The Ultimate Russian Grammar Guide For Brand New Learners
The Ultimate Russian Grammar Guide For Brand New Learners
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And maybe you’re right. While you’ll learn the basic, must-know rules here,
a nice book or learning program will set you straight.
Alternatively, if you don’t want books but a full, digital Russian learning
program, then I recommend:
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How flexible?
That sentence means “The dog caught the cat today.” There are 8 different
variations! They all mean the same thing!
• I love you
• Я тебя люблю (ya tebya lublu)
• Я люблю тебя (ya lublu tebya)
In the first sentence, we have the predicate after the object. In the second
sentence, the predicate is before the object. The Subject “I” (Я) remains in
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the same place in both cases. It would sound awkward to a native speaker
if you put the subject in the particular case in another position.
In the “I love you” example, you’re just trying to state a literal “I love you.” If
you rearranged the words, the nuance was different. For example:
• люблю тебя… я
• люблю я тебя
This can still make sense, in a poetic sort of way.
For example, adjectives usually stand before the noun they modify:
Here, “жаркая” (hot) is the adjective and “погода” (weather) is the noun it
modifies.
2. Russian Palatalization
The Russian language is very rich in palatal or, in other words, “soft”
sounds.
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It’s when you place your tongue against the ridge of the roof of your mouth.
This makes sounds soft. Say the name “Linda.” Notice how much your
tongue touches the ridge. It’s a light flick, right?
Now, say the word “leer” or “lean.” Okay, notice there’s more tongue action
here and the L sounds “softer” because of the long “ee” sounds after it.
Now, these “soft” sounds are tough for English speakers. Why? Well,
because they are not in the English language. You are not used to them.
There are 5 vowel sounds and 10 vowel letters in Russian. They are plain
and palatal indicators. Each of them makes the previous letter plain or
palatal. See the table below:
[o] о ё томный /
тёмный
[е] э е нэ / не
[i] ы и мы / ми
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[u] у ю пну /
пню
[a] а я Яна /
Анна
I mean gender.
So, every Russian noun has a gender. You may think it’s confusing to
remember all the words and their gender, right? But, there are some rules
to make your life easier.
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Memorize these:
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The next time you want to say “The coffee is good” say “Кофе
хороший” (kofe h’oroshiy).
Even native speakers make this mistake. So, if you use this word correctly
you are definitely going to impress native Russians.
4. Plural
When you want to make a noun plural in English you simply add s, es, or
ies.
And Russian?
In Russian you have to change the last letter according to some rules.
There are many of them, depending on the grammar case, but for
simplicity’s sake, I will describe only how nouns in the Accusative case are
formed:
• Masculine Nouns
• Feminine Nouns
• Neuter Nouns
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5. Tenses
• Past
• Present
• Future
The table below gives you a general overview of the Russian tenses and its
forms.
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Remember, verbs must agree with the other words in the sentence in
number and gender.
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6. Capitalization
So, The English language uses capitalization more often than in Russian.
It is always good to know the personal pronouns that are used in the
language that you are learning. You can construct new simple and more
complicated sentences with their help. So let’s have a look at the basic
nominative pronouns in the Russian language:
я ya I
ты ti You
он on He
оно ano It
мы mi We
• Он знает русский
◦ on znaet russkiy
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◦ He knows Russian
• Мы часто играем в футбол
◦ mi chasta igraem v futbol
◦ We often play football
• Не могли бы Вы мне помочь?
◦ ne magli by Vi mnye pamoch
◦ Could you help me?
• Мы знаем, куда нам надо идти
◦ mi znaem, kuda nam nado iti
◦ We know where we have to go
8. Cardinal Numerals
You can’t learn Russian grammar without knowing how to count from at
least from 0 to 10.
0 ноль nol’
один adin
1 одна adna
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одно adno
два dva
2
две dve
3 три tri
4 четыре chetyri
5 пять pyat’
6 шесть shest’
7 семь sem’
8 восемь vosem’
9 девять devyat’
10 десять desyat’
Examples:
• Две машины
◦ dve mashini
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◦ Two cars
• Девять яблок
◦ devyat’ yablak
◦ Nine apples
• Пять обезьян
◦ pyat’ abez’yan
◦ Five monkeys
9. The most commonly used Russian prepositions
We are going to observe only the most commonly used ones, here they
are:
из iz From
о / об o / ob About
на na On / onto / to
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у u By
от at From
за za Behind / beyond
до do Until / before
You have probably noticed that both “от” and “из” have got the same
meaning.
• Я из Москвы
◦ ya iz maskvi
◦ I’m from Moscow
• Она вышла из дома
◦ ana vishla iz doma
◦ She left home (Word for word translation: She stepped/went out
of her home)
• Он стоит далеко от него
◦ on stait daleko at nevo
◦ He stands far from him
• Поезд отправляется от главной станции
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Try and remember this because they are not interchangeable like in
English!
You see that some questions are similar to the ones we have in English,
but there are also some that might be new to you.
• Куда ты идешь?
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Scratch enough and you’ll go deep and get a grip on these rules.
Want to start learning and speaking this language already? Check out my
recommendation below or check out these 5 minute ways to learn.