depends on the case, not the class of a noun:, «я говорю́ о дома́х, стра́нах, города́х, я́блоках, дочеря́х».

Only the Nominative and (especially) the Genitive have a number of different plural endings that depend on the class of a noun.

## SPEAKING 1

### Sequence of tenses in Russian

There is no sequence of tenses in Russian whatsoever.

The information in a subordinate sentence is understood to be relative to the main clause:

* Он сказа́л, что не зна́ет. = *He said he didn't know.*

So if the piece of information is simply about where things are or what someone does, use present tense in the subordinate clause.

### ли

Use the particle "ли" in reported questions or situations when you don't know which option is true:

* Я спроси́л, зна́ет ли он Москву́. = *I asked him if he knew Moscow*.
* Мы не зна́ем, бу́дет ли он в о́фисе. = *We don't know whether he is going to show up in the office*.

The particle is attached to the word that is in doubt. It needn't be a verb, for instance, «Я не зна́ю, в Москве́ ли он» (i.e. whether he is in Moscow or in some other city). «Ли» generally attaches to the first stressed word of the clause.

### Talk or say?

The verb *говори́ть* is used both as "to say, to tell" and as "to talk, to speak". When you report someone's words, it is the 1st meaning:

* Она говори́т, что хо́чет спать. = She says that she wants to sleep.

Russian has a whole set of **perfective** verbs. Usually you arrange verbs neatly into closely matching pairs of *imperfective + perfective*. And these are different for the two meanings of «говори́ть»:

* to say → говори́ть / сказ́ать
* to speak → говори́ть / поговори́ть

Remember «Скажи́те, пожа́луйста ... » ?

Rather than referring to ongoing actions or past(future) actions in general, perfective verbs refer to actions in a point-wise manner, ignoring the action's inner structure. That is, such "singular" actions happen at some particular "moment" and can be conveniently arranged in a sequence when telling a story. This distinction is about to come into focus in one of the following skills.

## PERFECTIVE VERBS -1

### Aspect in Russian

Verbs in Russian come in two 'flavors' : *perfective* (eg. “пригото́вить”) and *imperfective* (eg. “гото́вить”).

Let's get this straight right away: most perfectives are made by attaching a prefix—and the endings of the resulting verb change in the same way they changed for the source verb.

**Perfective** verbs express an action, an "event" linked to a point in time. Sometimes they assert the presence of a result. You use them for sequences of actions, too.

**Imperfective** verbs are used for everything else: processes, states, repeated actions and for generic reference to an action (when the time of occurrence is irrelevant).

In this introductory lesson we deal with the most basic pattern of use:

* **perfective verbs** are used to tell stories about **successive** actions
* imperfectives are used for *simultaneous* processes
* **perfective verbs** are often used to describe *single* actions that have a specific result, e.g., “Give me that”, “I bought some food”, “I have painted many pictures”. However, not all of them can be reliably described like that.
* we use imperfective to tell that someone has or has never done something, especially in "out of the blue" situations. When the action was *supposed* to be done (which is known by the listener), we use the perfective.

### Morphology

Being too lazy to make up many different verbs, we usually make new ones based on the old ones. The vast majority of unprefixed verbs are imperfective.

* **Prefixation** is the main method to create a perfective verb: писа́ть→написа́ть, идти́→пойти́.
* a different **suffix** is sometimes used: опа́здывать←опозда́ть
* occasionally, the **stress** changes: нареза́ть→наре́зать
* **different stems** are used for a few verbs: говори́ть→сказа́ть

The last phenomenon is known as *suppletion* and only happens for a limited number of verbs and their derivatives. The English verb "to go" is another example of such behavior (its past form is "went").

Note that suffixation is very popular for *secondary* imperfectives. Usually only one prefixed verb is considered an "ideal match" for an imperfective verb. Others are somewhat different in meaning (or a lot different). But you need imperfective partners for these, too, so Russian uses suffixes for that:

* чита́ть = to read (imperf.)
* перечита́ть = to reread (perf.) → *cannot be considered a "natural" perfective for this verb*
* перечи́тывать = to reread (imperf.)

### can

The verb «мочь» is used to talk about the general possibility of something, and also, very often—about your ability to perform something and reach some result. Perfectives are used in this second meaning:

* Я могу́ написа́ть кни́гу за ме́сяц = I can write a book in a month.
* Она́ мо́жет посмотре́ть? = Can she take a look?

