title : Basic Russian : A Grammar and Workbook author : Murray, John.; Smyth, Sarah. publisher : Taylor & Francis Routledge isbn10 | asin : 0415183189 print isbn13 : 9780415183185 ebook isbn13 : 9780203198315 language : English subject Russian language Grammar Problems, exercises, etc, Russian language Textbooks for foreign speakers English. publication date : 1999 lcc : PG2112.M87 1999eb ddc : 491.782/421 subject : Russian language Grammar Problems, exercises, etc, Russian language Textbooks for foreign speakers English. BASIC RUSSIAN: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook comprises an accessible reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume. It introduces Russian people and culture through the medium of the language used today, covering the core material which students would expect to encounter in their first year of learning Russian. Each of the 40 units presents one or more related grammar topics, illustrated by examples which serve as models for the wide-ranging and varied exercises which follow. These exercises enable the student to master the relevant grammar points. Basic Russian is suitable for independent study and for class use. Features include: • exercises reflecting contemporary spoken Russian • grammar tables for easy reference • full key to the exercises • glossary of all Russian words featured Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook is the ideal reference and practice book for the student with some knowledge of the language. John Murray and Sarah Smyth are Lecturers in Russian at Trinity College, Dublin. Titles of related interest published by Routledge Colloquial Russian: A Complete Language Course by Svetlana Le Fleming and Susan E.Kay Russian Learners’ Dictionary by Nicholas Brown BASIC RUSSIAN: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK John Murray and Sarah Smyth London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1999 John Murray and Sarah Smyth All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-19831-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-26462-2 (OEB Format) ISBN 0-415-18317-0 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-18318-9 (pbk) CONTENTS Introduction ix Acknowledgements x Sources xi Talking about people and things 1 Identifying people and objects Gender, ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ endings, Number, Pronouns, Negation, Antithesis 1 2 Describing people and objects Nominal modifiers, Agreement of nominal modifiers 7 3 Where we do things Prepositional case (в and на), Location without movement (adverbials of place) 11 4 Expressing likes and dislikes Infinitives, любить 16 5 Talking about oneself The present tense (first conjugation), Consonant mutation in verbs, Reflexive verbs 19 6 Talking about oneself The present tense (second conjugation), Consonant mutation in verbs 24 7 Revision unit 27 Saying who does or did what 8 When we do things Adverbials of time: Frequency, Points in time, The negative adverb никогда (не) 31 9 Interacting with the world about you Direct objects (accusative case) 35 10 Talking about the past The past tense, The negative pronoun ничего (не) 38 11 Emphasising Word order 43 12 Revision unit 47 Describing people and objects 13 Interacting with people Animate direct objects (‘accusative-genitive’), The negative pronoun никто (не) 51 14 Elaborating on things Nominal modifiers (genitive case) 55 15 Parting, wishing people well Genitive constructions 59 16 Possession у меня (есть) 62 17 Absence у меня нет 68 18 Revision unit 73 Talking with and about people 19 Identifying people’s professions Copula verbs, (instrumental case as complement) 76 20 Interests and leisure pursuits -овать/-евать verbs, Verbs governing the instrumental case, Adverbials of time (давно) 79 21 Interacting with people играть (+ на/в), The preposition с and the instrumental case 83 22 Seeking information Interrogative sentences, The preposition пo and the dative case 87 23 Going places ходить/ездить + the accusative case, Adverbials of place: motion 91 24 Revision unit 96 Responding to others and to the world about you 25 Themes and topics The preposition о 100 26 Doing things for others Indirect objects (the dative case) 103 27 Expressing likes and dislikes нравиться 107 28 Seeking reactions and opinions Interrogative sentences (что ты думаешь, как ты думаешь) 110 29 Revision unit 114 Saying how many 30 Counting things Quantifiers (сколько, много, мало, cardinal numbers) 118 31 Expression of age Dative case, Adverbials of time (назад, через) 122 32 Dates Ordinal numbers 126 33 Biographies Aspect (formation of the perfective aspect, the use of aspect) 131 34 Revision unit 136 Making plans 35 Plans for the future The imperfective and perfective future tense 143 36 Giving advice The imperative, надо + the perfective infinitive, советовать + the perfective infinitive 149 37 Expressing desire хотеть, хотеться 155 38 Expressing possibility and impossibility можно, нельзя 160 39 Expressing necessity надо, не надо, нельзя 165 40Revision unit 170 Key to exercises 177 Appendix 1: Declension of nouns 205 Appendix 2: Declension of adjectives 208 Appendix 3: Declension of pronouns 209 Appendix 4: Conjugation of some common verbs 211 Appendix 5: Numerals 217 Appendix 6: Spelling rules 218 Glossary of technical terms 220 Glossary of proper names 224 Vocabulary 227 INTRODUCTION This grammar and workbook is intended for learners of Russian at an elementary stage or for those who want to refresh their knowledge of the grammar. It is suited both for people studying on their own and for those participating in language courses. It is intended not to replace a course book, but to be an additional resource for teachers and learners. This book provides brief explanations and illustrations of elementary grammatical patterns and ample scope for practising and consolidating basic Russian structures. In order to use this book, learners should be familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet and should have acquired a vocabulary of about 500 words. Each unit contains a brief explanation of an area of grammar, illustrative examples of the contexts in which the structures can be used and a selection of exercises. The first