Russian Lessons / Uroki Russkogo Jazyka (Take 2)

[hwhatting]

Does "учиться" always take a dative object?

I hope Maknas doesn't mind my jumping in front of the blackboard , but anyway - the answer is yes.
Hans-Werner

[Pie Man]

I've been taught that you only use the reflexive of учить when it's specified what you're learning. For example
Я учу русский язык. - I'm learning Russian
Я учусь в университете. - I'm studying at the university (studying what?, so reflexive)

[Gazariah]

You can say:

1. Я учусь русскому языку. "I am studying Russian" (dative object). This will likely mean that you are enrolled in a course.

2. Я учусь в университете. "I study at the university." Вы рaботaете? Нет, я учусь. "Do you work? No, I'm going to school."

3. Я учу русские словa. "I am learning the Russian words" (accusative object). This is for low-level study; the person is trying to memorize something to pass a test, or doing a homework assignment.

4. Я изучaю русский язык. "I am studying Russian" (accusative object). This implies that you are engaged in serious study with the object of acquiring a thorough understanding.

It seems to me that beginners should focus on number 2 and number 4. Use 2 when there is no object, or when you are talking about a practical ability, expressed with an infinitive: Мы учимся читaть по-русски.

Use number 4 to mean you are studying an academic subject. You can't use this one without an object in accusative case.

Don't be discouraged. Teaching and learning verbs are a well-known "problem area" for foreign students.

[Mecislau]

Here you go, Delalyra. I've got a lesson for ya.


<b>LESSON 6 / ШЕСТОЙ УРОК / SHESTÓJ URÓK</b>


1) Long-Form Adjectives in the Nominative

There are two main forms an adjective can take in Russian - "long form" and "short form". For now we'll just be discussing the long form, which can be used to modify a noun.

Like the possessive modifiers you learned earlier, adjectives have four forms within each case - a masculine singular, feminine singular, neuter singular, and an all-gender plural.

The masculine singular is the citation form. For most adjectives, this ending is -ый -yj.

• красивый krasívyj "beautiful"
• новый nóvyj "new"

(The adjective stem, of course, can be found by removing this ending: *красив-, *нов-)

If the stem ends in К, Г, Х (the velars), Ш Щ Ж Ч Ц (the palatals), or a soft consonant, this ending must be spelled -ий -ij.

• русский rússkij "Russian" (root *рус-ск-, with final velar)
• хороший khoróshij "good" (root *хорош-, with final palatal)
• последний poslédnij "last" (root *послед-нь-, with final soft consonant)

The last of the three, the final soft consonant, is rather rare in adjectives, but they do exist.

The feminine singular adds the ending -ая -aja, for all adjectives:

• красивая krasívaja
• новая nóvaja
• русская rússkaja
• хорошая khoróshaja

(Notice how the stress doesn't change - this is probably the only part of speech where you've lucked out and don't have to deal with spontaneous stress changes)

The only exception is that the stems ending in a soft consonant must spell the ending -яя in order to preserve the palatalization.

• последняя poslédnjaja

The basic neuter singular ending is -ое -oje. Final velar adjectives use this form too.

• красивое krasívoje
• новое nóvoje
• русское rússkoje

Final palatal and soft-consonant adjectives take the soft form -ее -jeje (need I remind you of the Russian /o ~ e/ umlaut?)

• хорошее khorósheje
• последнее poslédneje

The basic plural ending is -ые -yje. This follows the same rules as the nominative singular regarding spelling.

• красивые krasívyje
• новые nóvyje

Which is spelled -ие for final velars, final palatals, and final soft consonants.

• хорошие khoróshije
• русские rússkije
• последние poslédnije

The hardest part is remembering which spellings each group takes, since they sort of 'jump around' (like how final velars are grouped with final softs in the NomSgM and NomPl, but not in the NomSgFm and NomSgNt).

Generally speaking, adjectives are placed before the noun they modify. Of course, they can just as easily follow it. This usually adds a bit of extra emphasis.


All of the above adjectives are stem-stressed, meaning the stress always falls on the stem of the word. If the adjective is ending-stressed, the only difference is that the nominative singular ending is -ой -oj instead of -ый/-ий:

• MSg: большой bol'shój "big, large"
• FSg: большая bol'shája
• NSg: большое bol'shóje
• Pl: большие bol'shíje

2) Nouns in the Accusative Plural

The accusative plural is identical to the nominative plural for all nouns (masculine, feminine, and neuter). The only exception, of course, are your animate count nouns (such as студент studént), whose endings we will learn later.

