вторник, 24 января 2051 г.

You are Welcome!

Dear Friends,

We are thrilled to welcome you to our blog. It is devoted to the Russian language and culture. We do hope that you will find it useful and interesting for yourself. It is great to be finally able to share with you our skills and experience in learning languages. In addition our team provides online lessons of the Russian language. Feel free to contact us anytime. We are always at your disposal.

Polish Up Your Russian Team

понедельник, 14 марта 2011 г.

Russian Numbers and Numerals. Part 1. Cardinal Numbers

Russian numbers can be ordinar, cardinal, collective and fractional.
Firstly, we will look upon Cardinal Numbers. In Russian it is "Колличественные числительные".

So, cardinal numbers designate the number of people or things. They answer the questions "how many" or "how much?"  ("Сколько?").

Here is the list of Russian Cardinal Numbers:

     0. ноль
  1. один, одна, одно
  2. два, две
  3. три
  4. четыре
  5. пять
  6. шесть
  7. семь
  8. восемь
  9. девять
  10. десять
  11. одиннадцать
  12. двенадцать
  13. тринадцать
  14. четырнадцать
  15. пятнадцать
  16. шестнадцать
  17. семнадцать
  18. восемнадцать
  19. девятнадцать
  20. двадцать
  21. двадцать один
  22. двадцать два
  30 тридцать
  40 сорок
  50 пятьдесят
  60 шестьдесят
  70 семьдесят
  80 восемьдесят
  90 девяносто
 100 сто
 101 сто один
 110 сто десять
 133 сто тридцать три
 200 двести
 300 триста
 400 четыреста
 500 пятьсот
 600 шестьсот
 700 семьсот
 800 восемьсот
 900 девятьсот
 1,000 тысяча
 1,000,000 один миллион
 2,000,000 два миллиона
 5,000,000 пять миллионов
 1,000,000,000 один миллиард
 2,000,000,000 два миллиарда

We have a good news. Russian cardinal numbers change by cases only and do not have any gender (except 1 - один, 1,5 - полтора, 2 - два) or number (except 1 - один).
The numeral 1 - один agrees with the related noun by gender, number and case. Here is the example:
один стакан (masculine singular nominative)
одна тарелка (feminine singular nominative)
одно дерево (neuter singular nominative)

вторник, 22 февраля 2011 г.

A Russian Course

Well, I understand now why Americans have such an impression about our country :) here is a Russian course that was used somehow for learning Russian in the U.S. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

http://obozrevatel.com/news/2007/11/28/203787.htm

No Comments

I have looked though my old university papers lately and chanced upon this article. I remember how it amused my group mates :) Unfortunately, I don’t know the author.

Many Russians seem to need less personal space that many Americans. While in downtown Manhattan Americans may crowd together, usually they only touch each other out of necessity. In Russia, women walk together, arm in arm, and men may sit with their arms over each other’s shoulders. Two people will each carry one handle of a bag. Sometimes it may seem like a Russian person is almost climbing into your lap in the eagerness to converse with you. This is just a cultural difference. Pushing in lines and shoving in front of people is not seen as insulting or rude, and need to be taken as such. Just shove right back, or hold your place in your line, and you will fit right in.
In most Russian houses you will be expected to remove your shoes at the door. The family members will have their slippers (TA-pach-kee) lined up there ready to slip into.


A Russian bathroom usually contains only a bathtub and sink.  The actual toilet is in a small separate room (the too-LYET). Many Americans have been ushered to the room with the bathtub when they asked to use the bathroom, and then wondered what to do!
At some Russian stores, although not the newer groceries and department stores, you may be asked to select you purchase, and then be given a slip to take to a cashier. You will pay at the cashier, who gives you a receipt that you take back to the original sales person, who then turns over your merchandise.  An antiquated system that seems to be based on distrust of the customer, this method gives you more chances to practice your pushing and shoving.


Russians love to give little gifts. If you admire something of theirs, they may take it off then and there and insist you take it as a present. Bringing a stash of small gifts to give people who honour you this way is a good idea. If you bring flowers to your host, though, do not bring an even number – it’s bad luck.


Food and drink
Russian food is varied and tasty, especially in a Russian home. Some cafeterias can display sandwich with cheese curling at the edges and gray slices of meat, but on the whole Russian restaurants are good. A typical Russian meal includes soup before the main dish, often a salad or two (beets are a favourite), pickles, and a main dish of breaded cutlets or meat of some sort. Pancakes (BLEE-nee) are a treat served with jam and sour cream. There are now blini fast food counters in Moscow where you can get any kind of filling, sweet or savoury, wrapped in a blini. These places serve borscht (beet soup) and cabbage soup as well. Borscht is usually topped with a dollop of sour cream, as are many other things in Russian cuisine.


Another favourite is a fresh cheese curd (tva-ROG) that can be a little sour to western taste buds. Kasha can also be an acquired taste for westerners, with some loving it and some never wanting to see it again after a stay in Russia. True kasha is made from steamed buckwheat groats, but often any kind of hot cereal made with milk will be called kasha.


