Russian grammar

Russian grammar (грамматика русского языка Russian pronunciation: [ɡrɐˈmatʲɪkə ˈruskəvə jɪzɨˈka], also: русская грамматика [ˈruskəjə ɡrɐˈmatʲɪkə]) encompasses:

• a highly synthetic morphology
• a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
  • a Church Slavonic inheritance;
  • a Western European style;
  • a polished vernacular foundation.

The Russian language has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place.

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

NOTE: In the discussion below, various terms are used in the meaning they have in the standard Russian discussions of historical grammar. In particular, aorist, imperfect, etc. are considered verbal tenses rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs.

Nouns

Nominal declension is subject to six cases – nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional – in two numbers (singular and plural), and absolutely obeying grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks, although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six simple cases). The most well-recognized additional cases are locative (в лесу, в крови, в слезах), partitive (сапог, чулок, вольт), and several forms of vocative (Господи, Боже, отче). The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four, e.g. (два стула [dvɐ ˈstulə], "two chairs", recategorized today as a genitive singular), it has been lost.

There are no definite or indefinite articles in the Russian language. The sense of a noun is determined from the context in which it appears. That said, there are some means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite. They are:

1. The use of a direct object in the genitive instead of the accusative in negation signifies that the noun is indefinite, compare: "Я не вижу книги" ("I don't see books" or "I don't see any books") and "Я не вижу книгу" ("I don't see the book").
2. The use of the numeral one sometimes signifies that the noun is indefinite, e.g.: "Почему ты так долго?" - "Да так, встретил одного друга, пришлось поговорить" ("Why did it take you so long?" - "You see, I met a friend and had to talk").
3. Word order may also be used for this purpose, compare "В комнату вбежал мальчик" ("A boy rushed into the room") and "Мальчик вбежал в комнату" ("The boy rushed into the room").
4. The use of plural form instead of singular may signify that the noun is indefinite: "Вы купите это в магазинах." - "Вы купите это в магазине." ("You can buy this in a shop." lit. "...in shops" - "You can buy this in the shop.")

The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative form in many paradigms has two possible forms depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (people and animals), the accusative form is generally identical to the genitive form. For inanimate referents, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form. This principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the first declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). In the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation "N or G" in the row corresponding to the accusative case.

In Russian there are three declension types, named simply first, second, and third declensions. The first declension (the second in Russian school grammars) is used for masculine and most neuter nouns. The second declension (the first in school grammars) is used for most feminine nouns (and several masculine nouns having the same form as those of feminine gender, such as папа papa or дядя uncle). The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in ь and for neuter nouns ending in мя.

First declension

Most first-declension nouns are feminine, some masculine. The same endings apply for both genders.

		Singular				Plural
Nominative		-а	-я	-ия		-ы1	-и	-ии
Genitive		-ы1	-и	-ии		-	-ь	-ий
Dative		-е	-е	-ии		-ам	-ям	-иям
Accusative		-у	-ю	-ию		N or G
Instrumental		-ой2	-ей3	-ией		-ами	-ями	-иями
Prepositional		-е	-е	-ии		-ах	-ях	-иях

1. After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
2. After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
3. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

Second declension - masculine nouns

Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with - (thus no ending).

		Singular					Plural
Nominative		-	-ь	-й	-ий		-ы1	-и	-и	-ии
Genitive		-а	-я	-я	-ия		-ов2	-ей	-ев3	-иев
Dative		-у	-ю	-ю	-ию		-ам	-ям	-ям	-иям
Accusative		N or G					N or G
Instrumental		-ом	-ем3	-ем3	-ием		-ами	-ями	-ями	-иями
Prepositional		-е	-е	-е	-ии		-ах	-ях	-ях	-иях

Notes:

1. After a sibilant (ж, ч, ш, or щ) or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written. And а for some words (глаз — глаза, доктор — доктора, etc.).
2. After a sibilant, ей is written.
3. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

Second declension - neuter nouns⁵

		Singular			Plural
Nominative		-о1	-е2		-а	-я
Genitive		-а	-я		-	-й / -ей4
Dative		-у	-ю		-ам	-ям
Accusative		-о1	-е2		N or G
Instrumental		-ом1	-ем2		-ами	-ями
Prepositional		-е	-е3		-ах	-ях

1. After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
2. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
3. For nouns ending in ие in the nominative singular, и is written (but е when stressed — for the word остриё).
4. After a consonant use ей otherwise use й.
5. Also some masculine nouns ending о the nominative singular (e.g., прилипало (fish)); the only masculine noun ending е in that case (подмастерье).