3) Adjectives in the Accusative (Inanimate)

For inanimate nouns, all forms but the feminine singular are identical to the nominative (just like how only feminine nouns have a distinct accusative form).

The feminine singular is formed by taking its nominative form and replacing the ending -ая with -ую -uju, or the soft-consonant ending -яя with -юю -juju, just like how the nouns replace final -а with -у.

• красивую krasívuju
• новую nóvuju
• русскую rússkuju
• хорошую khoróshuju
• большую bol'shúju
• последнюю poslédnjuju

4) Two Verbs of Motion - идти idtí and ехать jékhat'

Both of these verbs mean "to go", but идти means you're going on foot (or no means is specified) and ехать means you're going by vehicle. No such distinction is made consistently in English.

Both verbs are irregular, but in the present tense they happen to follow the regular patterns closely, albeit with unexpected roots.

The present-tense root of идти is *ид-, and conjugates like an ending-stressed first-conjugation verb.

• я иду idú
• ты идёшь idjósh'
• он идёт idjót
• мы идём idjóm
• вы идёте idjóte
• они идут idút

The present tense root of ехать is *ед-, and is a follows a variant of the first conjugation pattern:

• я еду jédu
• ты едешь jédesh'
• он едет jédet
• мы едем jédem
• вы едете jédete
• они едут jédut

5) The Prepostions в and на with the Accusative Case

You have already learned how to use these two prepostions with the prepostional case to express "in ___" and "on ___". When used with the accusative case instead, they indicated motion into or onto:

Я иду в школу.
Ja idú v shkólu.
"I'm going into the school."

The only potential confusion you may have is with neuter nouns ending in -е in the nominative, such as море móre "sea" (whose accusative and prepositional forms are both море as well). However, context should serve to clear up whether you're talking about "in the sea" or "into the sea".


EXERCISES:

1) Decline the adjective given in parentheses so that it agrees properly with the noun given.

• (красивый) дома (krasívyj) domá "beautiful homes"
• (новый) книга (nóvyj) kníga "a new book"
• (трудный) уроки (trúdnyj) uróki "difficult lessons"
• (каждый) неделя (kázhdyj) nedélja "every week"
• (плохой) погода (plokhój) pogóda "bad weather"
• (вечерний) новости (vechérnij) nóvosti "evening news" ("news" is plural in Russian!)

2) Fill in the blank with the properly conjugated verb for "to go".

• Он ___ в Москву в машине. Ón ____ v Moskvú v mashíne.
• Сегодня я не еду в школу на автобусе, а ____ пешком. Segódnja já ne jédu na avtóbuse, a ____ peshkóm.
• Она хочет туда ____ в среду. Oná khóchet tudá ____ v srédu.
• Как туда лучше _____? На поезде или на автобусе? Kák tudá lúchshe ____? Na pójezde íli na avtóbuse?

Vocabulary: (Words you should remember are marked with an asterisk. Others are constructions we will learn later and you need not worry about now)

• сегодня segódnja* "today" (note: pronounced [s'I."vo.dn'@], with a /v/)
• автобус avtóbus* "bus"
• а a* - In this case, it is translated as "but". This word is often used immediately following a negative clause and before a positive one, meaning "I'm not doing this, but rather doing this"
• пешком peshkóm* "on foot"
• хочет khóchet "he/she wants" (followed by infinitive)
• туда tudá* "to there" (the directional form of там, which just specifies location)
• в среду v srédu "on Wednesday"
• Как лучше...? Kák lúchshe...?* "What's the best way to..." (literally "How is it better..."; followed by infinitive)
• или íli* "or"

3) Translate into Russian.

• I'm reading an old book.
• She wants to go to the city library.
• Our new car is red.
• My old friends are coming here tomorrow.

