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Russian grammar employs an
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
al structure, with considerable adaptation. Russian has a highly inflectional morphology, particularly in nominals (nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals). Russian literary syntax is a combination of a
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
heritage, a variety of loaned and adopted constructs, and a standardized
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
foundation. The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one, with some additional characteristic forms. Russian dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms discarded by the literary language. Various terms are used to describe Russian grammar with the meaning they have in standard Russian discussions of historical grammar, as opposed to the meaning they have in descriptions of the English language; in particular,
aorist Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
,
imperfect The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
, etc., are considered verbal tenses, rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs. Russian also places the accusative case between the dative and the instrumental, and in the tables below, the accusative case appears between the nominative and genitive cases.


Nouns

Nominal
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
involves six main cases
nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
,
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
, dative,
accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...
,
instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
, and prepositionalin two numbers (
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
and
plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
), and
grammatical gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
(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 main cases) – the most recognized additional cases are
locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...
,
partitive In linguistics, a partitive is a word, phrase, or Grammatical case, case that indicates partialness. Nominal (linguistics), Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either ...
and
vocative In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but it has been lost except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers 1½, 2, 3 and 4 (e.g. "an hour and a half", "two chairs"), where it is now reanalyzed as genitive singular. Russian has some nouns that only appear in the singular form ( singulare tantum), for example: , ; also, approximatеly 600 words appear only in the plural form ( plurale tantum): , . More often than in many other Indo-European languages, Russian noun cases may supplant the use of prepositions entirely. Furthermore, every preposition is exclusively used with a particular case (or cases). Their usage can be summarised as: *
nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
(): ** main subject; ** default case to use outside sentences (dictionary entries, signs, etc.); ** prepositions: '(what) kind of?'; : 'join the ranks of' (with plural nouns only); *
accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...
(): ** direct object; ** some time expressions; ** prepositions indicating motion: 'into, in(ward)', 'onto (the top of)', 'behind, after', 'under'; ** other prepositions: 'about', 'over, through', 'through'; *
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
(): ** possession – 'of' (genitive noun); ** numerals and quantifiers; ** negated verbs (which take direct objects in accusative) to indicate total absence; ** some time expressions; ** prepositions: 'without', 'instead of', 'near', 'around', 'ahead of', 'for', 'before', 'from', 'because of, from behind', 'from', 'except for', 'past by', 'near', 'after', 'against, opposite', 'among', 'by', 'near', 'along', 'out of, outside', 'inside'; ** verbs: 'afraid of', 'reach', 'avoid'; ** adjectives: 'full of' (genitive noun); * dative (): ** indirect object – 'to' (dative noun); ** some time expressions; ** impersonal clauses: – 'I am cold', lit. "to_me (is) cold"; ** age statements: – 'I am 20 (years old)', lit. 'to_me (is) 20 years'; ** prepositions: 'on', 'to(wards)', 'thanks to'; ** auxiliaries: ''or'' 'need/must (to)', 'allowed', 'forbidden'; ** verbs: 'believe', 'help', 'advise', 'call', 'amaze (self)'; *
instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
(): ** instrument used in the action or means by which action is carried out – 'by' (I. noun); ** logical subject of passive clause: – 'the letter was written by Ivan'; ** secondary direct object: – 'he is considered (to be) a student'; ** durational time expressions; ** verbs: 'interest (to be interested in)', 'use', 'occupy (to be preoccupied with)'; ** associates of connective verbs: 'be', 'became', 'remain', 'appear to be', 'turn out to be'; ** prepositions of position: 'behind', 'in front of', 'above', 'below', 'between', '(together) with'; ** adjective: 'pleased by'; * prepositional (): ** prepositions of place: 'inside', 'on (top of)'; ** other prepositions: 'about', 'by/of/with'; Definite and indefinite articles (corresponding to 'the', 'a', 'an' in English) do not exist in the Russian language. The sense conveyed by such articles can be determined in Russian by context. However, Russian also utilizes other means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite: * The use of a direct object in the genitive instead of the accusative in negation signifies that the noun is indefinite, compare: ("I don't see a book" or "I don't see any books") and ("I don't see the book"). * The same goes for certain verbs expressing a desire to achieve something: wait, wish, ask, want, etc. When the inanimate object is definite (certain, or at least expected), the accusative is used; when it is indefinite (uncertain), the genitive is used. Compare: ("I'm waiting for the bus", а specific, scheduled bus) and ("I'm waiting for a bus", any bus, if one will come). * The use of the numeral one sometimes signifies that the noun is indefinite, e.g.: – ("Why did you take so long?" – "Well, I met one afriend and had to talk"). * Word order may also be used for this purpose; compare ("Into the room rushed a boy") and ("The boy rushed into the room"). * The plural form may signify indefiniteness: ("You can buy this in shops") vs. ("You can buy this in the shop"). The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative has two possible forms in many paradigms, depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (persons 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 second 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. Russian uses three declensions:Translated from the Russian by V. Korotky * The first declension is used for feminine nouns ending with / and some masculine nouns having the same form as those of feminine gender, such as (papa) or (uncle); also, common-gender nouns like (bully) are masculine or feminine depending on the person to which they refer. * The second declension is used for most masculine and neuter nouns. * The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in . A group of irregular "different-declension nouns" (), consists of a few neuter nouns ending in (e.g. "time") and one masculine noun "way". However, these nouns and their forms have sufficient similarity with feminine third declension nouns that scholars such as Litnevskaya consider them to be non-feminine forms of this declension. Nouns ending with , , (not to be confused with nominalized adjectives) are written with instead of in prepositional (as this ending is never stressed, there is no difference in pronunciation): – "streaming – in lower streaming of a river". However, if words and represent a compound
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
meaning"while, during the time of"they are written with : "in a time of an hour". For nouns ending in , , or , using in the prepositional (where endings of some of them are stressed) is usually erroneous, but in poetic speech it may be acceptable (as we replace with for
metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...
or
rhyming A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciously used for a musica ...
purposes): (
Fyodor Tyutchev Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (, ; – ) was a Russian poet and diplomat. Ancestry Tyutchev was born into an old Russian noble family in the Ovstug family estate near Bryansk (modern-day Zhukovsky District, Bryansk Oblast of Russia). His f ...
).


