Ваш, Ваша, Ваши... - what's the difference?

Grammatical gender is an 'inherent' characteristics of a Russian noun. Each noun (including non-animated ones!) can be either masculine, feminine, or neuter. Most feminine words end with -а or -я, most masculine ones - with a hard consonant or -й, most neuter ones -with -e or -o (sometimes also -и, like "такси"). Nouns which end with -ь can be masculine or feminine (you can always look up on Wiktionary, you can use the English version and search for words written in cyrillic). 

In addition, each countable noun, regardless of its gender, can be either singular or plural. If a singular noun ends with a hard consonant (by the way, what gender is it? :)), its plural counterpart will end with -ы (in most cases, like документ - документы), and sometimes with -a (паспорт - паспорта, доктор - доктора). There are some exceptions one need to remember here: брат - братья, сон - сны etc. If a singular maculine noun ends with -ь or -й, you need to change the last letter to -и to get the plural (the exceptions are день - дни and some others). The last letter in feminine nouns (-a or -я) is normally changed to -и or -ы (-я always changes to -и). The ending -o in will most likely change to -a (there are some exceptions, though: дерево - деревья, яблоко - яблоки), while -e normally changes to -я to form plural nouns. There are some nouns which are always plural: ножницы, очки; the word деньги is always used in its plural form.

What do we need this for? In short, we normally use different forms of verbs and adjectives depending on the gender and number of a noun the verbs and adjectives are related to (I will not touch upon the third noun characteristics, the case, in this post). We also choose different possessive pronouns depending on those. You may find all the possessive pronouns (in the nominative case) in the table below (it's clickable).

"Вы" или "ты"? Addressing people

Click to zoom!

As you may already know, there are two types of addressing people in Russian; so, instead of 'you' we would use either less formal "ты" or more formal "вы" ("Вы"). That's not just a theoretical question, because you will need different forms of a verb (and different imperatives, which are used quite widely in Russian), different personal pronouns etc., depending on which form of addressing you use. We may also greet each other, apologize etc. differently depending on the form of addressing we use (though there are some greetings like "Доброе утро!" - 'Good morning!', "Добрый день!" - 'Good afternoon!', "Добрый вечер!" - 'Good evening!', forms of apologizing like "Прощу прощения", goodbye saying like "Всего доброго!" - which you may use for everyone):

Basically, it depends on many factors which form will be used. Kids and teenagers (and sometimes young adults) normally address each other using "ты", also adults normally address children using "ты". A kid or a teenager may address an adult using "ты" if the person he talks with is her close relative, but she would normally use "вы" speaking to her teacher (even if the teacher is not much older than the teenager). Close friends and relatives address each other using "ты", while strangers use "вы". But colleagues, acquantances, neighbours may use either. Here there are several things to note:

1) The choice of the addressing form is normally mutual. If a person starts talking to you using "ты" or "вы", you're normally supposed to use the same form (with the exception of  talking to a child - I would say "ты" in this case).

2) I would definetely recommend using "вы" in business sphere, when you talking to your Russian clients, boss and perhaps colleagues (but it depends, basically, you can just follow the pattern which already exists in the company). In business writing (and sometimes in personal letters) we often capitalize it: "Вы".

3) There are several phrases that may help you switch from "вы" to "ты" (switching back to "вы" is an exceptional thing :)): "Можно на ты?" or "Давайте (let's) на ты!". Normally, the person will answer: "Да", "Да, конечно (of course)", "Конечно, давайте". We Russians are usually quite quick with such a change, so don't be surprised if your conversational partner asks for switching to "ты" after a half an hour chat.

A quick note on Russian names. In formal situations (including school, university addressing teachers) we use "вы" + full names and patronymics (derivatives from one's father's name, which is stated in one's passport). Sometimes we can address acquantainces and colleagues using "вы" + full names without patronymics. In informal situations, when we choose the "ты"-option we usually use diminutives of our names. Sometimes diminutive names are spelled and pronounced quite differently from their full counterparts. Curious what the full name of your Russian friend is, or what the diminutive of the Russian equivalent of your name could be? Check here, but be careful: Анюта, Анечка, Настюша, Ириша, as well as Саня, Сашок, Санёк, Костик, Настюха, Илюха (and perhaps some other) can be used only if you address a very close friend.