We do not use мочь for skills. Russian has **уметь** for this.

### опять / снова

Both mean "again" and are largely interchangeable when they mean that an action from the past has occurred again.

«Опять» is more popular but it's focused on staying "the same as before". «Снова» (cf. «новый») can also mean action performed "anew, from the beginning".

Only «опять» is used in «опять же» (~"besides").

When asking someone to repeat, use «ещё раз».

### What else is there to it?

**imperfective verbs**

* name the action as a whole (“I can *swim*”)
* describe prolonged ***states*** and ***processes***, regular actions

**Perfective verbs** describe **events**: singular, definite actions that are viewed as localized in time. They “happened” at some moment (“I made a video”, “I slept for some time and then went outside”). Or they describe a certain change of state at some "turning point" (not yet eaten→eaten, not slept enough→slept enough and ready to get up).

It is argued in a few works that "a natural" perfective is just a prefixed verb where a prefix's metaphorical meaning so conveniently overlaps the verb's own meaning, that you cannot feel any change. So don't be surprised if some vague actions have several perfective matches for a single imperfective verb.

That also means that sometimes you'd better memorize a pair even if it is technically a "poor" match. After all, in some contexts it will come in handy:

* есть → съе́сть (to consume something, completely)
* есть → пое́сть (to have a meal, to spend some time eating—regardless of whether you finish your meal or decide you've had enough half-way)

## INSTRUMENTAL CASE

### Fortunately, this is the very last case!

It is used for some very specific meanings, that’s why we've put off covering it for so long.

* It is used alone for a “tool” or an “agent” of an action. English mostly uses “with” or “by” instead: “молотк**ом**” (with a hammer), ”ветр**ом**” (by wind), “сил**ой**” (by force)
* It is used alone with some verbs of “being”, “becoming”, “seeming”: *Я стал учител**ем*** ~ “I have become a teacher”

It is also used with prepositions:

* **с (со)** = “with” (together with someone/something) — note that “Я с ней” or even “Мы с ней” is the most natural way of saying “She and I”
* **за**/ **перед** — behind/ in front of
* **над**/ **под** — above/under
* **между** — between (also used with Genitive)

### Мы с тобой

When you tell someone about "you and I" or "my friend and I" etc., it is most idiomatic to use **мы с** + your companion in Instrumental.

* Мы с тобой друзья. = You and I are friends.
* Мы с мамой вчера купили компьютер. = Mom and I bought a computer yesterday.

Of course, when translating sentences out of the blue, you cannot (strictly speaking) tell if a speaker means "I" or "we". This is rarely a source of confusion in real situations (where it is unlikely a speaker goes on randomly switching between "I" and "we").

Sometimes you can interpret a joint action using "and" or "with", whatever sounds more natural:

* Мы с ними вчера не говорили. = They and I didn't talk yesterday / I didn't talk with (to) them yesterday.

### But wait, there's more!

Actually, Russian also has a handful of inconsistent cases that only exist for some words. They are (mostly) beyond the scope of this course:

* ***the Locative-2:*** the most important. Why? Because it's obligatory with the nouns that it applies to. It expresses the meaning of place, with *в*, *на* or both. It exists for over a hundred masculine nouns: в год**у**, на мост**у**, в лес**у**, на пол**у**. And for about 20 feminine nouns in —**ь**: в кров**и** (the ending is always stressed for both!)
* ***the Neo-vocative:*** a form of a name used when addressing a person. It exists for common names and several nouns: ***Вань! Вер! Алён! Мам! Пап!*** (just the last vowel sound is removed). The Historical vocative ("человек → человече") has been lost in modern Russian.
* ***the Genitive-2:*** for “some amount of a substance”. Increasingly replaced by the usual Genitive but still can be used for several masculine nouns: “Хочу ча**ю**”
* ***“Waiting” case:*** not much of a case, but actually the verb “ждать” (to wait) would use Accusative for people and things that can affect their appearance and Genitive for everything else (an event/thing that does not choose when to arrive).

## BODY, LIFE, AND DEATH

### You have big eyes

Be careful NOT to use «есть» when describing properties of body parts, if their existence is normal and unlikely to surprise anyone:

* У меня длинный нос = *I have a long nose*.

