Alright, we’re moving to pluralization. This will be the bulk of lesson four. The endings to be learned are abundant enough. If you feel overwhelmed, don’t worry! There will be opportunities to practice what you learn in this lesson and have already learned in the previous three lesson. (Once I get those quizzes made!)
I. Pluralization
Time to start learning plurals. Forming the plural in English is very straightforward. In most cases it’s going to be either –s or –es that gets added to a noun.
| Singular | Plural |
| book | books |
| couch | couches |
Now of course there are irregularities, but that’s the general rule.
Well, in Russian, it’s more complex. In fact, there are six plurals! We’ll be learning the nominative plural in this lesson only, since we have already learned the nominative singular. You need to know the singular and plural of this case in order to form the additional cases. When you learn the other cases, it will all make sense.
Masculine Nouns
Add –ы to a consonant.
| магазин [store] | магазины [stores] |
| стол [table] | столы [tables] |
| ананас [pineapple] | ананасы [pineapples] |
Feminine Nouns
Replace –я with –и.
| неделя [week] | недели [weeks] |
| статья [article] | статьи [articles] |
| кухня [kitchen] | кухни [kitchens] |
Replace –а with –ы:
| страница [page] | страницы [pages] |
| карта [map] | карты [maps] |
| цена [price] | цены [prices] |
Neuter Nouns
Replace –е with –я.
| море [sea] | моря [seas] |
| поле [field] | поля [fields] |
Replace –о with –а.
| окно [window] | окна [windows] |
| блюдо [dish] | блюда [dishes] |
…The overwhelming majority of nouns ending in –е and –о are of foreign origin [кофе – coffee, капучино – cappuccino, etc.]. And many of them don’t decline – they never change! Isn’t that wonderful news!
II. The conjunction или
We’re shifting our focus to the conjunction или, which means or. We already know two key conjunctions in Russian: и and а.
Это дом или магазин.
This is a house or a store.
And you can turn it into a question:
Это дом или магазин?
Is this a house or a store?
Let’s take it a little further. There is a useful construction with или: или…или… This means either…or… Thus, one can say:
Это или дом, или магазин.
This is either a house or a store.
The conjunction или, doesn’t require a comma before it, unless it’s doubled in the construction или…или…
III. The conjunction но
I’ve got another conjunction for you. It’s another key one in Russian. It’s но, which means but.
Это старый, но красивый дом.
It’s an interesting, but strange house.
Это дом. Он старый, но красивый.
This is a house. It’s old, but pretty.
…Unless starting a sentence, но is always preceded by a comma.
That concludes lesson four. See you in the next lesson! Spoiler alert: it’s going to differ from the previous four lessons.
My Slavic Studies 