Russian grammar

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

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. An example of an indeclinable noun is кофе ("coffee").

Some nouns use several additional cases. The most important of these are:

• Locative (ме́стный): the most common minor case, used after prepositions of location (на, в(о)). With most nouns the prepositional form is used in such instances. When there is a distinct locative, it may match the dative, or may take a unique form. For example, in во рту́ ("in the mouth"), the locative of рот ("mouth") matches the dative form ртy (and thus differs from the prepositional ртe). In в лесу́ ("in the forest"), the locative of лес ("forest") differs from both the prepositional ле́се and the dative ле́сy (the dative and locative are spelt identically but pronounced differently).
• Partitive (отдели́тельный), or second genitive: sometimes used instead of the genitive: налить ча́ю (to pour tea) – not налить ча́я.[9]
• Vocative (зва́тельный): used in archaic expressions to call or identify a person: Бо́же мой! (My God!). The modern vocative (sometimes called neo-vocative) is used to produce a person's nickname by removing the vowel ending from the affectionate version of the name: Ива́н (general) — Ва́ня (short, affectionate) — Вань (neo-vocative); Мари́я — Ма́ша — Маш. The neo-vocative has no plural form and can only be applied to names frequently used in Russian; rare names (most of them are non-Slavic) do not have affectionate versions and thus no means of forming the neo-vocative.
• Caritive (лиши́тельный), used with the negation of verbs: не знать пра́вды (not know the truth) – знать пра́вду (know the truth). This case sometimes is identical to the genitive and sometimes to the accusative.

The pattern described below holds true for full forms of most adjectives, except possessive ones. It is also used for substantivized adjectives as учёный ("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 a masculine adjective ends in -ой in the nominative, the stress falls on the final syllable throughout its declension: прямо́й ([prʲɪˈmoj], "straight"), compare упря́мый ([ʊˈprʲamɨj], "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 old-fashion 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 но́вый ("new") are нов (m.), но́во (n.), нова́ (f.), новы́/но́вы (pl.).
• In the masculine singular short form, when a word-final consonant cluster is being formed after ending removal, an additional е or о interfix is inserted after the root, as in го́лоден, from голо́дный ("hungry").
• Some adjectives (e.g. большо́й "big", ру́сский "Russian") have no short forms.

Comparison forms are usual only for qualitative adjectives and adverbs. Comparative and superlative synthetic forms are not part of the paradigm 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 'more red'; these forms are difficult to distinguish from adverbs, whose comparative forms often coincide with those of their adjectival counterparts.[10] 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 are less frequently used in Russian than in most other Slavic languages,[11] but are in use. They respond to the questions чей? чья? чьё? чьи? (whose?) and denote only animate possessors. See section below.

• Russian is subject to the 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 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?".

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.

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:
  • "Люблю́ свою́ жену́ = (I) love my wife"
  • "Люблю́ себя́ = (I) love myself"

The ending -его is pronounced as -ево́.

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 [N.] loves (whom?) Vasya [G.].

The ending "-его" is pronounced as "-ево".

The infinitive 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 (but -чь is not a suffix of a verb). For reflexive verbs -ся/-сь suffix is added in the end. Note that due to phonological effects, both -ться and -тся endings (later is used for present-future tense of a 3rd person reflexive verb; see below) are pronounced as [t͡sə] or [tsə] and often cause misspellings even among native speakers.

Future tense has two forms: simple and compound.

• Future simple forms are formed by the perfective verbs with the help of personal endings: "She will read" (She will have read) — "Она прочита́ет"; "She will read" (She will read [for a certain amount of time]) — "Она почита́ет".
• Future compound forms are formed by the imperfective verbs: future simple tense form of the verb "быть" (to be) and the infinitive of the imperfective verb. The Russian compound future tense is remarkably similar in structure to the English simple future tense: "She will read" (She will be reading) — "Она бу́дет чита́ть".

• -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, зиджить.
• in -а not preceded by a hush (ж, ш, щ or ч):

The second conjugation involves verb stems ending in:

• -и or -е (Тереть, 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)
• in -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 [pəprɐˈsʲitʲ, pəprɐˈʂu, pɐˈprosʲɪt] (to have solicited – [I, they] will have solicited).

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.

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.

