Russian grammar

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Russian grammar encompasses:

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

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

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

NOTE 1. For an introductory overview, please see the discussion in the Russian language article.

NOTE 2. In the discussion below, various terms are used in the meaning they have in the standard Russian discussions of historical grammar. In particular, aorist, imperfect, etc. are considered verbal tenses rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs.

Contents 1 Morphology 1.1 Nominal 1.1.1 Nouns 1.1.2 Articles 1.1.3 Adjectives 1.1.4 Pronouns 1.1.4.1 Personal Pronouns 1.1.4.2 Demonstrative Pronouns 1.1.4.3 Possessive Pronouns 1.1.4.4 Interrogative Pronouns 1.1.5 Numbers 1.1.5.1 Ordinal Numbers 1.2 Verbs 1.2.1 Present-future tense 1.2.2 Examples 1.2.3 Irregular verbs 1.3 Word formation 1.4 Fundamental sentence structure 1.4.1 Coordination 1.4.2 Subordination 2 Syntax 2.1 Negation 2.2 Coordination 2.3 Subordination 2.4 Absolute construction 2.5 Inflectional usage 2.5.1 Case 2.5.2 Tense and aspect 3 Vernacular/dialectal features 4 See also 5 External links

Morphology

Nominal

Nouns

Nominal declension is subject to six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and locative or prepositional), in two numbers (singular and plural), and obeying absolutely grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). A vocative form is preserved for words and names of religious import, as Боже Template:IPA "God", etc. The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four, eg. (два стула Template:IPA, "two chairs", recategorized today as a genitive singular), it has been lost.

In Russian there are three declension types. The first declension is used for masculine and neuter nouns. The second declension is used for most feminine nouns. The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in ь and for neuter nouns ending in мя.

First Declension - Masculine Nouns

Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with -0- (thus no ending).

                  Singular                                
Nominative        -0-           -ь           -й           -ий             
Genitive          -а            -я           -я           -ия             
Dative            -у            -ю           -ю           -ию  
Accusative        -0- / -а      -ь  / -я     -й  / -я     -ий / ия   
Instrumental      -ом           -ем (3)      -ем (3)      -ием
Prepositional     -е            -е           -е           -ии  

                 Plural
Nominative        -ы  (1)       -и           -и           -ии
Genitive          -ов (2)       -ей          -ев (3)      -иев
Dative            -ам           -ям          -ям          -иям
Accusative        -ы (1)/ ов    -и / ей      -и / ев (3)  -ии / иев 
Instrumental      -ами          -ями         -ями         -иями
Prepositional     -ах           -ях          -ях          -иях

Notes:

• The accusative case for animate nouns is identical to the genitive case; for inanimate nouns, it is identical to the nominative.
• (1) After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
• (2) After a sibilant, ей is written.
• (3) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

First Declension - Neuter Nouns

                  Singular
Nominative        -о  (1)       -е  (2)                        
Genitive          -а            -я                        
Dative            -у            -ю                       
Accusative        -о  (1)       -е  (2)                  
Instrumental      -ом (1)       -ем (2)                 
Prepositional     -е            -е  (3)                        

                  Plural
Nominative        -а            -ия           
Genitive          -0-           -ий          
Dative            -ам           -ям          
Accusative        -а            -я       
Instrumental      -ами          -ями         
Prepositional     -ах           -ях  

• (1) After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
• (2) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
• (3) For nouns ending in ие in the nominative singular, и is written.

Second Declension - (Mostly) Feminine Nouns

                  Singular                                
Nominative        -а            -я           -ия             
Genitive          -ы  (1)       -и           -ии             
Dative            -е            -е           -ии             
Accusative        -у            -ы           -ию       
Instrumental      -ой (2)       -ей (3)      -ией       
Prepositional     -е            -е           -ии             

                  Plural
Nominative        -ы  (1)       -и           -ии
Genitive          -0-           -ь           -ий
Dative            -ам           -ям          -иям
Accusative        -ы(1) / -0-   -и / ь       -ии / ий
Instrumental      -ами          -ями         -иями
Prepositional     -ах           -ях          -иях

• (1) After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
• (2) After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
• (3) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
• In the accusative plural a difference is made between animate (genitive) and inanimate (nominative) nouns.

