Morning greeting and My name is

There was a long brake in your studies... I wonder if you remember how to say "Good morning!" and "My name is..." in Russian?
Here are some examples from "Papiny dochki".

Adjectives

Adjectives are used to describe people and objects. 
Words like “fast”, “new”, “red” and “beautiful” are all adjectives. Adjectives always describe nouns. 
In the Russian language the ends of adjectives change to agree in gender, and in case, with the noun it describes.
The dictionary form of a Russian adjective is normally the nominative, masculine form. 
These will almost always end in the letters “-ый” or “-ий”
 Masculine           Feminine        Neuter          Plural 
-ый                 -ая         -ое        -ые

Practice: 
Write colours of the objects taking into consideration gender. 

б______________  молоко

ч______________ небо

к______________ помидор

с______________ море

ж______________ лимон

з______________ трава

к______________ орех

с______________ мышь(f)

о______________ апельсин

р______________ поросёнок

ф______________ баклажан 

Цвета - colours

There are 4 Russian words for 2 English words
СИНИЙ (blue)
ГОЛУБОЙ (light blue)
ФИОЛЕТОВЫЙ (violet)
СИРЕНЕВЫЙ (light violet)

By the way, there are СВЕТЛЫЙ and ТЕМНЫЙ for 'light' and 'dark'.

*Don't mix up words ЦВЕТА (colors) and ЦВЕТЫ (flowers).



Practiсe:
1. Name the colours of the rainbow
К __ __ __ __ ЫЙ
О__ __ __ __ __ __ ЫЙ
Ж__ __ __ ЫЙ
З __ __ __ __ ЫЙ
Г __ __ __ __ ОЙ
С __ НИЙ
Ф __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ЫЙ


* In the Russian language the ends of adjectives change to agree in gender with the noun it describes:
- ЫЙ, ИЙ, ОЙ - Masculine
- ОЕ - Neuter
- АЯ - Feminine


2. What kind if ЧАЙ (tea) is served in a café?
__ __ Р __ ЫЙ
 __ __ Л __ __ ЫЙ

 3.What type of  ВИНО (vine) you can order in a restaurant?
К __ __ __ __ ОЕ
Б __ __ ОЕ

4. What kind of ПИВО (beer) may find in a bar?
Т __ __ __ ОЕ
С__ __ __ __ ОЕ

4.Do you know these flags? What countries do they present? What are the colours?
Ex. Это немецкий флаг. Цвета: черный красный, желтый.
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

*английский(English), итальянский(Italian), французский(French), швейцарский(Swizz), испанский(Spanish).
Do you know colours of the Russian flag?
____________________________________

5. What are the colours of СВЕТОФОР (traffic lights)?
____________________________________________________

If you need someting: Essential expressions.

Normally Russian does not use complicated sentence structures like English. You can normally say exactly what you want with just a few words. For example, in English to be polite we would say something like “can you please pass me the salt”, however in Russian they would say something simpler like “give salt please”. Speaking so directly may even feel unusual for an English speaker, however it is perfectly normal, just add the word ‘please’(пожалуйста) to be polite. This makes it easy to say what you want in Russian, and it will probably be correct. Less words also makes listening to people easier, as you can just pick out the important words.

1. Кофе с молоком. (Coffee with milk)
    Счет, пожалуйста. (Bill, please)


2. Дайте + N, пожалуйста. 
(Give me N, please)
     
3. To ask less direct, you can use neutral
Можно ... + N? (Can  ... )
Можно кофе/чай?
(Can I have a cup of coffee/tea?)
Можно счёт (bill)?
(Could you bring me a bill?)

4. If you want to ask someone if they have something, you can use the following phrase. (Just learn the whole phrase, it is gramatically unusual).
У вас есть ... + N? (Do you have?)

5. In case you need help from the staff  you can use phrase "I need". You can use it when you are looking for something in a shop, buying food, clothes, medicine, even asking directions. But be careful with gender and number agreement.
Мне нужен + N(m)
         нужна + N(f)
         нужно + N (n)
         нужны + N (pl)

Practice:

In the café:

Tell to the waiter that you want:

кофе (эспрессо, капуччино, с молоком), чай (черный, зеленый), кока-кола, вода, пиво, вино, сок.

