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Let's learn some Russian
Linux, it won't ever go well ...
Bill Gates, 1993
Ok, these russian lessons aren't by myself. They're by a friend, Mickael, who has russian origins and who accepted gracefully to write some russian lessons for you. So, if someone is to blame, he is.
You needn't install cyrillic fonts to enjoy this page : everything is made by a little software I (Mickael) invented as a little perl script and that he (Alex) improved and ported into C, see this for technical informations. Anyway, this is fully portable and no more work is needed.
Now, here begins the real stuff. Some history, first. The russian alphabet is called Cyrillic. That comes from the name of a byzantine monk in the IXth century who wanted to convert russian peoples into christianism, Cyrillus (note of Alex : more exactly Agios Cyrillys o Makedonas = St Cyrillus the macedonian) and ported greek alphabet to suit their language. Note of Alex : cyrillic alphabet is closer to byzantines' Koptic writing rather than ancient greek alphabet, that explains the form of the cyrillic C, for example, which comes from the greek Sigma, written C in Koptic writing whereas latine C (the one we use) comes from phenician alphabet, as our G and K, and as greek Gamma.
Here is a table showing you how we pronounce russian :
| Letter | Equivalent english pronounciation
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| ah as in Jah
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| b
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| v
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| g as in Guitar
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| d
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| yeah
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| yo
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| j as in Jah (but not dj)
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| z
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| ee
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| y as in yeah
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| k
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| l
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| m
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| n
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| o
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| p
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| rolled r
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| s
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| t
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| oo
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| f
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| Kh as greek khi or german ch
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| ts
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| ch
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| sh
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| shch
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| Hardens previous letter
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| Between ee and french u (as polish y or ancient greek ypsilon)
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| Smoothens previous letter
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| eah as in yeah
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| you
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| ya
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Some exercises to get some practice :
Ex.1 : You've all heard about the russian nuclear submarine which wrecked (note of alex : not sure) some days ago. His "transcripted" name is Koursk. Can you write this with cyrillic alphabet ?
Ex.2 : Spell Vodka (Note of Alex : Gimme a glass of Smirnoff Vodka, write smirnoff while I drink)
Corrections (Note of alex : don't look at them before I finsh my drink) :
Ex.1 :
Ex.2 : - Note of alex :
Ok, that's all folks. But some more is coming, wait a little and check this page from times to times. Enjoy !
Let's learn some Russian
Some quotation
Somebody,somewhen
Hello everybody! I come back with this second russian lesson. I hope you remember russian alphabet, because I'll write all my examples with this one now.
Today's matter: Nouns
In russian, there are 3 genders:
- Masculine
All nouns ended by a consonant are masculine
- Feminine
Almost all nouns ended by a 'a' are feminine.
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| Moscou | |
| Water | |
| Vodka, a very good drink |
- Neuter
All nouns ended by a 'o' are neutral.
As you may know, these three genders are the same in german, but in french, there are only two genders (there is no neuter nouns).
Exercises:
What gender are these nouns:
Corrections:
- Feminine
- Feminine
- Masculine
In Russian, nouns don't have articles as 'a(n)' or 'the'.
| If you want to say 'the house', you'll just say |
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Now, I'll give you some vocabulary, to make esier your understanding next lessons:
Some adverbs:
Some expressions:
A linkword
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| is A word witch means 'and'. |
YES and NO
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| means NO. It is also the negative for a sentence. |
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| It is the negative for a (group of) noun(s). |
To make things clearer, some examples:
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| There are the bedroom and the window. |
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| The dog is there (in an affirmation, you can ommit the verb 'be') |
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Yes, this lesson ends, but don't be sad, I'll come back...
Let's learn some Russian
Basically, what I am interested by is to know if God has had a choice, when He created the world.
Albert Einstein
Ce qui m'intéresse, au fond, c'est de savoir si Dieu a eu le choix dans la création du monde.
Albert Einstein
Hello boys and girls. This lesson will deal with some useful vocabulary. First, I wanted to make each lesson have a piece of grammar and some vacabulary, but because of Alex's impatience, I writed this one.
| Note : in this lesson you can see the sign | |
It is used to show where you must accent your pronounciation. I'll dedicate my next lesson to the pronounciation, because this accent changes the pronounciaition of some vowals in lots of words.
I wanted to add this sign sooner, but my little progam (witch we talked about in the firs russian lesson) was not able to show it. I kept working on it and now it can.
This sign is not shown for all words, because some come from a book (these ones have the sign), and others come from me or from my mother, who teaches me russian (these ones don't have the sign, because we don't know exactly where it must be, even if we can pronounce russian in a right way).
Today's matter:
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| Please | -
| Bye | -
| Thanks | -
| You're welcome | -
| Sorry | -
| (question) How are you | -
| (answer) Fine! | -
| Hello | -
| Good morning | -
| Good evening | -
| Good night | -
| Merry Xmas | -
| Happy new year | -
| Happy birthday |
The week
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| Monday |
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| Tuesday |
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| Wendesday |
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| Thursday |
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| Friday |
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| Saturday |
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| Sunday |
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| Yesterday |
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| Today |
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| Tomorrow |
Hey, that's THE END!
Next, you will find some pronounciation, some plurals, and then conjugations, with always more and more vocabulary. Keep revising old lessons!
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