five units are introductory and graded. Thereafter the units are arranged in thematically linked blocks, each covering a range of grammatical structures. Each unit also has an independent focus, which allows learners to concentrate on specific areas at appropriate stages in their own progress. Within each unit, the exercises provide graded and systematic coverage of the points under discussion. The final unit of each block places the structures which have been learnt independently in a wider context and offers the opportunity for revision. Basic Russian aims to cover the key points a learner needs to know in order to start speaking, reading and writing correct Russian. It is not intended to cover all the needs of the more advanced learner. Learners at both intermediate and advanced levels will, however, find Basic Russian useful for reference and revision. This workbook is intended to be self-contained. The grammatical exercises are complemented by an explanation of the grammatical terms used, a key to the exercises and a list of vocabulary. Students are advised to supplement the vocabulary list by the use of a good dictionary for fuller information on individual words, their stress and usage. Personal names, and declined and conjugated forms, which might not normally be found in dictionaries, are marked for stress in the appendices and glossaries. [...]... infinitives are in the imperfective aspect because they merely state the nature of the activity enjoyed in an abstract sense, without referring to the activity actually happening at a particular time, on a particular occasion or in a particular place One of the functions of the imperfective aspect is to name an activity in this abstract, general way Questions and answers: When responding in the affirmative... Marcus, The Oxford Russian English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972, 2nd edn, 1984 Zolotova G .A. , Синтактический словарь, «Наука», Moscow, 1988 Grammars Borras F.M and Christian R.F., Russian Syntax, 2nd edn, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979 Pulkina I and Zakhava-Nekrasova E., Russian, translated from the Russian by V.Koroty, 2nd edn, «Русский язык», Moscow, (no date) Unbegaun B.O., Russian Grammar, ...ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several colleagues have given help and advice during the writing of this book A special debt of gratitude is due to Sheila Watts, Uná Ní Dhubhghaill, Sergei Tolkachev and Alissa Sidorova for their careful proof-reading and helpful comments Thanks are due to the students who piloted the exercises and provided useful feedback We would also like to thank John, Tom and Sally Kingston and. .. Aidan FitzMaurice for their research work We are most grateful to the editorial and production teams at Routledge, particularly Steve Turrington, Martin Mellor, Barbara Duke and Sophie Oliver, for their encouragement and support We accept full responsibility for the errors and infelicities that no doubt remain Finally, we would like to dedicate this book to our students, past and present John Murray... do things • • Prepositional case (в and на) Location without movement (adverbials of place) Nouns in Russian change their endings in order to indicate their function in the sentence When a noun in Russian so changes, it is said to have changed its ‘case’ The prepositional case in Russian is the only case which is always governed by (that is, it ‘takes’ and is preceded by) a preposition Two of the most... Russian Grammar, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1957 Wade, Terence, A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, Blackwell, Oxford, 1992 Course books Akushina A. A and Formanskaya N.I., Русский речевой этикет, 3rd edn, «Русский язык», Moscow, 1982 UNIT ONE Identifying people and objects • • • • • • Gender ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ endings Number Pronouns Negation Antithesis Gender (i): Nouns are classified in Russian according... people and objects • Nominal modifiers (adjectives, demonstratives, possessives, interrogatives) • Agreement of nominal modifiers Nominal modifiers: A nominal modifier is a word or phrase used to describe or qualify a noun In Russian, as in English, a noun can be described in a number of ways: by an adjective (beautiful city), a demonstrative adjective (this city), a possessive adjective (our city), another... Это: Это is an invariable pronoun meaning ‘this (is)’, ‘that (is)’ or ‘it (is)’, functioning like French ‘ce’ and German ‘das’ Its predicate can be either singular or plural and of any gender: Кто это? Это Филипп Что это? Это книга А что это? Это деньги ‘Who’s that? It’s Philip.’ ‘What’s that? It’s a book.’ And what is that? It’s the money [plural in Russian] .’ Negation: The negative particle не precedes... vowels are ‘soft’ Gender (ii): All masculine singular endings are unambiguous with regard to gender except -ь, which may indicate either a masculine or feminine noun Generally speaking males are designated by masculine nouns and females by feminine nouns, but there are some males who are designated by nouns ending in -a or -я, e.g., мужчина, дядя, дедушка and many diminutive forms of names, such as Коля,... телеграф There are some exceptions to the general rule of nouns always being used with the same preposition In such cases the two prepositions express different meanings: Он на пьесе.— ‘He is at a play’ and Он в пьесе.—‘He is in a play’ Prepositional case in -y: The prepositional ending of a number of masculine inanimate nouns is -y (rather than the usual -e) after в and на in a locative sense, i.e., . RUSSIAN: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook comprises an accessible reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume. It introduces Russian people and culture. glossary of all Russian words featured Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook is the ideal reference and practice book for the student with some knowledge of the language. John Murray and Sarah. learners should be familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet and should have acquired a vocabulary of about 500 words. Each unit contains a brief explanation of an area of grammar, illustrative examples