Ask for:
сахар, соль, перец, ложка, вилка, нож 


In the shop

Tell to the shop assistant that  you need:

Картошка, огурцы, помидоры, макароны, рыба, молоко, сыр, апельсины, лимоны, грибы;

Юбка, блузка, футболка, брюки, платье, пальто, сапоги, туфли;

Тетрадь(f), маркер, ручка, карандаши, словарь, бумага, диски;
 

Article from Moscow News

Sara Buzadzhi
Special to The Moscow News

When it comes to all the fun (and hassle) of life at the dacha, it's good to know the birch wood from the trees.
With the weather getting warmer, many Russians turn their thoughts to an essential part of summer life. I refer, of course, to the дача. This is, of course, the house outside the city on a plot of land (участок) where everyone who can repairs to on the weekends and for weeks of vacation. This word is sometimes translated as 'country house'. To me, however, 'country house' implies a fancy second home for rich people, while dachas are often much more modest affairs, many not insulated or equipped for winter living.

If yon know anyone with a dacha, it's likely that their parents or grandparents received this land from the Soviet government, as part of an allotment to workers of a certain organisation, say. And this quality of the land being given goes way back -the word originally relates back to the verb дать (to give), as in land given by the prince or tsar at the time.

So, the traditional time to start visiting your dacha is the weekend of May 1 - открытие дачного сезона (the opening of dacha season). One spring headline reads: В регионе открылся дачный сезон — С наступлением теплой погоды курские дачники и садоводы ринулись на свои участки. (Dacha season is open in the region - With the onset of warm weather, Kursk vacationers/dacha owners and gardeners have rushed off to their plots of land.)

This is the time-when people bring their seedlings from the apartment windowsill to plant: in the garden (высаживать рассаду в саду, for a tongue-twister), and do all the necessary repairs around the house and yard. These many tasks can make for a trying time - just observe the laments of a man with a dacha and a wife in a short Chekhov play: «Помни, что ты дачник, то есть раб, дрянь, мочалка, и изволь... сейчас же бежать исполнить поручения.» (Remember that you live at the dacha, that is, you're a worthless slave, a nothing -now go run along to do what you're told.)

But it's not all doom and gloom -the dacha is the source of many wonderful things to eat, for one thing. A lot of these come from your garden, which in Russian is split up into two different areas - огород for vegetables, and сад for everything else (fruits, flowers, etc.)

When the first cucumbers appear, people often make малосольные огурцы (literally, lightly-salted cucumbers - they spend just a couple days in salted water with various herbs). Then there are the salted and pickled varieties - солёные and маринованные.

When the berries start to ripen, that's when everybody really goes to town, making варенье and джем in huge quantities. The former consists of just berries and sugar, while the latter has the pectin that makes it more jelly-like; I'm not sure if these correspond exactly to the English preserves and jam.

The other great thing to come from the berries is настойка, ahome-made liqueur. The word comes from the verb настаивать, which, when we're talking about tea, means 'to steep'. So, if you're making малиновая настойка, you place a bunch of raspberries at the bottom of a bottle of vodka and wait six to eight weeks for the alcohol to take on their sweet flavour.

But the main dish of the summer is the delicious and omnipresent шашлыки, meat cooked on skewers over a grill outside (shish kebabs to Americans). If you are travelling somewhere for a picnic, you can use the phrase ехать на шашлыки: Ну что, едем завтра на шашлыки? (So, are we going for a barbecue tomorrow?)

Wherever you have it, you will be cooking meat on шампуры (skewers) over а мангал (the grill), and you should be using берёзовые дрова (birch wood) for the scent.

The only bizarre dacha dish that I have to take issue with is the popular окрошка. For a good reason, there is no word for this in English. If you haven't had it, it's cold soup with квас, the fermented drink made from bread. Basically, the 'soup' is just soggy meat and vegetables soaking in a cold, soda-like drink. Russians, bless their hearts, insist that this will refresh you (Освежает!).

