Archive for 'Grammar'
Let’s dig deeper into the Russian verbs for gardening Posted by bota on Sep 17, 2020
September is a busy month if you are a gardener in Russia. Many are spending their weekends busy на да́че, reaping the fruits (and vegetables) of their spring sowing and getting their gardens ready for the winter. We’re going to get our hands dirty by digging into verbs related to gardening (садово́дство и огоро́дничество) and…
Timeless Russian Adverbs Posted by bota on Aug 5, 2020
I’ll never pass up the chance to start a blog post with a poem by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. This stanza is the beginning to a childhood favorite of mine, Руслан и Людмила (Ruslan and Ludmila) published in 1820, and it’s a great example of how to use adverbs of time in Russian…
Derivative prepositions (производные предлоги) and how to get them right Posted by bota on Jul 23, 2020
Prepositions (предлоги) are functional words that work together with nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns to show direction, time, and relation to other objects. Other wonderful blogs on this platform have covered prepositions (Russian prepositions of direction, prepositions of time, “в” or “на”) and provided great guidance on when to use them and even how to…
15 Funny English Phrases To Help You Learn Russian Expressions Posted by Nadya on Jul 9, 2020
The Phonetic Association Method is a way to make vocabulary learning easier. The strategy is based on the selection of resembled sounds. With it, you can memorize up to 30-50 words per day. It is a life hack, when in a short time you need to learn a large number of words. Using this method…
Твёрдый знак (hard sign): a case study in Russian language reforms Posted by bota on Jul 2, 2020
Last month we looked at мягкий знак (soft sign) and the rules that govern its proper use. In this blog, let’s explore the other unusual letter of the Russian alphabet: твёрдый знак (hard sign). Твёрдый знак “ъ” is the 28th letter of the Russian alphabet and similar to the soft sign, it doesn’t carry its…
Мягкий знак “Ь” (soft sign) or the Charlie Chaplin of the Russian alphabet Posted by bota on Jun 22, 2020
What can the 30th letter of the Russian alphabet have in common with the icon of the silent film industry? Let’s find out together. Many beginner Russian learners find the soft sign (мя́гкий знак) to be one of the most intriguing letters of the Russian alphabet because it doesn’t have its own phonetic meaning but…
How to sound Russian in less than 4 letters Posted by bota on Jun 1, 2020
An interjection is, ironically, a big name for the little words we use to express emotions. Here are five such utterances that have less than four letters. These interjections will help you feel and sound more Russian than saying babooshka over and over again (with the exception of Kate Bush, of course.) Эx [ˈɛx]…