?!'

THE TEACH YOURSELF BOOKSEDITED BY LEONARD CUTTS

RUSSIAN

Pfiiform with ths rolumeand in the same

series

Teach Yourseif AfrikaansTeach Yourseif Arabic

Teach Yourseif Colloquial ArabicTeach Yourseif ChineseTeach Yourseif CzechTeach Yourseif Danish

Teach Yourseif DutchTeach Yourseif Dutch Dictionary

Teach Yourseif English for Swahil-speaking Peopleieach Yourseif Engiish GrammarTeach Yourseif Good EngiishTeach Yourseif EsperantoTeach Yourseif FinnishTeach Yourseif French

Teach Yourseif French DictionaryTeach Yourseif Everyday FrenchTeach Yourseif French Grammar

Teach Yourseif French Phrase BookTeach Yourseif German

Teach Yourseif German DictionaryTeach Yourseif German GrammarTeach Yourseif More German

Teach Yourseif German Phrase BookTeach Yourseif Greek

Teach Yourseif New Testment GreekTeach Yourseif HebrewTeach Yourseif kelandicTeach Yourseif IrishTeach Yourseif Italian

Teach Yourseif italian Phrase BookTeach Yourseif JapaneseTeach Yourseif LatinTeach Yourseif Malay

Teach Yourseif NorwegianTeach Yourseif Modern Persian

Teach Yourseif PolishTeach Yourseif Portuguese

Teach Yourseif Russian DictionaryTeach Yourseif Russian Phrase Book

Teach Yourseif SamoanTeach Yourseif Serbo-Croatian Phrase Book

Teach Yourseif SpanishTeach Yourseif Spanish Phrase BookTeach Yourseif Everyday Spanish

Teach Yourseif SwahilTeach Yourseif Swedish

Teach Yourseif Swedish Phrase BookTeach Yourseif TurkishTeach Yourseif UrduTeach Yourseif Welsh

AN FOURMAN, L\i(University of Kiev)

> I

&^t

THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES PRESS LTD.

102 NEWGATE STREETLONDON, E.C.I

First Printed - - 1943This Impression - 1962

AU Righls Reserved

Printed in Grea Britai for lhe Engiish Universities Press, Limitedby Elliolt Bros. & Yeoman Ltd., Liverpool

FORE WORD^jUALIFIED Russian eachers are still scarce in^- England. Consequently not many eveningschool classes in Russian are held for adults. More-over, there are many who cannot attend what classestliere are, and would be glad to put in an hour ortwo studying Russian when they have any sparetime. For such beginners this book is intended.

Many, though they can speak and write their ownlanguage correctly, have never bothered to studygrammar : the grammatical notes given in this bookwill make some of the rough places plain for them.Students who know the grammar of their own or anyother language will be able to skip such notes.

Each lesson consists of the bare elements ofRussian grammar, of a selection of words in every-day use, and of ample exercises made up of colloquialsentences, and fmally of short reading extracts inprose and verse. Such material would, in ouropinion, be sufficient for a student to prepare himselffor a more thorough study of the Russian language.

The exercises have been made long for the expresspurpose of enabling the student to repeat the samewords and learn the use of grammatical rules until hehas acquired the habit of saying what he knowsfluently and correctly.

AT THE END OF THE BOOK IS A COMPLETE KEY

vi TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

STUDENT IS ADVISED TO PREPARE THE EXERCISES,

FIRST USING THE KEY FREELY, SO S TO ARRIVE..ATTHE MEANING OF THE WORDS AND THE GRAMMATICALNOTES, NOT BY ROTE, BUT BY COMPARING EVERY

PECULIARITY OF THE RUSSIAN WITH HIS MOTHER

TONGUE. WHEN AN EXERCISE HAS BEEN FULLYASSIMILATED WITH THE HELP OF THE IvEY, IT CAN

BE DONE AGAIN INDEPENDENTLY OF THE IvEY, TOMAKE SURE THAT ALL THE WORDS HAVE BEEN LEARNT,TOGETHER WITH THEIR GRAMMATICAL RELATION IN

THE SENTENCES.

The material in the Key can, of course, be usedas additional exercises and worked so that the mainpart of the book is turned into a Key.

The advantage of this book when used in eveningclasses is that students missing lessons can easilycatch up by preparing the exercises and using theKey, and this will prevent them frora dropping outof their class.

The author wishes to express his thanks for thevaluable help given by his friends Walter J. Read,F.I.L., and John O. Burtt, M.A.

INTRODUCTION

T the mere sight of Russian print an Englishperson is apt to exclaim : " How funny the

Russian letters look, rather like ours upside down."This first impression of the Russian alphabet assomething peculiar and grotesque is followed aslikely as not by the request : " Say something inRussian," and when I repeat a few verses of a Russianpem, my English friends are often quite astonishedat the sounds, which seem to them completelystrange. Their usual comment when the perform-ance ends is : " Good gracious 1 I could never learnto speak Russian. It must be a fearfully difficultlanguage." Nevertheless, some of them, withcharacteristic British determination, have taken upRussian with enthusiasm as a fascinating hobby.They have done so probably because it is the languageof a country which at the present time is stirring theminds of men and women in ali walks of life, inEngland and probably in the rest of the world. Theysoon find out that Russian is no harder than anyother language commonly studied in this country.True, it has its peculiarities for English students, justas English has peculiarities for Russians, and thegrammar is rather more complicated than theEnglish. But it has one great advantage : Russianwords are comparatively easy to learn to pronouncesince the language is virtually phonetic, that is tosay, most of the letters can be pronounced in onlyone wav. This means that although, in Er^glish, the

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

ieier "a" represents as many as seven differensounds, " e " and " i " six, " o " eight, and " u "seven, the corresponding letters in Russian stand, onthe whole, for only one sound each.

Every language presents some difficulties ingrammar and pronunciation which can only beovercome by patient work and concentration, butRussian makes no greater demand on the student inthis respect than French, Spanish or any otherEuropean language.

Every year now one meets a growing number ofpeople who know one or more languages besides theirown, and this is also true of the English-speakingnations, who are no worse linguists than the men andwomen of other countries if they take up a foreignlanguage as a hobby and persist in their efforts tomaster it. There is this further advantage inRussian

: it is amazingly uniform ; the samelanguage is spoken over the vast extent of the globewhere the flag of the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics flies ; and you will be understood whetheryou are speaking to a peasant or a Universityprofessor. There are no dialects to bother you,although, of course, there are parts of the SovietUnion where Russian may be spoken rather differ-ently, as, for instance, English is spoken differentlyby a Londoner, a Scot, a Welshman, an Irishman,or natives of Yorkshire and Cornwali. In some partsRussian is spoken with a slight drawl ; in others akind of sing-song is adopted ; some speak lightly,others heavily, and so on ; but they ali speak the

SOM is

same Russian. Even the numerous peoples formingRepublics of their own, although they possess everyacility for cultivating their native languages, speakRussian as well as their own tongue.

To sum up : the student may rest assured thatthe pronunciation of Russian is simpler than itappears and if ali the directions given in this bookare followed and the words carefully read aloud, areasonably high standard of pronunciation will soonbe achieved without the help of a tutor, and in ashort time the language will begin to sound quitenatural and harmonious.

Similarly, owing to the fact that Russian is aphonetic language, you can easily write down anyword you know, for the spelling is very straight-forward, particularly since the Soviet EducationalAuthorities abolished redundant letters and generallysimplified the spelling and grammar. A student ofaverage intelligence, who is willing to attend andpersevere, can soon acquire a working knowledge ofthe language.

After mastering the contents of this book youshould certainly be able to understand much of whatyou hear and read and to express yourself on simpletopics. If, after making this start, you continue tostudy and manage occasionally to meet Russianpeople, or can spend a holiday in the Soviet Union,you wiE eventually get a really useful knowledge ofRussian, which in the post-war world may well proveof great cultural and commercial importance and

* TECH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

become as popular as the languages more generallystudied now.

Those who are learning the language in order tounderstand scientific works will find that, likeEnglish, it has adopted a vast number of words,many derived from Greek and Latin and some fromother European languages. Quite a large proportionof them have been taken from English, especiallywhere they concern seamanship or mechanics. Thosewho are studying it either for purely businesspurposes, or with the desire to read Russian literature

s

or else with the intention of visiting the SovietUnion, will find that the vocabulary is much lessrich than the English, which means that the studenthas fewer words to learn.

Finally it should be borne in mind that Russianbelongs to a family of Slavonic languages, themembers of which are closely related to each ther,and, once you are familiar with it, you will find littfcdifnculty in learning one or more of the sistetlanguages, if you care to try them, namely, PolishBulgarian, Serbian and Czech.

Alphabet

LESSON I

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

lesson ii

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Lesson 14

Lesson 15

Lesson 16

Lesson 17

Lesson 18

Lesson q

Lesson 20

Lesson 21

Lesson 22

Lesson 23

Lesson 24

Lesson 25

CONTENTS

and Reading Exercises .

.

_ ^

Nouns

Adjectives

Pronouns

Declension of Nouns, Adjectives and Pronouns

Genitive of Feminine Nouns

Neuter Nouns

Dative o Mas., Fem. and Neuter Nouns

Verbs

Shortened Adjectives .

.

...

Verbs : Regular Conjugations and Acc. Case

Genitive o Adjectives

Dative and Accusative of Adjectives

Use o Negative and Genitive

Plural of Nouns and Adjectives .

.

Irregular Noun Declensions

Numerais

Verbs (continue)

Prepositions

Instrumental and Prepositional Cases

Comparison of Adjectives

Declension of Personal Pronouns

Possessive Pronouns

1

20

12

23

S5

20

24

26

28

30

35

3

43

47

5

55

58

61

64

68

72

76

82

6

91

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

Lesson 26 Declension of stot, etc.

Lesson 27 ,, nei, etc.

Lesson 28 Aspects o the Verb

Lesson 29 Reflective and Reciprocai Verbs

Lesson 30 Participles

Lesson 31 Gerund

Lesson 32 Formation of Words

Lesson 33 Irregular Verb ConjugationsLesson 34 Adverbs

Lesson 35 Diminutives and Augmentative Nouns .

Lesson 36 The Time . . . .

Lesson 37 Impersonal Expressions

Lesson 38 Common Expressions and InterjectionsProse and Verse Extracts

vocabulary

Key

page

100

105

IIO

114

117

123

125

128

135

139

144

147

149

152

165

213

THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET

The Russian alphabet contains 32 letters. These are givenbelow in their correct order, which you should learn as you willsoon be looking up words in a dictionary :

nu, k K t ji

j

Tt, Yy s 4>

MCvk,

llbl, bb, 3Of the 32 letters in the alphabet nine are called vowels. A vowel

sound is one produced by the voice only. There are in Russianhard and sot vowels. Each hard vowel has its correspondingsot vowel. / ... i4ii

Hard vowels are: a, 3, 0, fel, y JSot vowels are : 51, 6, , H, K> ] & M- A-0 A, , .AM'One letter H is called a semi-vowelThe hard and soft signs t and h are called mutes.

The remaining 20 letters are called " consonants/' that is to say,their sounds are produced not merely by the voice but also bymovements o the tongue, teeth or lips.

The letters can be conveniently divided nto four gioups :

GROUP 1.Those alike in Russian and English. There are sxof these :

A a, Ee, O o, K k, M m, T t.(1) A a is always pronounced in Russian like the long " a " in

English, as in the word RATHER.(2) E e is pronounced like " ye " in the English word YET, for

instance JXQJ10 (yelobusiness) ; but when it has two dots overit, it is pronounced like " yo " in the English YONDER. Forinstance Mn (myo-honey).

(3) is pronounced like the English " o " in the word ON.(4) K K is pronounced like the " c " and " k " in the word CAKE.(5) M M is pronounced like S m " in the word MANY.(6) T T is pronounced like " t " in the word TAKE.

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

GROUP 2.letters which look like English letters but represeis!different sounds in Russian. There are six of these :

Bb, H h, Pp, Ce,1. BB serves to denote the English sound

2. H H

5. y y6. X x

y y, Xx." v," like V in the word

VICTORY." n," like N in the word

NOON." r," like R in the word

RUM."s,"likeSin the word

SALT." oo," in the word BOOT." eh," in the Scottish

word LOCH.GROUP 3 contains the foliowing 16 letters :

15

B 6 stands for the sound of the English letter " brr ,. .. " gU .. ,. , ,.>K H

,. , ,.

33H HJI ji

n nO $LUH-i

III m

93IO 1D

in BABY."g"inGLQRY."d"inDADDY." s "in

PLEASURE." z " in ZERO."i"inIN." 1 " in LADY."p"inPOT." f " in FACE." ts " in WITS." eh " in

CHURCH."sh"inSHAFT.-

i

" sh-ch " in [ $cXi$&CASH-CHEQUE.

" e " in PET.i, u"inDUKE." ya " in YARD.

GROUP 4 contains the remaining letters: fcl, "h, t>, H, whichreejaire some special remarks. In the alphabet on page 1 you wilihave seen that they are shwn as small letters only. This is becausethey are never used at the beginning of a word but only in the middler at the end.

THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET

W%#*

B~and & are entirely mute signs and they do ao express anyund at ali. They are used as auxiliary signs or the followingpurposes :

b serves to giv a sft intoaation to the consonant at@r which. itstands. You may see h in the middle of the word or at its end.The sotening effect of the b on the consonant can be achieved-zte well by sounding it as an exceedingly short, fleeting K, thuspalatalising the consonant, or uttering it by placing your tonguagainst the palate. Pronounce the words :

IIHCbMO

(pissymo) ; CTajIfa (staly), with a very short English y.Particular attention must be paid to the presence of b, at the

end of the word since there are pairs of words whose meaning differswhen they end in fc> or have no h at the end. For instance yrOJIbmeans COAL ; yrOJI means CORNER ; paT, BROTHER

;

paTb TO TAKE, etc."b is not used now at ali at the end of a word, though you wil

find it requently in books printed before the date o the SovietRevolution.But b is still used sometimes in the middle of compound words

like : ObHCHeHHe, n0flbe3fl, etc., where the second part ofthe word begins with 51, IO or e, to show that both parts06b-5ICHeHHe, nonb-e3H must be pronounced quite distinctly,as, for instance, you say in Englishcom-memorate.

bl is a hardH sound for which there is no special English letter.It is the English sound in KILL or WRIT or BIT or SIN, pro-nounced shortly with the teeth almost closed.H is used only in the middle and at the end of a word. It

always follows a vowel, and is pronounced very short like thesecond vowel of the diphthongs : IE in PIE, OY in BOY, AY inGAY, EY in KEY.There is no letter " H " in Russian ; words which begin in English

with the letter " H " begin in Russian with r instead. For in-stance, the word HAVANA is wrilten TaBaHa ; the wordHAMBUKG TaMypr; HYPNOSIS, rHIIHOS ; HYMN, FHMH,and HYDRA, THUpa.The English sound expressed by the letter " W " does not exist

tn Russian. Instead, the letter B is used and it sounds like thEnglish V.

BaubTepBaiHHHITOHBeCTMHHCTep

(WALTER)(WASHINGTON)(WESTMINSTER)

* TEACH YOURSELF RUSSiAN

There were formerly four additional letters which were rejectedas superfluous at the time of the Revolution. However, you maycome across boks printeci in the pre-revolutionary period and weare therefore giving the rejected letters together with those bywhich they have been replaced. They are :

I=Hh; 09 = O^); t>t = Ee V = hThe first thing to do is to make yourself familiar with the Russian

characters ; and if these printed directions do not enable you tograsp the pronunciation of ali the sounds, try to get half an hour'shelp from a Russian or someone who really knows the language.This, followed by a little practice, should give you a good idea of thepronunciation. You will also find gramophone records of theRussian sounds extremely useful.

The alphabet must be thoroughly mastered so that you can readwords correctly and easily. To learn the letters, practise copyingthem in their printed orm, at the same time repeating to your-self the different sounds they represent.

Russian has its own handwriting but for the present we shalltonfine ourselves to the printed alphabet until you are quite familiarwith it.

In ali words of more than one syllable, both in English and Ruasian, one syllable is pronounced with more emphasis than the others(For instance, in the English word " only " the first syllable hasmore emphasis than the second, whereas in the word " again " thesecond syllable is stressed.) There is no rule enabling you to tellon which syllable the emphasis is to be laid in a Russian word, andthis knowledge can only be acquired by practice and habit. Inthis book, the emphasised syllable will be indicated by an accent

;

for instance, TJIbKO only ; OnHTt. again, but in ordinary Russianprint no accents are given. It is no use your memoiising wordsunless you take care to learn both the pronunciation and the stresscorrectly ; but provided you do this, the more Rus ian words youlearn the better. To be master of a language you must learn thegrammar, but even disjointed words will often serve to conveyyour meaning ; and if you concentrate from the outset. on buildingup a large vocabulary, it will serve you in good stead when yourknowledge of grammar becomes more complete.

The following reading exercises are intended to give you practicein Russian sounds. The words have been carefully chosen and, asyou will see, they become longer as you proceed. Som of them

READING EXERCISE5 5

closely resemble the English, and Exercise 3 contains a lst of geo-graphical names, most o which can be easily recognised.

It is not necessary to work right through the reading exercisesbefore turning to Lesson 1, but if you omit any part of them nowyou should return to it later and not consider that you can readproperly until you can pronounce ali the words and phrases giventhere without difficulty.

Each section should be gone over several times and each differentsound carefully studied and practised. Try to enunciate the wordsclearly making full use of your tongue and lips. Particular attentionshould be paid to the following sounds :

>k, h, iii, in, n, hi, v, oh, nPi, ePi, h, h, y, kdh.

Notice that in the combinations bie, He, 06 the vowels aresounded quite separately (H-e ; H-e ; 0-).

Reading Exercise 3

Bkht, oefl, hhpk, crrapT, Lteirrp, THrp, eojik, cjioh,can, hbop, MaK, TaM, naM, HaM, caw, kslk, ra3, kht,rnnc, rmTb, kot, Kpafi, boh, cboh, 6oh, nan, jian, hhtl,hohl, HpaB, no, nap, napK, nacTb, neHb, nc, uerh,uenh, nnp, nnaH, mian, nuam, njien, itjio,d[, iijiot, rmyT,njiioc, non, noji, nojiK, nopT, hoct, npyji, npyT, np5jB,npncTb.

IlycTb, nyTb, nyx, nau, nbinb, pas, pas, paK, pan,pB, peHb, pHC, pOB, pOH, pOJKb, pOK, pOJIb, pOCT,pOT, pyjlb, pHfl, CaM, CBeT, CBHCT, CBOH, CBOH, CBH3b,cepn, cojib, ceTb, ckot, CKpHn, cjies, cjie3Tb, cjienb,CMex, cok, copT, cnHpT, cnopx, cnpoc, cpoK, CTaTb,ctboji, denb, cto, CTor, ctoji, ptojib, ctoh, CTyji, cTyK,CTbifl, cyH, cyK, cxon, cnT, Cbe3fl, TaK, TaKT, reu,reuu, THn.

Tnrp, th4>, tojik, tom, Tpn, th, tiok, yM, cf)aKT,|)jiar, $POht, xboct, xjie, xjiaM, xneB, xjihct, XMent,xos, xojim, xpaM, xpnn, xpnm, uejib, Lenb, hhhk,qacTb, nac, nevi, neM, necTb, nex, hhh, hto, nyTb, mar,iiap, uiBn.-uiepcTb, iujieM, niHyp, uiTpac), hqb, llithk,niyT, iuk.

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

3ing E>

ApKKc, aBaHTipa, aBTOMx, aBTOMOHJib, aBTOpHTT, aflMHpji, aKanMHH, aKBpuyM, aKKypTHo

9aKpoT, aM^HTeTp, aHajiH3HpoBaTb

p aHraHcKHH aapryMeHT, BmHbiH, ictphh, yfiHbiH, flpbr, BenH-KOflyiHHHH, nOKpOBHTejlb, CnOKHHHH, HpKHH ppMapKa, icopi, siiHjiencHH, 3HTy3H3M. SMaHCH-

SKCTpaopUHHpHHft, SKCneflHqHH, 3K3MeH, mecTHH-qaTb, mjlKOBblH, HHCTOCepflHHblH, HyBCTBO, HyflCHblH,HejIOBHeCKHH, I4HBHJIH3LHH, XpH3aHTMa, XpOHMeTp]XMypblH, XJInKOBHH, 4)C(J)Op, C^OTOrp^HH, ^HJiaH-TpnH5i, ynpHMbif, yonymjiHBbiH, yrprMbi, nojx,mojiok, njiKa, KpuiKa, KopKa, criHHKa, narrapca'TaK, rpaMo4)H, ra3Ta

s rejierpMMa, TejiecpH,'MaiuHa, CHJiyT.

riaHopMa, nnpaMHja, arme-n-r, xhmhh, hktopfHmeHp, MexHHK, KanHTH, HjiHOTKa, nporpMMa*TeTp, KOHqpT, TpaMB, jiokomothb, 6eH3HH, sjie-MHT, nMna, MaraT, KMnac, HHarpMMa, Kpra,MaTepHjI, KOHTpKT, KOHflyKTOp, CTHUHH, pMeTp,'TepMMeTp, TeMnepaTypa, KOHfeHcTop, aaponjiH,KMHaia, apaH, (^pHKa, bhh, nBo, nHCTOJiT%(J)yHT, KpOKOHHJl, (pH3HKa f yHHBepCHTT, MHHHCTp,'nyuiKa, apxs, flBop.

LLanHTb, meK, myna, yHHHHme, iijht, mypHTbcn,poma, EiHTb, yuiH, uiypiiiTb, mnKa, mejiyx, iiiiiot,'UiyMHblH, HepT, HHCTOT, HeK, HHTTeJIb, xopoBH,'xopoui, X03HHH, xpnjibiH, prMKa, pyxa, 3y6 p

'

SHM, 3fl0pBbIH, 3aH3a, pa3HHHK, JKejITblH, HO-3HL,mpTBa, secjibiH, nopoceHOK, njieHKa, neHb, nHbrH.

Note that a word consisting of a single consonant such as B, meaningin, K = to, C with, merges in pronunciaiion wih the followingword ; B KMHaTe, in the room, K OTUy, to the father, C HHM, mithhim.

iNG EXERCSES fing Exercise I ! I

ma, Hhhh5, MHnecTep, JTHcTp, FaiiH^KC,SaH3Hp t Hhji, HTaM, IlaparBH, BHHHHnr,HepycajiHM, Knnp, LJtpHx, Oflcca, Hsa, CMHpHa,MapKKO, flyJiHH, FBaTeMjia, UeHjiH, EBpna,TerepH, JlanjiHHHH, Bapmsa, riajiecTHHa, flHHH,MjibTa, SejiHHHH, Flepy, Chhpb, MoHTpenb,HTjiHH, TMypr, HopnH, Hmja, rejibCHHrc^pc,IleKHH, Pon3Hsi, AepRHH, JIhh, HHHocTH, Bapce-jiHa, KaBK3, IlaHMa, KMprauK, Bajibnap30,JlCTep, HcnHHH, BlUHHITOH, HbK)KCTJ7b, AHC-chhhh, KnurranT, tncBHHj, Benrpfl, HHKro, Pra,JlHBpHO, A^raHHCTH, MeCCHHa, XpHCTHHHH,AnpHaHnojib, HeB, ErneT, toh, TaHBep, ^Henp,BHa, 3H5I, Henojib, riajipMO, AjiHHH.-BubPHH,HpjiHHHH, BHrpHH, KBeK, XJysp, MKCHKa, AjiK-caHjipHH, HcjiHjiHH, EBcJjpT, >KHpHfla, PefiH, HJia-fljIbC^HH, FpeHJlHHH, KajIHcJ)pHH5T

sMjibypH,

Anmp, KC^opn, TpHHHfln, AMCTepnM, YKpHHaCHUHJIHH, MoCKB, PyMHHHH, HHpjlHE[bI, UJot-jiHflHH, 3jib3c, HcTep, Tkho, hi-ah^, Epncpopn,jQnuHr, AHTBpneH, TyHic, OcTHfl, EojirpHH,lepHaMyKo, XpbKOB, FHpajiTp, JlHccaH,ApxHrejibCK, cjio, flajiMuHH, HnHHH, PorrepnM,Acjdhhh, Bapanc, KeB, Jlnora, OrjiHHHH, THa,BepjiHH, CeBacTnoJib, HMKa, fHHypr, LLInim-6preH, Hhjih, OpHUHH, Bopji, HopBrHH, Ctok-rjibM, BoccJxSp, Bepcjib, Cy3, Bpa3JiHH, Bjira,FjicTep, KoHCTaH-THHnojib, JIhhoh, BpHTOH,^necrep, jiopHfla, Hnarpa, BpMeH, BjuiHHrroH,BaHKysep, BpHTHHH, BeHuHH, FojijiHHHsi, flaMcK,JIieK, Manpn, MiHxeH, Bpiccejib, TMsa, Ypji.

Copy out the above list of geographical names in alphabeticalorder taking into consideration the second letter of each narae &$well as the first.

8 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSiAN

It is most important to learn to read smoothly and clearly, andyou would do well to practise reading the following exercise caxe-fully :

Reading Exereise IV

JlepeBHHbiH flOM. YflHaH KBapTpa. flemBannoKynna. JJtm 3BpH. TpMKHH pa3roBp. TopoR-ck TeTp. RomunBasi norna. OcHHHH Bnep.3HaKMLie MecT. HecncTHbiH cjiyHai. HHOCTpH-nan nenaTB. ObiKHOBHHoe cpflCTBo. flaneKoe pac-CTOMHHe. CeppHHHaH MOHTa. yflOBJieTBOpHTejIb-hhh OTBx. BHHMTejiLHHH yneHHK. HeowraoenpocTpHCTBo. IlIJiKOBbiH ruiaTK. PeHHOBa^ uiHHa.HIepcT5iHe njiTbe. HecTOHioHBHH nejioBK. HJspoeB03Harpa>KflHHe. YcTapjibiH 3aKH. UeMHTHMH3aB. IlIecTHHuaTtiH neHt>. Hy>KHLiH si3K. Uejie-coo6p3HaH Mpa. Xhkhk TOBp. OmeynoTpe-HTejiLHoe cpicTBo. TpyflojiioHBHe KpecTbHe.PacneMTaHHbiH KOHBpT. 06H3TejibHan cjiy>K6a.MaKCHMjibHaH njnTa.