Russian verbs can form three moods (наклонения): indicative (изъявительное), conditional (сослагательное) and imperative (повелительное).[14]

The imperative mood second-person singular is formed from the future-present base of most verbs by adding -и (stressed ending in present-future, or if base ends on more than one consonant), -ь (unstressed ending, base on one consonant) or -й (unstressed ending, base on vowel). Plural (including polite на вы) second-person form is made by adding -те to singular one: говорю 'I speak' – говори – говорите, забуду 'I shall forget' – забудь – забудьте, клею 'I glue' – клей – клейте. Some perfective verbs have first-person plural imperative form with -те added to similar simple future or present tense form: пойдёмте 'let us go'. Other forms can express command in Russian; for third person, for example, пусть particle with future can be used: Пусть они замолчат! 'Let them shut up!'.[15]

The conditional mood 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 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.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18][note 1] 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.[19] The information below provides an outline of the formation and basic usage of unprefixed and prefixed verbs of motion.

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.
• Birds fly south in autumn.
  Птицы летят на юг осенью.

Multidirectional verbs describe:

1. 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.
2. Movement in various directions, e.g.:
   • We walked around the city all day.
     Мы ходили по городу весь день.
3. Repetition of completed trips, e.g.:
   • She goes to the supermarket every week.
     Она ходит в супермаркет каждую неделю.
4. 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.

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.,[20]^:353–355

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:[20]

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.[21] 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:[22]

See below for a table the prefixes, their primary meanings, and the prepositions that accompany them, adapted from Muravyova.[19] Several examples are taken directly or modified from Muravyova.

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:[20]^:357–358

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.[23] 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).

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 add a necessary adjective ending:

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'.

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.

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:

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.

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 participles (деепричастия) are not declined, quite like usual adverbs. They inherit the aspect of their verb; imperfective ones are usually present, while perfective ones can be only past (since they denote action performed by the subject, the tense corresponds to time of action denoted by verb). Almost all Russian adverbial participles are active; to form passive constructions, adverbial participle forms of verb быть (past бывши, present будучи) may be used with either adjectival participle in instrumental case (Будучи раненным, боец оставался в строю – Combatant, being wounded, remained in the row), or short adjective in 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 suffix -а/-я (sometimes -учи/-ючи which is usually deprecated) to present-tense stem. Few of past participles (mainly of intransitive verbs of motion) are formed in similar manner. Most past adverbial participles are formed with suffix -в (alternative form -вши, always used before -сь), some with stem ending with a consonant, with -ши. Reciprocal ones have suffix -сь at their very end (in poetry can appear as -ся).[24][25]

Adverbial participles in standard Russian are believed to be a feature of bookish speech; in colloquial language they are usually replaced with single adjectival participles or constructions with verbs: Пообедав, я пошёл гулять → Я пообедал и пошёл гулять ("I had dinner and went for a walk"). But in some dialects adverbial and adjectival participles are common to produce perfect forms which are not distinguished in literary Russian; e.g. "I haven't eaten today" will be "Я сегодня не евши" instead of "Я сегодня не ела".

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.

Russian is a null-subject language – it allows constructing sentences without subject (Russian: безличные предложения). Some of them are claimed to not be impersonal, but to have oblique subject. One possible classification of such sentences distinguishes:[27]

Subjectless impersonals contain an impersonal verb (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.'

Dative impersonals usually express personal feelings, where experiencer in dative case can possibly be considered as subject

Мне^dat. скучно. 'I'm bored.'

Other impersonals have an element which is neither nominative nor dative, but still is a nominal verb argument

Меня^acc. тошнит. 'I feel sick.'

Васю^acc. ударило током^instr.. 'Vasya had an electric shock.'

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"). 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".

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[28] 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".

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 [i] "and", enumerative, complemental;
• а [a] "and", comparative, tending to "but" or "while";
• но [no] "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 Catherine manuscript of the Song of Igor, 1790s

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" [knʲɪˈzʲjam ˈslavə ɐ druˈʐɨnʲɪ ɐˈmʲinʲ] 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.

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

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

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. Among the last known examples in literary Russian occurs in Radishchev's Journey from Petersburg to Moscow (Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву [pʊtʲɪˈʂɛstvʲɪjɪ ɪs pʲɪtʲɪrˈburɡə v mɐˈskvu]), 1790:

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