Russian Speakers?

[The Andy-Man]

I am gonna start learning russian in febuary, and I think i could do with some advice, mainly relating to case, declension and verbs. Anything would be usefull.


Also, where can I download a load of cyrillic fonts for XP?


thank you :

[Nubclear]

http://masterrussian.net/

[Zero]

da

[The Andy-Man]

thx tassadar!

'da?' only russian word i know, that, niet and vodka

[Pekka]

I know RUKI VEER! which is not the correct way to type it, but it means 'hands up!'. The only one you need to know when dealing with the commies

[Immortal Wombat]

gdyé moy vyelsipyed?

[Namaste]

zdravstvuyte Andy-Man

Good thing to be aware of when just starting Russian lessons is the differences between the stressed and unstressed sounds certain letters make. Notably "o" (stressed sounds like you would expect o to sound like but unstressed can sound more like an "a") and "e" (stressed sounds like "ye", unstressed sounds more like latin "e" or "i") come to mind. There are a few letters which are rather unconventional to an english speaker like the soft signs, the short "I", and the "I" which looks sort of like "bI" that creates a sound I'm really not entirely sure how to render into the latin alphabet.

Once you get a handle on reading and writing the alphabet, it should be relatively straightforward, or at least it was for me. You'll most likely do all of your writing in cursive cyrillic which is good since it's much easier than printing. Oh, and Russian has no real equivalent for "is", "are" and such.

verbs conjugation is fairly straightforward for the most part

zhit - to live
(I)Ia zhivu
(You)Ti zhiviosh
He/She/It - Neuter)On/a/o zhiviot
(We)Mi zhiviom
(You formal) Vi zhiviote
(They)Oni zhivut

znat - to know
(I) Ia znayu
(You)Ti znaesh
(He/She/It-Neuter) On/a/o znaet
(We) Mi znaem
(You formal) Vi znaete
(They) Oni znayut

The first case you will learn will probably be the prepositional, followed by the accusative.

Prepositional is when you say something like I am in something or on something usually (it has other purposes to)

Example, I am in Moscow
You add preposition v and change the a in Moskva to an e, it becomes - "Ia v Moskve"

It is on the table.
Add preposition"na" (on) and add "e" to the end of stol (table) - "On na stole"

The accusative is a bit more complex with animates and such, but getting into that now would probably only confuse you. The prepositional gives you a good idea of how the cases function without it getting too confusing.

[Pekka]

And to anyone wondering, I was only joking.





... it goes to hippies as well!

[The Andy-Man]

Originally posted by Namaste
zdravstvuyte Andy-Man

Good thing to be aware of when just starting Russian lessons is the differences between the stressed and unstressed sounds certain letters make. Notably "o" (stressed sounds like you would expect o to sound like but unstressed can sound more like an "a") and "e" (stressed sounds like "ye", unstressed sounds more like latin "e" or "i") come to mind. There are a few letters which are rather unconventional to an english speaker like the soft signs, the short "I", and the "I" which looks sort of like "bI" that creates a sound I'm really not entirely sure how to render into the latin alphabet.

Once you get a handle on reading and writing the alphabet, it should be relatively straightforward, or at least it was for me. You'll most likely do all of your writing in cursive cyrillic which is good since it's much easier than printing. Oh, and Russian has no real equivalent for "is", "are" and such.

verbs conjugation is fairly straightforward for the most part

zhit - to live
(I)Ia zhivu
(You)Ti zhiviosh
He/She/It - Neuter)On/a/o zhiviot
(We)Mi zhiviote
(They)Oni zhivut

znat - to know
(I) Ia znayu
(You)Ti znaesh
(He/She/It-Neuter) On/a/o znaet
(We) Mi znaem
(You formal) Vi znaete
(They) Oni znayut

The first case you will learn will probably be the prepositional, followed by the accusative.

Prepositional is when you say something like I am in something or on something usually (it has other purposes to)

Example, I am in Moscow
You add preposition v and change the a in Moskva to an e, it becomes - "Ia v Moskve"

It is on the table.
Add preposition"na" (on) and add "e" to the end of stol (table) - "On na stole"

The accusative is a bit more complex with animates and such, but getting into that now would probably only confuse you. The prepositional gives you a good idea of how the cases function without it getting too confusing.

thanks, this has made it a bit easier i think. Presumably then, russian uses a seperate word for the do-er (you, he, she, I ) as well as a conjugation? Is it always like this?

as for lack of 'is' and 'are,' i guess that these words are implied by the position of the nouns and so on (ie. the girls [are] good).

As for case, I think i can manage them as i already understand (from another language) the principles of nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative. But i would like to know if each case has a seperate definate article, and weather it means that the placing of words in relation to each other in a sentance are open to the authors discretion (ie. dogs chase cats is the same as cats chase dogs and so on, purley because the case has already stated who is doing and receiveing etc)?

thx again!

[Namaste]

I included the do-ers in the conjugation. Ia (I), Ti (You), On (He/masculine It), Ona (She/feminine It), Ono (Neuter It), Mi (We), Vi (You formal/plural), and Oni (They). Sorry if the way I wrote it before was misleading.

And yep, you're right. The "is" and "are" are implied by position.

Russian has no definite articles. In that sentence Dogs would be in the nominative, and cats in the accusative, showing what the subject "dogs" is doing to the direct object "cats". It should give flexibility in the placement of those words in the sentence to have the same meaning (Russian is fairly lax about that in general), but I'm not entirely sure how proper it would be. I'm only a student of the language myself so maybe if there are any native speakers around they can clarify that.

Anyway, have fun studying. It's a great language and I've fallen in love with it over the time I've been studying it.

[The Andy-Man]

how long have you been studying it?

incidentaly, if there is no definate article, is there an indefinate? And how would one emphasise something? (the boat, as apposed to a boat)??

[Namaste]

Only about a year with instruction, but I've been doing a bit on my own for longer than that. I also have some familiarity with Croatian which is a bit similar in a lot of ways.

Russian does not use any articles so that kind of emphasis doesn't really exist. It's more understood by context and situation.

Also, on my first post, I had something of a continuity error and botched the first set of conjugations. I went back and edited, but not quickly enough for when you replied.

[The Andy-Man]

ok, thanks alot!

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Pekka
I know RUKI VEER! which is not the correct way to type it, but it means 'hands up!'. The only one you need to know when dealing with the commies

Ruki vverh.

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
gdyé moy vyelsipyed?

Prover svoyu zadnitsu.

[pchang]

Pronunciation tip

When in doubt, mumble.