BbICTpO HecTCH BHH3 HO TenHHlO KpaCHBblH HcHjibHbiH napoxH h MnneHHO nBHmyTcn HaBCTpnyeMy eper MoryneH KpacBHuti Bjira. Bcifly jiecKBOHbi, BciHy npocTp h cBofla; Bceno-3ejiHbi nyr,H JlCKOBO HCHO-rOJiye HO, B CITOKHHOM flBH>KHHHsoflbi nyeTCH cnpmaHHaH CHJia; b He naji nio cnermflpoe cjmiie Mn; B3flyx HaneH cjiflKHM 3naxoMxbhhhx sepBbeB h CBme jihctb. A eper BceHflyT HaBCTpny, jiacKi rjia3 h ayuiy CBoi KpacoTH,:-l BC HBbie KapTHHbl OTKpbIBlOTCH Ha HHX.

(M. FopbKHH).

THE RUSS1AN ALPHABETWe shall now give you the Russiau alphabet as it is written :-

s j . s* x/asa

Cc,m

LESSON 1

NOUNSGenders

Having leamed to read and write, you can now begin. to learasome words. The vocabulary of the First Lesson consists solelyo nouns, that is to say, names of persons or things of any kind.

There is no equivalent in Russian for the English words a, an, asthe. Therefore, to take ooly one example, CT0J1 can mean eithertable, a able, or the table, according to the sense.AH the nouns in Russian are divided into three groups called

genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter ; and whea a noun is used

in speech or writing, its gender must be taken into account. Theimportance o this point will be seen more clearly later.With the names o iiving things it is generally easy to determine

the gender. Thus MaTpC, sailot ; HHflH, uncle, are naturallymasculine

;and njieMHHHHUa, mece ; X03^HKa, hostess, feminine

':

whereas some nouns KajlKa, cripple, CKpra, miser and CHpOT,orphan, can be either masculine or feminine ; but with the greatmajority of nouns the gender cannot be determined from the meaning.Thus fleHL, day, is masculine, HOHb, night, is feminine, and yTpO,moming, is neuterHowever, in such cases there is a clue to the gender. and it iies

in the ending of the word. The gender of a word can be determinedfrom the ending as follows :

1. Of masculina gender are words

:

(a) ending in a consonant, for instance : CTOJI, table,and

(b) ending in H, for instance : HHH tea.2. Of the feminine gender are words ending in a, 51, b, for instance :

JlMna, iamp, flHH, melon, TeHb, skadow.3. Of the neuter genaer, words ending in or e, for instance

OKH, window, nJie, field.There are, however, some exceptions to the above rules. Thus a

few words ending in h are masculine and a ew in M5I neuter. Thegender o such words will be shown as we come across them foy theletters (m), (f), or (n) placed after them.

A notra denoting a single perscm or thing is said to be in th singularaamber, for instance : KYLT3., book ; CeCTp, siser. noun de-noting more than one person or thing is said to be in the plural.The method of frming the plural in Russian will be shown later.

Vocabulary

MHp , worid HenOBK, human beingHHBTHOe, animal KpeHb (m.), rootmHIUHHa, woman BOfl, waterMjlbHHK, boy aBOHKa, girlJiyH, moon CJlHLe, sun6yMra, papex ra3Ta, newspaper 'OTli, ather CeJI, villageneHt> (m.), day TeHfa , shadow, shadeOKH, window MaTb, motherJlMna.lamp pOH,swarmBpMH (n.), time HOHb, night3Be3fl, star HHHH, melou6paT, brother Mpe, seaKpaH, border, edge, region HO, sky, heaveaHOH, knie CeCTp, sisterCT0J1 , table H3.Pl , tea

xercise Copy ali the nouns given in the vocabulary and define their

gender by their meaning or endings, putting after each word (M.)for masculine, (F.) for feminine, and (N.) for neuter, and thencompare your exercise with the answers given on page 213 of theKey.

As has been implied already, you must not allow the study ofRussian to become a kind of self-imposed penance and it is there-fore important not to put in such long spells on grammar andvocabulary that the work becomes tedious. Be patient and take iteasy Try to treat the study of Russian &s a recreation, like a.nyother pleasant hobby. For instance, if you want to learn words,copy some on a strip of paper the size of a visiting card, slip it inyour waistcoat pocket or your handbag, as the case may be, andthen at odd moments during the day, at lunch, or in the train, saysome words over to yourself in a whisper or even aloud if you canmanage it. The more words you learn in this way the sooner youwill be able to understand a Russian letter or newspaper article, osto say something in the language yourself.

While you are dong this spade work, do not be too worried if the

li TECH YOURSELF RUSSIpronunciation and grammar of what you say or write are not iia-peccably correct. With time, the ease with which you will memo-rise words and notice the grammatically correci way of sayingsentences will grow, and by the time you have worked through thisbook thoroughly, you will be ready to converse in Russian, and tounderstand Russian films and books.Whenever you have an opportunity o saying a ew sentences or

writing a short note in Russian, even while your stock of words andknowledge of grammar are still poor, say the sentence, or write anote to someone who knows Russian, and ask your riend to correctwhat you cave said or written. Don't wait for perection beforeyou begin to use the language.One further point. Try to form a small group for the study of

Russian, or find a companion. You will get oa far more easilyand quickly if you are working with other people, since the languagebecomes more alive for you and you can begin to practise it directly.Use the Russian you learn. Say SRpBCTByHTe ? how do youdo ? and CIiaCHO, thank you, wkea you have a chance to do soand you will ind that they remain in your ruind ali the betterfor it.

LESSON 1NOUNS (Continued)

Vocabutary

CTpaH, countryMC5IU, monthnpHMp, example, instancey>KHH

,supper

KapaHfllU, pencilCK3Ka, tale, storyKHHra, bookKpcKS, paint, dyeHeflJIH, weekJlUiaflb, horsespKajl, mirrorflpeBO, treerop, mountaiaHf

,

poisasCOKa, dogKMHaia, roomn0[pOK, preseniH3.G, ia3ff

HTHUa, birdTyna, thunder

-cloudXJle, breadpei

LESSOM 3 isExercis 2

Copy the above words in writing and give their gender by puttinafer each word (M.) or masculine, (F.) for feminina and (N.) forneuter, then compare your exercise with the answers in the Keyon page 213.

LESSON 3

ADJECTIVES

Nouns are often accompanied by other words which describe thern.For instance, in the phrases good boy, new ring, cloudy night, thewords good, new, and cloudy are used to show the qualities appliedto the nouns boy, ring, and night. The words which describe nounsare in grammar called adjectives.

In Englsh it is possible to use one noun to describe another, asin the phrases : winter night and iron ring, where winter and iron,which are themselves nouns, are used as adjectives to describe theother nouns night and ring. In Russian one noun cannot be usedto describe another. It must first be transformed into an ordinaryadjective by a change in ending. Thus in Russian winter is SHMnight HOHL, iron HCJlsO and ring KOJIbLIO, but you cannotput these words together, as you can in English, to mean winternight and iron ring. Instead you must say 3HMHHH HOHfc. and}K6Jl3HOe KOJIbLO.

Adjectives in English are not changed when applied to nouns ofdifferent genders. You say : a good father, a good mother, a goodchila

; good is the same in ali these instances. This is not so withthe Russian adjectives. Their endings change according to thegender o the noun which they are describing and correct speechdemands that this rule shall be strictly observed. That is why,when we spoke of the division of the nouns into three gender-groups,we said that the gender of every noun must be learned. Adjectiveswhich are applied to masculine nouns end in HH, HH or OH ;those applied to feminine nouns in a5 , or 919L , and those appliedto neuter nouns in oe or ee . We therefore say : JIpblH OTlgood father ; HpaH MaTb, good mother; fpoe flHTHgood chila; CHHHH KapaHHlU, blue pendi; CHHHH JlfTajblue ribbon; CHHee HO, blue sky ; 0J1L.IIIH HOM, bigkouse; OJIfclIlH KOMHaTE, big room ; OJlfelUe OKH,big wiiriow.

TEACH TOURSELF- RUSSIANVocabulary

xopin-HH, an, ee, good,nice, fine

HB-blH, an, oe, newJlTH-HH, HH, ee, sumraerpflK-HH, aH, Oe, rarepOflH-H, H, e, nativeCTp-biH, an, oe, oldOJIMU-H, fl, e, big, largeHCH-blH. 2.9., Oe, clear, bright,

distinct

Kpyra-HH, an, oe, roundKpCH-bH, an, oe, red6orT-bi, an, oe, rich6flH-biH, an, oe, poorrJiyK-H, Si, oe, deepCTpiU-HH, aH, oe

selder

MJlflUI -HH ,.afl , Oe

,

youngerCHJIbH-blH, Sl, oe, strongbhck-kh, an, oe, high, tallJWHHH-bi, ax, oe, longCTp-blH, afl, oe, sharpCMeUH-, si, 6e, funny.

iudicrous

CTpHH-blH, M, Oe, strange,odd, queer

XOJIflH-blH, aH f Oe, cold

paH-HH, an, ee, workingworker

KpaCHB-blH, 3H, Oe, pretty,handsome

Bp-blR, aatoe, kind, good

6ji-biH, an, oe, whiteHpK-H, aH, Oe, bright, vvidTeMH-bl, aH, Oe, darkHHK-HH, aH, 06, wildcnn-bifl, an, oe, ripeCHH-HH, HH, ee, blueCBH-HH, a5T, ee, freshJiaHH-bH, an, oe, cloudyuiyMK-bi, an, oe, noisyHOpor-H, fl, e, dearnpHJI&KH-WH, aH, 06, diligentBpH-blH, a5, oe, faithful,

certain, sure

MjieHbK-HH, a5, Oe, smalJHeujB-bH, an f oe, cheapKOpTK-HH, a*, 06, shortnJlH-blH, aH, Oe, full, com-

plete

TOCyflpCTBO, stateKOp3HHa, basketKpyT, ax, oe, steep

Exercisa 3

Now first read the ollowing sentences aloud, then copy themand finally translate them into English and compare with the Key :

1. flpbiH OTii. 2. floporn MaTb. 3. ripHji>KHUMjibHHK. 4. npHjiwHan flsoHKa. 5. Pomsr CTpaH .6. HBa* KHra. 7. CTpan jimaHb. 8. Kpyrjioe3pKajio. 9. KpacHBoe ipeso. 10. BpHa* coKa.11. CiHee Mpe. 12. TMHan Tyna. 13. fleuiBoeMacjio. 14. OjiaHHoe Ho. 15. CB>Kee mojiok.16. Enan yMra. 17. XojiflHbif Bnep. 18 rjiy-6Ka5 peK. 19. PofHe ceji. 20. KpcHbin Kapae-

21. XopniKH Mnb^HK. 22. Hbhh c?yji.

LESSON 4 15

23. PnKoe mHBjHoe. 24. Hbhh MHp. 25. CHjibHasijimaHb. 26. HpKan 3Be3fl. 27. flKaa n-rua.26. XojiiiHa^ Bona. 29 TjiyKoe sepo. 30. JlTHHHHeHb. 31. Bojibiiie okh. 32. HBan jiMna.33. Panee BpMsi. 34 c CTpuiH 6paT. 35. BorTbiftnejioBK. 36. CB>KHH KpeHb. 37. MjieHbKanjtBOHKa. 38. BflHan )KHmHHa. 39. UlyMHbm poi.40. BflHaH CTpaH. 41. Miiniiiafl cecTp. 42. ChhhhKpcna. 43. XopuiHH npHMp. 44. CJibHUH hb.45. /Ihkhh cTpoB. 46. Hsaji Kpina ; 47. BbicKanrop. 48. Chhhh yMra. 49. HpKoe cJiHue.50. KpacHBan ncHfl. 51. JlraHH Mcsm. 52. 3hmhhhBnep. 53. Cnjian hhhh. 54. KopTKoe nHCbM55. CTpHHbi nejioBK. 56. Fljinan KopsiHa.

