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What to memorize in Russian | ||
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4475 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 12 08 August 2012 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What to memorize in Russian
I am a student of the Russian language. A few weeks ago I finally felt good enough about my spoken Russian skills to tell people that I speak Russian. I have taken a lot of helpful advice from the language learning community, so I wanted to do something to help others in return. One thing I hope will be helpful is listing the things I think a learner should memorize. This was always something hard to figure out as I trudged through vocabulary and grammar. I ended up making short lists of things I thought would be helpful to memorize on the side. I took things from several sources, and eventually put all these short lists into a shared Anki deck named “Russian Grammar and Examples”. I’m not suggesting that memorizing these things is the same as mastering them. You will have to use them heavily before they become automatic enough to produce in normal speech, for example. Also, I’m not saying that this is the right thing to do for every learner. Some people prefer not to do any isolated vocabulary or grammar study. I believe that the most efficient path for many learners is a combination of deliberate memorization, and heavy usage. So I provided the list to save a lot of leg work. As for how to use the list – although it would be possible, it might not be the best idea to blindly memorize this list. That would probably be more difficult and less useful than waiting until one has studied the grammar topic of the items to be memorized. That being said, I haven’t organized this to match any specific program or grammar text; it’s organized by topic. Maybe the best way to use this resource is just to visit the list after covering a topic, and memorize the pertinent items. I’ll tell you what I did when I created the list, and you can decide for yourself if this is helpful. I made a short list of stuff I wanted to memorize plus examples in Excel. I hand wrote the list into a notebook, memorized it, and reviewed it for 3 days. Then I put it into an Anki deck. Why the complicated process? Because much of this stuff is pretty hard for me to memorize. For me, it was harder to memorize than just ordinary vocabulary and sentences. I normally don’t use other people’s decks. But if I’d had a resource like this available when I started learning, I would have used it instead of digging through all the different resources. Yes, I learned something by doing all the research on my own, but I would have rather used that time memorizing the information. Let me state my level - it’s not that high, so you may want to take my advice with a grain of salt. I’ll let you be the judge. I have completed Beginner’s Russian Script, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, Assimil and Penguin. I’ve listened to and read hundreds of podcasts. I’ve watched about 100 movies if you count the repeats, sometimes reading Russian subtitles, sometimes not. I spent 2 weeks in a Russian language course in Russia last year, while staying at a homestay. I’ve spent many hours conversing on skype. I suspect I have close to 150 hours of conversation, and about 1500 hours total into the language by now. My vocabulary is about 1500 active/3000 passive. I feel I am B1. Disclaimers: I am a native English speaker, and although this post might be useful for others, it’s written for native English speakers learning Russian. Again, merely memorizing these things isn’t a substitute for heavy usage. Think of it as giving yourself a solid memory hook that will speed the process of making the grammar and vocabulary automatic. I left out a lot of items that become automatic with light usage. No need to make the list too long. There are exceptions to many of these rules. The Anki deck includes examples that should help in memorizing these things, if you like using pre-made decks. If there is interest, I’ll post the examples here too; I didn’t do it because I wanted to keep the post shorter. I have given some reasons for learning things