Another question is what words to use addressing strangers or drawing their attention (Madam? Sir?). Unfortunately, in Russia there are no generally accepted words for this nowadays. (Are you curious, why? Check it here - in English, or here - in Russian, it's right in the beginning of the second chapter). Sometimes people address each other using just the words "женщина" (woman), "мужчина" (man), but I wouldn't recommend doing so, it can sound a bit rude. If I need to draw someone's attention, I normally say "Извините" (excuse me) or "Извините, пожалуйста" - these two are perhaps the most neutral ones.

До свидания! :)

Perfective or imperfective? Part 3 - What else you may need to know

Hello, last time we were talking about how different aspect verbs can be used in complex and compound sentences, and today we will be discussing some special cases of their usage, as I promissed you before. So, let's start! :)

1) The first interesting question is how to use the verbs "мочь" (which is imperfective) and "смочь" (which is perfective). They are often mixed up with each other in the Past Tense and the Future Tense, where the forms of both exist. That's because both can be in principle translated to English with one and the same word or construction ('could' in the past, 'will be able' in the future). However, the forms of "смочь" are rather  equivalents to English 'managed/will manage to'. So, when talking about someone's general capability to do something, we normally use the verb "мочь". To highlight that this or that action was/will be really taken, we're likely to use "смочь". The verbs "уметь" (imperfective) and "суметь" (perfective) are quite similar to ones we have just discussed.

2) When talking about the past, we can use both perfective and imperfective aspect verbs with negative particle "не", but the meaning of the whole (negative) sentence will be slightly different in these two cases. We use "не" + an imperfective aspect verb just to state someone didn't do something. When we use a perfective aspect verb instead of the imperfective one, we imply that they wanted to (or was about to) do something, but in the end did not do that. Just compare: "Сегодня Аня не ходила в университет" - "Сегодня Аня заболела и не пошла в университет", "Аня собиралась/хотела пойти сегодня в университет, но не пошла".

3) Have you noticed that after "не нужно", "не надо" only imperfective verbs can be used? On the contrary, after "нельзя" you can find either imperfective or perfective one, but there is a difference alright. An imperfective aspect verb after "нельзя" normally means something is not allowed (to someone in particular or to everybody): "Вам нельзя пить спиртное, пока вы принимаете это лекарство", "Здесь нельзя купаться". The combination of "нельзя" and a perfective verb usually states something is impossible: "Эту сумку нельзя поднять. Она слишком тяжелая!"

4) Finally, let's talk about the imperative. Imperatives are often used in Russian, actually, much more often than in English. We use them not only in requests and orders, but also to ask politely, to warn, to invite etc. How to tell one case from another? The verb aspect is the key point here. In short, in requests and orders (or when giving advice) imperative forms of perfective aspect verbs are normally used (in positive statements) and those of imperfective aspect verbs (in negative statements). Imperative forms of perfective aspect verbs in negative statements may be used to warn someone: "(Смотри) не забудь, мы выезжаем в восемь", "Смотри не упади, сегодня гололёд". Imperfective aspect verbs (we're still talking about imperatives :)) in positive statements may mean different things, but one of the most important cases is an invitation: "заходи (ко мне) на выходных - посмотрим мою коллекцию старинных книг", "угощайтесь", "проходи, не стесняйся".

Here are the main things to keep in mind. If you still have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Perfective or imperfective? Part 2 - Parallel and sequential actions

In the first post devoted to the verb aspect we discussed the basics of its usage. Of course, there are some special cases, as well as some exceptions, which we will discuss in detail in the following post. Today we will focus on one specific set of examples demonstrating how verbs of the definite and indefinite aspect may be used when we describe two or more actions that took/will take place at the same time or one action that took/will take place after another. Since there are a lot of different situations of this kind, let's start from the simplest ones.

1) If there are two actions that took place in the past (or will take place in the future), and they are absolutely parallel (both started/will start at the same moment and finished/will finish at another, but also the same moment), then we normally use two imperfective aspect verbs: Когда/пока я принимал душ, Наташа читала книгу. - When I taking a shower, Natasha was reading a book.