Third declension

		Singular				Plural
		Feminine	Neuter	Masculine		Feminine	Neuter	Masculine
Nominative		-ь	-мя / дитя	путь		-и	-мена / дети	пути
Genitive		-и	-мени / дитяти	пути		-ей	-мён(-мян) / детей	путей
Dative		-и	-мени / дитяти	пути		-ям1	-менам / детям	путям
Accusative		-ь	-мя / дитя	путь		N or G	-мена / детей	пути
Instrumental		-ью	-менем / дитятей	путём		-ями1 (ьми)	-менами / детьми	путями
Prepositional		-и	-мени / дитяти	пути		-ях1	-менах / детях	путях

1. After a sibilant, а is written.

Irregular forms of plural

There are various kinds of irregularities in forming the plural, including both changing the ending (e. g. гроздь (fem. sg.) - гроздья (like a masc. pl.)) and modifying the word (e. g. человек (person) - люди (people)).

Adjectives

Declension

		Singular				Plural
		Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nominative		-ый	-ая	-ое		-ые
Genitive		-ого	-ой	-ого		-ых
Dative		-ому	-ой	-ому		-ым
Accusative		N or G	-ую	-ое		N or G
Instrumental		-ым	-ой	-ым		-ыми
Prepositional		-ом	-ой	-ом		-ых

1. After a sibilant or velar consonant, и, instead of ы, is written.
2. When a masculine adjective ends in -ой, the -ой is stressed.
3. After a sibilant consonant, neuter adjectives end in ее. It is sometimes called the хорошее rule.
4. Accusative in the masculine gender and in plural depends on animacy, as for nouns.

Russian differentiates between hard-stem (as above) and soft-stem adjectives. Note the following:

• Masculine adjectives ending in the nominative in ий and neuters in ее are declined as follows: его (read: ево), ему, им, and ем.
• Feminine adjectives in яя are declined ей and юю.
• Plural adjectives in ие are declined их, им, ими and их.
• Case endings -ого/-его are to be read as -ово/ево.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

		Singular						Plural				Reflexive
		1st	2nd	3rd				1st	2nd	3rd
				Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
(English)		I	you	he	she	it		we	you	they		XXXself
Nominative		я	ты	он	она́	оно́		мы	вы	они́
Genitive		меня́	тебя́	его́	её	его́		нас	вас	их		себя́
Dative		мне	тебе́	ему́	ей	ему́		нам	вам	им		себе́
Accusative		меня́	тебя́	его́	её	его́		нас	вас	их		себя́
Instrumental		мной (мно́ю)	тобо́й (тобо́ю)	им	ею	им		на́ми	ва́ми	и́ми		собо́й (собо́ю)
Prepositional		обо мне	о тебе́	о нём	о ней	о нём		о наc	о вас	о них		себе́

• Russian is subject to T-V distinction. The respectful form of the singular you is the same as the plural form. It begins with a capital letter: Вы, Вас, Вам etc. in following situations: personal letters and official papers (addressee is definite), and questionnaires (addressee is indefinite), otherwise it begins with minuscule. Compare the distinction between du and Sie in German or tu/toi and vous in French
• When a preposition is used directly before a 3rd-person pronoun, н- is prefixed: у него (read: у нево), с неё, etc. Because the prepositional case always occurs after a preposition, the third person prepositional always starts with an н-.
• Like adjectives and numerals, letter "г" (g) in genitive and accusative form is pronounced as "в" (v) его/него ево/нево.