Aside from that last one, all the good food can help us ignore the irritation of chores and the other minor downsides of country living. There's an oft-repeated Pushkin quote about the latter: Ax, лето красное, любил бы я тебя, когда б не зной, не комары да мухи... (One translation goes: О, summer fair! I would have loved you I But for the heat and dust and gnats and flies.)

Sara Buzadzhi is a Moscow-based translator and English teacher.

Numbers 1-10, 0

The next step is to learn the Russian numbers. Once you learn the Russian numbers you will find it much easier doing things like shopping, ordering food  ets. You will be able to understand when people give you the price of something.
We will start with the numbers 1-10.
1 - один ("a-deen")
2 - два ("dva")
3 - три ("tree")
4 - четыре ("chye-tir-ye")
5 - пять ("pyat")
6 - шесть ("shest")
7 - семь ("syem")
8 - восемь ("vo-syem")
9 - девять ("dyev-yat")
10 -десять ("dyes-yat")

Read through the numbers 1-10 a couple of times until you are confortable with them.
Try counting from 1 to 10 without refering to them.
Then for practice, try counting backwards from 10 to 1 in Russian.

When reading phone numbers you may also need to know the name of the digit 0.
0 - ноль (nol)

Professions

Продавец (m, f)

Официант (m)
Официантка (f)

Парикмахер (m, f)

Врач (m, f)

Стоматолог (m, f)
зубной врач

Учитель  (m, f)
Учительница (f)
Преподаватель (m, f)

Милиционер (m, f)

Пожарный (m, f)

Водитель (m, f)

певец (m)
певица (f)

танцор (m)
танцовщица(f)

актер (m)
актриса(f)

художник (m, f)
художница (f)

повар (m, f)





1. Match the professions with the place where these people work:
ресторан, кафе, театр, милиция, школа, университет, магазин, больница, парикмахерская, поликлиника, улица (open-air)

2. People of what professions are working for emergency cases?
Do you know the most important emergency phone numbers?
01 — Пожарная охрана
02 — Милиция
03 — Скорая помощь
 (If you are calling from mobile pnone, you need add 0 before (for Beline) or after (for Megafon, MTC) the number)
Match the number and professions.

3. Tell me about you family members' professions.
Ex. Это моя сестра Катя. Она врач.
Катя - врач.
Моя сестра - врач.

4. Form plural for:
официант - ...                  , официантка - ...              , парикмахер -  ...                  , врач - ...             , стоматолог - ...                   , художник - ...               , художница - ...                   , певица -...            ,  танцор -...                    , танцовщица - ...                    , актер - ...              , актриса - ...               , водитель - ...                    , преподаватель - ...                                .


Remember! певец - певцы,
                  продавец - продавцы
                  учитель - учителя

Моя Семья

Now I can tell you about my family:

Это моя семья.

Это мои родители
Это моя мама. Её зовут Ольга Павловна. Она домохозяйка.
Это мой папа. Его зовут Владимир Евгеньевич. Он инженер.




Это моя сестра. Её зовут Наташа. Она архитектор.

Это я. Я преподаватель.

Possesive Pronouns

In order to talk about your family you normally need to use possessive pronouns so I will introduce them now. You should always choose the possessive pronoun that matches the gender of the item it owns.

Мой (m), Моя (f), Моё (n), Мои (pl) - my
Твой (m), Твоя (f), Твоё (n), Твои (pl) - your
Его ("yevo"),  Её (f) - his, her
Наш (m), Наша (f), Наше (n), Наши (pl) - our
Ваш (m), Ваша (f), Ваше (n), Ваши (pl) - your
Их - their

I, you, he, she...

Here are the Russian pronouns that can be used as the subject of a sentence. (Known as the nominative case.)

Я - I
Ты - You (informal)
Он - He, It (m)
Она - She, It (f)
Оно - It (n)
Мы - We
Вы - You (formal, or plural)
Они - They

Russian uses an extra version of the word "you". You should memorise these pronouns.
Вы is used as the formal singular "you", and the plural "you" (slang: "yous" or "you all") when talking to more than one person.

