Pronouns:

In English the choice of pronoun (he, she, it) depends on animate/inanimate and male/female distinctions: a ‘teacher’ (animate) is referred to as ‘he’ or ‘she’, whereas a ‘book’ or a ‘bus’ (inanimate) are referred to as ‘it’.

In Russian the choice of pronoun is determined solely by the grammatical gender of a noun: учитель and автобус (masculine) are referred to as он, учительница and книга (feminine) are referred to as она, and окно (neuter) is referred to as оно. In the plural there is no reference to gender and они is used in all cases.

	Singular Noun	Pronoun	Plural Noun	Pronoun
Masculine	футболист стол	он он	футболисты столы	они он
Feminine	квартира	она	квартиры	они
Neuter	окно	оно	окна	они

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.

‘Who’s that? It’s Philip.’

Что это? Это книга.

‘What’s that? It’s a book.’

А что это? Это деньги.

‘And what is that? It’s the money [plural in Russian].’

Gender

Gender: Nouns are classified in Russian according to three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The grammatical gender of a noun, which is constant, can usually be identified by its ending in the nominative case, that is, the dictionary form of the noun.

1. The endings used to mark masculine nouns are:

hard -ø (zero ending or nouns ending in consonants) – стол (table)

soft -ь  - словарь (dictionary)

soft -й – музей (museum)

2. The endings used to mark feminine nouns are:

hard -a – квартира (flat)

soft -я – кухня (kitchen)

soft -ь – площадь (square)

soft -ия – лекция (lecture)

3. The endings used to mark neuter nouns are:

hard -o – окно (window)

soft -e – море (sea)

soft -ие – здание (building)

soft -мя – время (time)

Number:

In English the singular and plural of nouns are usually distinguished by use of the ending -s: book → books; dog → dogs. Likewise in Russian the plural of nouns is marked by an ending:

1. The plural endings used to mark masculine nouns are:

стол→ столы

словарь→ словари

музей→ музеи

2. The plural endings used to mark feminine nouns are:

квартира→ квартиры

кухня→ кухни

площадь→ площади

лекция→ лекции

3. The plural endings used to mark neuter nouns are:

окно→ окна

море→ моря

общежитие→ общежития

Note the spelling rule:

The letters г, к, x, and ж, ч, ш, щ can never be followed by -ы. The nominative plural of nouns ending in these letters always ends in -и; e.g. врачи, книги, руки, ноги, товарищи.

A few nouns have plural forms which are not related to the singular forms: человек → люди; ребѐнок → дети.

Russian Alphabet

Russian letters that are (almost) the same.

А а - Pronounced like the "a" in the word "father" or "car". It is not the 'flat' "a" sound you sometimes hear in words like "cat" or "flat".

К к - Pronounced like the "k" in "kitten" or "kangaroo". This letter replaces the english "c" sound in words like "cat".

М м - Pronounced like the "m" in man. (Note: Unlike english, the hand-written "м" should always start from the bottom)

O o - When stressed, it is pronounced like the "o" in "bore". When un-stressed it is pronounced more like the letter "a". (See later notes.)

Т т - Pronounced like the "t" in "tap". (Note: The hand-written (and italic) form is "т". It should always start from the top, as it looks quite similar to the letter "м")

Russian letters that look like english letters but sound different.

(These are the most important to learn so you don't get them mixed up.)

В в - Pronounced like the "v" in "vet". (Equivalent to the english letter "v").

Е е - Pronounced like the "ye" in "yes".

Н н - Pronounced like the "n" in "no". (Equivalent to the english letter "n").

Р р - Pronounced like the "r" in "run", but it is rolled. (Equivalent to the english letter "r").

С с - Pronounced like the "s" in "see". (Equivalent to the english letter "s"). (It might help to remember that it's used like the "s" sound in the english words "centre" and "cent".)

У у - Pronounced like the "oo" in "boot" or "root".

Х х - Pronounced like the "h" in "hello". However, this is often pronounced more like the "ch" in the Scottish "Loch" or German "Bach", or the mexican pronunciation of "x" in "Mexico".

Russian letters that look unusual, but have familiar sounds

Б б - Pronounced like the "b" in "bat". (Equivalent to the english letter "b").

Г г - Pronounced like the "g" in "go". (Equivalent to the english letter "g").

Д д - Pronounced like the "d" in "dog". (Equivalent to the english letter "d").

З з - Pronounced like the "z" in "zoo". (Equivalent to the english letter "z").

И и - Pronounced like the "i" in "taxi". (Sometimes equivalent to the english letter "i", the short 'ee' sound.). (Note: The hand-written form for "и" looks a little like the english "u").

Л л - Pronounced like the "l" in "love". (Equivalent to the english letter "l").

П п - Pronounced like the "p" in "pot". (Equivalent to the english letter "p").

Ф ф - Pronounced like the "f" in "fat". (Equivalent to the english letter "f").

Э э - Pronounced like the "e" in "fed".

New Russian letters and sounds

(The sounds will be familiar, but they don't have their own letter in English).

Ю ю - Pronounced like the "u" in "universe". (Pronounced much like the english word "you").

Я я - Pronounced like the "ya" in "yard".

Ё ё - Pronounced like "yo" in "yonder". (Note: In modern Russian you may find this letter simply written as Е е.)

Ж ж - Like "s" in "measure", "pleasure" or "fusion" or like "g" in colour "beige". (As there is no english symbol for this sound, it is usually represented as "zh")

Ц ц - Similar to the "ts" sound in "sits" or "its".

Ч ч - Pronounced like the "ch" in "chips" or "church" .

Ш ш - Pronounced like the "sh" in shut.

Щ щ - Pronounced like "sh+сh".English speakers may find it hard to define the difference between "ш" and "щ".

Ы ы - Pronounced like the "i" in "bit" or "ill". (Said with your tongue slightly back in your mouth.)

Й й - This letter is used to form diphthongs. So "oй" is like the "oy" sound in "boy" or "aй" is like the "igh" in "sigh".

Pronunciation Symbols

(These letters have no sound on their own, but are still considered letters.).

Ъ ъ - The 'Hard Sign' is rarely used. It indicates a slight pause between sylables.

Ь ь - The 'Soft Sign' makes the previous letter 'soft'. Think of the "p" sound in the word "pew". (Try inflecting a very slight "y" sound onto letter before it.)