*Russian Language*

[Asalbanoo]

The Russian Alphabet

The Russian words in the following list are all written with the Cyrillic alphabet but if you read them carefully, one word at a time, from top to bottom beginning at the top of the left-hand column, by the time you reach the final word in the lower right-hand corner, you will know the Cyrillic alphabet (as well as a few Russian words). Use the Greek letters you know to help. There is also a helpful table on the next page. )


мама granny's kid
папа the other granny's kid
акт part of a play
парк a rest area
порт any is fine in a storm
террор Stalin's forte публика John
метеор falling star
доктор has infinite patients
трактор what farmers ride
термометр it has a lot of degrees
математика the unnatural science
Америка Yuwessov, .
Арктика go there for goosebumps
радио it talks and rocks
радиатор a source of warmth !
драма unfunny stuff
Африка a major continent
факт something undeniableit
фронт put up a good one
танк heavy-duty
патент protector of inventions
Антарктика opposite of Арктика
капитан the boat's boss
митинг let's all get together
план a good idea
гранит a hard stone
грамм European measure
гол where you score ?
металл heavy stuff
телефон distant sound machine
телеграф Western Union
телеграмма a wire
лампа it sheds much light
ангел a feathered friend
Италия the boot country !
Германия Reunited at last!
Англия Hail Brittania!
армия big bunch of fighters
салат uncooked greens
аспирин headache med'cine
сигара product of Cuba
министр government official
сенат US deadwood branch
сенатор US political deadwood
система organization
сигнал it let's you know
авиатор a flyer
ветеран s/he's been around
витамин health pills
веранда where Southern belles sit
вампир suave blood-sucker
Волга famous Russian river ]
студент an easy job
университет sports-fraternity complex
аудитория a good place to spectate
литература like, uh, novels & pomes
август a summery month

[Asalbanoo]

аа

бб

вв

гг

дд

ее

ёёё

жж

ззэ

иии

йй

кка

лл

мм

нн

оо

пп

рр

сс

тт

уу

фф

хх

цц

чч

шш

щщ

ъъ

ыы

ьь

ээ

юю

яя

[piremard]

sbasiba мед дамой

[Asalbanoo]

spelling system is far simpler than that of English. The system is basically this: one sound, one letter; one letter, one sound. There are a few disparities, but only a few. To give you an idea of just how few: they are all just below on this one page. Russian kids learn them by the end of first grade; if you are past this stage, you should pick them up with no difficulty. Right?

1. Hard and Soft Vowels. Russian has a system of 'soft' or 'palatalized' consonants which parallels that of the regular consonants. (Soft consonants are pronounced as though you were pronouncing that consonant and a 'y' simultaneously.) Fourteen Russian consonants come in soft-hard pairs and, if the Russian alphabet assigned a distinct consonant for each, we would have to memorize fourteen additional consonant letters.


However, because they want their language to remain the simplest language in the world, the Russians decided to use the following vowel to indicate whether the preceding consonant is hard or soft. Since the Russian language has only 5 distinct vowel sounds, this system requires only 5 additional letters. This saves the Russian-language learner 9 letters to memorize! Here are the 10 vowel letters which indicate whether the preceding consonant is 'hard' or 'soft'. Remember, each vowel of the pair is pronounced identically, except for the ы and the и. The approximate pronunciation is given to the right.

Table I: Russian Vowels

Hard
а,э,ы,о,у

Soft
я,е,и,ё,ю

The vowel letters in the left column occur only after 'hard' consonants; those in the right column appear only after 'soft' consonants.

You must remember that, after applying all the other rules of Russian, especially when adding noun, verb, and adjectives endings, you must be sure to convert any 'hard consonant' vowel to its 'soft' alternate, if the suffix begins with a vowel and is added to a stem ending on a consonant.

Also, if any word ends on a vowel from the right-hand column, then its stem ends on a soft consonant, so when changing the endings on such words, you must consistently use the vowels from the 'soft' column. The following table shows what I mean. [For best results in studying this table, focus on one word at a time and follow the change in each word. Begin with the forms in the left columns; they provide you with the basic vowel used after hard consonants. The right-hand column shows you the rule for converting the basic vowel to the vowel used after a soft consonant.]

Table II: Vowel Alternations after Soft Consonants

after hard cosonent
C + а стол-а
C + e стол-е
C + ы стол-ы
C + о окн-о
C + у стол-у

after soft consonent
Cь + а > я
Cь + е > е
Cь + ы > и
Cь + о > ё
Cь + у > ю


"Cь" = any soft consonant in the table above. To compare the use of the 'soft' vowels after soft consonants (Cь) and the 'hard' vowels after hard consonants (C), examine the table below. Женя is the nickname for Евгений "Eugene" or Евгения "Eugenia" and жена means "wife". Table III shows some of them in their various case forms.

Table III: Hard & Soft Consonants

Nominative : жена Женя
Genitive : жены Жени
Accusative : жену Женю
Instrumental :женой Женей

2. The Combination of й+V (y+vowel) Russian orthography does not allow spellings with й (jod) plus a vowel, that is, й+а, й+э, й+ы, й+о, й+у. Instead, the "soft" vowels are also used to indicate these combinations, as the following table illustrates.

