Svetlana Flemming - Colloquial Russian - The Next Step in Language Learning

kremli´

vozmo´'nost;

vozmo´'nosti

vre´mq

vremena´

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Russia and the Russian language

Notes:

1 The spelling rule may require a change from -y to -i: kni´ga –

kni´gi ‘books’.

2 Some masculine nouns have a nominative plural in -a´: beŕeg –

berega´ ‘banks’; ve´her – vehera´ ‘evenings’; dom – doma´ ‘houses’; goŕod – goroda´ ‘towns’.

3 Nouns in -anin end in -ane: anglihańin – anglihańe

‘Englishmen’ but gospodiń – gospoda´ ‘gentlemen’.

4 Other exceptions: uhi´tel; – uhitelq´ ‘teachers’; brat – bra´t;q

‘brothers’; stul – stuĺ;q ‘chairs’; drug – druz;q´ ‘friends’; syn

– synov;q´ ‘sons’; deŕevo – dere´v;q ‘trees’; rebe¨nok – de´ti ‘children’; helove´k – l[´di ‘people’; mat; – ma´teri ‘mothers’; doh;

– do´heri ‘daughters’. (Note that all forms of mat; and doh; , apart from the nominative and accusative singular, have

-er- before the ending).

5 Some nouns, generally of foreign origin, are indeclinable. They never change their endings and do not even have a plural.

Adjectives describing them will decline in the usual way, however.

Their gender can generally be determined by their ending, as with declinable nouns, but note taksi´ – neuter.

Adjectives

There are two basic sets of adjective endings: hard and soft.

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

Plural

Hard

intereśnyj

intereśnaq

intereśnoe

intereśnye

interesting

Soft

dre´vnij

dre´vnqq

dre´vnee

dre´vnie

ancient

Notes:

1 Adjectives with stressed endings have the masculine ending -o´j: kruto´j, kruta´q, krutoé, kruty

é ‘steep’.

2 Endings may be altered by the spelling rules: ruśskij, ruśskaq, ruśskoe,

ruśskie ‘Russian’; xoro´wij,

xoro´waq,

xoro´wee,

xoro´wie ‘good’; bol;wo´j, bol;wa´q, bol;woé, bol;wié ‘big’.

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Pronouns

2

3

Singular

Plural

4

5

q

I

my

we

6

7

ty

you

vy

you

(singular and familiar)

(plural and polite)

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on

he, it (masculine)

oni´

they (all genders)

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ona´

she, it (feminine)

1

ono´

it (neuter)

2

3

kto

who

4

hto

what

5

6

7

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

Plural

8

9

moj

my

moq´

moe¨

moi´

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tvoj

your (singular

tvoq´

tvoe¨

tvoi´

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and familiar)

2

naw

our

na´wa

na´we

na´wi

3

4

vaw

your (plural

va´wa

va´we

va´wi

and polite)

5

6

ves;

all

vsq

vse¨

vse

7

hej

whose

h;q

h;e¨

h;i

8

\´tot

this/these

\´ta

\´to

\´ti

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tot

that/those

ta

to

te

1

2

Note:

3

4

The third person forms are indeclinable and remain the same what-5

ever the case gender or number of the noun they describe: 6

ego´

his, its (m and n);

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ee¨

her, its ( f );

8

ix

their

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Russia and the Russian language

Exercise 1

Pick out the nouns, adjectives and pronouns in the nominative case from the following passage.

Moskva´ – Moscow

Peŕvoe letopiśnoe upominańie o Moskveótnośitsq k 1147 godu´.

Osnova´tel; Moskvy´ byl suźdal;skij knqz; {rij Vladi´mirovih Dolgoru´kij. |to on vy´bral meśto dlq stroi´tel;stva goŕoda. Goŕod ros byśtro i u'e´ v 14-om ve´ke stal ceńtrom ruśskix zemeĺ;. Moskvaóstavaĺas; stolićej vplot; do 1713 go´da kogda´ Pe¨tr Peŕvyj perene¨s stoliću v no´vyj goŕod – Peterbuŕg. Toĺ;ko v 1918 goduú'e´ pośle Revol[

ćii Moskvaśno´va staĺa stolićej, snahaĺa Sove´tskogo So[źa, a poto´m Rossií.

For information on dates and other uses of ordinal numerals see Unit 4.

Vocabulary ♦

vy

´ brat;

to choose

knqz; ( m )

prince

letopiśnoe upominańie

chronicle reference

osnova´tel; ( m )