Russian grammar

Every grammar guide of Lingora’s Russian A1 course, with examples you can listen to.

01Verbs: Present TenseA Russian verb changes its ending to show who is doing the action. In the present tense there are six forms, one for each person, and the ending alone…
02Perfective vs. Imperfective VerbsAlmost every Russian verb comes in a pair, and the two members of the pair describe the same action in two different ways. This difference is called…
03Verbs: Past TenseThe Russian past tense is the easiest tense to form. It does not change for I, you or they. Instead, it agrees with the subject in gender and number, the…
04Verbs: Future TenseRussian has two ways of talking about the future, and which one you use depends on the aspect of the verb. Imperfective verbs build a compound future…
05Verbs: Imperative MoodThe imperative is the form used to give commands, make requests and offer invitations. Russian has one form for a person you address as ты (ty) and one,…
06Expressing 'Let's'English makes suggestions with let's. Russian has two ways, both very common in everyday speech, and the choice of verb form depends on aspect.
07Verbs: Conditional Mood with 'бы'The conditional describes what would happen or would have happened: imagined situations, wishes, and polite requests. Russian builds it with the small…
08Reflexive Verbs in '-ся'Many Russian verbs end in -ся, a shortened form of the reflexive pronoun себя́ (sebyá) that has become part of the verb. After a vowel it is written -сь.…
09Verbs of MotionEnglish uses one verb, to go, for walking to the shop, driving to work, and going there every day. Russian divides this space in two ways: by the means…
10Modal Verbs and the InfinitiveAbility, permission, wishes and obligations are expressed with a small group of verbs and words that are followed by an infinitive. The infinitive does…
11Passive Participles and Their Short FormsA passive participle is an adjective made from a verb that describes the state something is in as the result of an action: closed, broken, made. In…
12Adverbial ParticiplesAn adverbial participle is a verb form that does not change at all, used for a second action done by the same person as the main verb. English uses -ing…
13The Verb 'быть' (to be)Быть (Byt') means to be, but in the present tense Russian simply leaves it out. Where English says He is a teacher, Russian says "He teacher". The verb…
14Possession: 'у меня есть'Russian has a verb for to have, име́ть (imét'), but in everyday speech it is rarely used for owning things. Instead, Russian says "by me there is": the…
15'нет' and the Genitive of AbsenceThe word нет (net) has two jobs. It is the answer no, and it is the word for there is no - the negative of есть (yest'). In the second job, whatever is…
16Impersonal Sentences with the DativeMany Russian sentences about feelings, weather, necessity and possibility have no grammatical subject at all. Where English says I am cold, Russian says…
17Liking and NeedingTwo of the most frequent things to say - I like and I need - are built the same way in Russian, and the reverse of English. The thing that is liked or…
18Age: 'Мне двадцать лет'Russian expresses age with the person in the dative case and the number of years: "to me twenty years". There is no verb in the present.
19Nouns: GenderEvery Russian noun belongs to one of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. For people and animals the gender usually matches the sex, but for…
20Nouns: Plural FormsRussian forms the plural by changing the ending of the noun. The nominative plural - the form used for a plural subject - has a small number of endings,…
21Nouns: AnimacyRussian divides nouns into animate ones - people and animals - and inanimate ones - everything else. The difference is invisible in most of the grammar,…
22Plural-Only and Indeclinable NounsTwo kinds of nouns break the usual patterns. Some exist only in the plural, even when they refer to one thing. Others, mostly borrowed words, never…
23Nouns: Nominative CaseRussian nouns change their ending according to their role in the sentence. These forms are called cases, and Russian has six of them. The nominative is…
24Nouns: Accusative CaseThe accusative case marks the direct object - the person or thing that the action is done to. In I read a book, a book is the direct object. It is also…
25Nouns: Genitive CaseThe genitive is the most frequently used case after the nominative. Its basic meaning is of: it links one noun to another, but it also follows many…
26Nouns: Dative CaseThe dative case marks the person who receives something or to whom something is directed: in I gave my mother a book, my mother is in the dative. Russian…
27Nouns: Instrumental CaseThe instrumental case answers the questions with what? and by what means?. It also has two important jobs that have nothing to do with tools: it follows…
28Nouns: Prepositional CaseThe prepositional case is the only case that never appears without a preposition - hence its name. It mostly expresses location, after в and на (na), and…
