Russian grammar, concisely

The zero copula: no verb in the present tense

In the present tense Russian leaves out 'am', 'is' and 'are' altogether; the verb быть appears only in the past and the future.

Noun gender: three genders, decided by the ending

Every Russian noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and the nominative singular ending tells you which — with a short list of exceptions.

Demonstratives: э́то, вот, э́тот and там

The pointing words — э́то, вот, тут, там, э́тот, тот — let you talk about the world around you before you know any grammar at all.

Personal pronouns: я, ты, он, она́, оно́, мы, вы, они́

The seven subject pronouns, why Russian keeps them more often than Italian or Spanish, and the н- that appears after a preposition.

The Nominative Case: the dictionary form

Кто? Что? — the unmarked form you find in the dictionary, the subject of the sentence, and the form that follows a zero copula.

Forming questions: the word order stays, your voice does the work

Russian asks a yes/no question with intonation alone, and puts a question word where the answer belongs — no auxiliary, no inversion.

Intonation: ИК-1 to ИК-5

The five Russian intonation patterns. ИК-3 carries the whole yes/no question system, since Russian has no inversion or auxiliary verb.

Negation: не, нет and the obligatory double negative

не sits directly before the word it negates, нет takes the genitive and is present-tense only, and double negation is compulsory.

The present tense

Two conjugations, six endings each. Only imperfective verbs have a present, and it covers both 'I read' and 'I am reading'.

The past tense: one form for every person

The Russian past is -л / -ла / -ло / -ли. It marks gender and number, never person, and needs no auxiliary verb whatsoever.

The future tense: two ways of saying tomorrow

Russian has two futures. The imperfective one is бу́ду plus an infinitive; the perfective one is the verb itself, conjugated.

Conjugation I: the -ать, -ять and -овать verbs

One set of endings — -у/-ю, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут/-ют — covers чита́ть, знать, ду́мать, рабо́тать and most other -ать verbs.

Adjective agreement: one adjective, four forms

An adjective copies the gender and number of its noun: большо́й дом, больша́я ко́мната, большо́е окно́, больши́е дома́.

Conjugation II: the -ить verbs

Verbs in -ить take -у/-ю, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ат/-ят, with a consonant change in the я-form and mobile stress.

Irregular and awkward verbs

The short closed list that refuses both patterns: быть, есть, хоте́ть, мочь, дать, идти́, е́хать, бежа́ть, сказа́ть and a few more.

Conjunctions and connectors

и, а, но and и́ли link words and clauses; потому́ что and поэ́тому point in opposite directions; the comma before them is compulsory.

Register: ты and вы

ты for one person you know well, вы for everybody else — and вы changes the verb, the possessive and the imperative too.

The Genitive Case: absence, possession and quantity

Кого́? Чего́? — the case of нет, of у меня́, of мно́го and of из; endings -а/-я, -ы/-и in the singular and -ов, -ей or zero in the plural.

The Dative Case: the person something is aimed at

Кому́? Чему́? — the addressee, мне на́до and мне хо́лодно, age, к + motion towards a person, and по + along a surface.

Possessive pronouns: мой, твой, наш, ваш, его́, её, их

мой, твой, наш and ваш agree in gender, number and case; его́, её and их never change; and 'to have' is у меня́ есть.

Modal verbs and modal expressions

мочь and хоте́ть plus an infinitive, and the impersonal modals на́до, ну́жно, мо́жно, нельзя́ and хо́чется, which take the dative.

The imperative: telling people what to do

Add -й or -и to the stem for ты and -те for вы; use дава́й for 'let's' and пусть when you are not addressing the doer at all.

The Prepositional Case: where something is

О ком? О чём? — taught first for location, then for the object of thought; endings -е, -и and -ье, plus the irregular -у locatives.

The Accusative Case: the object and the destination

Кого́? Что? — the thing acted on, the place you are going to after в and на, and the time or duration something takes.

Animacy: why it is я ви́жу бра́та but я ви́жу стол

Animate masculine nouns borrow the Genitive shape in the Accusative; animate plurals of all genders do too; inanimates do not.

Motion verbs I: идти́ / ходи́ть and е́хать / е́здить

Two pairs — on foot and by vehicle, one-way and return — and the present of a one-way verb can only mean 'is going now'.

Negative pronouns and adverbs: никто́, ничего́, никогда́

The ни- series is unstressed and needs не on the verb; the не- series is stressed and stands alone; double negation is compulsory.

