Russian for Free

RUSSIAN COURSE
-Basic Russian for beginners-

LESSON 10: REVIEW OF LESSON 6 - 9

In this lesson you will learn:
- the most important points from lessons 6 to 9.
- the case you already know: the nominative.

1. USEFUL PHRASE IN RUSSIAN
Listen and repeat the sentences you have learn in the last 4 lessons:

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

2. RUSSIAN VOCABULARY

Read, listen and repeat the basic Russian vocabulary of this lesson:

Wh-questions in Russian

In English the wh-questions are those questions that start with questions words like what, when, how, who, which, where or why. In this course you have already learnt all of them. Here they are:

ENGLISH

What?
Who?
How?
When?
Where?
Why?

RUSSIAN

Что?
Кто?
Как?
Когда?
Где?
Почему?

PRONUNCIATION

shto?
kto?
kak?
kag-da?
gdye?
pa-chye-mu?

RELATIVES

In lesson 8 you have learnt how to say the name of different relatives in Russian. Let's see some more:

ENGLISH

grandfather
grandmother
father / mother
parents
son / daughter
brother / sister
uncle / aunt
cousin (male)
cousin (female)
nephew
niece

RUSSIAN

дедушка
бабушка
отец / мать
родители
сын / дочь
брат / сестра
дядя / тётя
двоюродный брат
двоюродная сестра
племянник
племянница

PRONUNCIATION

dye-dush-ka
ba-bush-ka
a-tyets / mat'
ra-di-tye-li
syn / doch
brat / syes-tra
dya-dya / tyo-tya
dva-yu-rad-nyj brat
dva-yu-rad-na-ya syes-tra
plye-mya-nnik
plye-mya-nni-tsa

4. RUSSIAN GRAMMAR

Read the following grammar explanations for this lesson:

How to form the past tense

First, you remove "ть" from the verb (for example думать / дума-). Second, you add:

-л for masculine singular (думал)
-ла for feminine singular (думала)
-ло for neuter singular (думало)
-ли for every form of plural (думали) y and for formal forms (both in singular and plural).

How to build reflexive verbs

We build a reflexive verb adding either сь or ся.
- We use сь when the verb ends in vowel.
- We use ся when the verb does not end in vowel.

Possessive pronouns in Russian

In lesson 8 we have seen a complete explanation about them. Here they are:

SINGULAR

мой / моя / моё
твой / твоя / твоё
его
её
наш / наша / наше
ваш / ваша / ваше
их

PLURAL

мои
твои
его
её
наши
ваши
их

ENGLISH

my
your
his
her
our
your
their

The Russian cases

We have learnt that Russian is a language where some words are "declined" (or transformed).

In English, the pronouns undergo transformations to mark different functions in a sentence:
- subject: he (he is my friend)
- object: him (I asked him something)

In Russian these declensions are more common. They are sorted in "grammatical cases":
- Nominative
- Genitive
- Dative
- Accusative
- Instrumental
- Prepositional

The NOMINATIVE case

The case represent the "normal" word, without transformations, as in appears in a dictionary.

A noun, pronoun or adjective in the nominative case mark the subject in a sentence. It is the noun that "is doing" what the verb says.

Examples (the nominative is in blue):

- Мой брат идёт в кино
- My brother goes to the cinema

- Это моя книга
- This is my book

- Мне нравятся хорошие фильмы
- I like good movies

LET'S LEARN THE CASES

WHAT IS A CASE? In English we change a word to express "singular" or "plural" (car/cars, foot/feet). In Russian words can be changed to express other concepts (subject, direct object, possession,...). Those changes are called "cases".

DO CASES EXIST IN ENGLISH? Yes, but they are rare and are not called "cases". For example, the pronoun "he" changes into "him" in sentences like "I saw him" (in this example "him" is in the accusative case).

WHY DO CASES EXIST? Each language evolves differently. In English there are articles (a/an, the), but not in Russian. In Russian there are cases, but not in English.

We have created a course to help you understand Russian cases. Here you can go to lesson 1.

go to lesson 11