There are too many free Russian on-line recourses, aren’t there? But your progress in learning will be slow until you don’t know the correct sequence of learning. The guide will help you to achieve your learning goals in a shortest way. It will also help you to avoid the most common mistakes.
The grammar sequence is based on the Russian textbook Поехали. It is very logical, quick and practically proven. The course of Poehali allows you to start speaking Russian on the most common topics in about 80-120 hours of learning with a teacher. Can you learn quicker without a teacher?
Table of Contents
- Learn how to read and write in Russian
- The sequense to learn Russian Grammar
- Prepositional case
- Past tense of verbs
- Accusative case
- International verbs with the suffix ова/ева
- Speaking practice
- Genitive case
- Learn the difference between «есть» и «иметь»
- Verbs of motion without prefixes
- Aspects of verbs
- Dative case
- Imperative mood
- Instrumental case
- Verbs of motion with prefixes
Learn how to read and write in Russian.
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In Russian we read like we write. But there are some letters that probably are not familiar to you. Advice: don’t use Latin transcription. It will slow the process of learning.
А Е К М О Т – letters that are consistent with Latin alphabet
Р В Н – your “false” friends. You will meet these letters in Latin alphabet, but they sound absolutely different in Russian
Б Ф Э – probably you are unfamiliar with these letters unless you are Greek.
Ч Ш Ж Щ – sibilant consonants
Й Я Ю Е – iotated vowels
The list of international words will help you to achieve your learning goals quicker:
Though in Russian we read like we write, the stress is not fixed and may fall on any part of a word. It is usually not shown in the texts. Be careful with stress it may change the meaning. View some examples.
You will not need much time to learn how to read in Russian. Teachers usually estimate it as 2 academic hours. And then welcome to the most exciting part of learning Russian – the Russian Grammar! The sequence to learn cases: Nominative (Номинатив) is also a dictionary case, so it is not included in a sequence. Learn the main question of the prepositional case: After the prepositional case learn the past tense of the verbs related to location and travelling АккУзатив Learn the international verbs with the suffix ова/ева. We use the Accusative case after these verbs. After learning this you are ready to speak Russian on a basic level. For example: We often need to speak about something that we don’t have. This is why the Genitive case is so frequently used. У профе́ссора университе́та нет автома́та Кала́шникова. Be careful with the past tense. Say correctly where are you from. Use the correct preposition and the correct case. In Russian we use the construction «У меня есть…» when we say about something that we have and «У меня нет…» speaking about something we don’t have. This is a common mistake of European language speakers that they try to use the accusative case after «есть». «Есть» is not the same as «иметь» (to have). We use the nominative after есть and the accusative after «иметь» У меня́ есть вдохнове́ние (nominative) У меня́ нет вдохнове́ния (genitive) Я ищу тёплую шапку (accus). У вас есть тёплая шапка (nominative) Идти – Ходить Learn about perfective and imperfective aspects of verbs. Very important because very frequently used Learn when to use the preposition “c” and when not to use Идти (one direction) – Ходить (multi directional) ––> Войти (perf.) – Входить (imperfect.)The sequence to learn Russian Grammar
You have to get used that:
– The words change their endings. There are 6 cases in the Russian language.
– Words order is flexible (but not random)
“Джека убил Джон” means “John killed Jack” even though John is at the end. Sometimes it’s a surprise even for the fluent speakers of Russian.
The sequence you learn cases and verbs:
The simplest. It will allow you to speak on the most frequently discussed topic in the world: «Ты где?» (Where are you?) Speaking about location.
to speak about the object of action
The most frequently used Russian case. If you want to learn 1 case instead of 6 – learn Genitive and you will 30%-40% speak correct Russian
To speak about interpersonal relationships
is a decoration of speech, quite difficult formsPrepositional case
Где?
The endings of most nouns in the prepositional case change to Е like in a question Где
What to learn:Past tense of verbs
бы́ть – был (была, было, бы́ли)
де́лать – де́лал (де́лала, де́лали, де́лало, де́лали)
отдыхать
смотреть
плаватьAccusative case
КУдА? Where to?кУдА? (accusative) гдЕ? (prepositional) В Москву В Москве In most words ending А we change the ending А to У like in АккУзатив The endings of most nouns change to Е like in a question Где International verbs with suffixes ова/ева
Плани́ровать, Инсталли́ровать, Финанси́ровать, Контроли́ровать, Организова́ть, Инвести́ровать, Регули́ровать, Танцева́ть, Целова́тьSpeaking practice
– Ты был в Новосибирске?
– Да, я был в Новосибирске.
– Ты работал?
– Нет. Я был там как турист.
– Что ты делал?
– Я был в бане, в театре, в музее, на реке Обь. Я купался в Обском море и загорал.
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Genitive case
У меня был чемодан. У меня не было чемодана.
When we speak about something we didn’t have in the past, we use the verb «быть» in a neuter gender: не было
Now that we know prepositional, accusative and genitive, we can speak correctly about directionsLearn the difference between «есть» и «иметь»
Important advice for any levels: to sound more Russian use more perfective aspect in the future tense and more imperfective aspect in the past tense. Verbs of motion without prefixes
Ехать – Ездить
Learn what they mean and how to use them.
Aspects of verbs
Imperfective – refers to the process
Perfective to the result.The Dative case
Мне хорошо́
Мне пло́хо
It’s not the same as
Я хоро́ший.
Я плохо́й.Imperative mood
Don’t forget that Imperfective aspect is used for a polite request and perfective – for a command. If you use incorrect command form when meeting a Russian guest you may be understood incorrectly. Your guest will think that you are very rude. See the examples.
Instrumental case
Я пишу ручкой (instrument) – Я гуляю с подругой (with a girlfriend)
Verbs of motion with prefixes
Ехать (one direction) – Ездить (multi directional) ––> Въехать (perf.) – Въезжать (imperfect.)