The Genitive plural: -ов, -ей or nothing at all

After мно́го and after every numeral from five up you need the genitive plural, which comes in three shapes and a list of irregulars.

The Instrumental Case: with, by means of, as

Кем? Чем? — company with с, the tool you use, the profession after быть and рабо́тать, and the time-of-day adverbs in -ом and -ью.

Verb government: which case each verb demands

Every Russian verb chooses the case of its complement. Learning the verb together with its case is the only reliable way in.

Impersonal constructions: sentences with no subject

мне хо́лодно, мне на́до, мне хо́чется, нет, сде́лано and the weather forms — Russian's favourite way of talking about states.

Cardinal numbers from one to a million

оди́н has four forms and agrees like an adjective, the teens and tens are regular, and со́рок, девяно́сто and сто are simply odd.

Numeral government: one, two to four, five and above

оди́н agrees like an adjective, два/три/четы́ре take the genitive singular, пять and above the genitive plural, and the last digit rules.

Noun plurals: the whole plural paradigm

Plurals end in -ы/-и, in -а/-я or in -ья, some move their stress, and a few nouns exist only in the plural or only in the singular.

The six cases: what the system is actually for

Six cases, six questions, and endings that do the work English needs word order for and Italian needs articles and prepositions for.

Case questions: how to identify a form you do not recognise

Each case has its own question word — кто/что, кого́/чего́, кому́/чему́, кем/чем, о ком/о чём — and asking it names the form.

The preposition map: which case each preposition governs

Every beginner preposition with the case or cases it governs, including the seven that take two cases and change meaning between them.

Adjective declension in the oblique cases

An adjective never chooses its own case, it copies the noun's; the endings reduce to a small set shared by every adjective.

Comparison: comparatives and superlatives

Add -ее for 'more', use са́мый for 'the most' and всех for the everyday superlative, and memorise the irregular comparatives.

Pronoun declension: the full paradigm

The personal, possessive and demonstrative pronouns through all six cases, including the н- that appears after a preposition.

Verbal aspect: every verb has two faces

Imperfective is process, repetition or bare fact; perfective is result and completion. Aspect is lexical, not a grammatical ending.

Aspect pairs: how they are formed and which to learn first

Pairs are made by prefix, by a suffix change or by a completely different root; twenty of them will cover most of your first year.

The perfective prefixes and what they mean

по-, на-, с-, про-, пере-, до-, за-, вы-, у- and при- build perfectives — and very often change the meaning as well as the aspect.

The two futures side by side

бу́ду чита́ть is a process or a plan; прочита́ю is one finished act. The first is two words, the second is the verb itself conjugated.

Motion verbs II: the prefix grid

Prefixed motion verbs are perfective and take a secondary imperfective in -ходи́ть or -езжа́ть. Most of this grid is A2 material.

The complete verb matrix: the fourteen A1 conjugation classes

Two patterns cover almost every verb you meet; the fourteen classes of the A1 standard are those two patterns plus their variants.

Ordinal numbers and how they agree

Ordinal numerals decline like adjectives, but at this level you need them almost only in the nominative — for floors, dates and order.

Telling the time and saying when

Кото́рый час?, the ways to say half past and quarter to, and which preposition each time expression needs — в, с, до, по, че́рез.

Dates, days of the week and months

Days and months are lowercase; today's date is nominative, a date answering 'when' is genitive, and the month stays in the genitive.

Reflexive verbs: the -ся and -сь ending

Five different meanings hide behind -ся, from true reflexives to deponent verbs like нра́виться and боя́ться that have no partner.

свой: the reflexive possessive

свой always points back at the subject of its own clause. Он лю́бит свою́ жену́ is his own wife; Он лю́бит его́ жену́ is somebody else's.

Short adjectives: the fixed set you need at A1

рад, до́лжен, за́нят, бо́лен, согла́сен, гото́в, жена́т, за́мужем and наме́рен — predicative only, and they never decline for case.

Word order: freer than English, but not free

Neutral order is SVO, and the rule is theme first, rheme last. Moving a word is an expressive act with a specific effect, not a liberty.

Particles: the small words that carry the tone

же, ведь, ну, вот, да́же, то́лько, уже́, всё-таки, ли, -то and -нибудь change how a sentence lands without touching its grammar.

Word formation: how a small root inventory becomes a large vocabulary

A handful of productive models — -тель, -ница, -ск-, -чик, -ость, -ние, prefixes and diminutives — multiply every word you know.