First declension


Feminine and masculine nouns ending with а or vowel


Second declension


Masculine nouns ending with a consonant sound

Some singular nouns denoting groups of people may include the suffix before ending.


Neuter nouns


Third declension


Feminine nouns ending with letter ь


Neuter nouns ending with мя


Indeclinable nouns

Some nouns (such as borrowings from other languages, abbreviations, etc.) are not modified when they change number and case. This occurs especially when the ending appears not to match any declension pattern in the appropriate gender. A few examples of indeclinable nouns are: * Foreign words: ** ко́фе ("coffee", masculine in literary language, neuter in colloquial); ** пальто́ ("overcoat", neuter); ** бюро́ ("bureau, office, desk, writing-table"; neuter); * Abbreviations: ** СССР ( �s ɛs ɛs ˈɛr"USSR", masculine); ** США ( ɛ ʂɛ ˈaor ɨ ʂ(ɨ) ˈa "USA", plural).


Additional cases

Some nouns use several additional cases. The most important of these are: *
Locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...
(): the most common minor case, used with some nouns after the prepositions of location and . With most nouns, the prepositional form is used in such instances. When there is a distinct locative, it takes the form of the dative ending but with the ending necessarily stressed. A few feminine nouns ending in have a locative form of independent origin, consisting of the singular genitive/dative/prepositional ending but with the ending necessarily stressed. This may mean it matches the dative, or it may take a unique form. For example, in ("in the mouth") and ("in the chest"), the locatives of ("mouth") and match the dative forms and (modern) . In the case of , this differs from the prepositional , but in the case of the prepositional (and all other singular oblique cases besides instrumental) have merged with the locative. In ("in the forest") and ("in view (of)"), the locatives of ("forest") and ("link, connection") differ from both the prepositional and and the dative and (the dative and locative of are spelt identically but pronounced differently). *
Partitive In linguistics, a partitive is a word, phrase, or Grammatical case, case that indicates partialness. Nominal (linguistics), Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either ...
(), or second genitive: sometimes used instead of the accusative (as it should be for the direct object) to imply, that only part of the object is affected by the verb: "to pour some tea" (not all the tea) — from "to pour the tea". This form may be also used after nouns meaning quantity: "a cup of tea" (also with the standard genitive). *
Vocative In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
(): used to call or speak to a person. There are two types of vocative in modern Russian. The common Slavic vocative is archaic and survives only in fixed expressions, often relating to the divinity: (My God!), (Good Lord!), (the prayer "Our Father", i.e. the Lord's prayer). The modern vocative (sometimes called neo-vocative) is produced from a first-declension noun by removing the vowel ending: "mom, can you hear me?" from . It can only be applied to familiar (affectionate) terms for family members or close friends and
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
s of commonly used Slavic names: (full name) — (short, affectionate) — (neo-vocative); . It is frequently used in the informal spoken language with a certain number of nouns in the plural: ("guys, let's go!") from , ("girls, look!") from .


