Уроки русского

[Testyal]

But you are unpredictable!

[Testyal]

А где русские уроки? Мы не посмортрели на времня нас.

[conlangconstructor]

I've updated the "Resources" section of the first post. If you know of any other good resources let me know!

[Darkgamma]

You missed an important aspect of Russian: SWEARING.

[Ear of the Sphinx]

Блядь!

[Pirka]

На кой хуй и на кого хера вы так ёбанно ругаетесь, а?! >:(

[Ear of the Sphinx]

На жопу!

[conlangconstructor]

Я ненавижу вас, засранцы.

Я шучу, блядь.

[Pirka]

Я ненавижу вас, засранцы.

Слишком по-детски получилось...

Лучше сказать «НЕ ПИЗДИТЕ, СУКИНЫ СЫНОВЬЯ, ПОШЛИ ВЫ ВСЕ НА ХЕР К ЧЁРТОВОЙ МАТЕРИ. БЛЯДИ.»

[conlangconstructor]

Thanks for the correction, Pirka :-D . That's the first time I've cursed in Russian. I think I'll leave it to the pros ;)

As for the word "блядь" - does it always translate as "whore, b*tch, slut" or can it have other meanings depending on its context?

[Pirka]

It's often contracted to «бля» to mean something along the lines of "fucking" or "goddamn", as in:
«Я, бля, три дня не пил.» "I haven't fucking drank vodka for three days."
«Ты чё, бля, ничё не понимаешь?!» "Do you not fucking understand or something?!"

As a noun it means whore, slut, and the like, yeah.

[Pirka]

I was reading through the lessons out of boredom today; I saw that you categorized nouns such as «мужчина» and «дядя» as feminine nouns. They are actually part of the first declension and thus inflect like feminine nouns, but they're still grammatically masculine.

When you're describing the genitive's job of quantifying, you should have mentioned that the singular genitive is used when the quantifying numeral ends with «два/две», «три», or «четыре», so "twenty-three rubles" would be «двадцать три рубля», and "one thousand three hundred ninety-two plates" would be «тысяча три сто девяносто две тарелки».

You didn't need to have so much vodka referenced....

[conlangconstructor]

I was reading through the lessons out of boredom today; I saw that you categorized nouns such as «мужчина» and «дядя» as feminine nouns. They are actually part of the first declension and thus inflect like feminine nouns, but they're still grammatically masculine.

Hi Pirka. I actually did point this out in lesson 2.

There are a few masculine nouns that end in -а and -я. These nouns are declined like feminine ones - but take masculine agreement (adjectives, past tense verbs).
мужчи́на "man"
дя́дя "uncle"

When you're describing the genitive's job of quantifying, you should have mentioned that the singular genitive is used when the quantifying numeral ends with «два/две», «три», or «четыре», so "twenty-three rubles" would be «двадцать три рубля», and "one thousand three hundred ninety-two plates" would be «тысяча три сто девяносто две тарелки».

Thanks for pointing this out for me. In lesson 4 I covered the genitive case, but now that I look at it in the eyes of a beginner, I can see that they will probably believe "21 years" is: двадцать один лет instead of двадцать один год because I said "the genitive plural should be used for numbers 5 "пять" and above." Thanks again for pointing that out. I'll get to correcting it.

The genitive singular should be used for the numbers 2 "два/две", 3 "три", and 4 "четы́ре", while the genitive plural should be used for numbers 5 "пять" and above.
два, три, четы́ре рубля́ "two, three, four rubles"
пять, шесть, семь рубле́й "five, six, seven rubles"

You didn't need to have so much vodka referenced....

Vodka's Russian, and it brings back some mostly good memories.

[conlangconstructor]

УРО́К 5

PDF: Download or view at Google Docs.

Introduction
In this lesson you are going to learn about Russian's Prepositional Case. This is the shortest lesson I have came up with so far! So please read along and learn about the prepositional case and how to form the prepositional forms of nouns and adjectives :).

The Prepositional Case
The Prepositional case is called so because it is used only after prepositions. There are four prepositions that are used with the prepositional case: в "in"; на "on"; о "about"; при "attached to; in presence of; during." The latter is somewhat rare.

The prepositional case was once known as the locative case, and is still sometimes referred to by its old name. It is important to note that some nouns have two prepositional forms (more below).

The Four Prepositions
Here's a breakdown of each of the four prepositions that are governed by the prepositional case:

в "in; at" - with enclosed places or buildings; most countries and cities.*
Я в Москве́. = "I'm in Moscow."
в шко́ле = "at school"

на "on; at" - with open spaces or events.*
на у́лице = "in the street"

о (also об/обо) "about" - use "об" if noun begins in vowel.**
Он говори́л о нём. = "He spoke about him."

при "attached to; in presence of; during"

*в and на are used with the accusative case when they refer to motion. Therefore: Я в Москве́ "I'm in Moscow" (Prepositional) BUT Я е́ду в Москву́ "I'm traveling to Moscow" (Accusative).