2) If something happened/will happen at one particular moment (or within a particular period of time) while the second action was/will be performing (in fact, it started/will start earlier, and finished/will finish when the first one had/will have been completed), we normally use the imperfective aspect for the second ('background') action, and the perfective aspect for the first action: Пока я принимал душ, Наташа полила цветы. - When I was reading a book, Natasha watered the flowers. There is a trick here, though: there are some verbs of the imperfected aspect which can describe a completed action. The meaning of the whole sentence is in this case different from that of the sentence where the corresponding perfective aspect verb is used. These verbs are mainly those of motion, also verbs like приходить, уходить; брать, давать; класть, вешать, ставить; надевать, снимать; просыпаться; садиться, ложиться, вставать; подниматься, спускаться etc. Just compare: "он ушел" means that he has left; he isn't here anymore. At the same time, "он уходил" may mean that he left for some time, but came back; so he is here now. In the compound sentences where one of the verbs describe a 'background' action, the difference is even more pronounced: "Пока я принимал душ, приходила Наташа" - I missed her, "Пока я принимал душ, пришла Наташа" - she came and stayed, so she is at my home now, we can have some tea and chat.   

Are there any other cases when indefinite aspect verbs describe completed actions? Definitely, yes. For example, verbs like есть, пить, видеть, слышать, смотреть, слушать, знать, писать, читать, звонить (and their synonims) can be used in the context like "Спасибо, я уже обедал сегодня" (declining an invitation for a lunch) or "Я уже смотрел этот фильм, давайте пойдем на что-нибудь другое" (explaining why you don't want to watch the film your friends suggest watching in the cinema). 

3) Before describing the next point, I need to make some introductory notes. As you may already know, the verbs "начать" and "кончить" ("закончить") are used with imperfective aspect verbs only: "начать считать", "кончить работать". At the same time, there are some perfective aspect verbs which mean the same, so they can be replaced by "начать/кончить + imperfective aspect verb": засмеяться - начать смеяться, доделать - кончить делать (many verbs with the prefix "до-" are of this kind). So if one action started/finished (will start/finish) while the other lasted (will last), we use the perfective aspect verb for the former one, and the imperfective aspect verb for the second one: "Пока я спал, Наташа домыла (кончила мыть) посуду".

There are also the verbs "начинать" и "кончать" ("заканчивать") which are also used with imperfective aspect verbs. The difference between "начать + imperfective aspect verb" and "начинать + imperfective aspect verb" may be described using the information from the previous post.

4) Let's now discuss which verbs are used when one is talking about two actions in the past or future that follows one another, so that there is a sequence of those two. If both actions are supposed to be completed, than we're likely to use two perfective aspect verbs. For example, "Когда/после того как я получу электронное письмо (e-mail), я (сразу же) напишу ответ"; here it's supposed that you will complete both actions up to some moment in the future.

5) When you don't want to emphasize the fact that the second action will be finished up to some moment (for example, if you describe the relaxation after work :)) than you may use the following combination: a perfective aspect verb for the first action and the imperfective aspect verb for the second one: "Когда/после того как я допишу статью, я буду отдыхать". Of course, you may replace the perfective aspect verb by the combination of "(за)кончить" in the required form and the imperfective aspect verb: "Когда я закончу писать статью, я буду отдыхать". These constructions are normally refer to the future. Talking about the past, we normally use the combination of "начал(а, о)" (or - in some cases - "стал (а, о)") with the imperfective aspect verb in the second part: "Когда Наташа дочитала книгу, она начала рисовать".

Now the main cases, when the verbs of different aspect are used, have been described, I hope, so there are only few additional tips to cover in the next post, which is coming soon. Until then you may practice a bit. Hope, the figure below will help you! :)

Perfective or imperfective? Part 1 - Some aspects of verb usage

Hello, I'm back! Recently I've received an email from a Russian language learner (thank you, Robert! :)) that motivated me to proceed with giving some grammar tips. So today we will be discussing a very interesting but pretty difficult topic, namely, the grammatical aspect of verbs. This is the category many languages including English lack, so even if you're an advanced learner, you may still have some questions about it. Today we'll talk about how to use verbs of different aspects in a simple sentence, next time we'll be talking about compound and complex sentences, since there are additional tricks there. We'll also won't touch upon verbs of motion - they deserve a separate post.

In general, there are several cases when we need either a perfective or an imperfective aspect verb. For the imperfective aspect they are: a) description of the process, not the result, b) description of a long (especially when you mention how long it took) or regular action and c) just mentioning the action; for the perfective case: a) description of a result, not the process itself and b) description of the action that took (or will take) place once. Let's now see how these principles work.

