Russian Fresh from Russia A Basic Modern Russian Grammar Eugenia Nekrasova © A Basic Modern Russian Grammar, Eugenia Nekrasova,1997. © Graphic Design, eBook publisher, Dmitry Pobedimsky, 2002. ISBN 5-85550-119-1 Ron Maxim, Director, Government Cargo Support Services, Maersk Sealand, Atlanta, GA, USA: ...Mrs.Nekrasova`s book is very creative... Frederick Lyons, Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme in the Russian Federation This book very definitely helped me improve my Russian fluency. With good humour and strong didactic principles it leads through the difficulties of the Russian Grammar. Markku Lehto, Chief of Moscow Bureau of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Finland The book is really very helpful. The explanations given in the book are clear and inventive. The teaching materials have been very well sorted. To the Readers This book is meant both for the learners and the teachers of Russian. The name of the book speaks for itself: "A Basic Modern Russian Grammar". The attention is focused on the facts of Modern Russian language which are basic, of high frequency and in common use. As most of the learners are not professional linguists the author tried to avoid unnecessary linguistic terms. The explanations, charts and presentation of grammar material enable the learners of Russian understand some practical mechanisms of the language in a certain logical order . The teachers of Russian can use it in their practical work. All the charts originally belong to the author. The author expresses her deep gratitude to Mr D. Pobedimsky without whom the book would not have succeeded and to Prof. T. Wade (UK) for his encour- agement. I wish you success, Eugenia Nekrasova Shortly about the Author Eugenia Nekrasova, Moscow, Russia. M.A. in Philology and Education, Moscow State University. For many years she has been working as a full-time senior teacher and lecturer for the USSR / Russian Federation Minis- try of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Language Service, teaching Russian, English and related subjects to foreign diplomats, businessmen and journalists, including the staff of the United Nations Moscow office, Sea Land CIS Logistics, Caterpillar Overseas, Ernst & Young, the State Finnish Radio & TV Moscow office and many others. Now she divides her time between teaching and writing books on language. She has written five successful books on learning Modern Russian as a Second Language and on learning English for people speaking Russian: 1. "A Basic Modern Russian Grammar" - 380 pages, "Gummerus", Helsinki, Finland, 1998. Published in Finnish, translated from English. ISBN 951-20-5264-4 2. "Exercises in Basic Modern Russian Grammar" - 250 pages, "Gummerus", Helsinki, Finland, 2000. Published in Finnish, translated from Eng- lish. ISBN 951-20-5507-4 3. "Living & Working in the Former USSR" - 211 pages, colour illustrated, succesfully practised course book of Modern Russian, best used for crash- courses. ISBN 5-85550-121-3 4. "Popular English Grammar" - 400 pages, "Slavyansky Dom Knigi" Publish- ers, Moscow, Russia,1999. First print - 25,000 copies. ISBN 5-93220-001-4 5. "English for Work and Travel" - 360 pages, "Slavyansky Dom Knigi" Pub- lishers, Moscow, Russia, 2000, with D.Pobedimsky. First print - 15,000 copies. ISBN 5-93220-052-9 The author would gladly accept any comments on the book email: [email protected] A Basic Modern Russian Grammar Part 1 The Gender Agreement of Russian Nouns in the Singular AGREEMENT BETWEEN WORDS IN RUSSIAN There are 2 main types of relations between the words in a Russian sentence: Agreement and Governing. Agreement could be in Gender, Number and Person. THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER AGREEMENT Eugenia Nekrasova Agreement in Gender takes place: between the long adjectives and the nouns, between the adjectival pronouns and the nouns, between the ordinal numerals and the nouns, between the cardinal numeral «one» and nouns, between the long participles and the nouns, between the nouns/personal pronouns and the short participles /short adjectives, between the nouns/personal pronouns and the verbs in the Past tense form. Part 1 deals with the first five types of Gender Agreement. Part 1 covers the problems of Gender Agreement between nouns and words preceding them in units. I called the words preceeding nouns in units - the characterizing words. The characterizing words can be: adjectives, adjectival pronouns (possessive, demonstrative etc), ordinal numerals, long participles, cardinal numeral «one». You will learn: how to establish the Gender of a noun and how to make the Singular form Gender Agreement between nouns and words characterizing them. The Gender Agreement of Russian Nouns in the Singular Part 1 page 1 A Basic Modern Russian Grammar HOW TO ESTABLISH THE GENDER OF A NOUN All Russian