Adjectives

A Russian adjective () is usually placed before the noun it qualifies, and it agrees with the noun in case, gender, and number. With the exception of a few invariant forms borrowed from other languages, such as ('beige', non-adapted form of ) or ('khaki-colored'), most adjectives follow one of a small number of regular declension patterns (except for some that complicate the ). In modern Russian, the short form appears only in the nominative and is used when the adjective is in a predicative role: are short forms of ('new'). Formerly (as in the bylinas) short adjectives appeared in all other forms and roles, which are not used in the modern language, but are nonetheless understandable to Russian speakers as they are declined exactly like nouns of the corresponding gender.Современный русский язык / Под ред. В. А. Белошапковой. Adjectives may be divided into three general groups: * qualitative () – denote a quality of the object; this is the only group that usually has degrees of comparison. * relational () – denote some sort of relationship; unlikely to act as a predicate or have a short form. * possessive () – denote belonging to a specific subject; have some declensional peculiarities.


Adjectival declension

The pattern described below holds true for full forms of most adjectives, except possessive ones. It is also used for substantivized adjectives as ("scientist, scholar" as a noun substitute or "scientific, learned" as a general adjective) and for adjectival participles. Russian differentiates between hard-stem and soft-stem adjectives, shown before and after a slash sign. * The masculine and neuter genitive singular adjectival endings -ого and -его are pronounced as -ово and -ево. * After a sibilant (ш, ж, ч, щ) or velar (к, г, х) consonant, и is written instead of ы. * When the stress falls on the first syllable of the ending throughout the declension, the masculine adjective ends in -ой in the nominative singular: (, "straight"), compare (, "stubborn"). * The "хоро́шее rule" states that after a sibilant consonant, neuter adjectives end in -ее. * The masculine accusative singular and the accusative plural endings depend on animacy, as with nouns. * The instrumental feminine ending -ой/-ей has the archaic alternative form -ою/-ею for all adjectives, which has only a stylistic difference. * There are often stress changes in the short form. For example, the short forms of хоро́ший ("good") are хоро́ш (m.), хороша́ (f.), хорошо́ (n.), хороши́ (pl.), and the forms of но́вый ("new") are но́в (m.), нова́ (f.), но́во (n.), но́вы/новы́ (pl.). * In the masculine singular short form, when a word-final consonant cluster is being formed after ending removal, an additional е or о "fleeting vowel" is inserted after the root, as in голо́дный – го́лоден ("hungry"), or у́зкий – у́зок ("narrow"). * Some adjectives (e.g. большо́й "big", ру́сский "Russian") have no short forms.


Comparison of adjectives

Comparison Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...
forms are usual only for qualitative adjectives and adverbs. Comparative and superlative synthetic forms are not part of the
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
of original adjective but are different lexical items, since not all qualitative adjectives have them. A few adjectives have irregular forms that are declined as usual adjectives: большо́й 'big' – бо́льший 'bigger', хоро́ший 'good' – лу́чший 'better'. Most synthetically-derived comparative forms are derived by adding the suffix -е́е or -е́й to the adjective stem: кра́сный 'red' – красне́е 'redder'; these forms are difficult to distinguish from adverbs, whose comparative forms often coincide with those of their adjectival counterparts. Superlative synthetic forms are derived by adding the suffix -е́йш- or -а́йш- and additionally sometimes the prefix наи-, or using a special comparative form with the prefix наи-: до́брый 'kind' – добре́йший 'the kindest', большо́й 'big' – наибо́льший 'the biggest'. An alternative is to add an adverb to the positive form of the adjective. The adverbs used for this are бо́лее 'more' / ме́нее 'less' and са́мый 'most' / наибо́лее 'most' / наиме́нее 'least': for example, до́брый 'kind' – бо́лее до́брый 'kinder' – са́мый до́брый 'the kindest'. This way is rarely used if special comparative forms exist.


Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives are less frequently used in Russian than in most other
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
, but are in use. They respond to the questions чей? чья? чьё? чьи? (whose?) and denote only animate possessors. See section below.


Pronouns


Personal pronouns

* Russian is subject to the
T–V distinction The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...
. 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 the 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'' and ''vous'' in French. * When a preposition is used directly before a third-person pronoun, it is prefixed with н-: 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-. * There are special cases for prepositions before first person singular pronouns: со мной – "with me" (usually ''с''), ко мне – "to me" (usually ''к''), во мне – "in me" (usually ''в''), обо мне – "about me" (usually ''о''). All of these preposition forms are unstressed. * Like adjectives and numerals, letter "г" (g) in masculine and neuter 3rd person genitive and accusative forms is pronounced as "в" (v): (н)его – (н)ево. * English "it" can be translated as both оно́ (neuter personal pronoun) and э́то (neuter proximal demonstrative, "this"). The latter is used as a stub pronoun for a subject: э́то хорошо́ – "it/this is good", кто́ это? – "who is it/this?".