### A Handy thing to know

The Russian words for limbs and what they have on the end of them can be a little confusing initially. Depending on the situation, рука can mean hand or it can mean arm. The same is true for нога; it can be foot or leg. Most of the time the meaning is clear from the context.

The difference works as follows:

* in English "hand", strictly speaking, means the part starting at the wrist.
* in Russian «рука», strictly speaking, means the whole arm.
* when you need a word describing the limb *functionally* (as something we use to work, to grab things etc.), English uses "hand" while Russian uses "arm".

The same goes for the lower limb.

## GENITIVE PLURAL

### The formation of Genitive Plural

All other forms (except the Nominative) are the same for all plural nouns, regardless of gender. The Genitive is the other exception. Here is how it is formed:

* **-а, -я, -о nouns**: just remove the last vowel sound. Extends to **-ия** and **-ие** nouns (which become **-ий**). A vowel is inserted if a consonant cluster forms at the end. We will address a few common cases of *fleeting vowels* later in the course.
	+ ма́ма, неде́ля → **мам**, неде́ль
	+ сло́во, окно́ → **слов**, о́кон
	+ фами́лия, мело́дия → фами́лий, мело́дий
	+ ко́шка → ко́шек
* **hard consonant**: typical “masculine” nouns ending in *hard* non-sibilant consonants get the ending **-ов**. Those in “-й” get **-ев**, and so do nouns in “-ц” when the ending is unstressed (which won't help you much).
	+ стол, оте́ц, го́род → **столо́в**, отцо́в, городо́в
	+ ме́сяц → ме́сяцев
* **soft consonant**: feminine and masculine nouns ending in **-ь** or hushes (Ж, Ш, Щ, Ч) will get **-ей** as the ending. Neuter nouns ending in **-е** also use this pattern.
	+ ночь, крова́ть → **ноче́й**, крова́тей
	+ учи́тель, муж → учителе́й, муже́й
	+ мо́ре → **море́й**
* «и́мя» and «вре́мя» become **имён, времён** (though, for «се́мя» and «стре́мя» it is «семя́н» and «стремя́н»)

### Not so easy

* be careful around nouns that form plurals irregularly, like друг →**друзья́**. Here are the genitive plurals of «друг», «мать», «дочь», «сын», «стул», «брат», «лист» and «де́рево» :
	+ **друзе́й, матере́й, дочере́й, сынове́й**
	+ **сту́льев, бра́тьев, ли́стьев, дере́вьев**

## ADJECTIVES 2

In this skill, we focus a bit more on adjectives and their case forms

### задача vs. задание

As a "problem" in a Math class, «задача» is more frequent. Other than that, «задача» may be a problem, a task, an objective—while «задание» is a task *assigned by someone else* (again, unless it's an exercise you randomly encountered in your textbook).

### Superlative

When you want to express "the most" strong degree of some quality, Russian will almost always use an analytical form. Just add the adjective «самый» in front:

* Это самая длинная книга.
* Ты самый плохой папа.

There are one-word forms for many adjectives, though few of them are popular. Here are the *synthetic* forms, to give you an idea:

* **лучший, худший**, быстрейший, теплейший
* интереснейший, длиннейший, кратчайший
* наилучший, наидлиннейший, наисложнейший

**наи-**prefixed versions should be used with extreme care since they will almost always sound too fancy for spoken language and too emotional for academic writing. Still, a few of most popular may be just the right thing in written style (eg. *наилучший, наихудший, наисложнейший*).

## PREDICATES AND STATES (+ADVERBS)

### Practical Short Adjectives

Adjectives in Russian have a long form and a short one. A long one is used before nouns and as a part of a predicate. A short "predicative" form can ONLY be used as a predicate (with a "to be" verb). Usually it looks ***the same as an adverb***.

To be more exact, that typically refers to adjectives that mean qualities that exist on a sliding scale (good, short, soft etc.) rather than yes/no characteristics (wooden, American).

***Their usage*** depends on the meaning and style and isn't all that easy. It is especially frustrating for a learner when a short and a long form are interchangeable but modify the overall tone.