on the list, but I didn’t want to go into too much detail. This post is long enough as it is. Pronunciation/Orthography I probably read the first two rules about 100 times each before I broke down and just memorized them. This is a perfect example of how a little bit of memorization and a lot of usage is better than pure usage. As I said earlier, I’m not going to make this post longer by giving you reasons behind every point. You can either find out for yourself, ask, or take my word for it. 1. Vowels ‘а’ and ‘о’ are pronounced [a] either in initial position or 1 syllable before stress. After the stressed syllable or more than one syllable before stress they are reduced to “schwa” [ə]. 2. Unstressed vowels ‘e’ and ‘я’ (and ‘a’ after ‘ч, щ’) are pronounced [ə] in final position. Elsewhere they reduce to [и] ([йи] if word- initial). 3. ё is always stressed 4. Voiced/voiceless consonants are (б в г д ж з / п ф к т ш с) 5. Hard/soft indicating vowels are (а э ы о у / я е и ё ю) 6. (ж ш ц) are always pronounced hard: цирк pronounced [цырк] 7. (ч щ й) are always pronounced soft: часто pronounced [чясто] 8. If a consonant is followed by ь, it’s soft unless the consonant is (ж ш ц) 9. after г, к, х and ч, ж, ш, щ you can't write ы; instead use и 10. after г, к, х and ч, ж, ш, щ, ц you can't write ю and я; instead use у and а 11. Unstressed о may not occur after ж, ч, ш, щ, ц in endings (but it may occur in roots). The letter о should be replaced by the letter е 12. Memorize the names and order of the alphabet: А(a), Б(бэ), В(вэ), Г(гэ), Д(дэ), Е(е), Ё(ё), Ж(жэ), З(зэ), И(и), Й(и кра́ткое), К(ка), Л(эл), М(эм), Н(эн), О(о), П(пэ), Р(эр), С(эс), Т(тэ), У(у), Ф(эф), Х(ха), Ц(це), Ч(че), Ш(ша), Щ(ща), Ъ(твёрдый знак), Ы(ы), Ь(мягкий знак), Э(э), Ю(ю), Я(я) Cases If you ask me what the hardest thing about Russian grammar is, I will say the cases. After wasting tons of time going back and forth looking it up in tables from several different sources, I found that memorizing the stuff below really helped me do exercises faster, and consequently pushed the grammar into my conversation faster. Nominative Case In addition to the stuff below, if you memorize isolated vocabulary, I have some suggestions. 1.Most nouns that end in ь are female. When you memorize one that is male, memorize the fact that it’s male too. 2.I recommend memorizing all adjectives in their male (dictionary) forms. If you want to memorize an adverb, and it has a corresponding male adjective, just memorize the male adjective instead. э́тот, э́то, э́та, э́ти this (m; n; f; pl) (N) тот, то, та, те that (m; n; f; pl) (N) весь, всё, вся, все all (m; n; f; pl) (N) сам, само́, сама́, са́ми self (m; n; f; pl) (N) наш, на́ше, на́ша, на́ши our; your(pl) (m; n; f; pl) (N) мой, моё, моя́, мои́ my; your(sg); свой (m; n; f; pl) (N) ый, о́й, ий m adj (N) ое n adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий)(N) ee n adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций)(N) ая f adj (not ний)(N) яя f adj (ний)(N) ый ой ий ая яя ое ее singular adj endings (N) ые pl adj (ый, о́й) (N) ие pl adj (ий) (N) ые ие plural adj endings (N) ы pl m nouns ending in consonant, pl f nouns ending in a (N) и pl m nouns ending in й, pl f nouns ending in я, pl nouns ending in ь (N) a (usually shift stress) pl n nouns ending in o (N) я pl n nouns ending in e (N) ы и а я plural noun endings (N) Genitive Case у, с(from), до, из, от, без, дла prepositions (G) short кроме, мимо, около, после, против, ради prepositions (G) long меня, тебя, его, её, нас, вас, их personal pronouns (G) Меня me (G) Тебя you (G) singular Его him (G) Её her (G) Его it (G) Нас us (G) Вас you (G) plural Их them (G) кого́ who (G) чего́ what (G) э́того, э́той, э́тих this (m&n; f; pl) (G) того́, той, тех that (m&n; f; pl) (G) всего́, всей, всех all (m&n; f; pl) (G) самого́, само́й, сами́х self (m&n; f; pl) (G) на́шего, на́шей, на́ших our; your(pl) (m&n; f; pl) (G) моего́, мое́й, мои́х my; your(sg); свой (m&n; f; pl) (G) consonant add a; й becomes я; ь becomes я m nouns (G) а becomes ы; я becomes и; ь becomes и f nouns (G) o becomes a; e becomes я; мя becomes ени n nouns (G) а я ы и ени sg noun endings (G) ь becomes ей (ере́й for мать and дочь) pl of ь nouns (G) ей pl nouns