Demonstrative pronouns

If the preposition "about" is used (usually ''о''), for singular demonstrative pronouns (as with any other words starting with a vowel) it is ''об'': об э́том – about this.


Possessive adjectives and pronouns

Unlike English, Russian uses the same form for a possessive adjective and the corresponding possessive pronoun. In Russian grammar they are called possessive pronouns притяжательные местоимения (compare with possessive adjectives like Peter's = Петин above). The following rules apply: * Possessive pronouns agree with the noun of the possessed in case, gender, and number. * The reflexive pronoun ''свой'' is used when the possessor is the subject of the clause, whatever the person, gender, and number of that subject. * No non-reflexive exists for the third person: the genitive of the personal pronoun is instead, i.e. ''его'' for a masculine/neuter singular possessor, ''её'' for a feminine singular possessor and ''их'' for a plural possessor. But unlike other genitives used with a possessive meaning, in modern Russian these words are usually placed before the object of possession. * Example of the difference between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns: ** ''"Он лю́бит свою́ жену́ = He loves his (own) wife"''   while   ''"Он лю́бит его́ жену́ = 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: ** ''"Я люблю́ (свою́) жену́ = I love my wife"'' ** ''"Я люблю́ себя́ = I love myself"'' The ending -его is pronounced as -ево́.


Interrogative pronouns

These interrogatives are used by scholars to denote "usual" questions for correspondent grammatical cases (prepositional is used with ''о''): (кто?) Ма́ша лю́бит (кого?) Ва́сю – (who?) Masha .loves (whom?) Vasya . The ending "-его" is pronounced as "-ево".


Numerals

Russian has several classes of numerals ( �меначислительные): cardinal, ordinal, collective, and also fractional constructions; also it has other types of words, relative to numbers: collective adverbial forms (вдвоём), multiplicative (двойной) and counting-system (двоичный) adjectives, some numeric-pronominal and indefinite quantity words (сколько, много, несколько). Here are the numerals from 0 to 10:


Verbs

Grammatical conjugation In linguistics, conjugation ( ) is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar). For instance, the verb ''break'' can be conjugated to form the words ''break'' ...
is subject to three
persons A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such ...
in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with
periphrastic In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...
forms for the future and
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
, as well as imperative forms and present/past
participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
s, distinguished by adjectival and
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
ial usage (see adjectival participle and adverbial participle). Verbs and participles can be reflexive, i.e. have reflexive
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
-ся/-сь appended after ending. The past tense is made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the
participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
in an originally periphrastic perfect formed (like the perfect passive tense in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
) with the present tense of the verb " to be" быть , which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in
set phrase A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression (in computational linguistics), or idiom, is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained or restrict ...
s (откуда есть пошла земля русская , "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). The participle nature of past-tense forms is exposed also in that they often have an extra suffix vowel, which is absent in present/future; the same vowel appears in
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
form, which is considered by few scholars not to be verbal (and in the past it surely used to be a noun), but in which verbs appear in most dictionaries: ходить "to walk" – ходил "(he) walked" – хожу "I walk". Verbal inflection is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient
aorist Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
,
imperfect The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
, 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 , 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 The imperfective (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ...
() or continuous, the other with perfective () or completed aspect, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root. E.g., спать ('to sleep') is imperfective; поспать ('to take a nap') is perfective. The present tense of the verb быть is today normally used only in the third-person singular form, есть, 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 The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (былины ) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian:


Infinitive

The
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
is the basic form of a verb for most purposes of study. In Russian it has the suffix -ть/-ти (the latter is used after consonants), or ends with -чь (which comes from fusion of the final consonant of the stem and the suffix: -к- + -ть or -г- + -ть). For reflexive verbs -ся/-сь suffix is added in the end. Note that due to phonological effects, both -ться and -тся endings (latter is used for present-future tense of a 3rd person reflexive verb; see below) are pronounced as or and often cause misspellings even among native speakers.