Translate the following into Russian, carefully observing the

gender of the adjectives applied to the nouns and compare with theKey :

1. An old song. 2. A summer night. 3. A cloudy day. 4. Theold mother. 5. A round window. 6. A new book. 7. An old tree.8. An old house. 9. A high mountain. 10. An old dog. 11. Alarge room. 12. A bright star. 13. Dear brother. 14. A binelamp. 15. A summer evening. 16. A winter night. 17. A goodmelon. 18. A large village. 19. A clear sky. 20. White paper.21. A pretty song. 22. A working horse. 23. An old mirror.24. Strong wind. 25. A rich and strong state. 26. A new roof.27. A steep mountain. 28. Blue paper. 29. Bright sun. 30. Anold garden. 31. A summer month. 32. A winter evening. 33. Anexpensive present. 34. Strong poison. 35. A deep lake. 36. Alarge island. 37. Bright paint. 38. A working week. 39. A savagexc gion. 40. A poor woman. 41. A short day. 42. A small girL43. A dark shadow. 44. A blue sky. 45. A strong animal. 46. Adiligent boy. 47. A summer day. 48. Funny story. 49. A sharpknife.

LESSON 4

PRONOUNS

In Russian, as in English, there are certain words which are sssed

iostead o nouns for the sake of brevity and in order to avod re-

petitkm, for instance : we are att working, MH BC6 paTaeM.

16 ECH YOURSELF RUSSIANNobody is lagging behin, HHKT H6 OTCTaT. We, ali, noboy,MH, BC6

f HHKT, are pronouns.Some words are used instead of adjectives and numerais, for

instance:the weather voas warm. Such weather is vare here. Tl O rflaHJi Tnjian. Tann norfla tmer sflect pfKo

/ have fifteen books. My fviend has as many ${ HMlOnHraajmaTB khf. V Moer fpyra cTJiBKO->KeSuch and many, TaKafl, CTJIBKO, are pronouns. Like Russianadjectives, pronouns must also be o the same gender as the nounsto which they refer. Therefore we say : 3T0T HaH , this tea3Ta BOfla, ihis water; 3T0 MOJIOK. this milk HaUI CT0J1wtoife; Hiua JlMna, our lamp; H ine spKajIO ourmtrror; Hen KapaHflanj ? Whose pencil ? Mb* VMra'?Whosepaper? Hb nep ? Whose Pen ?, etc. This, our whoseremam unchanged in English Some pronouns have one and thsame form for ali the three genders, for instance : KTO ? who?HTO r what ? '

Tbl and TBO, TB053, TBO, hou, thy and thine, are now onlyused m mtimate conversation with relations, friends and childrenand when addressing animais. Bu, BaiII. Buia, BlUe aregenerally used between acquaintances and strangers. Bbl BaniBania, Bame are written with a capital letter in order to dis-tmguish the singular form from the plural form. For instance >i npomy Bac, / request you (one person)

; fl npomy Bac(several persons). r JTH, TBOH used to be applied in pre-revolutionary days when

addressing those who were considered as inferior in the social scaleOf course, nowadays no such distinction exists, consequente thepohte form of the pronoun Bfcl , BaiII is used.His is expressed by er, her or hers, e, its, er, their or theirs

HX, which in fact mean: of htm, of her, of it, of them.

Notice that e ro is pronounced as if it were written eBO.

_

Expressions:

this is, that is, these are, those are, are ali translatedm Russian by the single word, 3T . Where is ?, where are ? aretranslated rfle, and here is, here are, ther is, there are, by B'oT.Note that the English sentences, I am, hou art, h

LESSON 4

K, l

r MH, wel Tbl, thou

Bbl, you) OH, he

OH, shei OH, it5 OHH, they

Vocabufary

CJIBO, wordJlHTa, nbbon, bandnuKa, stickMHCO, meatyjIHLja, streetpaTa, workIIOHTH, almost3aflHa f problem, task

CeH, oneself, myself, himsel, OTflaJieHH-blH, l } oe, remota

MOH (m.), MOH (/.), MO (wmy, mine

KKH-JlHO 1Klisi-JlO /-some, anyKaKe-Jio jKaKH-HHyflb ~| ^^V !KaKI-HHyflb fwhateverKaKe-HHyflb J A ' v> -

HOMa, at homeMJIHH.H, lightningMOJIOK, milkTBOH (m.), TBOH (/.), TB06 (.)

th}', thineCBOH, CBO, CBOe, my, thy,

his, etc, own

HaiII, Hllia, Hme, our, oursBaill, Bailia, Bine, your, yotirs

KOTpblH, asi, Oe, which, who 3TOT, 3Ta, 3TO, thisHeH, Hbfl, Hbe, whoseCKJIbKO? how much? howmany?

K>KflbIH, aH, Oe, every one,each

B6Cb, BCH, BC, ali

TOT, Ta, TO, thatTaKH, TaKn, TaKe, suchCTJlbKO, so many

s so much, asmany, as much

KTO ? who ?HTO ? what ?

BCKHH, 3.9, 00, any one, any- KaKH, KaKfl, KaKe ? what?body which ?

cMblH, 3.51, Oe, the most HMKT, noDodyCaM, CaM, CaM self, same HHHT, nothingKTO-HHyflb, some one HHKaKH, x, e, none, notKOTpblH 1 anyKOTpaH VHHyHb.any one HHH6H, HHHb, HHHb, noKOTpOe j body'sH, and HHTO, somethinga, but HKTO, some oneFfle? where? HKOTOpHH, 3.51, Ge, some,HJIH, or certain

SHeCb, here HKHH, 2LSI, 06, certainfpeC, address HCKOJIbKO, some, a few,Kpbllia, roof several, somewhatHJ10KO, apple W-?Q

;^TO-JIHO^

li TEACH YOURSELF RUSSSAN

HT-TO, TTO-JJHO, something EEJIOX-H, a.51, 06, badTrm-biH, an, oe,

HLH VjlO, whose-ever norfla, weather^^e J nycT-H, an, oe, emptyKOe-KaKH, aH, 06, some JlrK-HH, H, Oe, easy. light,Ke-KTO, some slightK6-HT0, something, a little T5DKeJI -blH, afl, 06, heavy,OrTCTBO, wealth, riches hard, difficultTpyflH-HK, 3.I, Oe. difficult flaneK-HH, aH, Oe, distant.Cp-blH, aH, Oe, grey far, remoteTaM

s^

there yrpeHH-HK, HH. 66, morningI-OpHH-HH, aH, ee 8 hot MJIOT, hammejr

Exercise 4

First read the following sentences, then copy and finally translatethem into English and compare with the Key :

1. Hto sto ? 2, 3to ra3Ta. 3. to Hau hom. 4. FmHma KHHra ? 5. Bot OH. 6. Kto ro ? 7. Sto mohchh. 8. Ffle flpeBo ? 9. Bot npeBO. 10. Fm Kpyrioeokh^? 11. Boi Kpyrjioe okh. 12. H 3flecb. 13. BmHoriHTaM. 14. Tie oh h OH ? 15. Bbi TaM, a moh DaT3necb. 16. Fm hhth ? 17. Oh 3tecb 18. Ohh Ma.19. Bma h Hma KMHaia. 20. Moh h er cecTpHMa. 21. Tboh h moh OTn. 22. Bau h Ham hom.23. Moe cnjioe hjioko. 24. Tboh THMtjiu ctoji.25. Tboh BpHaq coKa. 26. Kto tboh otu ? 27. OhpaHHH. 28. Er xonflHoe mojiok. 29. ErropHHH no. 30. KjKHoe HBoe cjibo. 31. BaniCTpuii npec. 32. Hx TpyjiHaH 3anna. 33. MxTH>njia5i njina. ' 34. Kann juiHHHas yjiHua !35. KoTpbi Bam ROM ? 36. HbH sto CHjibHan jimanb ?37. Ee CTpbi oTu xtHbiH nenoBn. 38. ioTpyjiHoe cjibo. 39. Kto 3necb ? 40. 3to mh!41. Hto sto ? 42. 3to yTpeHHHH ra3Ta. 43. KaK5to KHHra? 44. to nuia KHHra. 45. Ta paTTpyHHan, a Ta jirKasi, 46. Te fsoHKH ccTpti.47. Baia mmBuPi Kapaimiii. 48. TatS 6ojniifi

i

; LESSON 4 lii ,

Hom ! 49.^Er Kpyrjibi ctoji TaM. 50. 8?a KHra Mo.51. to Mo KHra. 52. Bch CTpan Kpiiia. 53. MfiCTpuiH 6pT. 54. Er Muuiia^ cecTp. 55. Ktosjiecb ? 56. Ohh 3Hecb. 57. E pyccKan KHra.58. Ta jrai yMra mo. 59. Ta 6orTa5 cxpaH.60. E fleinBan jiMna. 61. Becb Hau hom. 62. Km-noe HBoe cjibo. 63. HbH ro pycG^an ra3Ta ?64. Hiua CH^bHa5i cxpan. 65. Bc cB>Kee mojiok.66. Mbi hjih Bbi. 67. E hbhh upec. 68. KjKflbiil

. npHJimHbiH MjibHHK. 69. Kmnasi HHKa^ irrija.70. Bau nycTH hom. 71. Kansi Tenjian norfla !72. to jioKO 3ejiHoe P a to cnjioe. 73. Kann xojiHTa ? 74. to chh5s jiHTa. 75. Hbh xo uijina ?76. to mo ujjina. 77. Bma ra rasxa ? 78. Hex,3to He Mo ra3Ta. 79. Buia jujina cpan. 80. Er

J TH>KejIbIH MJIOT.

Translate into Russian, carefully observing the fenjer o thepronoun and adjective applied to the noun :

1. Where is the window ? 2. Here is the window. 3. Where isthe mirror ? 4. The mirror is here. 5. The newspaper is there.6. The father is there. 7. The sister is here. 8. Where is themother ? 9. What is this ? 10. This is a shadow. 11. The sea is

,* there. 12. Where is the border ? 13. The table is here. 14. What1

| is that ? 15. That is tea. 16. Where is the newspaper ? 17. ThatI difficult time. 18. The whole town. 19. His old mother. 20. Her

| address. 21. The whole book. 22. Whose stick is it ? 23. His[ | diligent pupil. 24. The whole night. 25. What a pretty tree

!

) 1 26. This Russian newspaper. 27. Whose apple is this ? 28. Your1 l easy work. 29. Ali the meat. 30. Whose newspaper is there ?

^

31. Thy new ring. 32. Thy old mother. 33. This high mountain.f

34. That round mirror. 35. Each room. 36. The whole week.j 37. The whole evening. 38. The whole time. 39. Every bright

star. 40. Their horse. 41. This red pencil is theirs. 42. Where is

,

I his chair ? 43. This Russian song. 44. Where is the fresh butter ?45. It is here. 46. Whose paper is that over there ? 47. It is mine.

5I

48. This rare animal. 49. Whose is that large house ? 50. This* I cold milk is yours and that tea is mine. 51._ Her younger sister.

52. Her bine ribboa. 53. Onr warm country. 54. This empty% I room 55. That iron roof. 56. What a bright flash of lightning

!

30 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

LESSON 5

DECLENSION OF NOUNS, ADJECTIVES AND PRONOUNS

In the next few lessons we shall extend our study of nouns, adjec-tives and pronouns so as to become familiar with the changes whichthey undergo in speech and writing. This is one of the most impor-tant sections of Russian grammar and the knowledge of the endingswill do much to give us a proper understanding of the language.

Nouns may serve various purposes in a sentence. For example.let us take the word sister in the following four sentences :

My sister is clever . . .

.

Nominative CaseI praise my sister .

.

,

Accusative This is my sister's book .

.

Genitive tlI give the book to my sister .

.

Dative

In the first of these my sister is the subject of the sentence, in thesecond the direct object. In the third the noun sister is shown asthe possessor of the "book" and in the fourth my sister is theindirect object.

In Russian a noun undergoes changes in its ending accordingto the part it plays in a sentence. The changes are calledDECLENSIONS. The different forms are known as cases. Thuswhen a noun stands as the subject of a sentence it appears in theNOMINATIVE case, the ordinary form in which you leara it:CeCTp, sister. When it is the direct object, it is in theACCUSATIVE case: ceCTpy, sister. The possessive form iscalled the GENITIVE case: CeCTp, of the sister, and for theindirect object the DATIVE case is used : ceCTp, to the sister.So you see that when in English you use sister' s, or of the sister, orto the sister, in Russian you have to change the ending as there areno equivalents in Russian similar to the English of and to. Tf:eson's book, KHHTa CHHa ; the roof of the house, KpHIIia flMa ;greetings to your sister! npHBT CeCTp !

Adjectives and pronouns are also declined and have their ownendings in the four cases that have been mentioned. They mustagree with the noun to which they refer in gender and number aswell as in case. Therefore, to return to the four sentences, my sisterwill be in the first sentence : MO CeCTp, in the second, MOIOCeCTpy, in the third MO CeCTpH, and in the fourth MO.CeCTp. Similarly, f in these sentences we had my elder siste?instead of my sister, we shouid have respectvely : MOH CTpniafl

21

jec-aich

por-

ings

e.

.pie,

the

a as

the

ling

Jled

'hus

the

.it:

the

i is

the

tfer.