Demonstrative pronouns

этот ('this') and тот ('that')

		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.
Nominative		э́тот	э́то	э́та	э́ти		тот	то	та	те
Genitive		э́того	э́того	э́той	э́тих		того́	того́	той	тех
Dative		э́тому	э́тому	э́той	э́тим		тому́	тому́	той	тем
Accusative		N or G	э́то	э́ту	N or G		N or G	то	ту	N or G
Instrumental		э́тим	э́тим	э́той	э́тими		тем	тем	той	те́ми
Prepositional		об э́том	об э́том	об э́той	об э́тих		о том	о том	о той	о тех

Possessive adjectives and pronouns

Unlike English, Russian uses the same word for a possessive adjective and the corresponding pronoun. The following rules apply:

• Possessive adjectives match the noun of the possessed in case, gender, and number.
• The reflexive adjective or pronoun свой is used when the possessor is the subject of the clause, whatever the person, gender, and number of that subject.
• No reflexive adjective or pronoun exists for the 3rd person: the genitive of the personal pronoun is instead, i.e. его for a masc./neut. sing. possessor, её for a fem. sing. possessor and их for a plural possessor.
• Example of the difference between reflexive and non reflexive pronouns:
  • “Он любит свою жену = He loves his (own) wife”   while   “Он любит его жену = He loves his (someone else's) wife”.
• Unlike Latin where a similar rule applies for the third person only, Russian accepts using reflexives for all persons:
  • “Люблю свою жену = I love my wife”
  • “Люблю себя = I love myself”

мой (my, mine)
твой (your, yours) for a singular possessor
свой (my, mine, your, yours, one's, his, her, its, our, ours, your, yours, their) for a subject possessor

		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.
Nominative		мой	моё	моя	мои		твой	твоё	твоя	твои		свой	своё	своя	свои
Genitive		моего	моего	моей	моих		твоего	твоего	твоей	твоих		своего	своего	своей	своих
Dative		моему	моему	моей	моим		твоему	твоему	твоей	твоим		своему	своему	своей	своим
Accusative		N or G	моё	мою	N or G		N or G	твоё	твою	N or G		N or G	своё	свою	N or G
Instrumental		моим	моим	моей	моими		твоим	твоим	твоей	твоими		своим	своим	своей	своими
Prepositional		о моём	о моём	о моей	о моих		о твоём	о твоём	о твоей	о твоих		о своём	о своём	о своей	о своих

• The ending -его is pronounced as -ево.

наш (our, ours)
ваш (your, yours) for a plural possessor

		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plur.
Nominative		наш	наше	наша	наши		ваш	ваше	ваша	ваши
Genitive		нашего	нашего	нашей	наших		вашего	вашего	вашей	ваших
Dative		нашему	нашему	нашей	нашим		вашему	вашему	вашей	вашим
Accusative		N or G	наше	нашу	N or G		N or G	ваше	вашу	N or G
Instrumental		нашим	нашим	нашей	нашими		вашим	вашим	вашей	вашими
Prepositional		о нашем	о нашем	о нашей	о наших		о вашем	о вашем	о вашей	о ваших

• The ending -его is pronounced as -ево.

Interrogative pronouns

кто ('who') and что ('what')

		кто	что
Nominative		кто	что (read: што)
Genitive		кого (read: каво)	чего (read: чиво)
Dative		кому	чему
Accusative		кого (read: каво)	что (read: што)
Instrumental		кем	чем
Prepositional		о ком	о чём

чей ('whose')

		masculine	neuter	feminine	plural
Nominative		чей	чьё	чья	чьи
Genitive		чьего	чьего	чьей	чьих
Dative		чьему	чьему	чьей	чьим
Accusative		N or G	чьё	чью	N or G
Instrumental		чьим	чьим	чьей	чьими
Prepositional		о чьём	о чьём	о чьей	о чьих

• Ending -его is pronounced as -ево.

Numerals

Nouns are used in the nominative case after "one" (один рубль, 'one ruble').

After certain other numbers (following Grammatical number rules in Russian) nouns must be declined to genitive plural (десять рублей, 'ten rubles').