Now, from a practical point of view, a number of adjectives are used in a short form *very often* (or always) and/or have a *distinct meaning* when used in this form. It is safe to say that most adjectives in Russian aren't much used in the short form, so better learn those that are.

That's what we are going to do. And you get adverbs for free.

### Other predicative adjectives/adverbs uses

* feeling/state: It is cold/I feel cold: *«Мне холодно. Тут холодно. Дома всегда хорошо»*. Is not even considered an adjective in most descriptions. Usually linguists define them as a "category of state"
* general judgement of the form "You are wrong"/"It is perfect/bad" → *Это просто отлично. Ты неправ.*
* *«Превосходно!»* — short sentences like "Good!" or "Magnificent!". Actually, that's where a huge variety of adjectives with a meaning of "terrific"/"awful" are used in the short form, even if hardly anywhere else.
* when an adjective like "glad" or "similar" has details on what you are glad about or similar to, it is normally short.

## EDUCATION

### Ordinal numbers

Russian ordinal numbers behave like adjectives. Also, thankfully, if you have a long number *only the last word* is affected when the gender and/or case change:

* 31st = три́дцать пе́рв**ый**
* on the 31st of December = три́дцать пе́рв**ого** декабря́ *(it is Genitive here)*

### High-rise

The floor numbering uses the system common in the U.S., i.e. the floor on the ground level is "the 1st floor". This is what you are going to see on the elevator buttons—so we try to stick to this "literal" translation.

### University departments

A typical structure of a university::

**университе́т**

↳**факульте́т** ("department/faculty"), **отделе́ние** ("subdivision")

.   ​‍‍‎‏↳ **ка́федра** ("branch")

If a "факульте́т" is really large, it may have several "отделе́ния" inside, which are then subdivided further into "ка́федры".

A university can also have an "институ́т" ("institute") inside. Or a number of them. An institute may have departments of its own.

### Grades

The grading system in Russia uses numbers 2 to 5:

* **2**, «неудовлетвори́тельно» —"fail", an F
* **3**, «удовлетвори́тельно» —a "just about satisfactory" mark, something like a C minus
* **4**, «хорошо́» —a "good" mark, similar to a B
* **5**, «отли́чно»—an "excellent" mark, an A

In speech we usually call them **«дво́йка», «тро́йка», «четвёрка»** and **«пятёрка»**. «Едини́ца»(1) is virtually never assigned (maybe only in the case of particularly mighty failure, combining poor performance with behavior).

Universities—officially—only use the words («неуд.», «уд.»/«удовл.», «хор.», «отл.» when abbreviated). And yet, the numbers are also widely used in conversation.

### Classes

A school lesson is 45 minutes long, followed by a short break («переме́на»).

A class at a university consists of two 45-minute-long periods, often with a 5-minute break in between. This is why people usually call it **«па́ра»** ("a pair, a couple"). In the Russian Far East «ле́нта»("a ribbon") is a more popular term—but do not try your luck using this term anywhere else!

Summer break and shorter breaks during the academic year are **«кани́кулы»**. This is a plural-only noun.

### Grades (the other kind)

Finally, a word (or two) about grades/school years. For the sake of convenience, this course assumes that первый класс is the exact equivalent of first grade, grade one or year one, etc, which may or may not be the case depending on where you're from. For the record, Russian schools run from первый класс when you are six or seven years old to одиннадцатый класс when you are seventeen, although the last two years are not compulsory.

## COUNTRIES AND PLACES

### Sweden, a Swede, Swedish

In Russian, the name of the country, the name of a person from there and their language are all different words. They are related, however, and few patterns exist:

It's worth pointing out here (in case you hadn't spotted it already) that while English capitalizes country/language adjectives, Russian does not.

### Simple Future

Describing a "simple" future action (not a process) is rather straightforward—take a perfective verb and make its "present" form the same as you did with imperfective. The difference is, perfective verbs have no present:

* Ду́маю, тебе́ понра́вится Том = I think you'll like Tom. (from *нра́виться/по́нравиться*)
* Я приду́ в шко́лу = I'll come to school. (*прийти* is a prefixed perfective variant of «идти»)

English, of course, has a number of ways of expressing the future; use "will" or "is going to" as you deem appropriate.

### Программи́ст-кана́дец

Since in Russian, ethnicity is described with a noun, they can produce hyphenated compounds (just like other nouns). We have very few of them in this course.