', or

are

T:e

4a ;

dwii

ust

r as

ister

.OK)

l.iste?

lS

Gen

Dat.

cCTps

moio cTpinyio cecxpy; Mo CTpmeSeecxpH, Mo CTpiueH cecxp.At present we shall confine ourselves solely to the declension

o nouns. Mention has been made so far of four cases :

Nominative (Subject) CeCTp sister, the sister, a sister.Accusative (Direct Object) ceCTpy sister, the sister, a sister.Genitive (Possessive) CeCTpt of the sister, of a sister, sister's.Dative (Indirect Object) CCTp to the sister, to a, sister.

It will help you to detect the case of the noun and of wordsrelating to it in a sentence if you remember that each case answersone of the following questions :

Nom. : Who ? (KTO ?) CeCTp ', or what? (HTO ?) CTOJI, OKH.Acc. : Whom? (KOT ?) CeCTpy; what? (HTO ?) CTOJI, OKH.

Whose? (KOT ?) CeCTpLI ; ofwhat? (Her ?) CTOJl, OKHTo whom? (KOMy ?) CeCTp ', os to what? (HeMy ?) CTOJiy^OKHy.

There are two more cases called " Instrumental " and ,a Pre-positional," which will be introduced later.

We shall begin with the Genitive case, and the following threelessons, Nos. 5, 6 and 7, will give you practice in the use of it.

Genitive of Masculine Nouns

As has been said before, masculine nouns end in the Nominativecase in a consonant, H or h. The Genitive case of those endingin a consonant is formed by adding a to the Nominative, e.g.,MjlbHHK, boy, MaJILHHKa, of a boy. The Genitive of thoseending in H or b is formed by substituting 51 for H or h, e.g.,repoi, hero, repfl, of a hevo ; nHCieJIB writer, IIHCTejlI,of a writer.

You will notice that in the following Vocabulary the Genitiveof some words is shown after them. This is because the Genitivecase of these nouns is irregular : either it has lost a vowel whichwas present in the^ Nominative, e.g., OTl from OTei, or it hasreceived an extra syllable like BpMeHH from BpMH. In futureevery irregular Genitive will be shown, because other cases of the

TEACH YOURSELF RUSS1Nnoun are formed from the Genitive, but the ending of the Genitivis dropped when forming the other cases, for instance : Nom.OTl; Geri. and Accus. OTU-; Dat. OTLy. Nom. BplAccus. BpMH; Gen. and Dat. BpM-eHH.

Vocabulary

yneHHK, pupiipyHKa, handle, penholderTpaMBf, txamwayOCTaHBKa, (the)

stopping placeHJIHH, (the) lengthpyKB, sleeveCTapHK, old manHHTeJlb, inhabitantHMep, numberTeJie(|)H, telephonepyjlb, rndderCHer, snowMeflBHb, bearBHyK, grandsonBHyHKa, granddaughterrJIOC, voiceHapfl, peopleHJlT, ticketnaCCa>KHp, passengerasponjlH, aeroplaneCHJia, force, strength

BTep, BTpa, windCTeKJl, glassHHMOHfl, lemonadeCTpo>K, watchmanHJieH, memberKJiy6, clubrepH, hero

HM5I, HMeHH, nameUBeT, colourpOMH, novelnHCTJlb, writernpHXfl, arrivalOTXH, departurenpHpfla, naturepeCTOpH, restaurantOTB T, answer, reply0Tl4, OTLl, fatherMy3H, museumojimna, ciothesLeH, priceyrojib, yrn, coaiCMex, laughterfHTfl, flHTHTH, childSeJieHblH, 2,9,, oe, greenTiapoXfl, steamerKanHTH, captam3flHHe, buildingIIe3fl, trainKOHlJ, endCanBHHK, gardener5HBpb, JanuaryTflblX, restB03BpamHKe, returnHanlIO, beginningBOnpC, question

Exercise 5

Eead this exercise aloud, copy it, and translate it into Englisn :

1. Hac Tflbixa. 2. KoHLi KOHqpTa. 3. HanjioHHBapH. 4. HjieH Kjiya. 5. 3nHHe My~3H. 6. CTaKa

jiHMOHna. 7'. KanHTH napoxna. 8. Cna BTpa.9. IloflpoK OTu. 10. Cmgx peeHKa. 11. L|eHyrjiH. 12. BHJiT nacca>KHpa. 13. Tnoc Hapfla.14. ^jiiiua JlHHHa. 15. Bhyk CTapHK. 16. UlKypaMenBflH. 17. UseT CHra. 18. HMep Tejie^Ha.19. >KHTejib rpoaa. 20. BpMH npHxa h OTxnane3fla. 21. flpec pecTopna. 22. Hbbih poMHnHcTejiH. 23. fljiHH pyKas. 24. OcTaHBKa TpaM-Bn. 25. Bonpc yHHTejm. 26. OTBT yneHHK.27. LBeT nn. 28. Pyjib asponjiHa. 29. Caa cocaa,30. KapaHflin yneHHK. 31. KHra oTu. 32. JImotbxji6a. 33. JIiiiaHb canBHHKa. 34. KMHaTa ct-po>Ka. 35. OTflaneHHbiH cTpos. 36. Ffl ocTaHBKaTpaMBn ? 37. JlerKHH BTep. 38. Kto sto ? 39. 3toHaiU CaHBHHK. 40. Hto sto ? 41. to KpcHanKpcKa. 42. Hb sto 3pKano ? 43. MoP otu. jxua..44. JlHMOHfl 3mcb, a nHBo TaM. 45. Kto TaM ?46. 3to h. 47. Tfle pecTopH ? 48. Oh TaM. 49. Ffleohh ? 50. Fm KanHTH ? 51. Oh TaM. 52. 3ecb HiuacecTp ? 53. J3,a., oa 3flecb. 54. Chhhh UBeT. 55. Or-pbi MeflBflb. 56. PyHKa yneHHK. 57. Onmjxa.caflBHHKa.

Translate into Russian :

1. The captain's dog. 2. The Club telephone. 3. The teacher'3voice. 4. The name of the writer. 5. The pupil's questton. 6. Thestrength of the bear. 7. The colour of coal. 8. The laughter of thesister. 9. The time of rest. 10. The grandson's apple. 11. Thegardener's work. 12. The watchman's stick. 13. The beginningof the evening. 14. The boy's book. 15. The end of the day.16. The colour of the snow. 17. The price of the pencil. 18. Thehero's present. 19. The length of the island. 20. The passenger'sname. 21. The father's answer. 22. Who is this passenger ? 23. Heis a writer. 24. Cold milk. 25. Pretty present. 26. Fresh wind.27. Dark glass. 28. Whose voice is. it ? 29. This is the voice of theteacher. 30. End of January. 31. Where is the blue ribbon ?32. It is here. 33. This cold beer. 34. Who is she ? 35. She is mysister. 36. The tramway stop is here. 37. Where is your ticket ?

1 38. Here it is. 39. Where is the steamer's rudder ? 40. The pricea

i of coal. 41. Fresh meat. 42. Cold lemonade.

i.

24 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN

LESSON 6Genitive of Feminina Nouns

Feminine nouns, as you have learned already, end in the Nomina-tive case in a , Horb. The Genitive of those ending in a is formedby changing a to LI , as for example KMHaTa

,room ; KMHaTLI

,

of a room. li, however, the a of the Nominative has been takenaway so that the word ends with r, K, X, >K, H, III or m theGenitive will end in H instead of BI . The reason for this is that LIcan never stand immediately after any of the seven letters justmentioned. Nouns whose Nominative ends in 51 or L change thatending into H in the Genitive, e.g., RejxjlH , week ; HefJIH, ofaweek; flBep b , door ; flBpH , of a door.

Vocabuary

VTLIJIKa, bottlenanHpca, cigaretteHuiKa, cupHa3BHH6, title, nameCnHHKa, matchBXOjP;, entranceBHXOfl, exitBHJIKa, fork

nOHenJILHHK, MondayCTpaHHIa, pageJlHKa, spoonrOCTHHKLia, hotelHrp, gameJlCTHHqa, staircase, ladderXOHBpT, envelopenOTOJIK, ceilingUIHpHH, width, breadthKaiTa, cabinEOHb, HHepH, daughter6per, bank, coast6epe3a, birchJiyH, ray

IJILj aim, purposeJieCj forest, woodJieCK, the shiningRBpL, door

BTpHHK, TuesdayKBapTHpa, apartment, flatCTOJIHqa, capitalHCTpHH, historyKpTa, mapnOJIOBHHa, halfBepiIIHHa, summitBTBb, branchrpaHHqa, boundary, frontierrpyiua, pearBH1IIHH, cherryTJiyHH, depth3HM, wnterCeHL, autumaBKyC, tasteKcca, cash deskrHe3H, nestno3flKa, journeynporyjiKa, waikHafl>Kfla, hopeJIIOBL, lovepa3peinHMe, solution, permis-

sion

HyBCTBO, feeling, sentimentFOJlOB, headHtDKeHp, engineer

L

LESSON 251

Exereise Translare into Enghsh :

1. ByTHHKa bouh. 2. LBex niiiKH. 3. IJeH naxiH-pcti. 4. FIojioBHHa cnMKH. 5. 3nHHe iihth.

1 6. KoHu ceHH h Hanuo 3Hmli. 7. BepuiHHa rop.8. Fm3jx nTHUH. 9, PecTopH rocTHHHUbi . 10. Yhh-

'

Tejib HCTpHH. 11. HMep KBapTHpbi. 12. Bperj

peKH. 13. rjroc MTepH. 14. fiHCbM HnepH.t

15. ripBHJio Hrp. 16. BorTCTBO cTpam. 17. BKyct rpyniH. 18. LBeT bhiiihh. 19. rpanua flepBHH.f 20. . npBan CTopoH yjiHUU. 21. iUBepb cppHKH.

22. fleHb HeajiH. 23. LUHpKH sc-pra. 24. Ha3BHHera3Tbi. 25. I^mh ctojihuh. 26. CeKyHna nacTbMHHyTbi. 27. KoHi CTpaHHiibi. 28. LjeH HOJK,bhjikh H ji>kkh. 29. BeTBb 6epe3bi. 30. Uejibno3HKH. 31. Jlyn Hafl>KHbi. 32. FonoB aBOHKH.33. PaaperuHHe 3anHH. 34. BpMH nporyjiKH.35. IJBeT CHra. 36. HyBCTBO jikobh. 37. HiiiKaMTepH. 38. Bona peKH. 39. LBeT hhhh. 40. TeHbcana. 41. CTpo>K c|)6pHKH. 42. riacca>KHp aspo-njiHa. 43. Jlyn 3Be3nbi. 44. BpMH ona. 45. Toto-JIK KMHaTU. 46. ,0,Bepb KaiTbl.

Translate into Russian :

1. A page of the book. 2. The watchman's telephone. 3. Theold man's cigarete. 4. The end of the week. 5. The map of thecapital. 6. The name of the hotel. 7. The length of the street.8. The width of the sleeve. 9. The name of the bird. 10. Thecolour o the hide. 11. The walk of the mother. 12. The book ofthe daughter. 13. A page of history. 14. The father's newspaper.15. The grandson's pear. 16. A mother's love. 17. The hero'sjourney. 18. The boy's head. 19. The captain's permission.20. The hour of work. 21. The length of the road. 22. The strengthof the horse. 23. The price of the knie. 24. The nest of the bird.

[s. 25. The father's hope. 26. The root of the birch. 27. The house ofthe watchman 28. The teacher of history. 29. The end of thewinter. 30. The taste o water. 31. The colour of the paint. 32. Thehead of the dog. 33. The beginning of autumn. 34. The summit ofthe mountain. 35. The woman's mirror. 36. The taste of a cherry.37. The edge of the road. 38. The colour of the star. 39. The

26 TEACH YOURSELF RUSS1AN

length of the stick. 40. The ray of a, stax. 41. The thclaiess ofpaper. 42. Lack of water. 43. The benefit o reading.44. The depth of the river. 45. The size of the lake 46. The thick-ness of the tree. 47. The taste of butter. 48. The colour of milk.49. The price of wine. 50. The colour of the ribbon. 51. Thejourney of the engineer. 52. The border of the state. 53. Thehealth of the gardener. 54 The end of autumn. 55. The name ofthe place. 56. The force o the wind. 57. The bear's paw. 58. Theapartment of the engineer. 59. The purpose of the voyage. 60. Theray of the sun. 61. The width of the road. 62. The strength of thebear. 63. The colour of lemonade. 64. The wealth of the country.65. The contents of the letter. 66. The thickness of the stick.67. Work time. 68. The roof of the hotel. 69. The steep bank ofthe river. 70. The beauty of the summer. 71. The shining of theflame. 72. The size of the ring. 73. The length of the field.

LESSON 7.Genitive of Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns end in the Nominative (see page 10) in O or eand a few in M5T

.