		Cardinal Numbers	Ordinal Numbers (Nominative case, masculine)
0		ноль or нуль	нулевой
1		один (m.), одна (f.), одно (n.), одни (pl.) (раз is used when counting)	первый
2		два (m., n.), две (f.)	второй
3		три	третий
4		четыре	четвёртый
5		пять	пятый
6		шесть	шестой
7		семь	седьмой
8		восемь	восьмой
9		девять	девятый
10		десять	десятый

Verbs

Grammatical conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with periphrastic forms for the future and subjunctive, as well as imperative forms and present/past participles, distinguished by adjectival and adverbial usage (see adjectival participle and adverbial participle). There are two voices, active and passive, which is constructed by the addition of a reflexive suffix -ся/сь/- to the active form. An interesting feature is that the past tense is actually made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the participle in an originally periphrastic perfect formed with the present of быть [bɨtʲ] (like the perfect passive tense in Latin), "to be", which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (откуда есть пошла земля русская [ɐˈtkudə jesʲtʲ pɐˈʂla zʲɪˈmlʲa ˈruskəjə], "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). Verbal inflection today is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient aorist, imperfect, and (periphrastic) pluperfect have been lost, though the aorist sporadically occurs in secular literature as late as the second half of the eighteenth century, and survives as an odd form in direct narration (а он пойди да скажи [ɐ on pɐjˈdʲi də skɐˈʐɨ], etc., exactly equivalent to the English colloquial "so he goes and says"), recategorized as a usage of the imperative. The loss of three of the former six tenses has been offset by the development, as in other Slavic languages, of verbal aspect. Most verbs come in pairs, one with imperfective or continuous connotation, the other with perfective or completed, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root. E.g., спать [spatʲ] ('to sleep') is imperfective; поспать [pɐˈspatʲ] ('to take a nap') is perfective.

This protest sign shows the lack of the "to be" verb (быть) in the present tense (русский язык – не иностранный, The Russian language is not foreign).

The present tense of the verb быть is today normally used only in the third-person singular form, which is often used for all the persons and numbers. As late as the nineteenth century, the full conjugation, which today is extremely archaic, was somewhat more natural: forms occur in the Synodal Bible, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (былины [bɨˈlʲinɨ]) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian:

English	Russian	IPA	Latin	Classical Greek	Sanskrit
"I am"	(есмь)	[jesʲmʲ]	sum	eimi	ásmi
"you are" (sing.)	(еси)	[ˈjesʲɪ]	es	ei	ási
"he, she, it is"	есть	[jesʲtʲ]	est	esti(n)	ásti
"we are"	(есмы)	[ˈjɛsmɨ]	sumus	esmen	smaḥ
"you are" (plur.)	(есте)	[jesʲtʲe]	estis	este	staḥ
"they are"	(суть)	[sutʲ]	sunt	eisi(n)	sánti

Present-future tense

There are two forms used to conjugate the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs.

The first conjugation (I) is used in verb stems ending in a consonant, -у, or -о, or in -а when preceded by a sibilant:

• -у/-ю, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут/-ют
  • -у/-ут is used after a hard consonant or ш, щ or ч; otherwise -ю/-ют is used.
  • A mutating ultimate consonant may cause ending change.
  • е becomes ё when stressed.

The second conjugation (II) is used in verb stems ending in -и or -е, or in -а when not preceded by a sibilant:

• -у/-ю, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ат/ят
  • -у/-ат is used after a hard consonant or ш, щ or ч; otherwise -ю/-ят is used.
  • Similar to the conjugation I, a mutating ultimate consonant may change an ending.
    Example: попро-сить – попро-шу, попро-сят [pəprɐˈsʲitʲ, pəprɐˈʂu, pɐˈprosʲɪt] (to have solicited – [I, they] will have solicited).

Past tense

The Russian past tense is gender specific: –л for masculine singular subjects, –ла for feminine singular subjects, –ло for neuter singular subjects, and –ли for plural subjects. This gender specificity applies to all persons; thus, to say "I slept", a male speaker would say я спал, while a female speaker would say я спалá.

Moods

The subjunctive mood in Russian is formed by adding the particle бы after a verb in the past tense. Thus, to say "I would (hypothetically) sleep" or "I would like to sleep", a male speaker would say я спал бы (or я бы спал), while a female speaker would say я спалá бы(or я бы спала).