* писа́тель-италья́нец = an Italian writer
* студе́нт-худо́жник = a student who is an artist
* студе́нт-каза́х = a Kazakh student
* подру́га-англича́нка = an English friend *(fem.)*

### Междунаро́дный

It comes from «ме́жду» + «наро́ды», i.e. "between"+"peoples", which is quite literally "international".

The loanword «интернациональный» means the same but has quite limited use in certain combinations like "international team" or "international debt" (mostly these are from political contexts). This course largely avoids this word.

Most likely, "international team/orchestra" etc. is the context where you must use «интернациональный»).

### Speak English!

You can use both «говорить по-английски» (adverb) and «говорить на английском» (*на + Prep.*)

«На английском» is specifically about content in the language or about linguistic ability. «По-английски» is about the *way* an action is done/ an object is made (for objects, it does not mean the language).

So a book can only be written «на английском». However, if you mean "English-style pizza", it can only be «пицца по-английски»!

## HOUSE

### Points of compass

 **к** + Dat.
 **с** + Gen.

Now you can say where you live:

* на юге Берли́на = *in the south of Berlin* (i.e. inside the city)
* к югу от Берли́на = *to the south of Berlin* (i.e. in another settlement outside of the city)

### «Двор» and "courtyard"

The word «**двор**» requires some attention. Technically it can be either *yard* or *courtyard* in English because it means either a piece of land near the house or an area inside a group of buildings.

In this course it is "courtyard". After all, you'll mostly encounter «двор» when people refer to the area enclosed by a group of buildings as opposed to the area by the street. Don't expect it to look idyllic, though.

### Locative

Just a reminder that there are certain short masculine nouns for places which have a stressed **-у** ending in the Prepositional, instead of the *-е* which you'd expect. Ex.: на полу́, на мосту́, в шкафу́, в лесу́, на берегу́, в порту́, на льду́, на углу́ в саду́, в снегу́.

*It is not a variant form, i.e. its use is obligatory, which makes it the strongest "extra" case in Russian.*

### the Pseudo-passive

It is very common in Russian to use the 3rd person plural of a verb without any "they" to express that the action **is performed** by unspecified "persons":

*This particular wording won't work if you describe something that happens "by itself".*

### хвата́ть

Using the impersonal verb «хвата́ть» is one of the ways to express the idea of having enough of something. The person is used in the Dative while the thing you have or do not have enough of is stated in the Genitive:

* Мне не хвата́ет де́нег. = I do not have enough money.
* Нам хвата́ет еды́. = We have enough food.
* Ей хвата́ет рабо́ты. = She has enough work.

The perfective counterpart is «хвати́ть».

## REFLEXIVE

### In theory

The reflexive is used when a subject performs an action "on itself". In English it is generally not stated explicitly. When you say that someone *shaves* or *stops*, it is understood that the action relates to themselves, unless a different "object" is provided.

These verbs end in -**ся** /-**сь** in Russian («ся» after a consonant, «сь» after a vowel)

As a rule, these verbs never take a direct object in the Accusative. «Бояться» (to be afraid of) is one of the few exceptions, in that it can use Accusative for people.

### In practice

Russian reflexive verbs may mean a number of things. Here are the most popular meanings:

* *true reflexive*: мыться, бриться. Mostly for verbs like "wash", "shave", "comb your hair".
* *reciprocal ("each other")*: встречаться, целоваться, "meet/date/go out with", "kiss".
* *passive* (for imperfective verbs only): Еда готовится лучшими поварами. "The food is (being) prepared by the best chefs"
* *emotional state or some movement/change*: родиться, удивиться, учиться, радоваться, меняться, двигаться, "to be born", "to be surprised", "to learn", "to be glad", "to change", "to move".
* *inclination to do something (in impersonal constructions)*: Мне не спится = I do not feel like sleeping.
* *lexical verbs that are reflexive for no particular reason*: нравиться, бояться, заниматься, садиться. Some of these are only used with *«-ся»*. Some also exist in a "bare" form but mean a completely different thing.