Those ending in O change the o into a and thoseending in e change e into H in the Genitive case. For instance :OKH, window; OKH, of the window ; nJie, field; nJIHof the field. Nouns ending in M5I replace MH by eHH ; BpMH,time; BpMeHH , of the time.

avm, egg3HaHHHe 5 meaning, signifi-

cance

pHCOBHHe, drawingCyKH, clothC06pHH6, meetingCpe, heartpomflHHe, birthTOJILLHH, thicknessKOCTb, bonHeflOCTTOK, lackH306pT6HHe, inventionBeJIHHHH, sizeIlJlTbe, frock, dress, clothing

Vocabulary

COJIflT, soldierITHBO, beerHaceJlHHe, populationJiaKO, cloudHObIHa, extraction (o

minerais), bootySJIOTO, goldCepep, silverTHHHH, exact, accuratsnaflHLIH, wesiernKycK, piece, lumpnonHo, logHHTeHCHBHBIH, intensivKpyTH, aH, Oe, steep

LESSON 7 21

KpaCOT, beauty np0H3BHCTB0 f productionMLUIO, soap flaBJlKHe, pressurJieKpCTBO, medicine SHMH, 3HMeHH (n.), bannerHTHHe, reading BHCKO, army3J30pBbe, health ypK, lessonCHJia

eforce, strength, power npBblH, 9l, Oe, irst

MCT0 5 place Cepbe3HbIH, 3.91, Oe, seriousI15TH, stain, spot 6ojl3Hb, illnessBHH, wine CKOpjiyn, shellHepBHH, village, countryside IIJlMfl, FIJlMeHH {n.), flanifIIJIb3a, use, benefit, good pa3Mp, sizeBOCXfl, rise (sun) HaCC, pumpCOflepMHHe, contente KOJlHO, kneenana, the paw 3nax, smelinyTeinCTBHe, voyage, jouraey

Essercise 7

Translate into English 11. MCT COpHHH. 2. fleHb pOKflHHtf. 3. OaKH

nHBa. 4. ByTbiJiKa BHH. 5. KpeHb apeBa.6. Hana.no nHCbM. 7. KycK Mbina. 8. BKyc jieKp-CTBa. 9. SflopBbe HacejiHKH. 10. ]TI6jib3a sjieKTpH-qecTBa. 11. Cp^qe nenoBna. 12. LlBer H6a.13. TeHb jiaKa. 14. TonmHH cyKH. 15. LeHruiTbH. 16. HuiKa MOjiOK. 17. HeflocTron Bp-MeHH. 18. ConepHHHe KHHrK. 19. KpTa CTpaHbi20, HMep McTa. 21. Otbt yneHHK. 22. BejiHHHHnHTH. 23. Hac HTHHH. 24. HsopTeHHe TejiecJDHa.25. L[BeT 5wu. 26. YpK pHcoBHHH. 27. 3HanHHecjiBa. 28. LQHpHH yjiHubi. 29. rpaHHqa njia.30. TjiyHH MpH. 31. HacejiHHe ceu. 32. BocxbcjiHua. 33. CMex hhtth. 34. EorTan aobina3jioTa h cepep. 35. THHoe 3HanHHe cjiBa.36. 3naflHa5i rpaHua rocynpcTBa. 37. Bojibinflnuina MOJioK. 38. Ha3BHHe cena. 39. jQjiHHnonHa. 40. HHTeHCBHoe npoH3BflCTBQ CTeKJi.43 . KpacHBoe SHMfl BHCKa. 42. npBbi ypKHTHHH. 43. Cepbe3Ha5i 6on3Hb cpHLia. 44. McTOrH^gji. 45. BjiaH CKopjiyn Hftu. 46. Bper pra.

28 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSiAN

47. Kpiiia rocTHHHUH. 48 Cna MeflBHH. 49ujHH njiKH. 50 BorTCTBO cTpaH. 51. IlHpHHHoprH. 52. Cjia HaBJiHHH.

Translate into Russian :

1. The smell of soap. 2. The price of the cloth. 3. The numberof the seat. 4. The depth of the lake. 5. The thickness of the tree.6. The price of wine. 7. The colour of the stain. 8. The size of thenest. 9. The health of the girl. 10. The end of summer. 11. Theapartment of the writer. 12. The captauVs dog. 13. The club tele-phone. 14. The teacher's voice. 15. The name of the writer.16. The pupil's question. 17. The strength of the bear. 18. Thecolour of coal. 19. The laughter of the sister. 20. The time of rest.21. The grandson's apple. 22. The gardener's work. 23. Thewatchman's stick. 24. The begirming of the evening. 25. Theboy's book. 26. The end of the day. 27. The colour of the snow28. The price of the pencil. 29. The present of the hero.

LESSON 8.Dative of Masculine, Feminine and Neuter Nouns

You have seen in the preceding exercises how the endings ofnouns of various genders are changed when you wish to express inRussian what is expressed in English by means of the word " of."In other words, you have declined nouns of the three genders in

the Genitive case.

Now note the changes the nouns undergo when you wish to ex-press in Russian the relation existing between words in a sentencedenoted in English by the word to.Masculine nouns ending in a consonant and neuter nouns ending

in O take y in the Dative case : MjlBHHK, boy; MjILHHK-y

,

to the boy; uO , sky ; n6-y, to the sky. Masculine nounsending in Vi or h and neuter nouns in e take K) :Hem-K), to the iler ; yHHTeJI->

?teacher

,

theteacher; nJie,

field ; nJI-O,

to the field.

Feminine nouns ending in or H take e :CCTp-, to the sister; CTTyH , statue ;statue. Nouns ending in h and in fl if tf is preceded by H take TlUlfb, horse; JIIIiafl-H

,

to the horse ; OpHUHH, ^nnce

,

OpHLSH-H, to France.

JieHTH-H, idler

;

yHHTejl-K), to

CeCTp, sister;CTTye, to the

LESSOr

Vocabulary

KIIIKa, caBHyMKa, granddaughterOpHLIHH, FranceBH TOBOpHTe, you sayHaceKMbie, insectsHOCHJIblUHK, porterHeBCTa, brideMbl npeflJIO>KHJIH

fwe ofered

OH EHUieT, he writesH Hfly, I goH nOMOrlO, I help, I am

helpingnpHBT, greetingsMH IIOfapHJIH, we gave a

present

npHHHHHJI, causedflKTOp, physician, doctor3aiIJiaTHTL, to payrepH, hero

OH nOK3bIBaeT?he shows

flTCKHH, children's, childishHacu, a watchflflyiUKa, graudfatherrOCTL, guestH OTBeHlO, I answerBOnpC, questionOH noCJln, he has seatMeilleT, hindersKyKJia, dollnpflaJl

ssold, has sold

cHO, hayOHH nOBHHyiOTC5, they obej>KeH, wifeOH noCbIJleT, he sends, he is

. sendingIUieM53HHHU.a, nieceH OeilJI, I promisedH Oemna, she promised

Exercise 8Translate into English :

1. Oh Haji nonpoK Mon cecrp. 2. 9\ OTBenioBnieMy 6pTy. 3. ra KuiKa npHHajme)KHT HmeMycocfly. 4. Mu OTBeneM y^HTejiio. 5. Hto bli tobo-pTe oriy ? 6. Oh nwer nHCbM pry. 7. H uny kapyry. 8. fliiTe kuikq MOjioK. 9. EyuiKapaccKasjna BHyxy h BHyHKe CK3Ky. 10. Oh nocujieTra3Ty yHHxejiio. 1 1

.9\ noMorio caflBHHKy: 12. Oti*

o6-b5iCHeT ypK cbmy. 13. KanHTH noKsbmaeTnacca^Hpy pyjib napoxna. 14. >KHinHHa flajinmanH cHa. 15. Mu nocujieM npHBT repio.16. Flnoxn norna MeuieT paTe canBHHKa. 17. MunonapHJiH nHcTejio nac. 18. CojiflTbi noBHHyroTCtfHanjibHHKy. 19. 9\ oemji Ty KHHry BiueMy flpyryh er >KeH. 20. Ckjilko bli 3anjiaTHJiH HocjibiuHKy ?21

.

9ra aHrjiHnHKa flaeT ypKH Mofi nnepu 22. CuhnoMorex oTuy b ero paTe. 23. MaTb oemjiaMjieHbKOH HHepn KyKjiy. 24. H nocunio ihclmgs

30 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSiAN

BnyuiK. 25. Ravi xy KHHry Mo cecTp. 26. jiLraHfleT k yiiiKe. 27. no3fl jiojixhht k CTHqHH.

Write the Genitive and Dative o the following nouns :

1. cjiHiae, 2. 6yMra, 3. nejioBK, 4. rasra, 5. uohb,6. Kpaft, 7. TeHB, 8. ceji, 9. Mpe. 10. coKa,11. iiTHua, 12. flpeBO, 13. cjibo, 14. jiHTa, 15. ueji-Bib, 16. npBHjio, 17. hctphh, 18. ceHt, 19. 3flo-pBbe, 20. cpaue, 21. copnne, 22. njiTLe,23. niB3a, 24. HHHeHp, 25. jina, 26. njiKa|27. yuiKa, 28. cuh.

Translate into Russian :

1. We offered the best room to our guesv d,nd his wife. 2. Insectshave caused much harm to this field. 3. He has sent a watch to hisbride. 4. We shall write to Vera to-morrow. 5. He told Marvthat he would be home late. 6. We have given clothes and food to theorphan. 7. My father has sold his house to our neighbour. 8. Thecaptain paid the sailor his wages. 9. The sailor sent money to hiswife. 10. The patient is grateful to the doctor. 11. We are sendingthese newspapers to the writer. 12. This island belongs to England.13. We have sent some honey to the teacher. 14. The gardener hassold flowers to my sister. 15. Give some sugar to the boy. 16. Themother has sent her son to the doctor. 17. This stone house belongsto our uncle. 18. The Frenchman asks us in French and we answerin English. 19. We understand his questions, but we do not speakFrench. 20. The whole population are helping in the building of theschool. 21. The mother allows her children to play on the seabeach. 22. The doctor advises the sick woman to drink milk.23. The grandfather has promised to his grandson a book of fairytales. 24. The father forbids his son to smoke, because the son isstill very young. 25. She often contradicts her teacher.

LESSON 9.

VERBS

The remaining cases of nouns will be dealt with later. completesentence must contain a verb. Verbs are words which describeactions, e.g., to read, to sing, or states, e.g., to stay, to sleep, andin Russian, as in English, the verb takes various forms to showwhether the action is present, past, future, etc. For example, ia

LESSON 9

fce

d

English from the verb, to write, you have : writes, wrote, written,

will write, would write, and so cm. To write, nHCTb, is theInfinitive form, which denotes the narne of the action or state, and

in this form the Russian verb will always appear in the vocabulary.

Verbs are either regular or irregular. A regular verb is one whichis conjugated regularly, that is to say, its different parts modifytheir endings according to models given below. Verbs which donot always follow the general rules are called Irregular.

Regular verbs in Russian end, in the Infinitive mood, eitherin aTb, HTb, eTL or HTb, for example, HHTTb, to read

;

ryjIHTL, to walk ; HMTb, to have; TOBOpHTb, to speak.Full tables showing their conjugations will be given later. Thesemay be used for reference at first, but should eventually be memorised.

Before dealing with regular verbs we shall learn the conjugationof an irregular verb that is very common : to be, bITb. TheInfinitive of a Russian verb is not preceded by the word to.

BbITb means to be, to be present, to be situated. It is also usedas an auxiliary verb. In English there are two auxiliary verbs :

to be and to have. Auxiliary means " helping " and these two verbsare so called because they sometimes help to conjugate another verb,as for example in it is written where is written is the past tense

of the verb to write ; or he has read where has read is the past tense

of the verb to read. In Russian only the verb to be, bITb, is usedas an auxiliary. The verb to have is never used in Russian as anauxiliary.

1. The Present Tense of the verb to be is not used and, as we

have mentioned already in Lesson 4, it is usual to omit it where inan English sentence you would use the words am, is or are. Example :OH-VHeHHK, he is a pupil ; Mbl-COCflH, we are neighbours

;

KTO BH ? who are you?; 3T0T JIOM MOH , this house 'is mine.The only form used in certain expressions is eCTb, where it meanshere is.

2. The Past Tense.

51 blJI (masc), bUl (fem.), 2" was.Tbl blJI (masc), 6bIJl (fem.), thou wast.

OH bIJI, he was; OH blJl, she was; OH blJlO, itwas; MH S BH , OHH, HJIH, we, you, they were(for ali genders).

32 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSfN3. The Future Tense.

51 6yjS,J, Ishall be li?,,.TH yfleillb, thou shalt be f

Fr aU ^ers.

OH, OHasOHO fneT, he, she, it will be

MH yHM, we shall or will be]

BH yfleTe, you will be i For ali genders.OHH fujl, they will be J

4. Conditional (or Subjunctive) Moo. The Conditional Mood isformed by adding the word 6bl to the past. Consequently I would bein Russian is 9l HJl H where a man is speaking, fl 6bIJl 6blwhere a woman is speaking. It would be is OH bIJIO 6 fel andwe should be MH 6bIJIH 6b. You or they would be Bbl, OHHblJIH 6 fel for ali genders.