Examples

First conjugation

вернуть ('to return [something]', stem: верн–)			читать ('to read', stem: чита–)
я верну	I will return		я читаю	I read (am reading, do read)
ты вернёшь	you will return		ты читаешь	you read (are reading, do read)
он, она, оно вернёт	he, she, it will return		он, она, оно читает	he, she, it reads (is reading, does read)
мы вернём	we will return		мы читаем	we read (are reading, do read)
вы вернёте	you will return		вы читаете	you (plural/formal) read (are reading, do read)
они вернут	they will return		они читают	they read (are reading, do read)

Second conjugation

говорить ('to speak', stem: говор–)
я говорю	I speak (am speaking, do speak)
ты говоришь	you speak (are speaking, do speak)
он, она, оно говорит	he, she, it speaks (is speaking, does speak)
мы говорим	we speak (are speaking, do speak)
вы говорите	you (plural/formal) speak (are speaking, do speak)
они говорят	they speak (are speaking, do speak)

Irregular verbs

Russian verb paradigm

		брать1	вести1	ви́деть2	давать1	дать3	есть3	жить1	звать1	идти́1	писать2	ходи́ть2
English		take	lead	see	give	give (pf.)	eat	live	call	go	write	walk
1st sg		беру́	веду́	ви́жу	даю́	дам	ем	живу́	зову́	иду́	пишу́	хожу́
2nd sg		берёшь	ведёшь	ви́дишь	даёшь	дашь	ешь	живёшь	зовёшь	идёшь	пи́шешь	хо́дишь
3rd sg		берёт	ведёт	ви́дит	даёт	даст	ест	живёт	зовёт	идёт	пи́шет	хо́дит
1st pl		берём	ведём	ви́дим	даём	дади́м	еди́м	живём	зовём	идём	пи́шем	хо́дим
2nd pl		берёте	ведёте	ви́дите	даёте	дади́те	еди́те	живёте	зовёте	идёте	пи́шете	хо́дите
3rd pl		беру́т	веду́т	ви́дят	даю́т	даду́т	едя́т	живу́т	зову́т	иду́т	пи́шут	хо́дят

¹These verbs all have a stem change.
²These verbs are palatalised in certain cases, namely с → ш for all the present forms of "писать", and д → ж in the first person singular of the other verbs.
³These verbs do not conform to either the first or second conjugations.

Word formation

Russian has on hand a set of prefixes, prepositional and adverbial in nature, as well as diminutive, augmentative, and frequentative suffixes and infixes. All of these can be stacked one upon the other, to produce multiple derivatives of a given word. Participles and other inflectional forms may also have a special connotation. For example:

мысль	[mɨsʲlʲ]	"thought"
мыслишка	[mɨˈsʲlʲiʂkə]	"a petty, cute or a silly thought"
мыслища	[mɨˈsʲlʲiɕːə]	"a thought of fundamental import"
мышление	[mɨˈʂlʲenʲɪjə]	"thought; abstract thinking, ratiocination"
мыслить	[ˈmɨsʲlʲitʲ]	"to think (as to cogitate)"
смысл	[smɨsl]	"meaning"
осмыслить	[ɐˈsmɨsʲlʲɪtʲ]	"to comprehend; to rationalize"
осмысливать	[ɐˈsmɨsʲlʲivətʲ]	"to be in the process of comprehending"
переосмыслить	[pʲɪrʲɪɐˈsmɨsʲlʲɪtʲ]	"to reassess"
переосмысливать	[pʲɪrʲɪɐˈsmɨsʲlʲɪvətʲ]	"to be in the process of reassessing (something)"
переосмысливаемый	[pʲɪrʲɪɐˈsmɨsʲlʲɪvəjɪmɨj]	"(something) in the process of being considered in a new light"
бессмыслица	[bʲɪˈsmɨsʲlʲɪtsə]	"nonsense"
обессмыслить	[əbʲɪˈsmɨsʲlʲɪtʲ]	"to render meaningless"
бессмысленный	[bʲɪˈsmɨsʲlʲɪnːɨj]	"meaningless"
обессмысленный	[əbʲɪˈsmɨsʲlʲɪnːɨj]	"rendered meaningless"
необессмысленный	[nʲɪəbʲɪˈsmɨsʲlʲɪnːɨj]	"not rendered meaningless"

Russian has also proven friendly to agglutinative compounds. As an extreme case:

металлоломообеспечение	[mʲɪtəlɐˌlomɐɐbʲɪˈsʲpʲetɕɪnʲjɪ]	"provision of scrap iron"
металлоломообеспеченный	[mʲɪtəlɐˌlomɐɐbʲɪˈsʲpʲetɕɪnːɨj]	"well supplied with scrap iron"