Vocabulary:

• старый stáryj* "old" (age-wise)
• городской gorodskój "city" (the adjectival form; in case you haven't noticed yet, Russian often turns nouns into adjectives in addition to using the genitive case)
• библиотека bibliotéka* "library"
• красный krásnyj* "red"
• давнишний davníshnij* "old" (time-wise, "for a long time" or "long-standing")
• сюда sjudá* "to here" (the directional form of здесь)
• завтра závtra* "tomorrow" (Remember, in Russian, try to put sentence-level adverbs before the verb; not necessarily immediately before, but it should come before the verb in the sentence)

And just a small note for the third one - use an en dash ( – ) for the copula "to be" here. A written en dash is used in Russian in place of the zero-copula if confusion may otherwise arise, such as when you have two nouns (Джон – врач Dzhon – vrách "John is a doctor"). There is no difference in speech.

[Delalyra]

Sweet... I'll try to get the answers in more quickly this time.

[Delalyra]

Well, I have the answers, never fear, but I don't have enough time to type them up today (prom); they'll be here tomorrow, though.

[Delalyra]

Okay, I lied. But here they are!

1.) красивыое дома
новaя книга
трудные уроки
каждая неделя
плохая погода
вечерные новости

2.) он едет , я иду , идёт , он едет

3.) Я читаю старую книгу.
Она хочет ехать в городскюю библиотекy.
Наша новое машине-- красное.
Мои давнишные друзьи [iirc, “friend”] завтра едут сюда.

[Mecislau]

Good. Just a few comments...

(Whenever I don't mention something, you got it right, so don't worry)

1.) красивыое дома

Whoops. Did you mean to use the plural ending or the neuter? You have one too many vowels there.

Of course, since "дома" is plural, you should use the plural ending: красивые.

вечерные новости

Here it should be вечерние, as the adjective root is soft.

You can tell by the masculine singular form: вечерний. The consonant Н doesn't demand the use of И afterwords (ie, both -ный and -ний are legal adjective endings, whereas only -ший is, never -шый), and since И is a palatalizing vowel, you know the adjective root must be soft.

2.) он едет , я иду , идёт , он едет

The first two are correct, but the second two need infinitives (see the "followed by infinitive" notes in the vocab list?). Whenever you have two verbs in the same clause, only one can be conjugated (so it's хочет идти khóchet idtí "he wants to go"). In the last case, the "conjugated" verb is the zero-form "be": как Ø лучше ехать kák lúchshe jékhat' "how is it best to go..."

Она хочет ехать в городскюю библиотекy.

Only a little spelling error here: *городскую. Remember this spelling rule in Russian: never use the letters Я, Ю, or Ы after the velar consonants К, Г, or Х.

Note that идти would be equally acceptable here. With ехать, you're specifically stating that she wants to go by vehicle. Идти would make no statement either way - she could walk, she could drive.

Наша новое машине-- красное.

Huh. You did a funny thing here...

The word for "car" is машина mashína (feminine!). Машине is its prepositional form. So all of your adjectives here should be feminine, not neuter (although curiously you got the "Наша" correct).

Мои давнишные друзьи [iirc, “friend”] завтра едут сюда.

Perfect, except you forgot the plural of "friend"

It's друзья. But all of your adjectives/verbs are perfect.

[Mecislau]

<b>LESSON 7 / СЕДЬМОЙ УРОК / SED'MÓJ URÓK</b>


1) Pronouns in the Accusative Case

Each nominative pronoun naturally has its own accusative form:

• я > меня menjá
• ты > тебя tebjá
• он > его jegó [jI."vo]
• она > её jejó
• оно > его jegó
• мы > нас nás
• вы > вас vás
• они > их íkh

Notice how the third person accusative pronouns are the same as the possessive adjectives. In simple sentences, these generally go before the verb: я тебя вижу! já tebjá vízhu "I see you!".

The accusative forms of the interrogative pronoun что chtó [Sto] "what" is the same - что. For кто któ "who", it is кого kogó [kV."vo]. These generally go at the beginning of a sentence, just like the other interrogative pronouns: Кого ты видишь? Kogó tý vídish'? "Whom do you see?"


2) Possessive Adjectives in the Accusative Case

The same rules apply as other adjectives - for inanimate nouns, all of the forms are the same as the nominative, except for the feminine singular. These are:

• • мою mojú
  • твою tvojú
  • его jegó
  • её jejó
  • нашу náshu
  • вашу váshu
  • их íkh
  (See how the third person forms never change?)
  
  Он покупает мою старую куртку.
  Ón pokupájet mojú stáruju kúrtku.
  "He is buying my old jacket"
  (куртка kúrtka = "jacket", *покупай- *pokupáj- "to buy" (first conjugation)
  
  
  3) The Reflexive Possessive Pronoun Свой Svój
  
  This is a feature of Russian that make take some getting used to.
  
