Russian grammar

Russian grammar book with English explanations and exercise for beginners?

Question from Q&A

Hello! What grammar book with English explanations and exercise can you recommend for beginners? Thank you!...

Subjunctive mood in the Russian language?

Question from Q&A

Hello !I wonder, if there is a subjunctive mood in the Russian language, and if so, how it forms....

How can I know when the word is written with A or with O? How to distinguish them?

Question from Q&A

Hi. I'm studying Russian on my own, it's difficult but I'll get it. One of my many questions is how can I know when the word is written with A...

У меня VS У меня есть

Question from Q&A

Please see the questions below. Are both questions right? If so, is there a difference in meaning? Question 1: У тебя есть интересная книга? Question 2: У тебя интересная книга? Thanks!...

Abbreviations of Russian grammar terms

Question from Q&A

I am looking for abbreviations for grammatical terms in Russian. can you direct me to a source. all my dictionaries give abbreviations for the English terms but not the Russian....

Meaning of "Не бойся собаки, что лает, а бойся той, что молчит да хвостом виляет"

Question from Q&A

"Не бойся собаки, что лает, а бойся той, что молчит да хвостом виляет" Can you explain that что-construction in the proverb above? I know that there is another version with reads...

Prepositional Case in Russian

Blog post

If you want to learn Russian or already learning it, you should know that there are six cases in the Russian language. Prepositional by a lot of the Russian teachers...

Accusative Case in Russian

Blog post

If you already started to learn Russian, you probably know that there are six cases in the Russian language. Accusative case, along with the Prepositional, by a lot of the...

Dative case in Russian

Blog post

In most of the Russian courses, the Russian Dative case is the one you learn in the first weeks when you start talking about age (- Сколько тебе лет? –...

Fleeting vowel in words ending with -ец and -ок

Russian Tip of the Day

It is good to know that masculine nouns that have -ок and -ец in the end lose the vowels о and е in all forms except Nom.sg. That is why...

Masculine plural nouns ending with -а and -я

Russian Tip of the Day

As a general rule, masculine plural nouns end in -ы or -и, but there are exceptions. For example, some nouns get the endings -a or -я, which is typical for...

Declension of surnames in Russian (part I)

Russian Tip of the Day

You may have noticed that different surnames in Russian are declined in different ways. Я много раз читала романы Фёдора Достоевского и стихи Александра Пушкина. Let's see what the ending depends on.  ...

Declension of surnames in Russian (part II)

Russian Tip of the Day

Let's take a look at how female surnames change in different cases. Female surnames ending in -ая change just like feminine adjectives. They are relatively uncommon, though. Я смотрю видео с...

Russian superlative adjectives

Russian Tip of the Day

There are several ways to form the superlative degree of an adjective in Russian language. First, students learn the complex form of the superlative degree. In this form, the adjective is...

7-letter rule (г, к, х, ж, ш, ч, щ)

Russian Tip of the Day

The 7-letter rule is an important spelling rule in Russian that has no exceptions.The rule applies to these letters no matter where they are in the word - whether they...

5-letter rule (ж, ш, ч, щ, ц)

Russian Tip of the Day

The 5-letter spelling rule applies only to the endings of Russian nouns, adjectives, participles and pronouns. After the letters ж, ш, ч, щ, ц, write o if the ending is stressed...

How to say ‘1.5’ in Russian

Russian Tip of the Day

In Russian language there are special words for the number 1.5 – ‘полтора’ and ‘полторы’. We use the word ‘полтора’ with masculine and neutral words and the word ‘полторы’ with...

Plural nouns ending with -ья

Russian Tip of the Day

There is a limited group of masculine and neutral nouns whose plural form ends in -ья, regardless of the usual rules for forming plurals. Remember those words and don’t confuse...

‘Мой коллега’ or ‘моя коллега’?

Russian Tip of the Day

In fact, both forms are correct, because the word ‘коллега’ is a sort of a hermaphrodite. That means that the word can be masculine or feminine, depending on the gender...

Words that start with ПОЛ-: Meaning and Spelling

Russian Tip of the Day

You may have already noticed that in Russian, the collocation "половина чего-то"(half of something) can transform into an independent word. See for yourself. половина часа = полчаса (half an hour) ...