Семья - "Seven of me":)

1. Do you know meanings of these words?

семья
мама - папа 
мать - отец
жена - муж
родители
ребёнок (pl. дети)
дочь - сын
сестра - брат
бабушка - дедушка
тетя - дядя

2. What is the difference between мама and мать, папа and отец?

3. Define gender of words cемья, ребёнок.

4. How would men/women say about his/her marriage status?
Я замужем
Я женат
Я не замужем
Я не женат

Grammer:
If you want to point something, present somebody, use phrase:
Это ...

Ex. Это Университет. Это Красная площадь.
Ex. Это Наташа. Это Таня.

Ex. Это моя сестра (мама, бабушка, тетя... )
Ex. Это мой брат (папа, дедушка, дядя... )

Learn  possessive pronouns (my):
Мой (m)
Моя  (f)
Моё  (n)
Мои (pl)

My name is...

Давайте познакомимся! 
Меня зовут Таня.
Как вас зовут? 

Learn how to tell you name:
Меня зовут ...

Learn how to ask someones name:
Как вас зовут? (formal)
Как тебя зовут? (informal, especially addressing children)
Как его зовут?
Как ее зовут?

Every Russian name consists of three names: a first (given) name, a patronymic name and a surname:First (Given)

Vladimir   Vladimirovich          Putin
Lev          Nikolaevich             Tolstoy
Fedor       Mikhailovich           Dostoevsky

First name

The first name is given by parents shortly afer the child's birth. Accordingly to Russian laws child can change the name after majority. The first name is the main name of Russian people. Most of Russian names have a variety of forms. For example, name Mikhail. The full form Mikhail is used in formal relationships, in official documents (passport, birth certificate, contracts). The short name Misha is used by friends and family members. Affectionate form Mishenka, Mishunya is used by parents, grandparents. And rude form Mishka is impolite.

Patronymic name

Russian patronymic name is derived from father's name according to rule:
Russian male patronymic name forms by adding ending -evich, -ovich. (Nikolaevich, Mikhailovich).
For example, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Tha name of Lev Tolstoy's father was Nikolay, so the Lev Tolstoy's patronymic name is Nikolaevich.
Russian female patronymic name forms by adding ending -ovna, -evna. (Nikolaevna, Mikhailovna). For example, Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva. Tha name of Raisa Gorbavheva's father was Maxim, so the Raisa's patronymic name is Maximovna.

Russians used First and Patronymic Name in formal relationships, with unfamiliar people, with doctors, teachers, lecturers, older members of family, directors, leaders and other respected people (ex. Vladimir Vladimirovich, Lev Nikolaevich, Fedor Mikhailovich).

So, As I am a teacher... Меня зовут Татьяна Владимировна 

Plural. Masculine and Feminine nouns

To form the nominative plural of most masculine and feminine nouns replace the nominative singular ending by -ы for hard stems and -и for soft stems.


One more time:)

Hard stems end on:

M	F
consonant	- а

Hard stem masculine nouns have zero ending (no ending), so we simply add -ы to form the plural (in other words, we replace zero by -ы):
журналØ -> журналы.


Soft stems end on:

M	F
- й - ь	- я - ь

When forming the nominative plural of nouns never break the 7-letter spelling rule: after г, к, х, ж, ш, щ, ч write -и , not -ы (no matter if the stem is hard or soft):
книга - книги (books),
юбка - юбки (skirt),
стих - стихи (poems),
нож - ножи (knives),
карандаш - карандаши (pencils), etc.

Remember! 

 (man- people, child-children)

Exercise. Form the nominative plural of nouns:
Йогурт, помидор, яблоко, банан, апельсин, лимон, конфета,
Ложка, вилка, нож, тарелка, чашка, чайник.
Дверь, стол, кровать, диван, шкаф, лампа, подушка.
Кошка, собака.
Телевизор, компьютер, телефон
Юбка, блузка, футболка, зонтик,
Роза

Plurals

First, you should learn what hard and soft stems are.
A soft stem is a stem that ends in a soft consonant. The letter ь and the vowel letters я, е, ё, ю, и indicate that the preceding consonant is soft.
If there is no one of these six letters at the end of the stem, we assume that the stem is hard.

