Image from Pixabay

This is part one of this post. Make sure you read part two when it comes out.
Russian has the reputation of a hard-to-learn language. The Foreign Service Institute has placed Russian into category 4 out of 5 for how long it takes native English speakers to learn it. A different alphabet, noun declensions, verb conjugation, not to mention verb aspect — there are so many challenges for the learner! Fortunately, there are also things that are easy to grasp in Russian.

Determining Noun Gender

Russian has three noun genders — feminine (женский род), masculine (мужской род) and neuter (средний род). While grammatical gender for inanimate objects is not the most intuitive concept, determining noun gender in Russian is fairly straightforward. The “standard” endings for each gender are as follows:

These rules typically apply to loanwords regardless of their gender in the original language. For example, проблема (problem) is feminine in Russian, although πρόβλημα ‎(próblēma) was neuter in Greek — compare to das Problem (neuter, German) and el problema (masculine, Spanish). Similarly, университет (university) is masculine in Russian although ūniversitās (Latin) and die Universität (German) are feminine.

There are, of course, special cases, including:

• nouns ending in -а/я that refer to male people are masculine: папа (Dad), дедушка (grandfather), Коля (short form of the name Николай)
• nouns ending with a soft sign (ь) may be feminine or masculine, e.g. олень (deer, m), тень (shade, f).

Verb Tenses

Unlike some other Indoeuropean languages, Russian does not have a very complex verbal tense system. There are three tenses: настоящее время (present tense), прошедшее время (past tense), and будущее время (future tense). There are some considerations that make using verbs challenging, like choosing the right aspect (вид) and remembering the conjugation (спряжение), but picking a tense should not be one of them.

Present

We use only imperfective aspect verbs (глаголы несовершенного вида) — an ongoing action is not completed by definition. The meaning of this tense is an ongoing, perpetual, or repeated action. For many, but not all, verbs, this tense can be formed by adding personal endings to the infinitive form without the -ть . The endings will be determined by the conjugation.

• говорить (to speak): я говорю по-русски (I speak Russian).
• играть (to play): мы играем на гитаре (we play guitar).

Past

We have a choice of aspect for the past tense. Use perfective aspect verbs for one-time/completed actions and imperfective aspect verbs for repeated/in-progress/incomplete actions. The forms are more clearly determined by removing the -ть from the infinitive and adding -л for all masculine subjects, -ла for all feminine subjects, -ло for all neuter subjects, and -ли for all plural subjects.

• Perfective: Повар приготовил обед на 10 человек (The chef cooked/has cooked a meal for 10 people; one time, completed).
• Imperfective:
  • Когда мы жили в Казахстане, мы часто готовили плов (When we lived in Kazakhstan, we would often cook pilaf; repeated).
  • Гости уже пришли, а хозяева всё ещё готовили еду (The guests had arrived, but the hosts were still cooking food; in-progress action).

Future

Future also uses both perfective and imperfective verbs. Imperfective forms mean continued/repeated actions and are formed by adding a conjugated form of быть in the future to the infinitive. Perfective forms refer to one-time/completed actions and are formed simply by conjugating the perfective verb as if it were in the present tense.

• Perfective:
  • Мы купим машину (We will buy a car; one-time, completed).
  • Мы построим дом (We’ll build a house; one-time, completed).
• Imperfective:
  • Люди будут покупать меньше одежды (People will buy less clothing; repetitive).
  • Фирма будет строить отели на побережье (The company will build hotels on the shore; repetitive/continuous).

To be continued.