Lesson 9 is here! In this lesson, we’ll learn a handful of useful prepositions, then something we learned in a previous lesson, but with some more depth added to it.
I. Prepositions with Genitive
The expressions we’ll be learning below all require the genitive case.
The prepositions далеко [far] and близко [close] are often followed by от. We can now express something a little more complex:
Далеко от вулкана есть деревня.
There’s a village far from the volcano.
Близко от вулкана есть море.
There’s a sea close to the volcano.
Here we use есть to express existence.
And we can negate these sentences. We replace есть with нет, and remember, with нет the genitive is required.
Далеко от вулкана нет деревни.
There isn’t a village far from the volcano.
Близко от вулкана нет моря.
There isn’t a sea near the volcano.
Let’s throw in two more prepositions followed by от:
Слева от магазина есть аптека.
There’s a pharmacy to the left of the store.
Справа от аптеки есть магазина.
There’s a store to the right of the pharmacy.
Also, note that the word order is different in Russian here. In Russian, new information tends to come at the end of a sentence. And old information comes at the beginning. This helps us decide which article to use in the translation.
Having learned this, we can form sentences with greater depth.
–Что это? –Это вулкан. Он очень большой, и далеко от него есть деревня.
What is this? -It’s a volcano. It’s very big, and there’s a village far from it.
The preposition от means from when used with people.
Это письмо от дедушки.
It’s a letter from grandpa.
Это сообщение от Адриана.
It’s a message from Adrian.
The useful construction от…до… means from…to… when referring to location.
От Берлина до Томска очень далеко.
From Berlin to Tomsk, it’s very far.
…In case you were wondering, Tomsk is a city in Siberia.
The preposition до means [up] until. Having learned its meaning, you can fully understand these phrases we learned in lesson 5.5.
До втречи! [See you later!] [lit. until the meeting]
До завтра! [See you tomorrow!} [lit. until tomorrow]
There’s also a useful expression to learn: до чего [же]. It roughly translates as what a [indicating surprise, admiration]. By the way, чего is the genitive of что. We’ll learn more about this declension later!
До чего же прекрасный день!
What a beautiful day!
The preposition без means without.
Вот кофе без сахара.
Here’s a coffee without sugar.
Вот женщина без макияжа.
Here’s a woman without make-up.
II. Expressing What is? Who is?
In a previous lesson, we learned how to express what is this? and who is this? They are: Что это? Кто это?
What if you wanted to ask, for example, what is a house? In this sense, you are asking for the definition of a house. You would then need to say:
Что такое дом?
What is a house?
The word такое will remain unchanged regardless of the noun’s gender or number.
Что такое книга?
What is a book?
Что такое море?
What is a sea?
Что такое часы?
What is a watch?
This can also be used with people. However, with people you need to have agreement with такой. This adjective works like this:
| Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Plur. |
| такой | такая | такое | такие |
…this adjective also has some interesting meanings that we’ll discuss late on.
Кто такой Владимир Путин?
Who is Vladimir Putin?
Кто такая Арина Сабаленко?
Who is Arina Sabalenka?
Кто такие Ивановы?
Who are the Ivanovs?
In these instances, you could say кто + person of interest, but the above constructions add a little more emphasis. What is this person like? Their profession, goals, etc.
That is all for today’s lesson! See you in the next lesson, which will be a review lesson!
My Slavic Studies 