💣Lesson five! This lesson’s going to be different from the other lessons. Why? Because it’s a review lesson! This type of lesson will occur every fifth lesson. We’re going to review the main grammar topics covered and at the end of this lesson, you’ll take a quiz. I repeat, the main grammar topics – not all, followed by a quiz, or rather a series of quizzes, I should say. 😏
[quizzes to come soon]
Also, review lessons are going to be the only lessons to feature emojis. Young people love to use emojis, so much that they over-use them. I prefer to avoid using them, because, in my opinion, too many emojis makes things look cheap. No matter how artistic and fun they may make your writing look!
📌While this number is tentative, five of the key-est topics will be covered in each review lesson. I’d like to review every topic covered, but that’s just not possible. With only five, this post is already going to have a lot of depth. Therefore, I’ve chosen the ones that you really should master before moving on.
💎I. to be
The verb to be in Russian is быть, but, with some exceptions. It’s almost never used, especially in the present tense. Thus, one can say, I accountant, You teacher, She doctor, etc. In English it’s wrong, but in Russian it’s correct.
Я бухгалтер.
I’m an accountant.
Она студентка.
She’s a student.
Don’t forget that in Russian there is no such thing as a definite [the] or indefinite [a/an] article. Context determines how these get translated into English.
We’ll learn more about to be in later lessons, because there is more to it.
💎II. conjunctions и and а
The conjunctions и and а, while extremely short and simple in theory, their usage can be complex. They deceive even the most advanced Russian students. That’s why we must attack and conquer them from the start. Or try at the very least!
💡(и) This conjunction means and and is considered a connecting conjunction – it helps connect consecutively similar ideas (ideas that don’t differ) (ex. I am a student and he’s a student – both subjects have something in common-; I run and walk -I do both-) and is also used to connect nouns in a sequence (ex. bread and milk).
Я бухгалтер, и Вы бухгалтер.
I’m an accountant, and you’re an accountant.
Это ты и я.
It’s you and me.
Стол, книга и окно.
A table, a book and a window.
💡(а) This conjunction means not only and, but also but. This is considered a contrasting conjunction – it helps differ ideas (ex. I am a student, and she’s a teacher – we don’t have the same profession-). Since it differs ideas, it can also be used to change the subject and introduce a new topic (ex. I’m fine. And you?)
Я бухгалтер, а Вы журналист.
I’m an accountant, and (or: but) you’re a journalist.
Это карандаш. А это?
This is a pencil. And (what about) this?
(We know it’s a pencil, but what is this new item?)
…You’ll be encountering these two short words A LOT in Russian. They serve a multitude of purposes.
💎III. the nominative case
The nominative case, known in Russian as именительный падеж, is the first of six cases in Russian, and highlights the subject [person/thing performing the action] in a sentence [Ex. I write blog posts; The book enchants.] Who writes blog posts? I write blog posts. What enchants? The book enchants.
Thus, this case answers the questions что? and кто? We’ll learn more about this when we explore verb conjugations in greater depth – beyond the extremely basic verb быть. But for the sake of clarity, let’s see some slightly more advanced examples.
–Кто это? –Это я.
Who is it? -It is I.
–Кто делает торт? –Я делаю торт.
Who makes a cake? –I make a cake.
–Что это? –Это книга.
What is it? -It’s a book.
–Что путает тебя? –Русский путает меня.
What confuses you? –Russian confuses me.
Whenever questions involving что? and кто? are asked, they require the nominative case, which means the answers will involve this case. Don’t forget this key information! It is the key to understanding Russian.
…Меня and тебя are personal pronouns in the accusative case. We’ll learn about this case in a later lesson.
…
The nominative case is also the base form of all nouns in Russian. Whenever you look up a word in a Russian dictionary, it will be presented in its nominative form. If dictionaries listed every possible declension, Russian dictionaries would explode from too much info.
Before we can correctly decline a noun in Russian, we must learn about gender in Russian. There are three: masculine, feminine and neuter. Determining it is rather easy – just follow a couple of rules and you’ll get it right approximately 95% of the time.
Masculine nouns end in a consonant and the letter й.
| рынок | market |
| трамвай | tram |
Feminine nouns end in –а and –я.
| бабушка | grandmother |
| неделя | week |
Neuter nouns end in –о and –е.
| блюдо | dish |
| поле | field |
Those pesky nouns ending in a soft sign (ь) can be either masculine or feminine. Most are feminine, but it’s worth memorizing their gender. It’s crucial to know the correct gender for proper adjective agreement and noun declension (both to be presented in later lessons).
| М [masculine nouns] | Ж [feminine nouns] |
| дождь [rain] | вещь [thing] |
| день [day] | ночь [night] |
IV. pluralization
Pluralization in Russian is sometimes a little complex. We’ve only been exposed to one case thus far: the nominative, and we’ve learned how to form this case’s plural.
Masculine
…to a consonant add –ы
| стол [table] | столы [tables] |
| автобус [bus] | автобусы [buses] |
…change –й to –и
| трамвай [tram] | трамваи [trams] |
Feminine
…change –а to –ы
| карта [map] | карты [maps] |
| страница [page] | страницы [pages] |
…change –я to –и
| неделя [week] | недели [weeks] |
| статья [article] | статьи [articles] |
Neuter
…change –о to –а
| окно [window] | окна [windows] |
| блюдо [plate] | блюда [plates] |
…change –е to –я
| море [sea] | моря [seas] |
| поле [field] | поля [fields] |
V. plural
Adjectives describe nouns. In Russian, adjectives have four endings: masculine, feminine, neuter and plural. Thus, they must agree with nouns in gender and number. Case too! We’ll see that in later lessons. Below are the usual endings for adjectives:
| M. | F. | N. | P. |
| –ый | –ая | –ое | –ые |
Here is a sampling of some commonly used adjectives:
добрый (kind)
красивый (beautiful)
умный (smart)
интересный (interesting)
Он добрый.
He’s kind.
Она добрая.
She’s kind.
Оно доброе.
It’s kind.
Они добрые.
They’re kind.
Almost all adjectives in Russian end in –ый (masculine singular form of the nominative case) as their default form – the one you’ll find listed in dictionaries.
With that, this post has reached its conclusion. See you in the next one!
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