*We do not have several non-reflexive base verbs in the course (some are rare or just a little beyond what we could include). However, some just don't exist.*

### себя

**«Себя»** is a reflexive object pronoun: it means the same thing as the subject of the verb (or the implied subject, if the sentence doesn't contain a subject):

* Посмотри на себя! = Look at yourself!
* Мы не думали о себе. = We didn't think about ourselves.
* Он говорит сам с собой. = He is talking to himself («сам с собой» is just more idiomatic here)

Note that, as usual for pronouns, it is often found before the verb. Its declension pattern is the same as for «меня» or «тебя». Since it can't be the subject of the sentence, it doesn't have a Nominative form.

It is also used with some verbs:

* **чувствовать себя** = to feel (a certain way)
* представить (себе) = to imagine
* вести себя = to behave
* брать с собой = to take along ("with yourself")
* выходить из себя = to lose one's temper

(«с собой» is generally used to express having something with you or "on one's person", not only with "брать")

Remember the «Мы *у друга*»-structures? They work here, too:

* Я *у себя*. = I am at my place.
* Мы *у себя* дома. = We are at (our) home.

### Other

* reflexive verbs for some *actions (often harmful) typical of a subject*: Собака кусается = The dog bites.

It often works for animals and people (to scratch, to butt, to swear). However, in a sense, it is also the meaning in "Книга легко читается", which corresponds to "The book is easy to read", i.e. usually it "is read" without difficulty (by whoever reads it).

* *про себя* = "to oneself" (as opposed to "aloud")
* *сам по себе* = on its own
* *само собой (разумеется)* = "it goes without saying"
* Мне *не по себе*. = I feel uneasy/sick/uncomfortable.

## TIME EXPRESSIONS 2

### More popular time expressions

* **тепе́рь** is the word for "now" when you mean that there is a *change* from how it was *before* ("Now I live in Rome", "What do we do now!?", "Now you know Russian"). We are pretty lenient on the distinction in the course, though.
* use **«че́рез» + Accusative** to express an amount of time that should pass before the event comes («через неделю» = in a week, a week later).
* use **Accusative + «наза́д»** to express "X time ago"(«сто лет назад» = 100 years ago). «Тому́ наза́д» means the same thing but this use has been quickly losing its popularity since WWII and isn't taught here (it is mostly characteristic of people born before 1950).
* **по + Dative pl.** expresses "on Mondays" etc.

### рисо**ва́**ть, плани́ро**ва**ть...

Verbs with suffixes **-ова/-ева** replace it with **уй** sound in their present tense stem. The actual endings will be **-ую, -уешь, -ует** and so on:

* Я рису́ю, плани́рую, анализи́рую, ра́дуюсь
* Она рису́ет, анализи́рует ...

There is also a non-productive class of verbs with -**дава́ть**, -**става́ть**, -**знава́ть** that exhibits similar behavior (**ва**→**й**):

* Я даю́, встаю́,
* Ты даёшь, узнаёшь.

It's small, but it has some popular imperfective verbs like «встава́ть» (get up), «дава́ть» (give), «устава́ть» (get tired) and «узнава́ть» (to learn *some piece of information*).

## IMPERATIVE AND ADVERBS

### Two types of imperative

Not hard at all.

First, look at the 3rd person plural: *читают, пишут, любят* and so on. Remove the ending.

* if you are left with a vowel at the end, add **Й**
* if you are left with a consonant, add **И** after a consonant cluster or "л" (otherwise, just **ь**).

Done! *Читай, пиши, люби*. To make it plural or polite, just add **-те**: *читайте*.

This lesson deals with the И-pattern plus some irregular forms. However, the pattern described above works for the vast majority of verbs. The irregular stems give you *ешь, дай, беги*.

### Aspect is imperative

Which aspect to use? Well, if you focus on the process ("Please, slice *evenly*") or encourage engaging in some activity, use imperfective. Otherwise, especially If you want to get a result or a single specific action, use perfective.

When forbidding something, use the imperfective.

You may notice that sometimes when Russians want a specific action (let's call that "simple request"), they *still* use imperfective. Why? Here is the prototypal meaning of such usage:

* the initial phase of the action is accented (overridden for some verbs)
* it is a *contextually obvious* action ("Please, do come in!", "Now, turn in your tests") → or else it sounds quite assertive (maybe intentionally)
* a simple action is expected to be performed immediately

By the way, that "obvious" point is why imperfectives are not, as a rule, used for *detailed* "simple requests", especially with "please". It is OK for some typical guest-receiving situations ("please, come in", "please sit down"). But IMP. is out of question with clearly non-obvious detailed requests like "Take my cat from the sofa, please"—if it were obvious why would you ask in such detail? These two contradict each other: appealing to the listener's common sense ('You should obviously do that') while at the same time using 'please' and giving the details.

