One of the challenges in learning Russian language is expanding your vocabulary. With over сто тридцать тысяч слов (one hundred and thirty thousand words) in the Russian language, figuring out where to start can be a bit frustrating. One option is to narrow it down to, let’s say, the 1000 most commonly used words and memorize those. Another option (and they really compliment each other) is to memorize words that are somehow connected.

When I was trying to learn English, I used a word web approach that I liked because it was very visual. There must be a formal term for this method, so if you do know what it’s called, please let me know in the comments.

It’s easier to illustrate than to explain. I’m going to use a verb стоять as an example because it’s short, is used fairly often and it appears in Rob’s post about verbs of position. First thing first, you will need to memorize the basics – what стоять means (to stand) and how it conjugates. One of the best resources for this basic information is Wiktionary.

Now the basics are covered. Time to weave the web. Start by writing the word itself on a blank sheet of paper. Write a couple of simple sentences that use the word:

Я стою у окна – I am standing by the window
Цветы стоят в вазе – Flowers are standing in a vase

Next, think of or research different words that are related to the verb стоять, but that represent different parts of speech. Look up as many of these words as you can in a dictionary and write them down along with their definitions and examples of usage. When thinking about definitions, try to define them through the original verb. Some that I came up with include

Стойка – a noun that means “a stand” or “a counter”.
Стоянка – a noun that means “car parking”, but also a campsite used by prehistoric nomads.
Застой – a noun that means “stagnation”, absence of movement
Стояние – a noun that means “standing”
Стойкий – an adjective that means “steady”, “immovable”
Постоянно – an adverb that means “constantly”, “permanently” (think of it as something that always stands there)

Try to include at least one noun, verb, adjective and an adverb on this list. You can go one level deeper and create lists for some of the words you just listed. For example, стояние (standing) can lead you to the words противостояние (confrontation) and настояние (urging).

Once you are done listing different parts of speech, it’s time to apply one of the most powerful word-building tools of the Russian language – приставки (prefixes) and суффиксы (suffixes). Get back to the original word стоять and dress it up with different combinations of Russian prefixes and suffixes:

Выстоять – to withstand
Устоять – to keep balance, to withstand
Настоять – to insist, but also to decoct
Постоять – to stand, but in certain contexts, to stand up to someone
Настойчивый – insistent
Настойка – infusion

Trying out all those different prefixes and suffixes is fun. Of course, not all the combinations you come up with will be real words. But Russian language is so flexible, that some combinations, although not found in the dictionaries, are actually used conversationally. How would you know? Just Google it and see if you can figure out the meaning of the word.

If you feel up to the challenge, try to research words that sound like some of the ones you just mapped out, but mean something very different. For example,

стоит (stands) and стоит (costs)
стоящий (standing) and стоящий (worth something)
устоявшийся (long-standing), устоявший (someone who withstood a challenge), and уставший (tired)

Finally, it’s time for фразеологизмы (idioms), пословицы (proverbs) and поговорки (sayings). How can you search for these? Wiktionary can be helpful and so is searching for phrases “пословицы со словом стоять” (proverbs with the word to stand) and “фразеологизмы со словом стоять” (idioms with the word to stand).

Here are a few I came up with:

Стоять на страже – to guard
Не стоит на ногах – Can hardly remain standing
Стоять на своём – to hold one’s own, to stick to one’s guns (metaphorically speaking)
Постоять за себя – to hold one’s own, protect oneself
Стоять на паперти – to beg for money, to be in abject poverty; literally, to stand on a porch of a church, a place where beggars traditionally asked for подаяние (a great word for when you are working on the verb дать/давать (to give).
Мороз не велик, да стоять не велит – it’s not too cold, but you can’t stand still
Не стоять бровям выше лба – literally, eyebrows can’t be above a forehead. Less literally, it just means something self-evident, something that nobody contests.

For each phrase you put on a list, try to come up with a sentence or just imagine a situation in which it can be used.

And now you’re done! Review the results of your hard work and pat yourself on the back. Take a picture of your word web and share it with us on our Facebook page. Or share a link to it if you made it online.

This is a lot of work. And you won’t be doing it for every word or even for most of the words you are trying to learn. Nor will you remember every single word or phrase that you just wrote down. That’s fine. But you will get a better feel for the language, that’s for sure.