Third Declension

                  Singular                                
                  (feminine)    (neuter)
Nominative        -ь            -мя
Genitive          -и            -мени                        
Dative            -и            -мени                        
Accusative        -ь            -мя
Instrumental      -ью           -менем       
Prepositional     -и            -мени                        

                  Plural
Nominative        -и            -мена
Genitive          -ей           -мён
Dative            -ям           -менам          
Accusative        -и / ей       -мена           
Instrumental      -ями          -менами         
Prepositional     -ях           -менах

Articles

There are no articles in the Russian language, definite or indefinite. The sense of a noun is determined from the context in which it appears.

Adjectives

Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

Declension

                  Singular  
                  (masculine)    (neuter)     (feminine)                       
Nominative        -ый            -ое          -ая             
Genitive          -ого           -ого         -ой             
Dative            -ому           -ому         -ой             
Accusative        -ый / ого      -ое / ого    -ую       
Instrumental      -ым            -ым          -ой       
Prepositional     -ом            -ом          -ой             

                  Plural
Nominative        -ые
Genitive          -ых
Dative            -ым
Accusative        -ые / ых 
Instrumental      -ыми
Prepositional     -ых

• In the accusative case (except the feminine singular), a difference is made between animate (=genitive) and inanimate (=nominative) adjectives.
• After a sibilant or velar consonant, и, instead of ы, is written.
• When a masculine adjectives ends in -ой, the -ой is stressed.

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

• Masculine adjectives ending in the nominative in ий and neuters in ее are declined as follows: его, ему, ым, and им.
• Feminine adjectives in яя are declined ей and юю.
• Plural adjectives in ие are declined их, им, ими and их.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Nominative	я	ты	он	она	оно	мы	вы	они
Genitive	меня	тебя	его	её	его	нас	вас	их
Dative	мне	тебе	ему	ей	ему	нам	вам	им
Accusative	меня	тебя	его	её	его	нас	вас	их
Instrumental	мной	тобой	им	ей	им	нами	вами	ими
Prepositional	обо мне	о тебе	о нём	о ней	о нём	о нас	о вас	о них

Demonstrative Pronouns

• этот and тот

	masculine	neuter	feminine	plural		masculine	neuter	feminine	plural
Nominative	этот	это	эта	эти		тот	то	та	те
Genitive	этого	этого	этой	этих		того	того	той	тех
Dative	этому	этому	этой	этим		тому	тому	той	тем
Accusative	N or G	это	эту	N or G		N or G	то	ту	N or G
Instrumental	этим	этим	этой	этими		тем	тем	той	теми
Prepositional	об этом	об этом	об этой	об этих		о том	о том	о той	о тех

Possessive Pronouns

• мой and твой

	masculine	neuter	feminine	plural		masculine	neuter	feminine	plural
Nominative	мой	моё	моя	мои		твой	твоё	твоя	твои
Genitive	моего	моего	моей	моих		твоего	твоего	твоей	твоих
Dative	моему	моему	моей	моим		твоему	твоему	твоей	твоим
Accusative	N or G	моё	мою	N or G		N or G	твоё	твою	N or G
Instrumental	моим	моим	моей	моими		твоим	твоим	твоей	твоими
Prepositional	о моём	о моём	о моей	о моих		о твоём	о твоём	о твоей	о твоих

• наш and ваш

	masculine	neuter	feminine	plural		masculine	neuter	feminine	plural
Nominative	наш	наше	наша	наши		ваш	ваше	ваша	ваши
Genitive	нашего	нашего	нашей	наших		вашего	вашего	вашей	ваших
Dative	нашему	нашему	нашей	нашим		вашему	вашему	вашей	вашим
Accusative	N or G	наше	нашу	N or G		N or G	ваше	вашу	N or G
Instrumental	нашим	нашим	нашей	нашими		вашим	вашим	вашей	вашими
Prepositional	о нашем	о нашем	о нашей	о наших		о вашем	о вашем	о вашей	о ваших

• его, её and их are indeclinable.