So the word has a hard stem if it ends on:

M	F	N
consonant	- а	-о

The word has a soft stem if it ends on:

M	F	N
- й - ь	- я - ь	-е

Exercise: What is the gender of these words? What is a stem?


Кухня, мясо, рыба, яйцо, сыр, колбаса, йогурт, помидор, свёкла, яблоко, банан, апельсин, лимон, торт, конфета, печенье, вода, чай, пиво, вино, водка.
Дверь, окно, стол, стул, кровать, диван, зеркало, шкаф, лампа, одеяло, подушка.
Кошка, собака 
Телевизор, компьютер, телефон


What do the words mean? Find some of them on the pictures.

GENDER OF NOUNS

Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter (neutral). In the cases of words like “father” these relate to physical gender. In the case of other objects, there is no physical meaning attached to the gender. However you will still need to know the gender because it affects how words are formed. Luckily in Russian it is almost always possible to tell what the gender of a noun by its spelling.
When you use a noun as the subject of a sentence, it will be in its dictionary form. In this form you can easily work out it’s gender. If the noun is in another part of the sentence the ending is changed to suit the case. From the dictionary form of a noun, here is how you can tell what the gender is:

1. Look at the last letter of the word:
2. If it is a consonant, or “й”, the word is masculine.
3. If it is “а” or “я” it is feminine.
4. If it is “о” or “е” it is neuter.
5. If it is a soft sign “ь” then it could be either masculine or feminine.

M	F	N
consonant - й - ь	- а - я - ь	-о -е

 There are very few exceptions to these rules. But there are notable exceptions, this occurs mainly because of physical gender.
Папа - (Daddy, Papa) - Is Masculine
Дядя - (Uncle) - Is Masculine
Дедушка - (Grandfather) - Is Masculine
Мужчина - (Man) - Is Masculine

Exercise: 
Arrange the words in accordance with their genders.

M	F	N
город	улица	кафе

Город, проспект, улица, площадь, магазин; 
Дом, здание, вокзал, станция, музей, ресторан, кафе; 
Поезд, самолет, трамвай, автобус, метро;  
Ручка, книга, журнал, письмо, словарь;  
Россия, Англия, Италия, Америка, Москва, Санкт-Петербург, Париж, Лондон;
Дочь, брат, сестра, сын, отец, мать, дедушка, бабушка,
Офис, компьютер, телефон; документ, паспорт, виза

First phrases: essentials

Essentials:
Да - Yes
Нет - No

Спасибо! - Thank you
Пожалуйста! - Please (and You're Welcome)
Извините! - I am sorry  and Excuse me

The word Пожалуйста is used to mean "You're Welcome", after somebody says thank-you. Пожалуйста is pronounced a little different than it is written, you can basically forget the "уй".

Привет!  -  Hi  
Здравствуй (те)! - Hello!

Пока!  - Bye!(informal)
До свидания! - Good-bye!

Здравствуйте may be a little difficult for you to pronounce at first, but it is the most common Russian greeting so you should try to practice it. Привет is also commonly used with friends.

Я не понимаю. - I don't understand
Я не знаю. - I don't know

Soft consonants. Spelling signs Ь - Ъ (soft and hard)

Presence of soft consonants is a feature of Russian phonetic system.At pronouncing soft consonants tongue moves ahead, the middle part of its back rises in the direction of the firm palate. Sounds become i-shaped.
Hard and soft consonants are indicated by the same letters.
On writing the softness of consonants is indicated by the following letters е, ё, ю, я, и, ь.
The letter ь («a soft sign») does not indicate any sound.
The letter ъ («a hard sign») indicates hardness of the previous consonant.

Consonants Х, Ц, Ч, Щ, Й