First, let's talk about duration of an action. Normally, if we mention duration, we use imperfective aspect verbs. But if you're talking about time the action was/will be completed within (if you think the fact that it was/will be completed is the main thing you address), please use perfective aspect verbs (have you already noticed that there is no Present Tense form for this type of verbs?). Interestingly, if the action wasn't completed (or the result wasn't achieved), we normally use imperfective aspect verbs. For example, "Я сварил рис за пятнадцать минут" is used when you'd like to emphasize that it was cooked after this time. One can say, "Посмотри! Я сварил рис всего за пятнадцать минут!" - to highlight that it took them just 15 minutes to complete. At the same time, you may say "Я варил рис пятнадцать минут" just to mention how (how long) you cooked it, or if you didn't achieved any result: "Представляешь, я варил рис целых пятнадцать минут, но он так и не сварился!" If you think that the action took a long time (and want to emphasize it), you're also likely to use verbs of imperfective aspect: "Я весь/целый вечер простоял у плиты!" (that means you spent the whole evening cooking). 

As you could notice, we often use imperfective aspect verbs with the words "целый", "весь", describing the period of time. Another hint for test takers: mentioning duration, we need the preposition "за" with the period of time only when  a perfective aspect verb is used (you can see it from the examples above). 

The second point is regularity. Here it is more or less clear: if you're talking about regular actions (especially using the adverbs "часто", "иногда", "редко" or mentioning that the action took/takes/will take place каждый час/день/год etc., ежедневно, ежегодно etc., or раз в час/день/год etc.), then use the imperfective verb. 

I also have a couple of examples illustrating the last trend, which is the description of the process or result of an action. My parents call me nearly every day; mostly they're interested in what I was doing during the day, so they ask: "Что ты сегодня делала?" However, when my boss wants to know what I've done (generally, she doesn't care what I spend my time for; the only thing she is interested in is the result), she asks: "Что ты (за) сегодня сделала?"

There are also some special cases of verb usage. More sophisticated ones will be described later (in one of the following posts), so here I'll just list the basic meanings: if we describe the condition or location of someone or something, or talk about someone's talent or general capability to do something, we normally use imperfective aspect verbs. If we describe an action that was completed in a single moment, or something that happened suddenly, we use perfective aspect verbs. Sounds logical, doesn't it?

Ok, that's it for today, in a couple of days we'll be looking at what's going on when there are two actions which are simultaneous (or in the case one of them is a background action, so actions are 'partially simultaneous'), or one action follows another.

Со светлым праздником Пасхи!

Today is Russian Easter (Пасха, Paskha). What do we do today? Many people go to the church (some even for the whole night) and other stay at home. But many and many Russians (even atheists) greet each other with "Христос воскрес!" (Christ has risen!) and get as an answer "Воистину воскрес!" (Indeed risen!). And of course, almost all Russians have a special menu today. Well, since it's traditional. you can see all the main elements at the picture, though it was painted by Russian artist Boris Kustodiev (Борис Кустодиев) about 100 years ago. So, which are they? 

First, these are painted eggs, as in many European countries. Traditionally, they're red to symbolize the Blood of Christ, but nowadays they can be of all colors you can imagine and even have some funny design. People present the eggs to each other ("Христос воскрес!" - "Воистину воскрес!") kissing each other on the cheek three times (it's called "христосоваться"). That's actually what the lady and the priest on the picture do. Egg tapping also takes place. 

Behind the plate with the eggs you can see a white pyramid. It's the paskha (пасха), as we call it, a sweet dish made out of quark (sometimes with some eggs, vanilla, raisins or candied fruits). It is supposed to be eaten along with the kulich (кулич), a traditional Easter cake (normally, cylindrical, decorated with sugar glaze - and whatever). In good old times, every family used to have their own recipe of it, though now many people prefer to buy it - just to save time. I didn't cook anything this year (as I used to do), just decorated eggs. As I promised, I publish a photo here:

P.S. By the way, there is a very good page about Paskha on Wikipedia. Check it!

WOR(L)DS

It is believed that the language one speaks and the way they think are interconnected, so the words and grammar constructions you use reflect not only your own worldview but the one which is typical for all (or at least many) of the native speakers of your mother tongue. Wanna immerse into how Russians see the world? Then you can find a funny (some find it pretty controversial) article about what is called Russian linguistic worldview (in fact, about some typical words) written by a Russian linguist  (Алексей Шмелёв)  here (in Russian). For advanced students! :)