nouns are attributed to one of the three genders: Masculine (M), Feminine (F) or Neuter(N) You will be glad to know that the gender of the majority of the Russian nouns one can tell from the ending of the dictionary form (Nominative Case). The gender of nouns is mostly a formal thing. Now you will learn how to determine the gender of a noun. Eugenia Nekrasova Nouns ending in consonants and -é are Masculine: äîì - house äðóã - friend ìóçˆé -museum ÷åëîâˆê - man ã‹ðîä - city Êèò‚é - China Nouns ending in -à, -ÿ, -üÿ, -èÿ are Feminine: ì‚ìà - mama, mommy ‹ëãà - Volga ìàø‰íà - car ñòàòüµ - article íˆäåëÿ - week ôàì‰ëèÿ - surname Ðîññèÿ - Russia Nouns ending in -î, -å, -üå, -èå are Neuter: ìˆñòî - seat çä‚íèå - building ì‹ðå - sea òåëåâ‰äåíèå - TV êóïˆ - compartment çäîð‹âüå - health But things are never that simple in languages: irrespective of the Feminine -à, -ÿ ending a small group of nouns denoting males h E.g. has Masculine gender agreement ìîé (Ì) + ï‚ïà (so called «Natural Masculines»): Notice! ï‚ïà - father, dad äˆäóøêà - grandfather ìóæ÷‰íà - man äµäÿ - uncle The following nouns are Neuter: ìåíþ - menu âðˆìÿ - time h æþð‰ - jury ‰ìÿ - name Notice! èíòåðâüþ - interview òàêñ‰ - taxi The Gender Agreement of Russian Nouns in the Singular Part 1 page 2 A Basic Modern Russian Grammar THE GENDER OF SOFT SIGN NOUNS A very big group of nouns ending in -Ü (soft sign) could be either Feminine or Masculine. The Gender of these nouns could be found in the dictionaries. h Nouns denoting males («natural masculines») are Masculine: Notice! ãîñòü - guest, âîä‰òåëü - driver, ó÷‰òåëü - teacher, ïèñ‚òåëü - writer, öàðü - Tzar, êîð‹ëü - king, âðàò‚ðü - goalkeeper etc. Names of months ending in -ü are all Masculine: Eugenia Nekrasova ÿíâ‚ðü - January, ôåâð‚ëü - February, etc. «Natural» feminines are all Feminine: ìàòü - mother, äî÷ü - daughter etc. Nouns ending in -çíü, -ñòü, -ñü are Feminine: æèçíü - life í‹âîñòü - news ï‹äïèñü - signature etc. The Gender of other soft sign nouns h has to be learned individually. Notice! REPLACING SINGULAR NOUNS BY PERSONAL PRONOUNS A noun could be replaced by the following personal pronouns depending on the established gender: Masculine nouns by îí - he, it Ãäå âàø äðóã? Âîò îí. Ãäå âàø äîì? Âîò îí. Feminine nouns by îí‚ - she, it Ãäå â‚øà ìàø‰íà? Âîò îí‚. Ãäå â‚øà ì‚ìà? Âîò îí‚. Neuter nouns by îí‹ - it Ãäå â‚øå ìˆñòî? Âîò îí‹. N Ãäå ¬òî çä‚íèå? Âîò îí‹. The Gender Agreement of Russian Nouns in the Singular Part 1 page 3 A Basic Modern Russian Grammar HOW TO ESTABLISH THE GENDER OF PLACE NAMES All the place names could be divided into 2 groups: First group The place names have the endings which formally fit the Russian system of endings: M. Êèò‚é, Òàéë‚íä, Âüåòí‚ì, Àì˜ð, Åíèñˆé - îí F. Ðîññ‰ÿ, Ôèíëµíäèÿ, Àìˆðèêà, ‹ëãà - îí‚ N. Ïðèì‹ðüå - îí‹ Eugenia Nekrasova Second group There are many place names which do not fit the Russian system of endings: Áàê˜, Ñ‹÷è, Òáèë‰ñè, Õˆëüñèíêè, Ìèññ˜ðè, Òà‰òè, Ò‹êèî, Îíò‚ðèî These words exist only in this unchangeable (indeclinable) form. Their gender is established in a special way (through association with the «generic» word). FOREIGN INDECLINABLE NOUNS AND THEIR GENDER AGREEMENT There is a group of nouns of foreign origin in Russian which do not decline. E.g. øîññˆ - highway ð‚äèî - radio (set) ìåòð‹ - subway êèí‹ - movies, cinema òàêñ‰ - taxi, cab àòåëüˆ - studio,dress shop êàôˆ - cafe áþð‹ - office êóïˆ - compartment èíòåðâüþ - interview ïàëüò‹ - overcoat etc. All these words are Neuter and their Gender agreement and pronoun replacement is Neuter. E.g. ̉íñêîå øîññˆ - Minsk highway - oí‹ èíòåðˆñíîå èíòåðâüþ - interesting interview - îí‹ í‹âîå ïàëüò‹ - new overcoat - îí‹ but ãîðµ÷èé ê‹ôå - Masculine - hot coffee h Notice! The Gender Agreement of Russian Nouns in the Singular Part 1 page 4 A Basic Modern Russian Grammar THE GENDER AGREEMENT BETWEEN NOUNS AND CHARACTERIZING WORDS IN THE SINGULAR The adjectives and adjectival words are registered in the dictionaries in the Masculine. You can make other gender forms on your own if you follow the rules which will be stipulated further. The gender agreement between nouns and adjectives The Masculine adjectival endings which a foreign learner may trace from the dictionary are as follows: Eugenia Nekrasova -ûé like in í‹âûé - new, èçâˆñòíûé - famous -îé like in áîëüø‹é - big, large, ïëîõ‹é - bad, äîðîã‹é - expensive, dear -èé like in ð˜ññêèé - Russian, àíãë‰éñêèé - English, õîð‹øèé - good, ì‚ëåíüêèé - small, little, ïîñëˆäíèé - last So, these adjectives can be attached to the nouns the gender of which is marked or established as Masculine, for example: Masculine adjective + Masculine noun M. M. í‹âûé + äîì M. M. áîëüø‹é + äîì M. M. õîð‹øèé + äîì Feminine adjective + Feminine noun To make a Feminine adjective to attach it to a Feminine noun, you have to replace Masculine endings by -àÿ ending.