Interrogative Pronouns

• кто and что

Nom.	Gen.	Dat.	Acc.	Inst.	Prep.
кто	кого	кому	кого	кем	о ком
что	чего	чему	что	чем	о чём

• чей

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

Numbers

0 ноль

1 один одна одно (раз is used when counting)

2 два две

3 три

4 четыре

5 пять

6 шесть

7 семь

8 восемь

9 девять

10 десять

Ordinal Numbers

Nominative case, masculine.

• 1st первый
• 2nd второй
• 3rd третий
• 4th четвëртый
• 5th пятый
• 6th шестой
• 7th седьмой
• 8th восьмой
• 9th девятый
• 10th десятый

Verbs

Grammatical conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with periphrastic forms for the future and subjunctive, as well as imperative forms and present/past participles, distinguished by adjectival and adverbial usage. There are two voices, active and middle/passive, which is constructed by the addition of a reflexive suffix -ся/сь/- to the active form. An interesting feature is that the past tense is actually made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the participle in an originally periphrastic perfect tense formed with the present of быть Template:IPA,"to be", which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (откуда есть пошла русская земля Template:IPA, "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). Verbal inflection today is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient aorist, imperfect, and (periphrastic) pluperfect tenses 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 Template:IPA, etc., exactly equivalent to the English colloquial "so he goes and says"), recategorized as a usage of the imperative. The loss of three of the former six tenses has been offset by the development, as in other Slavic languages, of verbal aspect. Most verbs come in pairs, one with imperfective or continuous connotation, the other with perfective or completed, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root.

The present tense of the verb бытьTemplate:IPA, "to be", is today normally used only in the third-person singular form, which is often used for all the persons and numbers, and, very formally, in the third person plural. As late as the nineteenth century, the full conjugation, which today is used only for extreme effect, was somewhat more natural: forms occur in the Synodal Bible, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (былиныTemplate:IPA) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian:

English	Russian	IPA	Latin
"I am"	есмь	Template:IPA	sum
"you are" (sing.)	еси	Template:IPA	es
"he, she, it is"	есть	Template:IPA	est
"we are"	есмы	Template:IPA	sumus
"you are" (plur.)	есте	Template:IPA	estis
"they are"	суть	Template:IPA	sunt

Present-future tense

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

The first conjugation (I) is used in verb stems ending in a consonant, -у, or -о, or in -а when not preceded by a sibilant:

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

The second conjugation (II) is used in verb stems ending in -и or -е, or in -а when preceded by a sibilant:

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

Examples

First Conjugation

Вернуть - to return <something> - (stem - верн)

Я верну	I will return
Ты вернëшь	You will return
Он/Она/Оно вернëт	He/She/It will return
Мы вернëм	We will return
Вы вернёте	You will return
Они вернут	They will return

Читать - to read (stem - чита)

Я читаю	I read
Ты читаешь	You read
Он/Она/Оно читает	He/She/It reads
Мы читаем	We read
Вы читаете	You read
Они читают	They read

Second conjugation

Говорить - to speak

Я говорю	I speak
Ты говоришь	You speak
Он/Она/Оно говорит	He/She/It speaks
Мы говорим	We speak
Вы говорите	You speak
Они говорят	They speak

Irregular verbs

The following verbs have a stem change. The stem part of the verb is in the parentheses. The endings are regular.

брать (бер-) - to take

беру, берёшь, берёт, берём ,берёте, берут

вести (вед-) - to lead

веду, ведёшь, ведёт, ведём, ведёте, ведут

жить (жив-) - to live

живу, живёшь, живёт, живём, живёте, живут

звать (зов-) - to call

зову, зовёшь, зовёт, зовём, зовёте, зовут

давать (да-) - to give

даю, даёшь, даёт, даём, даёте, дают

идти (ид-) - to go

иду, идёшь, идёт, идём, идёте, идут

писать (пиш-) - to write (notice the с becomes a ш)

пишу, пишешь, пишет, пишем, пишете, пишут

The following verbs endings do not confirm to first or second conjugations.