  In Russian, there cannot be multiple pronouns or possessive adjectives of the same type in a single clause. By "type" I mean within a single person and number (so a single clause shouldn't have more than two of я/меня/мой or он/его/его).
  
  But what if you need to? There is a special pronoun that refers back to whatever the subject of the sentence is. It conjugates exactly the same way as ты/твой, except with a с instead of the т. And of course, it has no nominative form (for obvious reasons). For now you only have to worry about the accusative possessive forms - свой, свою, своё, свои svój, svojú, svojó, svoí. So "I'm reading my newspaper" would be Я читаю свою газету Já chitáju svojú gazétu.
  
  However, this reflexive pronoun has an interesting effect in the third person. In English, a sentence like "Nikolai is reading his book" is somewhat ambiguous - is he reading his own book, or is he reading another man's book? Russian makes this distinction clear (in effect having a fourth person).
  
  Using свой links the possession back to the subject, meaning he is reading his own book: Николай читает свою книгу. Níkolaj chitájet svojú knígu.
  
  Using его produces no such link, meaning the possession is that of a fourth party, not the subject of the sentence: Николай читает его книгу Níkolaj chitájet jegó knígu. "Nikolai is reading his (someone else's) book".
  
  Once you learn more cases, the reflexive pronoun becomes even more interesting.
  
  
  4) The Interrogative Чей Chéj
  
  This interrogative pronoun means "whose" and agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. These four forms are:
  • MascSg: чей chéj [tS'ej]
  • FemSg: чья ch'já [tS'ja]
  • NeutSg: чьё ch'jó [tS'jo]
  • Pl: чьи ch'í [tS'ji]
  (And of course the feminine accusative чью ch'jú [tS'ju]).
  
  This is often used in the expression "чей это ____?" (whose ___ is this?). Note that the interrogative and the noun it modifies are split here. That "это" is a pronoun here, not an adjective!
  
  Чей это рюкзак?
  Chéj éto rjukzák?
  "Whose backpack is this?"
  
  Чья это шапка?
  Ch'já éto shápka?
  "Whose hat is this?"
  
  
  5) The Demonstrative Adjective Этот étot
  
  Этот is the adjective version of the pronoun это. Unlike это, этот directly modifies an adjetive and agrees with it in gender, number, and case.
  
  In the nominative case:
  • MascSg: этот étot
  • FemSg: эта éta
  • NeutSg: это éto (context will serve to distinguish this from the pronoun)
  • Pl: эти éti
  And in the accusative inanimate:
  • MascSg: этот étot
  • FemSg: эту étu
  • NeutSg: это éto (context will serve to distinguish this from the pronoun)
  • Pl: эти éti
  Are you beginning to notice a pattern here? Adjectives such as этот, чей, and мой take a similar set of endings, but distinct from those of other adjectives you've learned thus far (like новый, etc). Adjectives like новый are called "long-form" or "full-form" adjectives, while adjectives like этот are "short form". Most long-form adjectives also have a corresponding short form, but these will be discussed later on. For now, just know what I mean if I say "long-form" or "short-form". The basic short form endings are - (nothing, for the MSg), -а (FSg), -о (NSg), and -ы (Pl) in the nominative, and the same (with -у for the FSg) in the accusative inanimate.
  
  
  6) The Short-Form Adjective Один odín
  
  The short-form adjective один odín means "one" (the numeral). Like many other short forms adjectives, where there is zero ending in the masculine singular, an epenthetic vowel is inserted in the MSgNom that is dropped in all other forms.
  
  Otherwise, it conjugates regularly:
  • MSg: один odín
  • FSg: одна odná
  • NSg: одно odnó
  • Pl: одни odní (a plural "one", huh? This is generally translate as "some")
  • FSgAcc: одну odnú
  (And yes, there is a reason I'm only teaching you the number 1 today. Numbers higher than one have different rules governing their use).
  
  This word can also be used as an adverb, meaning "alone". In this sense, you usually place it at the end of a sentence, and it agrees in gender and number with the subject. For this reason, it will only be found in the nominative case in this situation.
  
  
  EXERCISES:
  
  Sorry, my schedule's really busy now, so I've only got some translations for now.
  
