Tag Archives: grammar
How Do I Make An Abstract Noun in Russian? Posted by Maria on Feb 14, 2017
Learners of Russian soon notice that it uses different forms for different parts of speech. Very rarely can the same sequence of sounds or letters be both a noun and an adjective. There are many, many ways of creating nouns of different categories from other parts of speech, such as verbs, adjectives, or other nouns. In…
Five Easy Parts of Learning Russian — Part I Posted by Maria on Oct 31, 2016
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…
Other Missing Forms in Russian Posted by Maria on Sep 1, 2016
Last time, were talked about some verb forms that don’t exist in Russian and some ways around these limitations. However, “missing” forms are not limited to verbs. Let us look at three other cases. These examples may not be immediately practical for beginner learners, who are welcome to check out our basic Russian posts. Dream On…
Verb Forms That Don’t Exist in Russian Posted by Maria on Aug 29, 2016
Quite naturally, most of the time, we talk about what can be said in Russian on this blog. However, surprisingly, there are also things you cannot say. Here are a few missing verb forms and ways to work around them, where possible. Победить Ask any Russian what you cannot say in Russian, and, chances are, they will…
One After Another: Past Temporal Clauses in Russian Posted by Maria on May 2, 2016
In this post, we will look at the ways you can introduce temporal clauses in Russian. We will concentrate on past verb forms. Translations are used to illustrate the meaning of the Russian phrases and may not reflect your local dialect of English. Previous Events If we want to describe one action that happened before…
Songs from Russian Cartoons: Grammar Clinic Posted by Maria on Mar 23, 2015
Many a student of Russian learned from the songs in Soviet cartoons. These cartoons are widely-known classics, some of which, like Cheburashka, have developed a cult following abroad. However, all too often learners will recogniz/se the cartoon and hum the tune but won’t know the lyrics or what they mean. Why don’t we take this opportunity to…
Five Mistakes Native Speakers Make in Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 28, 2014
I hope my last post about frequently made mistakes did not scare anyone from learning Russian. Not only are mistakes a natural part of the learning process, but native speakers make them, too! In fact there are several points of the Russian language that native speakers struggle with so much that they can’t always tell…