<b>LESSON 5 / ПЯТЫЙ УРОК / PJÁTYJ URÓK</b>
1) The Accusative Singular (cont.)
Я вижу стол.
Já vízhu stól. "I see a table."
Я вижу машину.
Já vízhu mashínu. "I see a car."
Я вижу Ивана.
Já vízhu Ivána. "I see Ivan."
Я вижу Елену.
Já vízhu Jelénu. "I see Yelena"
(вижу = "I see")
Notice anything unusual?
The feminine name Yelena has a normal accusative ending in -u, but the masculine name Ivan adds an -a where you'd normally expect nothing. This is because, in the accusative case, there are different endings for
masculine animate and
masculine inanimate nouns. Masculine inanimate nouns have identical nominative and accusative forms, whereas masculine animate nouns (ie, nouns refering to humans or animals) take -a, as long as they don't end in -a in the nominative (like дядя
djádja "uncle" > дядю
djádju).
2) The Present Tense of Regular Second-Conjugation Verbs
You have already learned the regular conjugation of first-conjugation (or "Е-conjugation") verbs. The second conjugation (or "И-conjugation") differs mainly by the vowels in the endings. In addition, this conjugation contains a lot more verb roots that end in a consonant other than /j/.
These endings, which always cause palatalization of the last consonant of the root, are:
- я: -ю -ju
- ты: -ишь -ish'
- он/она/оно: -ит -it
- мы: -им -im
- вы: -ите -ite
- они: -ят -jat
So with the verb root *говор-
*govor- "speak, talk":
- я говорю govorjú
- ты говоришь govorísh'
- он говорит govorít
- мы говорим govorím
- вы говорите govoríte
- они говорят govorját
Most of these verbs form their infinitives by adding -ить
-it' to the root: говорить
govorít' "to speak". A few others may use -еть
-et' instead.
And, as has been mentioned before, the -ю and -ят are spelled -у and -ат when immediately following Ш, Щ, Ж, and Ч.
3) First-Person Mutations
As I just mentioned above, the second-conjugation endings palatalize the preceding consonant. In addition, over the last 2000 years Russian (and its ancestors) have undergone three series of major palatalizations which completely reorganized the consonant system. So, as you might expect, this has had a tremendous effect on the verb system by creating irregular, mutating consonants.
The first type of mutation you will learn occurs only in the first person singular of a verb. There are approximately ten or so mutations that can occur here. One you have already seen in this lesson: д > ж, such as in the verb видеть
vídet' "to see" (root *вид-), whose forms are: ви
жу, видишь, видит, видим, видите, видят
vízhu, vídish', vídit, vídim, vídite, vídjat.
Mutations will be mentioned each time you are introduced to a new verb containing such a mutation, such as in the vocabulary lists.
4) The Conjunctions и, а, and или
Или
íli is a disjunction, functioning the same way as the English "or".
И
í and А
á, however, can be a bit harder to understand. Both are often translated into English as "and", but и emphasizes similarity, while а emphasizes difference (perhaps something like English "whereas"). The best way to explain this is through example:
Иван читает газету, и Наташа тоже читает газету.
Iván chitájet gazétu, í Natásha tózhe chitájet gazétu. "Ivan is reading a newspaper, and Natasha is also reading a newspaper."
Иван читает газету, а Наташа читает книгу.
Iván chitájet gazétu, á Natásha chitájet knígu. "Ivan is reading a newspaper, whereas Natasha is reading a book."
When conjoining two nouns instead of two clauses, however, you always use И.
5) The Possessive Adjectives in the Nominative Case
The first and second person possessive adjectives (my, your, our, and y'all's) in Russian each have four forms - the masculine singular, the feminine singular, the neuter singular, and the plural. They agree in gender and number with the noun they modify (except in the plural, where gender is not distinguished). The forms are:
English: MascSg/FemSg/NeutSg/Pl
my: мой
mój / моя
mojá / моё
mojó / мои
moí
your: твой
tvój / твоя
tvojá / твоё
tvojó / твои
tvoí
our: наш
násh / наша
násha / наше
náshe / наши
náshi
y'all's (or formal you): ваш
vásh / ваша
vásha / ваше
váshe / ваши
váshi
The endings are basically the same for each gender: nothing for MascSg, -a for FemSg, -o/-e for NeutSg, and -i for Pl. Note how мой and твой decline in an identical manner, as do наш and ваш.
These are placed in front of the noun they modify:
мой брат
mój brát "my brother"
моя книга
mojá kníga "my book"
моё письмо
mojó pis'mó "my letter"
мои друзья
moí druz'já "my friends"
There are three third person possessive adjectives, which do not decline (so no gender or number agreement, or even case agreement at that):
- его jegó "his" (note: this is pronounced [jI."vo]!)
- её jejó "her"
- их íkh "their"
Его is used for both masculine and neuter nouns.
его брат
jegó brát "his brother"
его книга
jegó kníga "his book"
его письмо
jegó pis'mó "his letter"
его друзья
jegó druz'já "his friends"
There is also technically one more possessive pronoun, the possessive of reflexive, which can be used with the third person possessives to create a fourth person, but this will be discussed later.
EXERCISES:
1) Conjugate the verb любить
ljubít' (root *люб-) "love", which has the change б > бл. Stresswise, it is stressed on the root in all forms but the first person singular.
2) Should И or А be used?
- Я здесь ___ он там.
- Он ___ Мария сейчас в школе.
- Мы говорим ____ они тоже
3) Translate:
- This is his book.
- I see his sister.
- She sees their brother.
- My coat is on the table.
- She loves Nikolai very much.
- We speak Russian.
- Her husband right now is at home.
Vocab:
- там tám "there (locative)"
- тоже tózhe "also"
- куртка kúrtka "coat"
- очень óchen' "very, very much" (place before verb)
- по-русски po-rússki "Russian" (an adverbial form)
- муж múzh "man, husband"
- дома dóma "at home"