Present-future tense

Future tense has two forms: simple and compound. *Future simple forms are formed by ''perfective verbs'' with the help of personal endings: "She will read" (''She will have read'') — "Она́ прочита́ет/прочтёт"; "She will do some reading" (''She will be reading or a certain amount of time') — "Она́ почита́ет". *Future compound forms are formed by ''imperfective verbs'': a future simple tense form of the verb "быть" (to be) and the infinitive of an imperfective verb. The Russian compound future tense is similar in structure to the English future progressive tense and is used to indicate that something will be in progress at a particular moment in the future: ''She will be reading'' — "Она́ бу́дет чита́ть", without any assurance that an action will be completed, as opposed to using a perfective verb to refer to an action that is expected to be completed in the future: "Она́ прочтёт" — "She will read / She will have read". * -у/-ут,-ат is used after a hard consonant or ж, ш, щ or ч; otherwise -ю/-ют,-ят is used. * A mutating final consonant may entail a change in the ending. * е becomes ё when stressed. Two forms are used to conjugate the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs. The first conjugation is used in verb stems ending in: * a consonant, * -у,-ы or -о,-я * -е (In addition to below) * Бить, пить, жить, шить, лить, вить, гнить, брить, стелить, зиждить. * -а not preceded by a hush (ж, ш, щ or ч): The second conjugation involves verb stems ending in: * -и or -е (Глядеть, смотреть, видеть, ненавидеть, обидеть, зависеть, терпеть, вертеть, пыхтеть, сидеть, лететь, гудеть, гореть, сопеть, дудеть, блестеть, храпеть, смердеть, хрипеть, шелестеть, хрустеть, сипеть, кишеть, бдеть, звенеть, кряхтеть, кипеть, корпеть, зудеть, скорбеть, тарахтеть, шуметь, зреть, висеть, греметь, шипеть) * -а preceded by a hush (ж, ш, щ or ч)(Слышать, дышать, держать, лежать, дребезжать, жужжать, брюзжать, дрожать, бренчать, стучать, мычать, кричать, молчать, рычать, мчать, урчать, звучать, бурчать, ворчать, торчать, журчать, гнать): * Стоять, бояться Example'':'' попро-с-ить – попро-ш-у, попро-с-ят (to have solicited – , theywill have solicited).


Examples

There are five irregular verbs: * бежа́ть (run), бре́зжить (glimmer) – first conjugation in the plural third person, second in other forms; * хоте́ть (want) – first conjugation in the singular, second in plural; * дать (give) – дам, дашь, даст, дади́м, дади́те, даду́т; * есть (eat) – ем, ешь, ест, еди́м, еди́те, едя́т.


Past tense

The Russian
past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
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.


Examples


Exceptions


Moods

Russian verbs can form three moods (наклонения):
indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence Dec ...
(изъявительное), conditional (сослагательное) and imperative (повелительное).


Imperative mood

The
imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request. The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. They are sometimes called ' ...
second-person singular is formed from the future-present base of most verbs by adding -и (stressed ending in present-future, or if the base ends on more than one consonant), -ь (unstressed ending, base of one consonant) or -й (unstressed ending, base of vowel). The plural (including the polite ''на вы'') second-person form is made by adding -те to the singular one: говорю 'I speak' – говори – говорите, забуду 'I shall forget' – забудь – забудьте, клею 'I glue' – клей – клейте. Some perfective verbs have a first-person plural imperative form with -те added to a similar simple future or present tense form: пойдёмте 'let us go'. Other forms can express commands in Russian; for third person, for example, the particle пусть with future can be used: Пусть они замолчат! 'Let them shut up!'.


Conditional mood

The
conditional mood The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
in Russian is formed by adding the particle бы after the word which marks the supposed subject into a sentence formed like 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 поспа́л), while a female speaker would say я спалá бы (or я бы поспала́).


Verbs of motion

Verbs of motion are a distinct class of verbs found in several Slavic languages. Due to the extensive semantic information they contain, Russian verbs of motion pose difficulties for non-native learners at all levels of study. Unprefixed verbs of motion, which are all imperfective, divide into pairs based on the direction of the movement (uni- or multidirectional — sometimes referred to as determinate/indeterminate or definite/indefinite). As opposed to a verb-framed language, in which path is encoded in the verb, but manner of motion typically is expressed with complements, Russian is a ''satellite'' language, meaning that these concepts are encoded in both the root of the verb and the particles associated with it, satellites. Thus, the roots of motion verbs convey the lexical information of manner of movement, e.g. walking, crawling, running, whereas prefixes denote path, e.g. motion in and out of space.Nesset (2008) applied Leonard Talmy's (1985, 2000) terms "manner" and "path" to her image schema for Russian verbs of motion. The roots also distinguish between means of conveyance, e.g. by transport or by one's own power, and in transitive verbs, the object or person being transported. The information below provides an outline of the formation and basic usage of unprefixed and prefixed verbs of motion.


Unprefixed


Directionality

Unidirectional verbs describe motion in progress in one direction, e.g.: * We are headed to the library.
Мы идём в библиотеку. * I was on my way to work.
Я шла на работу. * The birds are flying south.
Птицы летят на юг. Multidirectional verbs describe: # General motion, referring to ability or habitual motion, without reference to direction or destination, e.g.: #* The child has been walking for six months.
Ребёнок ходит шесть месяцев. #* Birds fly, fish swim, and dogs walk.
Птицы летают, рыбы плавают, а собаки ходят. # Movement in various directions, e.g.: #* We walked around the city all day.
Мы ходили по городу весь день. # Repetition of completed trips, e.g.: #* She goes to the supermarket every week.
Она ходит в супермаркет каждую неделю. # In the past tense, a single completed round trip, e.g.: #* I went to Russia (and returned) last year.
В прошлом году я ездил в Россию.


