Archive for 'Russian for beginners'
«Свой человек»: Unraveling a Possessive Pronoun Posted by josefina on May 21, 2010
«Свой» [one’s; his; her; their] is a «притяжательноеместоимение» [possessive pronoun] just like «мой» [my], «твой» [your (singular)], «наш» [our], «ваш» [your (plural)], «его» [his], «её» [her] and «их» [their]. Not all languages have this possessive pronoun – shout out to all you proud native speakers of English! – and that’s why it is not always…
Russian Grammar – «по-русски!» [in Russian!] Posted by josefina on May 2, 2010
You don’t have to know a single word in Russian – or know the first thing about Russian grammar for that matter – to find this picture rather scary… I found it on an old circus wagon that had been left to its own fate in a far corner of a public park here in…
«Осторожно, русский язык!» [Careful, Russian language!] Posted by josefina on Apr 28, 2010
If only this wasn’t a joke «объявление» [advertisement, announcement; declaration, proclamation; notification] made by some «хитрые филологи» [here: clever philologists], but «правда» [truth, verity, fact] instead! «Перевожу с руского на русский» [(I) translate from Rusian to Russian]. Because sometimes that’s just exactly what we all need, right? Today one foreign student here in Yekaterinburg…
DIY Russian Language Immersion Posted by yelena on Apr 26, 2010
Some time ago we asked just this question – What is the most difficult part about learning Russian? – on our Learn Russian Facebook page. Evidently, the question touched the nerve since we’ve got over 150 responses in just a couple of days. One of our participants, Alice, brought up an excellent point in her…
Love Me Russian! or a little something about the diminutive [Part I: Introduction] Posted by josefina on Apr 22, 2010
In English language the grammatical term ‘diminutive’ translates as a diminutive word or suffix word indicating small size (such as “booklet”, etc.), a shortened form of a name or a name indicating fondness and that it can also be used to describe a very small person or a very small thing. In Russian language this…
All Good Things Come In… Plural! Posted by josefina on Apr 11, 2010
A little something about the most interesting phenopluralia tantum in Russian language.
Russian Numbers – Now With Cases! Posted by josefina on Apr 1, 2010
Not too long ago we had a post here on the blog called “Russian Numbers 0 – 100”. No matter how useful this post might have been (and still is as you’ll see if you go back and read it again), I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say that it didn’t…