ending in ж,ч,ш,щ (G) ов pl m nouns (non-husher consonant) (G) drop the a or o pl f nouns ending in a; pl n nouns ending in o (G) ий pl nouns ending in ия or ие (G) ей ов ев truncate ий pl noun endings (G) ого m&n adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий)(G) его m&n adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций)(G) ой f adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий)(P) ей f adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций)(P) ого его ой ей sg adj endings (G) ых pl adj (ый, о́й) (G) их pl adj (ий) (e) ых их pl adj endings (G) adj=G pl; noun=G pl (5 or more) + adj + noun declinations adj=G pl; noun=G sg (2,3,4) + adj + m&n noun declination adj=N pl; noun=G sg (or adj=G pl if G sg noun not same as N pl noun) (2,3,4) + adj + f noun declination Prepositional Case в(in), на(on), о, при prepositions (P) мне, тебе, нём, ней, нас, вас, них personal pronouns (P) Мне me (P) Тебе you (P) singular Нём him (P) Ней her (P) Нём it (P) Нас us (P) Вас you (P) plural Них them (P) ком who (P) чём what (P) э́том, э́той, э́тих this (m&n; f; pl) (P) том, той, тех that (m&n; f; pl) (P) всём, всей, всех all (m&n; f; pl) (P) само́м, само́й, сами́х self (m&n; f; pl) (P) на́шом, на́шей, на́ших our; your(pl) (m&n; f; pl) (P) моём, мое́й, мои́х my; your(sg); свой (m&n; f; pl) (P) e nouns ending in consonant, й, а, о, masculine nouns ending in ь, nouns ending in е or я (not ие, ия) (P) и female nouns ending in ь (P) ии nouns ending in ие or ия (P) е и ии singular noun endings (P) ах pl noun (nom pl ends in ы or а)(P) ях pl noun (nom pl ends in и or я)(P) ах ях plural noun endings (P) ом m&n adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий)(P) ем m&n adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций)(P) ой f adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий)(P) ей f adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций)(P) ом ем ой ей singular adj endings (P) ых pl adj (ый, о́й)(P) их pl adj (ий)(P) ых их plural adj endings (P) Accusative Case в(into), на(onto), за(for), через prepositions (A) G pronouns (A) G who (A) N what (A) N or G, э́ту, N or G this (m&n; f; pl) (A) N or G, ту, N or G that (m&n; f; pl) (A) N or G, всю, N or G all (m&n; f; pl) (A) N or G, саму́, N or G self (m&n; f; pl) (A) N or G, на́шу, N or G our; your(pl) (m&n; f; pl) (A) N or G, мою́, N or G my; your(sg); свой (m&n; f; pl) (A) N nouns not male animate, not ending in a and я (A) у and ю nouns ending in a and я(A) a animate masculine nouns ending in consonants (A) я animate masculine nouns ending in ь or й (A) nom у ю а я singular noun endings (A) N pl inanimate nouns(A) G pl animate nouns(A) nom gen plural noun endings (A) the adj is the same as nom adj - if the noun is the same as nom (A) ого adj (ый, о́й, гий, кий, хий) m anim (A) его adj (ний, жий, чий, ший, щий, ций) m anim (A) change to ую, юю adj (ая, яя) f (A) nom ого его ую юю singular adj endings (A) N pl inanimate adj(A) G pl animate adj(A) nom gen plural adj endings (A) Dative Case по, к prepositions (D) мне, тебе, ему, ей, нам, вам, им personal pronouns (D) кому́ who (D) чему́ what (D) э́тому, э́той, э́тим this (m&n; f; pl) (D) тому́, той, тем that (m&n; f; pl) (D) всему́, всей, всем all (m&n; f; pl) (D) самому́, само́й, сами́м self (m&n; f; pl) (D) на́шему, на́шей, на́шим our; your(pl) (m&n; f; pl) (D) моему́, мое́й, мои́м my; your(sg); свой (m&n; f; pl) (D) Мне me (D) Тебе you (D) singular Ему him (D) Ей her (D) Ему it (D) Нам us (D) Вам you (D) plural Им them (D) add у masculine nouns ending in a consonant (D) ending becomes ю masculine nouns ending in ь or й (D) same as prepositional Feminine nouns, and male nouns ending in а/я (D) у ю prep singular noun endings (D) ending becomes ам plural nouns if nom plural ends in ы or а (D) ending becomes ям plural nouns if nom plural ends in и or я (D) ам ям plural noun endings (D) same as prep + у m or n adjectives (D) same as prep f adjectives (D) ому ему ой ей singular adj endings (D) ым plural adj (ый, о́й) (D) им plural adj (ий) (D) ым им plural adj endings (D) помога́ть/помо́чь &nb sp;helpful verb that's followed by dative speaking, communicating, giving types of verbs that often take Dative Instrumental Case за(behind), между, над, перед, под, с(with) prepositions (I) мной, тобой, им, ей, нами, вами, ими personal pronouns (I) Мной me (I) Тобой you (I) singular Им him (I) Ей her (I) Им it (I) Нами us (I) Вами you (I) plural Ими them (I) кем who (I) чем what (I) э́тим, э́той, э́тими this (m&n; f; pl) (I) тем, той, те́ми that (m&n; f; pl) (I) всем, всей, все́ми all (m&n; f; pl) (I) сами́м, само́й, сами́ми self (m&n; f; pl) (I) на́шим, на́шей, на́шими our; your(pl) (m&n; f; pl) (I) мои́м, мое́й, мои́ми my; your(sg); свой (m&n; f; pl) (I) ом m nouns ending in a consonant, n nouns ending in o (I) ем (ём if stressed) m nouns ending in ь or й; n nouns ending in e or ё (I) ой m and f nouns ending in a (I) ей (ёй if stressed) nouns ending in я (I) add ю f nouns ending in ь (I) ом ем ём ой ей ёй ю singular noun endings (I) ending becomes ами plural nouns if nom plural ends in ы or а (I) ending becomes ями plural nouns if nom plural ends in и or я (I) ами ями plural noun endings (I) ым m and n adj (ый, о́й) (I) им m and n adj (ий) (I) ей or ой (same as prep) f adj (I) ым им ой ей singular adj endings (I) ыми plural adj (ый, о́й) (I) ими plural adj (ий) (I) ыми ими plural adj endings (I) быть заниматься казаться станови́ться/стать явля́ться verbs followed by instrumental Verbs In addition to the stuff below, if you like to memorize isolated verbs, I have some suggestions. 1. Memorize verb pairs (imperfective/perfective) rather than single verbs 2. Russian verbs aren’t nearly as regular as some people would have you believe. In fact, unless you are of the school that there are 6 verb classifications instead of 2, and stress doesn’t matter, there are many groups of exceptions. So I suggest memorizing some conjugations. Bare minimum would be one of each of these types: знать, говорить, путешествовать, нравиться and all the verbs of motion listed below. You’ll have to know a lot more than that, but hopefully you can absorb the rest through usage. й(те) imperative ending, stem ending with vowel и́(те) imperative ending, stem of ты form ends in consonant and a я form stressed on the end ь(те) imperative ending, stem ends in consonant and stressed on stem лучший, худший, больший, меньший, младший(anim), старший(anim) declineabl e comparative adjectives used before nouns н л р п б м в (comparative) add indeclinable ee to adj with last consonant… change the stem and add indeclinable e (comparative) if not ending in indeclinable ee … бес без without (prefix) в во in (prefix) вз вс воз вос up (prefix) вы out(prefix) до as far as; up to(prefix) за behind; dropping in; starting(prefix) между between (prefix) на on; a qty of(prefix) не not (prefix) от ото away/back(prefix) пере across; again(prefix) по a little(prefix) под подо under; approaching(prefix) пред pre(prefix) при arrival; proximity(prefix) про through; past; pro (prefix) раз рас dis; breaking up; different directions(prefix) с со off; down; with(prefix) у away(prefix) об around; totality (prefix) ходи́ть/идти́ to go (on foot) (m/u) VOM е́здить/е́хать to go (by transport) (m/u) VOM бе́гать/бежа́ть t o run (m/u) VOM лета́ть/лете́ть t o fly (m/u) VOM носи́ть/нести́ to carry (m/u) VOM води́ть/вести́ to lead (take on foot) (m/u) VOM вози́ть/везти́ to transport (m/u) VOM пла́вать/плыть to swim; sail (m/u) VOM хожу́,хо́дишь,хо́дят,ходи́л,ходи ́те conjugate ходи́ть иду́,идёшь,иду́т,шёл,шла́,иди́те& nbsp; conjugate идти́ е́зжу,е́здишь,е́здят,е́здил,е́зд ите conjugate е́здить е́ду,е́дешь,е́дут,е́хал,езжа́йте conjugate е́хать бе́гаю,бе́гаешь,бе́гают,бе́гал,б е́гайте conjugate бе́гать бегу́,бежи́шь,бегу́т,бежа́л,беги ́те conjugate бежа́ть вожу́,во́дишь,во́дят,води́л,води ́те conjugate води́ть веду́,ведёшь,веду́т,вёл,вела́,ве и́те conjugate вести́ вожу́,во́зишь,во́зят,вози́л,вози ́те conjugate вози́ть везу́,везёшь,везу́т,вёз,везла́,в зи́те conjugate везти́ лета́ю,лета́ешь,лета́ют,лета́л,л ета́йте conjugate лета́ть лечу́,лети́шь,летя́т,лете́л,лети ́те conjugate лете́ть ношу́,но́сишь,но́сят,носи́л,носи ́те́ conjugate носи́ть несу́,несёшь,несу́т,нёс,несла́,н си́те conjugate нести́ пла́ваю,пла́ваешь,пла́вают,пла́ ал,пла́вайте conjug ate пла́вать плыву́,плывёшь,плыву́т,плы́л,плы ла́,плы́ло,плы́ли,плыви́те ; conjugate плыть приду́,придёшь,приду́т,пришёл,пр ишла́,приди́те con jugate прийти́ приезжа́ю,приезжа́ешь,приезжа́ю т,приезжа́л,приезжа́йте &nbs p; conjugate приезжа́ть убега́ю,убега́ешь,убега́ют,убег ́л,убега́йте conjug ate убега́ть приплыва́ю,приплыва́ешь,приплыв а́ют,приплыва́л,приплыва́йте conjugate приплыва́ть Participles remove ть and add н,на,но,ны to form the PPP of ать verbs remove ь; endings т,та,то,ты to form the PPP if the verb's not ать,ить,ти remove the last two letters of the они form and add я IVA formation replace ть with в, or follow IVA rules for non-ть verbs; вшись for refl PVA formation remove the т of the они form and add щий PresAP formation remove the л of the past form and add вший; if there's no л, add ший PastAP formation Particles же emphasis(part) ведь you know!(part) ли whether or not(part) то emphasis lite(part) ка friendly; intention(part) да but(part) и even; too(part) 14 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4761 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 2 of 12 08 August 2012 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Bookmarked! Thanks. I am just starting my Russian up again and this is quite useful.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6401 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 12 09 August 2012 at 1:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Seems good. Have you made any videos of yourself speaking Russian? I'm very curious what your level is like.
As for ч, though, I'd say it's in between the hard and soft ch in the Slavic languages where there's this distinction, like Croatian or Polish.
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4475 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 12 09 August 2012 at 7:26am | IP Logged | |||||
Only if you change your profile photo to the one I like, beautiful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5138 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 12 09 August 2012 at 8:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Says the one whose profile photo is a cartoon. :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 09 August 2012 at 8:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5659 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 6 of 12 09 August 2012 at 8:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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Here is a typical case of the kettle calling the pot back! Anyway , thanks for a quick
summary of Russian grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4860 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 7 of 12 09 August 2012 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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для, не дла.
Глаголы можно запоминать в двух формах: инфинитив и 3 л. ед. ч. Из них в большинстве случаев можно вывести все остальное. Первый пост - целое сочинение. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4753 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 12 10 August 2012 at 3:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Over the last few months I have been warming up to Russian... I never really was interested in learning it, though I found the script fascinating of course. But as I am progressing towards my goal of French/German/Portuguese profficiency (I actually see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still some way to go!), I have been thinking "what next?"?
Well, for me it will be Mandarin. And that will take most of my time. But I always planned to learn all the while an "easy" language or two (easy from my vantage point of indo-european familiarity: Swedish and Italian), which I know I could learn pretty well with nowhere near the effort of Mandarin, given my knowledge of Romance and Germanic tongues. Now though, I'm wondering maybe I could tackle Russian? Certainly more of a challenge than Swedish/Italian, but seems like it would be fun since it is a Slavic language an I would love to say I can at least survive a conversation in a Slavic language. And I love learning "cases" and noun declensions, so I guess I won't see that as medieval torture. So who knows... so this page is bookmarked. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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