Unidirectional perfectives with по-

The addition of the prefix по- to a unidirectional verb of motion makes the verb perfective, denoting the beginning of a movement, i.e. 'setting out'. These perfectives imply that the agent has not yet returned at the moment of speech, e.g.,


Going versus taking

Three pairs of motion verbs generally refer to 'taking', 'leading' with additional lexical information on manner of motion and object of transport encoded in the verb stem. These are нести/носить, вести/водить, and везти/возить. See below for the specific information on manner and object of transport:


Prefixed motion verbs

Motion verbs combine with prefixes to form new aspectual pairs, which lose the distinction of directionality, but gain spatial or temporal meanings. The unidirectional verb serves as the base for the perfective, and the multidirectional as the base for the imperfective. In addition to the meanings conveyed by the prefix and the simplex motion verb, prepositional phrases also contribute to the expression of path in Russian. Thus, it is important to consider the whole verb phrase when examining verbs of motion. In some verbs of motion, adding a prefix requires a different stem shape: See below for a table the prefixes, their primary meanings, and the prepositions that accompany them, adapted from Muravyova. Several examples are taken directly or modified from Muravyova.


= Idiomatic uses

= The uni- and multidirectional distinction rarely figures into the metaphorical and idiomatic use of motion verbs, because such phrases typically call for one or the other verb. See below for examples:


Adjectival participle

Russian adjectival participles can be active or passive; have perfective or imperfective aspect; imperfective participles can have present or past tense, while perfective ones in classical language can be only past. As adjectives, they are declined by case, number and gender. If adjectival participles are derived from reciprocal verbs, they have suffix -ся appended after the adjectival ending; this suffix in participles ''never'' takes the short form. Participles are often difficult to distinguish from deverbal adjectives (this is important for some cases of
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
).


Active present participle

Лю́ди, живу́щие в э́том го́роде, о́чень до́брые и отве́тственные – The people living in this city are very kind and responsible. In order to form the active present participle, the "т" of the 3rd person plural of the present tense is replaced by "щ", and a necessary adjective ending is added: Note: Only imperfective verbs can have an active present participle. (*) Note: These forms are obsolete in modern Russian and they are not used in the spoken language as forms of the verb 'to be'.


= Reflexive verbs paradigm

= The participle agrees in gender, case and number with the word it refers to: :Я посвяща́ю э́ту пе́сню лю́дям, живу́щим в на́шем го́роде – I dedicate this song to the people living in our city. :Я горжу́сь людьми́, живу́щими в на́шем го́роде – I'm proud of the people living in our city.


Active past participle

The active past participle is used in order to indicate actions that happened in the past: :Де́вушка, чита́вшая тут кни́гу, забы́ла свой телефо́н – The girl that read this book here forgot her phone (the girl read the book in the past). Compare: :Де́вушка, чита́ющая тут кни́гу, – моя́ сестра́ – The girl reading this book here is my sister (she is reading the book now, in the present). In order to form the active past participle, the infinitive ending '-ть' is replaced by the suffix '-вш-' and add an adjective ending:


= Reflexive verbs paradigm

=


Passive present participle

:обсужда́ть – to discuss; :обсужда́емый (full form), обсужда́ем (short form) – being discussed ''or'' able to be discussed; In order to form the passive present participle it is necessary to add an adjective ending to the 1st person plural of the present tense: Passive participles are occasional in modern Russian. Often, same meaning is conveyed by reflexive active present participles: :рису́ющийся (self-drawing) instead of рису́емый (being drawn, drawable); :мо́ющийся (self-washing) instead of мо́емый (being washed); The forms ending in -омый are mostly obsolete. Only the forms ведо́мый (from вести́ – to lead) and иско́мый (from иска́ть – to search, to look for) are used in the spoken language as adjectives: :ведо́мый челове́к – a slave (driven, following) man; :иско́мая величина́ – the sought quantity.