**о is also used in the accusative case, where it takes the meaning "against" or "upon" something.

Forming the Prepositional singular of nouns
The prepositional singular of nouns is relatively easy to form.

Masculine nouns
Masculine nouns ending in a consonant add -е, and nouns ending in -й or -ь replace that letter with -е. Nouns ending in -ий become -ии.

сад > о са́де "about the garden"
музей > в музе́е "in the museum"
царь > о царе́ "about the tsar"
Ю́рий > о Ю́рии "about Yuri"

Feminine nouns
Feminine nouns ending in -а or -я replace that letter with -е. Nouns ending in -ь replace that letter with -и, and nouns ending in -ия become -ии.

кни́га > о кни́ге "about the book"
Сиби́рь > в Сиби́ри "in Siberia"
Росси́я > в Росси́и "in Russia"

Neuter nouns
Neuter nouns ending in -о change that letter to -е. Neuter nouns ending in -е are unchanged, unless they end in -ие, in which they become -ии.

письмо́ > о письме́ "about the letter"
мо́ре > в мо́ре "in the sea"
движе́ние > в движе́нии "in movement"

*Some nouns have -у́ or -ю́ after the prepositions в and на. These are remnants of the old locative case. Examples: в саду́ "in the garden"; в лесу́ "in the forest."

Forming the Prepositional plural of nouns
Like the prepositional singular forms of nouns, the prepositional plural forms are fairly easy to get the hang of. There are two basic endings: ах and ях.

Use "ах" if:
-the noun ends in a consonant;
-the noun ends in -о or -а.

сад > о сада́х "about the gardens"
письмо́ > о пи́сьмах "about the letters"
кни́га > о кни́гах "about the books"

Use "ях" if:
-the noun ends in -ь, -й, -е, or -я;
-the noun has an irregular nominative plural ending in -я.

царь > о царя́х "about the tsars"
музе́й > о музе́ях "about the museums"
мо́ре > о моря́х "about the seas"
свинья́ > о сви́ньях "about the pigs"
друзья́ > о мои́х друзья́х "about my friends"

*Feminine nouns ending in -мя take the ending -енах.

Prepositional Personal pronouns
Below are the prepositional forms of the personal pronouns. о "about" is added to give you an example, and to show you the irregular form it has with "about me."

я > обо мне "about me"
ты > о тебе́ "about you"
он > о нём "about him"
она > о ней "about her"
оно > о нём "about it"
мы > о нас "about us"
вы > о вас "about you"
они > о них "about them"

Prepositional adjectives

Masculine and neuter nouns
-ем for soft-stemmed adjectives and where spelling rules make it so;
-ом for all other adjectives.

после́дний > после́днем "last"
хоро́ший > хоро́шем "good"

но́вый > в но́вом музе́е "in the new museum"
ру́сский > в ру́сском го́роде "in a Russian town"
большо́й > в большо́м го́роде "in a large town"

Feminine nouns
-ей for soft-stemmed adjectives and where spelling rules make it so;
-ой for all other adjectives.

после́дний > после́дней "last"
хоро́ший > хоро́шей "good"

но́вый > в но́вой кни́ге "in a new book"
ру́сский > в ру́сской кни́ге "in a Russian book"
большо́й > в большо́й шапке "in a large hat"

Plural nouns
-их for soft-stemmed adjectives and where spelling rules make it so;
-ых for all other adjectives.

после́дний > после́дних "last"
хоро́ший > хоро́ших "good"

но́вый > в но́вых музе́ях "in the new museums"
ру́сский > в ру́сских города́х "in Russian towns"
большо́й > в больши́х города́х "in large towns"

Conclusion
I hope you are enjoying the fact that this is a lot smaller than the previous lessons ;). I haven't posted a new lesson in a year, but I plan on adding at least two more in the next two-three weeks. I have recently updated the first lesson and am in the process of updating lessons 2-4. I am also going to make .pdf files of lessons 2-4 (lesson 1 is already done!).

[Testyal]

I learnt the prepositional case first in my Russian book because it's so darn easy.

[conlangconstructor]

I learnt the prepositional case first in my Russian book because it's so darn easy.

Yes, I probably should have introduced it in the beginning — but I didn't :p.

I'm working on rewriting lessons 2-4 atm, and should have them all updated in the next few days. I've also pretty much written out the next three lessons, but will wait to post them until I get the older lessons updated.

The next three lessons will be focused primarily on verbs...and I plan on covering verbs of motion (yay!). :) After that I plan on covering the dative case, but that's far in the future ;)

[rusa]

Hello!

My name is Ksenia. I'm Russian teacher. I would like to share my website Aprende Ruso with you.
My website is in Spanish and may be helpful for Spanish speaker learnes.
Soon I'm going to translate it to English.
If you have any suggestion, write to me!