## VERBS OF MOTION

### Run: there and back again

Russian verbs of motion come in two varieties:

* a **one-way**, specific verb (like *идти́*→). They're used for one-way trips strictly to/from some goal (usually a single instance)
* a **multi-directional** verb (like *ходи́ть*⇆)

### Multi-directional verbs ⇆↝

They can express three different things:

* **repeated** trips: «Я *хожу́* в школу»
* **a round trip**: «Где ты была?»—«*Ходи́ла* в магази́н».
* **moving with no goal** or referring the action/trip in general: «Моя́ до́чка уже́ *хо́дит*».

From a practical point of view, a *one-way verb* is mostly a Continuous tense in English, while a *multidirectional* verb corresponds with a Simple tense or the Present Perfect (a trip happened→"I've been there - and come back"). Or to a Continuous tense when it is a random movement.

* *Pay attention to* ***бежа́ть*** *(to run→), which is an irregular verb (though, only a little bit).*

### Pairs (→ / ⇆)

* идти́ / ходи́ть – movement on foot or within a city; also OK when talking about a public transportation route
* е́хать / е́здить – movement by vehicle on land, also a generic verb for travelling to other countries.
* лете́ть / лета́ть – "to fly", to move through air
* плы́ть / пла́вать – "to swim", to move by water
* нести́ / носи́ть – "to carry" an object, on foot
* везти́ / вози́ть – "to carry" a person/object, by some means of transportation
* вести́ / води́ть – to "lead" a person, on foot (also about roads and about "driving" a vehicle)

Up to 14 or 18 verbs of motion are found in Russian, though we only teach 3 to 5 common ones.

### Waaait, what about perfectives?

To make a perfective (*specific!*) verb, add a prefix «по-» to a one-way verb (идти́→пойти́). It gives a perfective with an implied focus on the initial point ("setting out").

* other prefixes add their meaning; to get an imperfective verb, attach the same prefix to a multi-directional verb (уйти/уходи́ть, уе́хать/уезжа́ть, прилете́ть/прилета́ть etc.) Pay attention to «-*езжать*».
* *With "по-" the imperfective meaning differs (a rather typical shade "to perform an action for some time")*

## CITY AND PEOPLE

### Stop right there!

What you call a place where some transport stops, depends on the transport. The trains stop at «ста́нция» while bus and tram stops are «остано́вка» (*«авто́бусная», «тролле́йбусная», «трамва́йная»*).

Note the *Locative 2* in **мост** and **угол**(corner): на мосту́, на углу́, в углу́.

«Маршру́тка» is a minibus that travels at semi-regular intervals, often filling its capacity of passengers at the starting point. Most will follow the same route as the regular bus of the same number. Due to translation difficulties, it is not covered in this course.

**«Вокза́л»** is a large railway station with a station building, often a terminus but not necessarily (that's where you would look for an inter-city train).

### Englishman and Englishwoman

Most popular names for people from different countries or ethnic groups will have a version for males and another for females. Look for a suffix, since the formation of these nouns is extremely typical: англича́нин/англича́нка, испа́нец/испа́нка, шве́д/шведка, коре́ец/корея́нка, кита́ец/китая́нка, францу́з/францу́женка, гре́к/греча́нка...

### Other point of interest

Railroad is «**желе́зная доро́га**» in Russian (lit. 'iron road'). «**Суперма́ркет**», while sometimes similar to *supermarkets* you know, is usually a medium-size self-service shop selling primarily groceries and some other essentials, so *grocery store* is closer to the definition.

## IMPERATIVE 2

### Perfective vs. Imperfective

Certainly use *imperfective* when specifying the manner in which the action should be performed.

Use *perfective* when asking for a simple action that is not a really obvious next action.

*(for example, with "please" and following details; it is rare you would politely ask for an obvious thing to do)*

There is also the important permission/denial pattern: use **imperfective** when **NOT letting** something.