5. Imperative Moo.

Byfb Bel [thou) IlyCTb OH yflCT LethimbetByjieM. Letusbel yflbTe Be / (ye)

FlyCTb OHH yflyT Let them beiThe negative form is expressed by placing the word HO before

the verb. Since in Russian the verb to be is not used in the presenttense, Si He 3fleCfe must be transiated : I am not here ; TH HGTpyC, thou artnot a coivard ; OH He MjTbHHK, he is not a boy ;KHHra He HBafl, the book is not new ; MH He flTH we arenot chilren; Bbl H6 ropflb, you are not prou ; fl He 6bIJIHMa , I was not at home.The interrogative form is expressed by putting the verb before

the subject as in English when a question is asked.For example: OTu 6bIJI flMa, father was at home; 6hlJl

OTu. flMa ? was father at home ?The same sense can be given by raising the voice at the chiei

word in the sentence to which the question refers. For instance :OTu HOMa ? is father at home ? ; OTu flMa ? is father at home ? ;Hn OTei flMa ? was father at home. ?A question may also be expressed by placing the word JIH

which is about the equivalent to the English whether, just behindthe word one wishes to stress in the interrogative sentence:HMa-JIH OTu. ? is the father at home? ; OTu-JIH flMa ? is thefather at home ?; 6&IJI-JIH OTq flMa ? was the father at home ?When, however, a sentence begins with a word which in itself

amplies a question KTO , who ? or HTO,what ? or Tfle , where ? or

-O-rn ? when ? etc, the subject generally remaras before the verb

LESSON 9

and the verb is not ollowed by the particle 37 H . Examples: rfBH HJIH ? where were you ? ; KTO bIJI 3fleCb ? who was here ?;KOTSa Bbl yfleT HOMa ? when will you be at home?

Besides the verb bITB, to be, there is also the verb blBtbwhich is conjugated lke the regular verb HHTaTb and meansto be freqnently, vegularly, habitually. Therefore when you say51 bIJI B My3 you mean I was in the musenm at a certain time(once) ; but when you say 55 bIBjI B My3e you mean to say:I have visited the museum freqnently. There are thick fogs in Lononin autumn is translated : B JIHflOHe bIBOT ryCTblTyMHbl. OH bIBeT B KOHTpe no yTpM, he is generallyat the office in the morning. This second meanins; of to be, blBaTb

,

is invariably used whenever the word HCTO , often, frequentlyoccurs. HCTO bIBeT, HTO H He OflaiOj, it is of frequmtoccurrence that I do not dine.

Vocabulary

BHH3y, downstairsHaBepxy, upstairs3HM, in the winterHHKO-rn, neverynHHK, text bookKJ1IOH, keyOJIbHHHa, hospitalCerflH5I (pron. sevodnya), to-day

LUHpKHH, aH, Oe, wideCBTJibiH, a5i, oe, lightHHM, during the dayHenBHO, recentlyBeJIHKO-BpHTHHH, Great

BntainyTpOM, in the morning3BTpa, to-morrowBeC, weightreorp(|)H5I, geography

OKH, windowpyCCKHH, RussianaHrJIHHHHH, EnglishmanaHrjlHHHKa, EnglishwomanMpKa, stampHH . . . HH, neither . . . norBJIOC, hairHHCJ1, date, numberBHep, yesterdayHeHb, veryTM3a, ThamesmpKHH, an, oe, hotMHXaHJl, MichaelpflHHa, MotherlandBnepOM, during the eveningJlTOM, in the summerCJDaMHJIHH, surname

CeMbH, familyJtepBHH, villag

Exercise 9Translate ixito English :

1. Tfle Bma KHira ? 2. Bot on. 3. Fne moh Hjir ?4. Bina KMBTa BHH3y hjih HaBepxy ? 5. Mo cecxp

3* TEACH yourslf ussianyneT 3hmh sarpaHHueH. 6. ra. ojibinn KMHaTabin moh. 7. Ohh H buiH 3jecb Bnep. 8. Bnn jihbh 3arpaHHuel ? 9. Kto oh ? 10. Oh moh yneHHK.11. ra KHKra ynHHK HCTpHH. 12. Oh pyccKHK,a^er >Ken aHrjwHHKa. 13. ra jiHTa moh, a TaBiua. 14. H LiBo nMa yTpoM h B^epoM. 15. OhtiBji b JHDOHe Kmnyio 3HMy. 16. BtmaeTe-jiH BbincTO b TeTpe ? 17. yqeHHKH KHom bisioT JieHHBH.18. 3to moh KapaHflm hhh tbo ? 19. Hbh Ta rasia ?20. to spKajio He Huie. 21 . F&e moh kjiioh ? 22. 3toBbicKoe 3jiHHe He oubHHira, a Mys. 23. KaKitHMep suiero Tejietpna ? 24. Korn th 6ynemb nMa ?25. Tm bh bijih Bnep ? 26. OHa He yneT 3HecbceriiHH. 27. TM3a oneHb iimpnafl pena. 28. Hb5i3Ta KMHaTa ? 29. 3BTpa yseT neHb wpKHH HeHb.30

;

HoHb bin cBTjian. 31. I4mh h (paMKUHH nacca-}KHpa MnxaHji HBHOB. 32. Kto KanHTH napoxnaPflHHa"? 33. Moh qtu He yneT nua mm.34. cTb-jiH y Bac ra3Ta ? 35. Byab TepnejiHB !36. 9tot aHrjiHHHHH ncTO braeT snecb. 37. MbipHKO HBeM 3arpaHHu.el. 38. Kto 6yceT HMaBnepoM ? 39. Ebin-JiH OHa TaM yTpoM? 40. Korabh yjieTe 3necb ? 41. EynbTe BHHMTejibHti I 42. ErKMHaTa HaBepxy. 43. E KHra 3necb 44. KoTpoecernHH hhcji ? 45. Oh mo cbih. 46. BHyn CTa-pHK.

^47. >KHTejib rpoHa. 48. 3topBbe cecTp.49. 3HMH BHCKa. 50. npBbi ypK reorpcpHH.51. Renh pojKflHHH MHxaHJia. 52. HenocTTOK Bona.53. FlojioBHHa rpyiuH. 54. Kto sto ? 55. 8to HaiicanBHHK. 56. Hhkt He 6un ruz snep BnepoM.Translate into Russian :

1. A piece of silver. 2. The weight of goid. 3. The child's head.4. Such an interesting book ! 5. Whose spoon is it ? 6. It is mine.7. My native country. 8. Her new ribbon. 9. Warra weather.10. This wild bird. 11. Our old horse. 12. An expensive voyage.13. His rare book. 14. Red wine. 15. Cloudy sky. 16. Whichhouse is yours ? 17. The first house is ours. 18. What kind of teais this ? 19. The first rnonth of the year is January. 20. A good

LESSON 10 35

exampie. 21. Thir blue ribbon. 22. A big apple. 23 An easytask. 24. He or you. 25. The end of the letter. 26. The taste

of medicine. 27. The invention of the motor car. 28. To-day is

Tuesday. 29. White snow. 30. Strong westerly wind. 31. The

new history text book 32. The Russian language. 33. A hot

summer. 34. What date is to-day ? 35. A week of rest. 36. Acheap apartment. 37. I am here and he is there. 38. Where is

your house ? 39. My brother was at home yesterday evening.40. Were you abroad recently ? 41. London is the capital of Great

Britam. 42. The mother of this boy is my sister. 43. The weatherwas cold this morning. 44. Your sister is here. 45. What is that ?46. That is an apple. 47. Thou wast here yesterday. 48. Whatis your address ? 49. This is our street. 50. Who is she ?51. Where were you yesterday ? 52. We were not at home. 53. Wherewill you be to-morrow ? 54. We shall be abroad in the winter.55 Where is my dog ? 56. Who is this young man ? 57. He is nothere. 58. He was here in the summei.

LESSON 10.

Shortened Adjectives

a ' Now that we have learned the conjugation of the verb 6bITB, toA

'

be, mention must be made of the shortened orm of adjectives. The explanation of this form is as follows : Whenever an adjective

comes before the noun which it describes, it will have the endingse

given on page 13. For exampie: 3JI0pBbIH MjIbHHK, aL"

healthy boy; 3nOpBafl flBOHKa, a healthy girl; 3OpBOel - HHT, a healthy chila. If, however, instead of saying " a healthy. boy" we say : the boy is healthy, a shortened form of adjectiveI. would be used in Russian and we should say Mjlb4HK 3HOpB .III

| The same would apply if we wished to say : thegirl was healthy,

the chila was healthy, and so on. The shortened form of adjective

I is obtained in the masculine by dropping the ending fei , HH or O . and substituting in the feminine a for a 51 and in the neuter O

for oe respectively. Ali three genders end in theplural in BI

,

ie which is added to the stem of the adjective (or H when thestem

;r ends in >K, H, UI , IU or r, K, X).'r& We therefore say: SflOpBblH MjIbHHK for healthy boy, buteh MaJlbHHK 3H0pB, 6bIJI 3flOpB, yfleT 3flOpB forea the boy is, was, or will be healthy ; SflOpBaH aBOHKa for healthyDd i gtri. but nBOHKa saopBa, 6biii 3nopBa ; fuet

36 TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIANSOpBa for the girl is, was, or will be healthy ; SflOpBOe HHT53for healthy chila, but flHTi 3f0pB0, bIJIO 3(0pB0,6faeT 3fl0pB0 for the child is, was, or will be healthy.As the shortened forms of adjectives present difficulties for a

beginner it is well to realise that it is never incorrect to use the fullform. This makes hardly any difference in meaning.

Adjectives which have consonants before their endings blHHH and OH, as in the words TpyfHblf, difficult ; HCHblK,'clear; 3JI0H, malicious, ivicked ; UerKHH, light ; 6ojlhHQpLill; drop these endings and o or e is put between the last twoconsonants in order to render the pronunciation of the word easyand clear. Therefore the shortened masculine form of the examplesgiven will not be TpyfH, 5ICH, 3JI, JierK t OJIfeH, butTpyflen, tceH, soji, JiroK, neH.

VocabuSary

6yuiKa, grandmotherBHHMTeJILHLIH

, Sl, 06, at-tentive

KHOCTpHKtiH, a, oe,foreign

IIJiaTK (HOCOBH) (Gen.njiaTK), handkerchief

rrjiBHHH, aa, oe, smoothHHCTblH, 2.51, oe, clean, purBKyCHblH, atf, Oe, tastyycTjibiH, aa, oe, th-edTpas, grassHHTepCHbli, an, oe, inter-

esting

CJIHIHKOM, tooH3BCTHbIH, 3.5, 06, wellknown

3H5ITbIH, 3.5, oe, occupied,busy, engaged

CBOflHblH, 2.51, Oe, freerepnenHBbiH, ax, oe, patentTHKHH, aH, Oe, thinCOBepuiHHO, quite, com-

pletely

HecHHH, ansoe, irfaistmct,

vague

HO, butCJlflKHH, aH

t 06, sweetB3flyx, air3aKpbITbIH, asi, oe, closedTenHHe, current, courseOTKpbITblH, aa, Oe, openrnynbiH, aa, oe stupid. sillypMHfl, armyyMHLIH, aH, Oe, cleverJlIOOnbITHblH, aH, 06, curiousHy>KHbIH, aSi, oe, necessarypHO, earlynpeKpCHblH, a5I

5 oe, beauti-ful

npHHTHHH, aH, Oe, pleasantno3MHHH

t a%, Oe, under-ground

paccHHHHH, a5I, oe, absent-minded

BCerfl, alwaysOfl, dinnereme, still, yet, againroTBMH, an, oe, readyMrKHH, 251, oe, softflOBnbHbiH, aa, oe, pleased,

satisfied

LESSON 10 3?

npoCTt, aH, 06, simple blK, osJKHpHblH, aH, Oe, fat BpIHLIH, aH, Oe harmfulp3a, rose JIo63HbIH, aH, 06 , obliging,Tenpb, now courteousHJITHH, aH, 06, long OJIbHH, aH, 06, sick, iHHcKOJIbKO, a few, somewhat a patientH3bIK, language, tongue ynpHMblH, aH 06, obstinate,nOJl3HbIH, aH, Oe, useful stubborn

Exercise 10

Transate into English :

1. Moh yuiKa cxap. 2. ta ojibmH KMHaTbiji jiJiroe BpMH nycT. 3. tot HBbiH iom BbicK.4. HHOCTpHHbiH Tan Hpor. 5. Tbh TpyKa #euieB.6. OH 6bin ojibH. 7 e Ta MjieHbKan sBOHKacjiHiiiKOM jiioonbiTHa. 8. flepBHH Hajien ot rpoija.9. Popnee mojiok BKycHo. 10. JlTOM TpaB BbicoK.1 1 . Hma HrjiMHCKaH Knra. HeHb HHTepcHa, ho OHHcKOjibKo TpynH. 12. Ta peK uiHpoK. 13. OhBcerji biji paccHH. 14. 06 em He totb. 15, OH6yueT 3HHTa 3BTpa. 16. Byb pasyMH ! 17. ByaeT jihOH cBoHHa BenepoM ? 18. Byiib totb pHo yrpoM !19. OH bin noBjibHa. 20. BiuH KpcHbie m iibiepabi KpacHBbi. 21 . QKfop Tenpb cBoneH. 22. Moh6paT Tenpb coBepiuHHO 3Hops. 23. PyccKHi H3HKHeTpyneH. 24. Bau Bonpc HenceH. 25. Hiua sanadaTpyjiH. 26. Hx >Keji3Han njiKa THJKeji. 27. E KHranoji3Ha. 28. Tbo ypon jieroK. 29. Mpe rjiyKQ.30. Oh He 6hji aeH. 31. MjibHHK 6jieH, a nBOHKa3HopBa. 32. Er yneHHK BHHMTeneH h npHJiHeH,a e yHeHHua paccHHa h neHHBa. 33. Honb TeMH.34. Bsnyx csem.. 35. H6o jianHO. 36. RepesoBbicKO. 37. 3to 3pKajio Kpyrnoe. 38. Hma coKaBepH. 39. 3Ta nTHua pflKan. 40. 3Ta CTpaH6orTa. 41, OTu. Ho6p. 42. 9Ta non3MHan aopraOHeHb HJiHHHa. 43. Oceji rjiyn h ynpHM. 44. TenHHepeno oneHb njiBHoe, 45. Boji cocfla JKpeH.,46. BojibHMy Hy>KeH thhx. 47. tot sjs, nenhBpnen. 48. Oh scern JiioseH.