Table IV: Jod + Vowel Combinations
стол-а 'of a table'
стол-ы 'tables' (Pl
стол-ом 'with a table'
стол-у 'to a table'

In their attempt to simplify their alphabet for us, the Russians developed a spelling system that leaves us another problem: how to indicate the softness of consonants at the end of words or before other consonants, i. e. when no vowel follows. If the consonant is hard--no problem: стол "table". However, if the consonant is soft, a soft sign (ь) must be added to distinguish the soft consonant from its corresponding hard variant, e.g. мать "mother", дверь "door", день "day"; только "only", судьба "fate", просьба "request".

3. The 7 Consonant Rule. Also remember that after к г х (velars) and ш ж щ ч (hushes) never write ы but always и, e.g. студенты "students" but студентки "coeds", лифтёры "elevator operators" but лифтёрши "women elevator operators".

4. The 5 Consonant Rule. After ш ж щ ч ц write o if that syllable is accented and e if it is not, e.g. в большом хорошем доме "in a big nice house". (The light letters indicate accent placement.)

5. The Hush Rule. Finally, after hushes (ш ж щ ч) never write я or ю but always а and у.


*example are in green

[Asalbanoo]

you have probably heard the traditional definitions of the part of speech, e.g. that nouns are words that denote 'persons, places, or things' and verbs are words that denote actions. It probably occurred to you that, well, persons and places are things, so why not just 'nouns are words that denote things'? And sit and sleep are verbs but they hardly denote actions. In fact, nouns do represent concepts as things, verbs as actions or states, and adjectives as qualities. Take the concept 'quick', for example. It is basically an adjective, so it indicates a quality, i.e. a characteristic of something else. However, the same concept may be represented in the language as a noun (quickness), a verb (quicken), or as an adverb (quickly).


Adjective Quick fingers, for example, are fingers with the suspicious quality or characteristic of quickness. Quick is an adjective.
Noun The noun, quickness, represents the same concept, quickness, as a thing, in this case an abstract, uncountable thing but thing nonetheless. (Click here for details.)
Verb In the phrase she quickened the pace the same concept turns up representing an action, so it must be a verb.
Adverb Finally, in she quickly removed her cigar, the same concept represents a characteristic of an action. In this case it is an adverb.


These are semantic definitions of the major parts of speech. In Russian the parts of speech are also formally distinguished by different sets of endings. Nouns and adjectives have declensional endings which are distinct from each other and different from the verbal conjugation endings. The type of adverb described in the table is simply an adjective modifying a verb and usually sports a neutral, non-agreeing -o ending. The other type is the 'Delimiter' (for which see below). So it is easy to distinguish the major parts of speech in Russian; they are both formally and semantically definable. Just follow the links to the formal definitions of the Russian parts of speech.


Pronouns might be divided up into 'pronouns', 'pro-verbs' (as opposed to 'proverbs', which none of them are), 'proadjectives', and 'proadverbs' because they belong formally and semantically to the major parts of speech classes. They are minor major parts of speech. He, she and it in English, for example replace nouns like John, the house, and the girl. Which, as in which book, replaces an adjective, e.g. the red book. Do in English is a kind of 'pro-verb', for it replaces any verb: What did you do? : I oversurfed.


The other minor parts of speech found in Russian include:

Pronouns words that replace nouns but also adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, e.g. I, you, he, she, it; this, that; there, where—and do is the English verbal pronoun
Prepositions things that explain the relations between the major parts of speech like in, on, to, for, betwixt and between
Conjunctions things that connect the major parts of speech or clauses within the sentence, such as if, and or but
Particles or Delimiters small items that add peripherally to the meaning like, well, like, so, too, and sorta

(Russian gets along fine without articles like English a and the, thank you. This is one of the reasons that is is so simple!)

[Asalbanoo]

There are two basic types of accent in Standard Contemporary Russian (for nouns and adjectives as well as verbs): (1) fixed and (2) variable. If the accent falls on the same syllable of every form in a conjugation, it is fixed. Fixed accent may be fall on the same syllable of the stem or on the ending. If the position of the accent is not the same throughout the conjugation, it is said to be 'variable', and shifts between the first syllable of the ending and the last syllable of the stem.

Imvariable Accent
Stem Accent

Many verbs in Russian exhibit accent on one syllable of the stem where it remains no matter which ending is attached to the verb: present-future, past, imperative, infinitive. The following table illustrates the fixed accent pattern in the first and second conjugations with делай- 'do, make' and остави- 'leave (something)'. The accented syllable is indicated in the table below by boldface type.


Click any of the highlighted words and hear how each of the forms in the conjugation are pronounced. Pay particular attention to the loudest syllable: that is the accented one.

[Dianella]

Hello My very Dear asalbanoo!

Thanks a lot for starting such a useful topic,
I will be a serious user of it!

Good Luck

P.S Thanks posts are forbidden!

[amin_metal1370]

نوشته شده توسط piremard

sbasiba мед дамой

vi gavarite pa rooski my droog

[amin_metal1370]

if there is any question about Russian lang,I can help friends.
Budite zdarove(be in peace)

[piremard]

نوشته شده توسط amin_metal1370

vi gavarite pa rooski my droog

как вы понимаете русский язык?