29Location vs. Direction: 'где' and 'куда'English uses the same words for being somewhere and going somewhere: Where are you? and Where are you going?. Russian always separates the two. Location…
30Time Expressions and Their CasesRussian time expressions use different prepositions and cases depending on the size of the unit of time. Each pattern has to be learned as a set phrase,…
31Adjectives: DeclensionA Russian adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. In the dictionary it appears in the masculine nominative singular, ending in -ый,…
32Adjectives: Short FormsMany Russian adjectives have a second, shorter set of forms, used only after the subject to say what it is like: the book is interesting, not an…
33Comparatives and SuperlativesRussian has two ways to say bigger or more interesting: a single-word comparative and a two-word one with бо́лее (bóleye). For the biggest it adds са́мый…
34Relational AdjectivesEnglish often puts one noun before another to describe it: bus stop, railway station, birthday party. Russian rarely does this. Instead, it turns the…
35Adverbs: FormationAn adverb describes how, when or where something happens. Most Russian adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives, and they look exactly like the…
36Personal PronounsRussian personal pronouns change their form for case, just like nouns. Several of the forms look quite different from the nominative and need to be…
37The Polite 'вы'Russian has two words for you. Ты (Ty) is used for one person you know well - family, friends, children, animals. Вы (Vy) is used for several people, and…
38Possessive PronounsPossessive pronouns - my, your, our - agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe, like adjectives. The words for his, her and their…
39The Reflexive Possessive 'свой'Свой (Svoy) means one's own. It replaces мой (moy), твой (tvoy), его́ (yegó), её (yeyó) and the others when the owner is the subject of the same clause.…
40The Reflexive Pronoun 'себя'Себя́ (Sebyá) means oneself: myself, yourself, himself and so on. It refers back to the subject of the clause, and it has the same form whatever the…
41Demonstratives: 'этот', 'тот' and 'это'Э́тот (Étot) means this and тот (tot) means that. Both agree with their noun in gender, number and case. The neuter form э́то (éto) also has a special…
42Question Words and QuestionsA Russian yes-no question usually has exactly the same words and word order as the statement. The difference is in the intonation: the voice rises…
43NegationRussian negates a sentence by putting не (ne) directly before the word it negates. It has no helper verb like English do: I don't know is simply "I not…
44Indefinite Pronouns in '-то'English someone, something, somewhere are formed in Russian by adding a particle to a question word. The most frequent particle is -то, joined with a…
45Numbers and CasesIn Russian, a number decides the case of the noun that follows it. There are three groups, and the last digit of the number decides which group it…
46Declension of 'один'Оди́н (Odín) (one) behaves like an adjective: it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. It also has meanings beyond counting.
47Declension of 'два', 'три', 'четыре' and 'оба'The numbers two, three and four, and о́ба (óba) (both), have their own declension, and they govern the genitive singular of the noun when they are in the…
48Collective NumeralsBesides the ordinary numbers, Russian has collective numerals for counting groups: дво́е (dvóye), тро́е (tróye), че́тверо (chétvero), пя́теро…
49Ordinal Numbers and DatesOrdinal numbers - first, second, third - are adjectives in Russian. They agree with their noun in gender, number and case and take ordinary adjective…
50Telling the TimeRussian tells the time with the ordinary numbers and the words час (chas) (hour) and мину́та (minúta) (minute), which follow the number rules. In…
51Subordinate ClausesA subordinate clause is part of a sentence that cannot stand on its own: that he is ill, because I'm tired, when I was young. In Russian, it is always…
52Purpose and Wishes with 'чтобы'Что́бы (Chtóby) introduces a purpose - in order to, so that - and what someone wants another person to do. What follows it depends on whether the subject…
53Relative Clauses with 'который'Кото́рый (Kotóryy) means who, which or that in a clause that describes a noun: the man who lives here, the book that I bought. It declines like an…
54Vocalised PrepositionsSeveral Russian prepositions consist of a single consonant or end in one: в, к, с, из (iz), без (bez), под (pod), над (nad), пе́ред (péred). Before…
55DiminutivesRussian forms diminutives - words for small or dear things - by adding a suffix to the noun. They are very frequent in everyday speech, and they often…
56Verbal NounsRussian forms nouns from verbs to name the action itself: reading, the arrival, a decision. English often uses the -ing form for this, but Russian uses…