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 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.
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). Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks by Zaliznyak A. A., Klobukov E. V., Miloslavski I. G., and others, although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six simple cases). The most well-recognized are locative (в лесу, в крови, в слезах), partitive (сапогов, чулков, вольт), and several forms of vocative (господи, деда, батянь). 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 /dva 'stulə/, "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 -ияхNotes:
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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
| 1st sing | 2nd sing | 3rd sing masc | 3rd sing fem | 3rd sing neut | 1st pl | 2nd pl | 3rd pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 наc | о вас | о них |
- When a preposition is used directly before a 3rd-person pronoun, н- is prefixed: у него, с неё, etc.
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 ноль1 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 /bɨtʲ/,"to be", which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (откуда есть пошла русская земля /ʌt'kudə jestʲ poʃla 'rusːkəjə zɪm'lʲa/, "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 /a on pʌj'dʲi da skaʒi/, 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 быть/bɨtʲ/, "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 (былины/bɨlʲinɨ/) 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 | sum | |
| "you are" (sing.) | еси | es | |
| "he, she, it is" | есть | est | |
| "we are" | есмы | sumus | |
| "you are" (plur.) | есте | estis | |
| "they are" | суть | 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.
- -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 /poprosʲiʲ, poproʃu, poprosʲat/ (to have solicited — [I, they] will have solicited).
Examples
First Conjugation
Вернуть - to return
Читать - to read (stem - чита)
Second conjugation
Говорить - to speak
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
Russian has also proved friendly to agglutinative compounds. As an extreme case:
Purists (as Ushakov in the preface to his dictionary) frown on such words. But here is the name of a street in St. Petersburg:
Some linguists have suggested that Russian agglutination stems from Church Slavonic. In the twentieth century, abbreviated components appeared in the compound:
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 /knʲazʲjam slava a druʒinʲe amʲinʲ/ 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.
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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
Я читаю
I read, I am reading, I do read
Ты читаешь
You read, You are reading, You do read
Он/Она/Оно читает
He/She/It reads, He/She/It is reading, He/She/It does read
Мы читаем
We read, we are reading, we do read
Вы читаете
You (plural/formal) read, you are reading, you do read
Они читают
They read, they are reading, they do read
Я говорю
I speak, I am speaking, I do speak
Ты говоришь
You speak, you are speaking, you do speak
Он/Она/Оно говорит
He/She/It speaks, he/she/it is speaking, he/she/it does speaks
Мы говорим
We speak, we are speaking, we do speak
Вы говорите
You (plural/formal) speak, you are speaking, you do speak
Они говорят
They speak, they are speaking, they do speak
The following verbs have a stem change. The stem part of the verb is in the parentheses. The endings are regular.
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: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 /nʲikto nʲikogda nʲikomu nʲiʨevo nʲe proɕːajet/ "No-one ever forgives anything to anyone" (literally, "no-one never to no-one nothing not forgives").Coordination
Common coordinating conjunctions include:
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".
Subordination
Subordinating conjuctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases include:
In general, there are fewer subordinate clauses than in English, because the participles (причастие /prʲiʨastije/) and adverbial participles (деепричастие /dʲejeprʲiʨastʲije/) often take the place of a relative pronoun/verb combination. For example: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 /putʲeʃestvʲije iz petʲerburga v moskvu/), 1790:
Inflectional usage
Case
Tense and aspect
Russian has two “aspects” of its verb form, depending on how the action is performed. These are called the imperfective and perfective forms. The imperfective form denotes action is taking place in the present, is ongoing, is repetitive, or is habitual. The perfective form indicates completion, the result of an action, beginning of an action, or actions that are shorter or longer than usual. E.g., спать (to sleep) is imperfective; поспать (to nap) is perfective.Vernacular/dialectal features
See also
External links
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