You have already noticed from the "Text" of the lesson 1 that the Russian language is quite different comparing to the English one. As an introduction let's point some main differences:
• The alphabet
The Russian alphabet is Cyrillic. You can find all Russian letters with their pronunciation in the text window of lesson 1 (see the "keyboard mapping" window in the dictionary menu to learn the keyboard mapping that has been used in the program). There are following letters in the Russian alphabet:
a A b B v V g G d D e E [ { h H z Z i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P r R s S t T u U f F x X c C = + w W q Q # y Y % \ | ] } ' "
There are two special characters in the Russian alphabet:
"#" - "hard sign" and "%" - "soft sign" .
These characters influence pronunciation of the letter in front of them. You will learn more about it in the subsequent lessons.
Example,
"l" and "l%" represents two different single sounds.
You can also learn the pronunciation of Russian letters by using our small speaking dictionary - press the Russian word that begins with chosen letter to hear how this letter sounds in the word.
• There are no analogue of the English articles "a" and "the" in Russian.
Example,
The noun "a lamp" is just "lampa" in Russian
• There is a very extensive conjugation of verbs in Russian.
Example,
to write =itat%
I read ' =ita]
you read ty =itaew%
he reads on =itaet
we read my =itaem
you read vy =itaete
they read oni =ita]t
• Unfortunately, there is a very extensive declension of nouns in Russian.
It is probably one of the most difficult part of the Russian grammar for the English speaking people. I will try to introduce it slowly during the next lessons.
Example,
Russia - Rossi'
I live in Russia. - " hivu v Rossii.
There are six declension cases and 3 main declension patterns.
Example,
1. Nominative henqina slovo (word)
2. Genitive henqiny slova (word's)
3. Dative henqine slovu (word)
4. Accusative henqinu slovo (word)
5. Ablative henqinoj slovom (word)
6. Locative henqine slove (word)
This example shows that in English only the nominative and genitive cases are different, all the rest are equivalent to the nominative.
You have just learned several common nouns in Russian. These nouns were presented in the nominative of the singular form. You should use the nouns in the nominative as the answer to the question of type: "Who is that? & What is that? ". The simplest sentence in which you use the noun in the nominative is:
|to ... (Eng. This is ...)
One can notice that it is a quite exceptional sentence, because it does not contain a verb (\to Eng. it).
You should use the noun in the nominative case here.