Passive past participle

:сде́лать – to do/to make (perfective verb) :сде́ланный – done/made Passive past participles are formed by means of the suffixes '-нн-' or '-т-' from the infinitive stem of perfective verbs. Besides that, this kind of participle can have short forms formed by means of the suffixes '-н-' or '-т-':


Adverbial participle

Adverbial participles (деепричастия) express an earlier or simultaneous action providing context for the sentence in which they occur, similar to the English constructions "having done X" or "while doing Y". Like normal adverbs, adverbial participles are not declined. They inherit the aspect of their verb; imperfective ones are usually present, while perfective ones can only be past (since they denote action performed by the subject, the tense corresponds to the time of action denoted by the verb). Adverbial participles are usually active, but passive constructions may be formed using adverbial participle forms of the verb быть (present ''будучи'' "being", very rarely past ''бывши'' "having been"); these may be combined with either an adjectival participle in the
instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or ...
(Будучи раненным, боец оставался в строю – Being wounded, the combatant remained in the row), or a short adjective in the nominative (Бывши один раз наказан, он больше так не делал – Having been punished once, he didn't do it any more). Present adverbial participles are formed by adding the suffix -а/-я (or sometimes -учи/-ючи, which is usually deprecated) to the stem of the present tense. A few past adverbial participles (mainly of intransitive verbs of motion) are formed in the same way, but most are formed with the suffix -в (alternative form -вши, always used before -сь), some whose stem ends with a consonant, with -ши. For reflexive verbs, the suffix -сь remains at the very end of the word; in poetry it can take the form -ся. In standard Russian, adverbial participles are considered a feature of bookish speech; in colloquial language they are usually replaced with single adjectival participles or constructions with verbs: Пообедав, я пошёл гулять ("Having eaten, I went for a walk") → Я пообедал и пошёл гулять ("I ate and went for a walk"). But in some conservative dialects, adverbial and adjectival participles may be used to produce perfect forms, which do not occur in standard Russian; e.g. "I haven't eaten today" will be "Я сегодня не евши" instead of "Я сегодня не ел".


Irregular verbs

1These verbs all have a stem change.
2These verbs are palatalised in certain cases, namely с → ш for all the present forms of "писа́ть", 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,
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
al and
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
ial in nature, as well as
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
,
augmentative An augmentative (abbreviated ) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive. Overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque and so in so ...
, and frequentative
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es. 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 A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive or ...
. For example: Russian has also proven friendly to long compounds. As an extreme case: Purists (as Dmitry Ushakov in the preface to his dictionary) frown on such words. Some linguists have suggested that Russian compounding stems from
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
. In the twentieth century, ''abbreviated'' components frequently appeared in compounds:


Syntax

Basic word order, both in conversation and written language, is subject–verb–object. However, because grammatical relationships are marked by inflection, considerable latitude in word order is allowed, and all possible permutations can be used. For example, the words in the phrase "я пошёл в магазин" ('I went to the shop') can be arranged: * Я пошёл в магазин. (I went to the shop; ''I went to the shop.'') * Я в магазин пошёл. (I to the shop went; approx. ''I am going out, my destination is the shop.'') * Пошёл я в магазин. (Went I to the shop; two meanings: can be treated as a beginning of a narrated story: ''"Went I to the shop, and something happened."'' or a decision made by someone after a long contemplation: ''"OK, I think I will go the shop."'') * Пошёл в магазин я. (Went to the shop I; rarely used, can be treated as a beginning of a line of a poem written in amphibrach due to uncommon word order, or when the speaker wants to highlight that exactly this subject "went to the shop". In that case, the subject is stressed) * В магазин я пошёл. (To the shop I went; two meanings: can be used as a response: "I went to the shop." – "Sorry, where did you go?" – ''"To the shop—that's where I went."'' or an emphasis on the way of transportation: ''I went to the shop on foot.'') * В магазин пошёл я. (To the shop went I; ''It was me who went to the shop.'') while maintaining grammatical correctness. Note, however, that the order of the phrase "в магазин" ("to the shop") is kept constant. Word order can express logical stress, and degree of definiteness. The primary emphasis tends to be initial, with a weaker emphasis at the end. Some of these arrangements can describe present actions, not only past (despite the fact that the verb ''пошёл'' is in the past). In some cases, alternative word order can change the meaning entirely: * Не надо меня уговаривать. ("No need me opersuade" → One should not persuade me 'as I would never agree to do something'') * Меня не надо уговаривать. ("Me no need opersuade" → There is no need to persuade me 'as I will do it anyway'')


Impersonal sentences

Russian is a null-subject language – it allows constructing sentences without subject (). Some of them are claimed to not be impersonal, but to have oblique subject. One possible classification of such sentences distinguishes: ; Subjectless impersonals contain an
impersonal verb In linguistics, an impersonal verb is one that has no determinate subject. For example, in the sentence "''It rains''", ''rain'' is an impersonal verb and the pronoun ''it'' corresponds to an exophoric referrent. In many languages the verb takes ...
(in form of single third-person or single neutral), and no other word is used as a subject:Смеркалось. '(It got) dusky.' : В Москве полночь. '(It's) midnight in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
.' ; Dative impersonals usually express personal feelings, where experiencer in dative case can possibly be considered as subject:Мне скучно. 'I'm bored.' ; Other impersonals have an element which is neither nominative nor dative, but still is a nominal verb argument:Меня тошнит. 'I feel sick.' : Васю ударило током. 'Vasya had an
electric shock An electrical injury (electric injury) or electrical shock (electric shock) is damage sustained to the skin or internal organs on direct contact with an electric current. The injury depends on the Current density, density of the current, tissu ...
.'


