Russian for Beginners

Russian alphabet and learning to read

Origin of the Russian Language Greek monks St. Cyril and St. Methodius

created the first version of the Cyrillic alphabet in 962 C.E.

They used letters from the Greek alphabet, and added new characters for specific Slavic sounds

The language was originally called “Old Church Slavonic”

Became know as “Russian” after the fourteenth century

The Russian Language

The closest relatives of the Russian language are Belorussian and Ukrainian

Belorussian is the closest but is almost extinct

Other relatives are: Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc.

The Russian Language

On the vast territory of Russia you will see almost no dialectal divisions

All people speak common literary Russian

Only elderly people in villages might still use a local dialect

The Russian Language

Russian is a synthetic language, unlike English which is an analytic language

This means that Russian uses a lot of prefixes, suffixes, and flections and it can express in one word what an analytic language has to use three words for

The Basics

Every noun has a gender There are three genders: masculine,

feminine, and neutral There is no article: Russian does not

distinguish between indefinite article (a/an) and definite article (the)

Word order is free

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is phonetic There is a one-to-one

correspondence between how the words are written and read

Consonants are divided into “soft” and “hard” ones

There are no diphthongs Stress is free moving: it can fall on

any syllable of the word and on different syllables within the paradigm

The Alphabet

There are 33 letter in the Russian alphabet

11 vowels 20 consonants 2 pronunciation signs

Voiced and Voiceless Consonants Applies only to consonants A voiced consonant is one that

vibrates the vocal chords A voiceless consonant is one that

doesn’t vibrate the vocal chords

English Example (voiced/voiceless): “d” (done)/ “t” (ton)“b” (big)/

“p” (pig)“v” (vine)/

“f” (fine)

English Example: (voiced)/(voiceless)“d” (done)/ “t” (ton)“b” (big)/ “p” (pig)“v” (vine)/ “f” (fine)

Russian Examples

Voiced Voiceless

Б б (beh) П п (peh)

Д д (deh) Т т (teh)

Г г (geh) К к (keh)

В в (veh) Ф ф (feh)

З з (zeh) С с (seh)

Ж ж (zheh) Ш ш (sheh)

Voiced and Voiceless

A hard or soft vowel can determine whether the consonant before it is voiced or voiceless

A consonant occurring at the end of a word is always voiceless

Example

Written: шоколад (chocolate)Pronounced: шоколатWritten: друг (friend)Pronounced: друкWritten: гриб (mushroom)Pronounced: грип

Voiced and Voiceless

When two or more consonants are combined within a word, the last consonant determines whether the consonants that precede it are also voiced

If the last consonant is voiced, all the consonants that precede it are also voiced

If the last consonant is voiceless, the consonants that precede it are also voiceless

Example

футбол (football)тб – are a pair of consonantsbecause the б is a voiced consonant, the т is also voiced

correct pronunciation: фудбол

водка (vodka)дк – are a pair of consonantsbecause the к is voiceless, the д also becomes voiceless

correct pronunciation: вотка

Hard and Soft

Just as you have hard and soft versions of sounds in English, you can have hard and soft versions of Russian sounds

Example: George – Soft “g”Gift – Hard “g”

Hard and Soft Vowels

Like English, Russian has 5 vowel sounds, which are represented by 10 letters

5 hard vowels and 5 soft vowels Й is a semi-vowel A hard vowel makes the consonant

that precedes it hard and a soft vowel makes the consonant that precedes it soft

Vowel Chart

Hard Vowels Example Soft Vowels Example

А а (ah) лампa (lamp) Я я (yah) лямка (strap)

Э э (eh) поэт (poet) Е е (yeh) небо (sky)

О о (oh) мода (fashion) Ё ё (yoh) мёд (honey)

У у (ooh) лук (onion) Ю ю (yoo) люблю (I love)

Ы ы (ih) мы (we) И и (ee) мир (peace)

Non-vocalized letters ь and ъ There are two non-vocalized letter in

the Russian alphabet Soft sign: ь Hard sign: ъ These signs indicate how the letter

preceding the sign should sound like

Soft Sign “ь”

The soft sign signals the softness of the consonant before it

It is important because it can distinguish word meanings

Example: брат (brother)брать (to take)

Practice Words

Лить – to pour

День – day Деньги –

money

Hard Sign “ъ”

The hard sign indicates a slight pause between syllables

It is usually used between the prefix and root of words and before the vowels: ё, е, я, ю

Overall, the hard sign is seldom usedExample: объём (volume),

oтъезд (departure)

Stress

The emphasis you place on one individual syllable of a word as you pronounce it

In the Russian language, stress applies only to vowels

English Example: Trа́vel

Stress

The concept of stress is important in Russian pronunciation

If a word is pronounced with the wrong accent in Russian, it could change the words tense, grammatical value, and sometimes its entire meaning

Examples

замо́к/за́мок Lock/Castle

сто́ящий/стоя́щий Worthwhile/Standing

чудно́/чу́дно Odd/Marvelous

узна́ю/узнаю́ I will find out/I am recognizing it

отреза́ть/отре́зать To cut/To have cut

More Examples

Stress can also be used to express the stressed word in a sentence.

Ты́ съел печенье? Was it you who ate the cookie?Ты съе́л печенье? Did you eat the cookie?Ты съел пече́нье? Was the cookie your meal?