Purists (as Dmitry Ushakov in the preface to his dictionary) frown on such words. But here is the name of a street in St. Petersburg:

Каменноостровский проспект

[ˌkamʲɪnːɐɐˈstrovskʲɪj prɐˈsʲpʲɛkt]

"Stone Island Avenue"

Some linguists have suggested that Russian agglutination stems from Church Slavonic. In the twentieth century, abbreviated components appeared in the compound:

управдом

[uprɐˈvdom] = управляющий домом

[uprɐˈvlʲajuɕːɪj ˈdoməm]

"residence manager"

Syntax

The basic word order, both in conversation and the written language, is subject–verb–object in transitive clauses, and free word order in intransitive clauses. However, because the relations are marked by inflection, considerable latitude in word order is allowed even in transitive clauses, and all the permutations can be used. For example, the words in the phrase "я пошёл в магазин" ('I went to the store') can be arranged

• Я пошёл в магазин. (I went to the store)
• Я в магазин пошёл. (I to the store went)
• Пошёл я в магазин. (Went I to the store)
• Пошёл в магазин я. (Went to the store I)
• В магазин я пошёл. (To the store I went)
• В магазин пошёл я. (To the store went I)

while maintaining grammatical correctness. Note, however, that the order of the phrase "в магазин" is kept constant.

The word order expresses the logical stress, and the degree of definiteness. Primary emphasis tends to be initial, with a slightly weaker emphasis at the end.

Negation

Multiple negatives

Unlike in standard English, multiple negatives are compulsory in Russian, as in никто никогда никому ничего не прощает [nʲɪkˈto nʲɪkɐɡˈda nʲɪkɐˈmu nʲɪtɕɪˈvo nʲɪ prɐɕˈɕæjɪt] ('No-one ever forgives anyone for anything' literally, "no one never to no-one nothing does not forgive").

Adverbial answers

• Adverbial answers to an affirmative sentence

As a one-word answer to an affirmative sentence, yes translates да and no does нет, as shown by the table below.

Answer to an affirmative sentence

		English	Russian
First speaker		It’s raining	Идёт дождь
Answering speaker		Yes = it’s raining	Да = идёт дождь
		No = it’s not raining	Нет = дождь не идёт

• Adverbial answers to a negative sentence

As an one-word answer to a negative sentence, yes translates нет and no does да, as shown by the table below that compares the English and Russian idioms with the French and German three-adverb system.

Answer to a negative sentence

		English	Russian	French	German
First speaker		It’s not raining	Дождь не идёт	Il ne pleut pas	Es regnet nicht
Answering speaker		No = it’s not raining	Нет = indefinite (requires a complete answer)	Non = il ne pleut pas	Nein = es regnet nicht
		Yes = it’s raining	Да = дождь не идёт	Si = il pleut	Doch = es regnet

• Summary

This can be summarised by the table below.

Russian	English		Meaning
Да			I agree with your statement
	Yes		My own statement is positive
Нет			I disagree with your statement / My own statement is negative
	No		My own statement is negative

Coordination

The most common types of coordination expressed by compound sentences in Russian are conjoining, oppositional, and separative. Additionally, the Russian grammar considers comparative, complemental, and clarifying. Other flavors of the meanings may also be distinguished.

Conjoining coordinations are formed with the help of the conjunctions "и", "да", "ни...ни" (simultaneous negation), также, тоже (the latter two have complementary flavors). Most commonly the conjoining coordination expresses enumeration, simultaneity or immediate sequence. They may also have a cause-effect flavor.

Oppositional coordinations are formed with the help of the oppositional conjunctions а, но, да, однако, зато, же, etc. They express the semantic relations of opposition, comparison, incompatibility, restriction, or compensation.

Separative coordinations are formed with the help of the separative conjunctions или, либо, ли...ли, то...то, etc., and are used to express alternation or incompatibility of things expressed in the coordinated sentences.

Complemental and clarifying coordination expresses additional, but not subordinated, information related to the first sentence.

Comparative coordination is a semantical flavor of the oppositional one.