Negation


Multiple Negatives

Unlike in standard English, multiple negatives are compulsory in Russian, as in "никто никогда никому ничего не прощает" ('No-one ever forgives anyone for anything' literally, "no one never to no-one nothing does not forgive"). Usually, only one word in a sentence has negative particle or prefix "не" or belongs to negative word "нет", while another word has negation-affirmative particle or prefix "ни"; but this word can often be omitted, and thus ни becomes the signal of negation: ''вокруг никого нет'' and ''вокруг никого'' both mean "there is nobody around".


Adverbial answers

As a one-word answer to an ''affirmative'' sentence, ''yes'' translates да and ''no'' translates нет, as shown by the table below. No simple rule supplies an adverbial answer to a negative sentence. B. Comrie says that in Russian answer да or нет is determined not so much by the negative form of the question as by the questioner's intent for using negation, or whether the response is in agreement with his ''presupposition.'' In many cases that means that the adverbial answer should be extended for avoiding ambiguity; in spoken language, intonation in saying нет can also be significant to if it is affirmation of negation or negation of negation. Note that while expressing an affirmation of negation by extending "да" with a negated verb is grammatically acceptable. In practice it is more common to answer "нет" and subsequently extend with a negated verb paralleling the usage in English. Answering a negative sentence with a non-extended "нет" is usually interpreted as an affirmation of negation again in a way similar to English. Alternatively, both positive and negative simple questions can be answered by repeating the predicate with or without не, especially if да/нет is ambiguous: in the latest example, "сержусь" or "не сержусь".


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 meaning may also be distinguished. Conjoining coordinations are formed with the help of the conjunctions и "and", ни … ни ("not … not" — simultaneous negation), та́кже "also", то́же ("too"; the latter two have complementary flavors), etc. 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 "and"~"but", но "but", одна́ко "however", зато́ "on the other hand", же "and"~"but", etc. They express the semantic relations of opposition, comparison, incompatibility, restriction, or compensation. Separative coordinations are formed with the help of the separative conjunctions: и́ли "or", ли́бо "either", ли … ли "whether … or", то … то "then … then", etc. They 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 semantic flavor of the oppositional one. Common coordinating conjunctions include: * и "and", enumerative, complemental; * а "and", comparative, tending to "but" or "while"; * но "but", oppositional. 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 distinction between "и" and "а" developed after medieval times. 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" can be understood either as "Glory to the princes and to their retinue! Amen." or "Glory to the princes, and amen (R.I.P.) to their retinue". Although the majority opinion is definitely with the first interpretation, no consensus has formed. The psychological difference between the two is quite obvious.


Subordination

Complementizer In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a complementizer or complementiser (list of glossing abbreviations, glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause in ...
s ( subordinating conjunctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases) include: * если 'if' (meaning 'in case where' not meaning 'whether'); * потому что 'because' * так как 'since' (meaning 'for the reason that') * чтобы , дабы (bookish, archaic) 'so that' * после того, как 'after' * хотя 'although' In general, Russian has fewer subordinate clauses than English, because the participles and adverbial participles often take the place of a relative pronoun/verb combination. For example:


Absolute construction

Despite the inflectional nature of Russian, there is no equivalent in modern Russian to the English nominative absolute or the Latin ablative absolute construction. The old language had an absolute construction, with the noun in the dative. Like so many other archaisms, it is retained in
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
. Among the last known examples in literary Russian occurs in Radishchev's ''Journey from Petersburg to Moscow'' (''Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву'' ), 1790: : Едущу мне из Едрова, Анюта из мысли моей не выходила. "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


Notes


References


External links


Interactive On-line Reference Grammar of Russian

Russian Grammar
on Russian Enthusiast


Gramota.ru – dictionaries

Russian grammar overview with practice tests

Free online Russian grammar book
(with videos)
Over 400 links to Russian Grammar articles around the Net (wayback machine)
* Wikimedia projects:
Wiktionary has word entries in Cyrillic with meanings and grammatical analysis in English

Russian Wiktionary gives word meanings and grammatical analysis in Russian

Wikibooks Russian
{{Language grammars