  1) Translate into Russian.
  • I love you.
  • He is watching us.
  • They are eating your fruits.
  • What is he buying at the store?
  • I bought this hat yesterday.
  • Whose shirt is this?
  • He is washing his own car.
  • I'm cleaning my kitchen.
  • This city is very old.
  • He is going to school alone.
  • They are going to his house alone.
  [EDIT: Whoops, some vocab would be nice.
  • *смотр- (inf: смотреть smotrét') "watch" (a regular conjugation two verb - stress on the ending in 1SG, on the root in all other forms)
  • *кушай- (inf: кушать kúshat') "eat" (regular conjugation 1 - stress stays on the /u/)
  • фрукт frúkt "fruit" (masculine)
  • *покупай- (inf: покупать pokupát') "buy" (regular conjugation 1 - stress stays on /a/)
  • магазин magazín "store, shop" (masc)
  • вчера vcherá "yesterday"
  • рубашка rubáshka "shirt" (fem)
  • *мой- (inf: мыть mýt') "wash" (regular conjugatio 1, except /e/ instead of /i/ in endings; stress always on /o/: мою моешь моет etc)
  • *чист- (inf: чистить chístit') "clean" (regular conjugation 2, stress always on stem; in 1SG form, there is a ст > щ mutation)
  • кухня kúkhnja "kitchen" (fem)
  • город górod "city" (masc)
  • школа shkóla "school" (fem)
  ]
  
  I realize this lesson was rather grammar-and-form heavy, but I had to tie up a few loose ends before moving onto the next topic. In the next lesson we'll be discussing statements of possession and the genitive case.

[Andrea]

My textbook lists сюдa, здесь and тут as all equivalents of "here". I think I need to get a new book.

[Mecislau]

My textbook lists сюдa, здесь and тут as all equivalents of "here". I think I need to get a new book.

Well, they are, just in different senses...

[Andrea]

Maknas wrote:

Well, they are, just in different senses...

Yeah, but it would be nice if the authors went into a bit more detail. Hell, nevermind detail, I'll settle for an adequate explanation. Though I'm probably being naive in expecting detail from an introductory textbook. Anyways, I appreciate the lessons, thanks for taking the time to write/post them.

[Furi Tsunori]

A fresh example of free order:


1. Я тебя люблю = I love you
2. Тебя я люблю = I love defintely you [not her/him]
3. Люблю я тебя = Yes, yes, I love you, stop this rot
4. Тебя люблю я = poetic I love exactly you
5. Люблю тебя я = poetic I definetly love you

[Shm Jay]

My textbook lists сюдa, здесь and тут as all equivalents of "here". I think I need to get a new book.

сюдa is "hither" = "to here", if you're still reading this, Andrea.

[Gaspard]

A fresh example of free order:

1. Я тебя люблю = I love you
2. Тебя я люблю = I love defintely you [not her/him]
3. Люблю я тебя = Yes, yes, I love you, stop this rot
4. Тебя люблю я = poetic I love exactly you
5. Люблю тебя я = poetic I definetly love you

And what's the remaining "Я люблю тебя"? The same as 1.?

[Furi Tsunori]

Oh... I forgot it))) Sorry)

It's probably because "Я тебя люблю" is more common than "Я люблю тебя", the 2nd variant is used in films oftenly and in official cases. When you say "Я тебя люблю", the logical stress is on the word ТЕБЯ? means you. And while using Я люблю тебя is to show that the main word is ЛЮБЛЮ, e.g. we're not just friends, I wanna marry you!

So hard to explain! I never thinked about it before! ))

[hwhatting]

Скажи мне, что знаешь русский... Пожалуйста...

Знаю.

[Furi Tsunori]

Ну что я могу сказать, мы - носители сразу двух языков))

You rule I mean)

[Risla]

Oh... I forgot it))) Sorry)

It's probably because "Я тебя люблю" is more common than "Я люблю тебя", the 2nd variant is used in films oftenly and in official cases. When you say "Я тебя люблю", the logical stress is on the word ТЕБЯ? means you. And while using Я люблю тебя is to show that the main word is ЛЮБЛЮ, e.g. we're not just friends, I wanna marry you!

So hard to explain! I never thinked about it before! ))

One never says "oftenly." It's always "often."
And the past tense of "think" is "thought," not "thinked."

Придираююсь к мелочам...