### Make yourself at home

Curiously enough, **imperfectives** are absolutely polite for a few common motion and action verbs used when inviting people:

* Садитесь, пожалуйста = Please, sit down,
* Приходите ещё! = Do come again.
* Входите, пожалуйста. = Come in, please. (also «проходите», lit. "come through", and «заходите»)

I guess they can be formally classified as *obvious* but you can also just memorize the verbs.

### положить ↔ поставить

There is a distinction in Russian between putting things in a random or "lying flat" position and "setting" them into a vertical or *upright* position. The last one is important for things that by design are supposed to have a "working" orientation even if they are flat (a plate, a cup, a box, a bed, a laptop etc.)

* use *ставить/поставить* for a stable or vertical position (as a result, the object *стоит*)
* use *класть/положить* for a flat, upset or random orientation (as a result, the object *лежит*)

### Words

* **садитесь** is commonly used as an invitation to sit down. *Присаживайтесь* is also very popular despite being usually recommended against (literally, it means to perform a squat or to sit down for a short while).

## SOMETHING

### который

«Который» ("that/which") is like an adjective, only it takes the gender of whichever object it "represents", and the case that corresponds to its role in the part of the sentence you use it in:

* Где *книга*, **которую** я *ищу*?
* Где *книга*, **о которой** мы *говорили*?

### Real or not: *-то* vs. *-нибудь*

**кто-нибудь** and **что-нибудь** mean a "hypothetical" object. A placeholder for what you have in mind, not actually filled by anything in particular (and maybe you are wrong). Mostly useless in statements about the past: if you are sure it happened, then the object did exist.

*(remember,* «кто» is masculine,\_ «что» *is neuter)*

**кто-то** and **что-то** refer to a specific but "unknown" object. You see/know that *something* exists (or you are sure of it) but you don't know its identity.

They are somewhat interchangeable when you mean there's free choice from a limited number of options ("OK, have *someone* call me if Alex comes").

***NB***: "any-" pronouns have wider use in English. When "anyone" means "whichever person you want", consider "кто угодно" or, if you mean everyone, "все". The above only applies to cases of an "unknown" object.

### I've got something special for you!

**Кое-что** and **Кое-кто** are "secret" pronouns. They mean a certain object that you know but are deliberately not mentioning by name. Either you want to keep people guessing or do not consider the identity important to your point ("Yeah, I have worked with *some people* here").

### Special cases

**Когда-нибудь** is used mainly for "ever" in the past or "one day" in the future. **Когда-то** is mostly for "once" in the past; almost never used in future.

**Как-нибудь** is also sometime used to refer to some future moment rather than manner of action.

**Где-то** is also used colloquially to mean "approximately\*.

**Кое-как** is only an adverb. It means either a job done sloppily or an action performed "barely", with difficulty.

## TECHNICS AND HOME

### пойду́

Here we introduce the prefixed *perfective* for "to go(walk)" — **пойти́**. It is a perfective verb with a focus on "setting out" somewhere, just like other verbs of motion with «по-» («пое́хать», «побежа́ть», «полете́ть», «пове́сти»).

### Поезд идёт до станции «Блок»

It is completely normal to use «идти» when talking about public transportation, i.e. passenger vehicles that repeatedly follow a prescribed route. These are preferred when talking about routes. Typically, it is **идти** because we treat it more like an objective fact of a certain trip taking you somewhere, than a particular vehicle going to a certain place (almost as if «идти» is not used as a verb of motion but as a way of stating the destination). «Ходить» is also used: for example, when saying that a bus exists that takes you from one place to another.

When arriving at a terminal station on a subway, you can hear the following:

* Поезд дальше не идёт. Просьба выйти из вагона. ~ lit. *The train goes no further. Please exit from the car.*

A personal vehicle will always use *ехать/ездить*.

***A reminder***: you use *ONE-WAY verbs* when describing motion in one direction, even if repeated. The verbs cease being interchangeable when the context of repeated motion implies the "trip back" cannot be included (like "After school I go to the station and take a train home."— here you have a sequence that makes the return trip absurd). We rarely have such sentences in the course. In real life, just remember to occasionally take a step back and refresh the basic idea behind the opposition: one-way motion vs. multi-directional trip.