дать - to give

дам, дашь, даст, дадим, дадите, дадут

есть - to eat

ем, ешь, ест, едим, едите, едят

The following verbs are irregular in the first person. Notice the д becomes ж in the first person. This is a common irregularity on stems ending with д.

ходить (ход-) - to walk

хожу, ходишь, ходит, ходим, ходите, ходят

ездить (езд-) - to travel

езжу, ездишь, ездит, ездим, ездите, ездят

видеть (вид-) - to see

вижу, видишь, видит, видим, видите, видят

Word formation

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

мысль	Template:IPA	"thought"
мыслишка	Template:IPA	"a petty or cute thought"
мыслище	Template:IPA	"a thought of fundamental import"
мышление	Template:IPA	"thought; abstract thinking, ratiocination"
мыслить	Template:IPA	"to think (as to cogitate)"
смысл	Template:IPA	"meaning"
осмыслить	Template:IPA	"to comprehend; to rationalize"
переосмыслить	Template:IPA	"to reassess"
переосмысливать	Template:IPA	"to be in the process of reassessing (something)"
переосмысливаемый	Template:IPA	"(something) in the process of being considered in a new light"
бессмыслица	Template:IPA	"nonsense"
обессмыслить	Template:IPA	"to render meaningless"
бессмысленный	Template:IPA	"meaningless"
обессмысленный	Template:IPA	"rendered meaningless"
необессмысленный	Template:IPA	"not yet rendered meaningless"

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

металлоломообеспечение	Template:IPA	"provision of scrap iron"
металлоломообеспеченный	Template:IPA	"well supplied with scrap iron"

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

Каменноостровский проспект

Template:IPA

"Stone Island Avenue"

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

управдом

Template:IPA=управляющий домом

Template:IPA

"residence manager"

Fundamental sentence structure

Coordination

Subordination

Syntax

The basic word order, both in conversation and the written language, is Subject Verb Object. However, because the relations are marked by inflexion, considerable latitude in word order is allowed, and all the permutations can be used. The word order expresses the logical stress, and the degree of definiteness. Primary emphasis tends to be initial, with a slightly weaker emphasis at the end. (See Syntactic and Paratactic Word Order Effects for a theoretical treatment.)

Negation

Unlike English, Latin, and various other languages, Russian allows multiple negatives, as in никто никогда никому ничего не прощает Template:IPA "No-one ever forgives anything to anyone" (literally, "no-one never to no-one nothing not forgives").

Coordination

Common coordinating conjunctions include:

• и Template:IPA "and", complemental;
• а Template:IPA "and", oppositional, tending to "but";
• но Template:IPA "but";
• ибо Template:IPA "for".

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".

Image:Song of Igor Catherine Manuscript.GIF

они уехали, и мы уезжаем	Template:IPA	they have departed /and we are departing
они уехали, а мы уезжаем	Template:IPA	they have departed, while (but) we are (still) departing
они уехали, но мы приезжаем	Template:IPA	they have departed, but we are arriving

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

Subordination

Subordinating conjuctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases include:

• если Template:IPA "if";
• потому что Template:IPA, так как Template:IPA "because"
• чтобы Template:IPA "in order that"
• после того, как Template:IPA "after"
• хотя Template:IPA "although"

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

Вот человек, потерявший надежду.	Template:IPA	Here (is) a man who has lost (all) hope. [lit. having lost hope]
Гуляя по городу, всегда останавливаюсь у Ростральных колонн.	Template:IPA	When I go for a walk in the city, I always pause by the Rostral Columns. [lit. Walking in the city, I...]

Absolute construction

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

• Едущу мне из Едрова, Анюта из мысли моей не выходила. Template:IPA "As I was leaving Yedrovo village, I could not stop thinking about Aniuta."

Inflectional usage

Case

Tense and aspect

Russian has two 'aspects' of its verb form, depending on whether the action has been completed or not. These are called the 'imperfective' and 'perfective' forms.

Vernacular/dialectal features

See also

• Russian language

External links

• Wikibooks Russian
• On-Line Russian Reference Grammar with Exercises
• Online Russian Lessons With Grammar Referencede:Russische Grammatik

es:Gramática rusa zh:俄语语法