Common coordinating conjunctions include:

• и [i] "and", enumerative, complemental;
• а [a] "and", comparative, tending to "but";
• но [no] "but", oppositional;
• ибо [ˈibə] (bookish, archaic) "for", clarifying.

The distinction between и and а is important. И implies a following complemental state that does not oppose the antecedent. А implies a following state that acts in opposition to the antecedent, but more weakly than но "but".

The Catherine manuscript of the Song of Igor, 1790s

они уехали, и мы уезжаем	[ɐˈnʲi uˈjɛxəlʲɪ] [ɪ ˈmɨ ujɪˈʑʑajɪm]	they have departed and we are departing
они уехали, а мы уезжаем	[ɐˈnʲi uˈjɛxəlʲɪ] [ɐ ˈmɨ ujɪˈʑʑajɪm]	they have departed, while (but) we are (still) departing
они уехали, но мы приезжаем	[ɐˈnʲi uˈjɛxəlʲɪ] [no ˈmɨ prʲɪjɪˈʑʑajɪm]	they have departed, but we are arriving

The distinction between и and а developed after the medieval period; originally, и and а were closer in meaning. The unpunctuated ending of the Song of Igor illustrates the potential confusion. The final five words in modern spelling, князьям слава а дружине аминь [knʲɪˈzʲjam ˈslavə ə druˈʐɨnʲɪ ɐˈmʲinʲ] can be understood either as "Glory to the princes and to their host! Amen." or "Glory to the princes, and amen (R.I.P.) to their troops". Although the majority opinion is definitely with the first interpretation, there is no full consensus. The psychological difference between the two is quite obvious.

Subordination

Complementizers (subordinating conjunctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases) include:

• если [ˈjesʲlʲɪ] 'if' (meaning 'in case where' not meaning 'whether');
• потому что [pətɐˈmu ʂtə], так как [tak kak] 'because'
• чтобы [ˈʂtobɨ], дабы [ˈdabɨ] (bookish, archaic) 'so that'
• после того, как [ˈposʲlʲɪ tɐˈvo kək] 'after'
• хотя [xɐˈtʲa] 'although'

In general, there are fewer subordinate clauses than in English, because the participles and adverbial participles often take the place of a relative pronoun/verb combination. For example:

Вот человек, потерявший надежду.	[vot tɕɪlɐˈvʲɛk] [pətʲɪˈrʲavʂɨj nɐˈdʲɛʐdu]	Here (is) a man who has lost (all) hope. [lit. having lost hope]
Гуляя по городу, всегда останавливаюсь у Ростральных колонн.	[ɡuˈlʲajɪ pɐ ˈɡorədu vsʲɪɡˈda] [əstɐˈnavlʲɪvəjusʲ u rɐˈstralʲnɨx kɐˈlon]	When I go for a walk in the city, I always pause by the Rostral Columns. [lit. Walking in the city, I...]

Absolute construction

Despite the inflectional nature of Russian, there is no equivalent in the modern language to the English nominative absolute or the Latin ablative absolute construction. The old language had an absolute construction, with the noun put into the dative. Like so many other archaisms, it is retained in Church Slavonic. Among the last known examples in literary Russian occurs in Radishchev's Journey from Petersburg to Moscow (Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву [putʲɪˈʂɛstvʲɪjɪ ɪs pʲɪtʲɪrˈburɡə v mɐˈskvu]), 1790:

• Едущу мне из Едрова, Анюта из мысли моей не выходила. [ˈjeduɕːu mnʲe ɪzʲ jɪˈdrovə, ɐˈnʲutə ɪz ˈmɨsʲlʲɪ mɐˈjej nʲɪ vɨxɐˈdʲilə] "As I was leaving Yedrovo village, I could not stop thinking about Aniuta."

See also

• List of Russian language topics
• Reduplication in the Russian language

External links

• Interactive On-line Reference Grammar of Russian
• Wikibooks Russian
• Gramota.ru - dictionaries
• Wiktionary has word entries in Cyrillic with meanings and grammatical analysis in English
• Russian Wiktionary gives word meanings and grammatical analysis in Russian
• Russian grammar overview with practice tests
• Over 400 links to Russian Grammar articles around the Net
• Free online Russian grammar book (with videos)