18 TECH YOURSELF RUSSiAf^Translate into Russian :

1. The room is empty. 2. Our house is closed. 3. This ribbon islong. 4. The street is wide. 5. The egg is fresh. 6. This inventionis very important. 7. The hospital is open day and night. 8. Thebuilding o the museum is high. 9. This room is iight. 10. Thehistory text book is interesting. 11. This tree is young. 12. Thisprobtem is simple. 13. This bread is sweet. 14. The paper is thin.15. The workman is tired. 16. The apple is tasty. 17. My father isbusy. 18. Our mother is very patient. 19. The English languageis easy. 20. My brother is ill. 21. The teacher is pleased. 22. Thedinner will be ready early. 23. A knowledge o grammar is usefui.24. My father will be engaged this evening but he will be free to-morrow morning. 25. Here is a cup of tea. 26. Your father is veryamiable. 27. This medicine is usefui. 28. The day is short. 29. Thedinner is tasty. 30. The teacher is patient. 31. Our task is difficuit.32. The French language is not simple. 33. My sister is absent-minded. 34. Her voice is pleasant. 35. The hospital is closed.36. The boy is stubborn. 37. A foreign newspaper. 38. The factoryengineer is always busy. 39. The pur air of the village is healthy.40 The underground railway is long. 41. The grass is soft. 42. Thewell-known writer is now abroad. 43. The rose is beautiful. 44. Hisanswer was short. 45. Tea is ready. 46. A pleasant walk. 47. Thesister will be here to-morrow morning early. 48. This is a cleverchild. 49. A curious boy. 50. They are still at home.

LESSON 11.VERBS (continued)

Regular Conjugations and Accusative CaseWe shall now learn the present tense of one of each of the regular

verbs, which will serve us as specimens for the formaton o thepresent tense of other regular verbs.

(i.) Hum-amb51 HHT-K)Tbl HHT-eiIIbOH HHT-eTOHa HHT-eTMb HHT-eMbh HHT-ereOHH HHT-iOT

Present Tensb.

To read (II.) Fy/l-Hmb To walkI read H ryjl-IO I walkthou readest Tbl ryjIH-eiIIb thou walkesthe reads OH ryJlfl-eT he walksshe reads OHa ryjI-eT she walkswe read Mb ryjl-eM we walkyou read Bb ryJl-eTe you waikthey read OHH ryjlH~K)T they walk

LESSOM i i 3

(III.) PM-emb To have (IV.) X/l-umb To praiseH HM-K) I have 51 XBJl-K) I praiseTM HM-eiIIB thou hast TH XBaJI-HIUb thou praisesOH HM-eT he has OH XBjl-HT he praisesOHa HM-GT she has OHa XBaJI-HT she praisesMH HM-eM we have MH XBjI-HM we praise3H HM-eTe you have BH XBcLJI-HTe you praiseOHH HM-KDT they have OHH XBjI-HT they praise

So you see that the endings of the Present Tense are:

Ist Person

:

K> (y after r, K, X, IO (y after r, K, X,m, h, iu, m) >k, i, ni ? mi

2nd eiiib HUIfeSrd 6T

Plural.

HT

Ist Person

:

eu HM2nd exe HTe3rd K)T (yT after r, K, X, 517 (aT after r, K, X,

m, h, ui, m) H, H, III, m)With most regular verbs it is sufficient to know the Ininitive in

order to be able to form the present tense : e.g., from nyM-aTi>,to think we have 51 flyMaiO, TH flyMaeiHB, XBaJI-HTb f9L XBajI-K), TH XBajIHIHb, etc.There are some verbs that do not fit into our four models :

HHCaTb, to write; HHCTHTb, to clean, etc. They show variedirregularities for which it is difficult to give any set rules. You v/illfind the easiest way to overcome any difficulties in using such verbsis by careful reading, and notrag any irregularities you come across.You will thus gradually learn them and in time you will find thatyou have become quite familiar with them.

In verbs v/ith an irregular present the usual endings are added tothe stem, which is obtained on dropping the ending of the secondperson singular of the present tense: nHHieiIIb, stem riHIII ;ce-enib, stem ce ; CTyH-Huib, CTyn ; HHCT-Hiub, hhct when the nominative ending is S51, for nstance : OHaJIIHT CBOK) CTpyK) MaTb, she loves her old mother; buSBOHKa HMeT CHHIOIO JlHTy, the gxvl Kas a blue ribbon.

VocabuaryOCBeiITb, to lightennma, foodMyxa, flyOHKa, butterflyMKpbIH,aH,Oe* wetCyiHHTb, to drynpTaTB, npny, npHeiib,

to hideHarpaJKHTB, to rewardBarH, car, carriageOfleilO, blanketnyroBHHa, buttonpyKB, sleeveBOJIH, waveCJiyHai, case, accident, occa-

sion

HeHB, veryy3KHH, narrowXlMHTHHK, monument, mem-

orial

JieHHBHH, lazynoKynTb, to buy

MeTjIJl, metaxnneji, beeKblCJlb, thoughtCTaHK, lathe, benchCHaCTJlHBblH, happy, luckynpHHTeJlb, friend, paiSHaTb, to knowHenpHTeilb, enemyKpCJlO, armchairnp03pHHbIH, transparentIliap, bali, globe

p5Ifl, row, series

KriUH, dropCTajIb, SteelHH3KH, lowCTpblH, sharpjiBbiH, asi, oe, eftflTH, childrenMaiUHHa, machine, enginenepOHHHHbl H3KHK, pen-

knife

X03HH, ownervem are now aquainted with the feminine and neuter terminations o adjectives

tbese will not be mentioned again iu vocabulares.

LESSON 13 Q

Exercise 13

Transate into Englsh s1. THjKejian TeMHan Tyna noKpHBeT Ho. 2. Yhh-

rejib Harpa>KHeT npnji>KHoro yneHHK. 3. CocunaeT xopiueMy MjibHHKy cnnoe jiokq. 4. H HHTioHHTepcHyio aHrnHHCKyio KHHry. 5. Moh ojibhhOTq npoBiHT xonwyiD 3HMy 3arpaHHuef. 6. MuncTO noKyneM HHOCTpHHyio ra3Ty. 7. HimeHpctpht HByio MaiuHHy. 8. Mbi HMeM ynHyioKBapTpy. 9. riacca>KHp nonyneT neuieBbiH HJiT.10. VHmQiib npHK3HBaeT jieHHBOMy yneHHKy paTaTbnpHJijKHO. 11. Oh hht anflKHH naft. 12. btopToro HCTopHnecKoro poMHa neHb H3BcTHbiH rinc-Tejib. 13. UeH Huie aHrjiHHCKoi KHrH neHbnoporn. 14. CanBHHK nponaeT cnjiyio nHio.15. LBeT TO BHiuHH KpcHHH. 16. H nHiiiyUiHHHoe nncbM MoeMy CTpoMy npHTejiio. 17. flraHmyr rHe3p; MjieHbKoi iithhkh. 18. ynHTejibHHuapaccK3biBaeT MJieHbKOMy MJibHHKy h nBonne 3a6s-Hyio cK3Ky. 19. HanjibHHK )KeJi3H0H noprncoomeT nacca>KHpy BpMH npHxna nacca>KHpcKorone3Ha. 20. Mu H3MepeM rjiyHHy peKH h 3epanTOM h 3HMH. 21. CaHBHHK Toro npeKpcHoronpKa HMeT KpacByio nyio h KpcHyio p3y.22. HaqjibHHK aBTOMOHJibHOH 4)6pHKH Bcern xe-jiht paTy Toro npHn>KHoro panero. 23. XoshhHBoro sereTepHHCKoro pecTopna mo pyr. 24. MuwreM nocjiflHHH HMep TexHHHecKoro mypHjia.25. JlBbiH pyKs HBoro iuepcTHHro njiTbfl cjihuikomHJIHHeH H y30K.

Transate into Russian :

1. This factory pays a large salary to the foreign engineer. 2. TheEnglishman gives a daily lesson in his native language to theyoung workman of the factory. 3. They request the captainto hand this important letter to the Commander of the Fleet. 4. Weare writing to the father of this diligent boy. 5. Bad weatherhinders the old gardener from working. 6. We believe this old man.7. The teacher advises his pupils to read the novel of the

S> TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIANfamous vvriter. 8. He always helps the foreigner to study Russiara.9. We are showing the guest the beautiul town park and the newhouse of rest. 10. The doctor explains to the sick man the use of themedicine. 11. You are telling an interesting story to the little gir]of our neighbour. 12. The manager orders the night watchmanevery day to close the door of the factory and to hand thekey to the gardener. 13. The father explains to the son therule which he does not understand. 14. The little girl helpsthe elder sister to cook the dinner. 15. She gave the teacher acorrect answer. 16. A noisy conversation hinders the writer fromwriting an important article.

LESSON 14.The Use of the Negative and of the Genitive

You say in English I know nobody here, or Ldo not know anybodyhere, and one negative is sufficient in an English sentence. It isdifferent in Russian, where the word He must be used before theverb, even though there is another negative in the same sentence.This means that the sentences just given are translated in Russian :91 HHKOr SfleCfa He 8HK>, which is literally: I do not knownobody here.The same is true of the expression : neit.eer

. . . nor, which istranslated in Russian by HH HH. Here also the verb in theRussian sentence is preceded by the word He, though the presenceo HH HH should be sufficient to give the sentence a negativemeaning. Whereas in English you say : neitker he nor she knows me,in the Russian you have

: HH OH HH OH He 3HOT MeHfl, whichis literally : neithev he nor she does not know me.The genitive case is used in a negative sentence implyin the

absence of a person or a thing from a given place Such Englishexpressions as : there ts no one there ; there %s not anyone there aretranslated in Russian: HHKOr TaM HeT; there $$ neither' beernor wme vn the house, B HMe H6T HH UKB3. HH BHH.The genitive is also used, as you would expect, after words

indicating quantity or measure. when the English generally use of.For instance

: a bottle of milk, yTJlKa MJIOK, a box of matches,

KOpKa CDHHeK ; a dozen {of) eggs, JHMHH HHH . also afterthe following words

: CKJlfaKO, how much, how many. CTJlfcKO

somwch, so many; CTJlbKOCKJIbKO, as much as, as many as';HCKOJIfeKO, several, a few ; MHrO, a lot : MTO, a little, etc.

h

LESSON 14 51

ae

irl

me

le

For example : how much milk? CKJIbKO MOJIOK ? ; lterallyHow much of milk ? ; a lot of milk, MHTO MOJIOK ; several books,HCKOJlbKO KHHr

setc.

"Some" in such expressions as: please give me some water,some books, some cherries, some brea, is translated sTe MHenotfrcyHCTa, bohh, khht, BuieHb, xjia, which wouldliterally mean : give me please of water, of books, of cherries, of brea.

You will come across a ew expressions where, instead of thegenitive case indicating a small quantity of divisible matter, amasculine noun has the dative. We say in Russian, for instance

;

have you some tobacco ? HMeTe JIH Bbl Ta6aKy? ; / want sometea, H XOHy HlO ; take some more sugar ! B03LMHT6 emecxapy : rink a cup of tea, BbineHTe HlHKy HlO.

BHCTaBKa, exhibitionyKT, bunch of fiowers,bouquet

KyiIiaTb, to eatHrpTb, to playKJicTb, KJiany, KJianeuib,

to lay, place

KynTb, Kyrui, Kynmiib,to buy

BHneTb, BH>Kyrbhhhuii, to

see

KypHTb, to smokeHpyr (pi. flpy3b), friendMHrO, muchH