A word must be said about Russian pasta, in the form of pel’menie (pel-MEN-ee). Although this is a traditional Siberian dish, it has made its way into Western Russian as well. Pel’menie are like Italian tortellini, only Russian. The fresh pasta rounds are filled with a mixture of ground meat and spices, or with the family’s favourite stuffing, and wrapped around a finger to make a ring. Siberian families used to make buckets of pel’menie at a time and have fast food all winter.


Most bread can be found at bakeries. Russian white bread is crusty and fresh, and the dense brown rye bread is heavy and chewy. It is nutritious enough to live on, and was some of the only food Gulag prisoners were fed.


Tea, rather than coffee, is the main hot drink, and is often drunk with homemade preserves or jelly. The electric kettle is now a mainstay in Russian kitchens, but you may still see a samovar in use. The tea in the pot is very concentrated, and you pour some in your cup, adding hot water from the spigot on the samovar till your tea is the strength you like.


Vodka is often on a Russian table, and is another thing that is hard to refuse, especially since it is traditionally used for toasting – ubiquitous at a Russian dinner. The only way that seems to work is if you say that your doctors forbid it. Should you be happy to partake of the vodka, just remember that your hosts most likely have hard much more practice than you at this, and will heartily enjoy drinking you (literally) under the table.


Bottled water can be found all over Russia, and it is best to drink it rather than tap water. In many places the water is just fine, but gastric upset can strike merely because the water is strange to you, even if it contains no parasites or bacteria. St. Petersburg water is notoriously bad, with Giardia sometimes growing in it, and should always be avoided. Russian bottled water is often carbonated; if you want non-carbonated water ask for water without gas (byez GAHZ-naya).


Shopping
There is a lot to buy in Western Russian. In Moscow, the Izmailovsky weekend market is the best place to shop for curious, Russian handicrafts like wool scarves and amber necklaces, and old Soviet postcards, pins and memorabilia. If you visit in winter, you may be hit with the desire to buy a long fur coat, or shuba – not particularly correct in the U.S., but gorgeous on Russian women. In St. Petersburg, Dom Knigi, House of Books, is a wonderful place to buy inexpensive posters and small items like key rings and postcards, not to mention books.


All over western Russia there are outdoor markets where you can shop for anything from underwear and socks to carpets, boots and pots and pans. There are fascinating places to browse.
There are also western-style supermarkets and department stores where you can put your purchase in a cart or carrier and pay for them at a cashier near the door. Russian cookies (pe-CHE-niya) are excellent – try them all! 

:) :) :) :) :)
No comments :) It is better to let everybody make their our decision if it is right or wrong  :)

пятница, 18 февраля 2011 г.

Category of Gender


In the Russian language there is a category of grammatical gender. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, neutral. Some nouns have no gender because they can be used for both masculine and feminine. Some words are classified according to sex and the rest is arbitrary. So nouns naming females are usually feminine and nouns naming masculine are usually masculine. Neutral gender is usually used for abstract notions and inanimate objects.

Usually you can determine the gender of a word by looking at its ending.

Masculine words end in a consonant (including Й and Ь), rarely А and Я, all the words that end in - тель.

Feminine words end in A, Я or Ь (all the words that end in жь, шь, чьб щь).

Neutral words endings are O or E.

For example,
Растение (plant) – neutral
Кино (film)- neutral
Дорога (road) - feminine
Еда (food) – feminine
Мужчина (man) - musculine
Дядя (uncle) - masculine
Земля (earth) - feminine
Время (time) – neutral
Ягуар (jaguar) - masculine
Грязь (dirt) – feminine
Область (region) - feminine
Уровень (level) – masculine
Музей (museum) - masculine

There is an exception for neutral words. Beside words ending in E and O you should remember the following nouns because they also belong to neutral gender:

Темя (cinciput)
Семя (seed)
Полымя (flame)
Пламя (flame too)
Стремя (stirrup)
Время (time)
Вымя (udder)
Бремя (burden)
Знамя (flag)
Племя (tribe)
Имя (name)
Дитя (child)

Gender can be optional for some words because they can describe men and women. So the gender is to be chosen according to the context.

Сирота (orphan)
Плакса (weeper)
Зазнайка (swellhead)
Обжора (glutton)
Тихоня (timid person)

It is not always easy to determine the right gender of a word because some masculine and feminine words end in the same letters. J It is better to check every word in a dictionary. The grammatical gender of some words may sometimes depend on the gender of Russian genetic words denoting the relevant meaning.

For example, месяц (month) is masculine so январь (January) and февраль (February) and all other names of months are masculine.
 
The same principle works for indeclinable words with untypical endings. They are usually foreign:

Авеню (avenue) is feminine because its generic word is улица (street – feminine).
Торнадо (tornado) is masculine because its generic word is ураган (hurricane –masculine).

Some foreign indeclinable words you just have to remember because there is no logical way to explain why they belong to this or that gender. 

Такси (taxi) – neutral
Меню (menu) - neutral

:)



вторник, 8 февраля 2011 г.

Word Order


Compared to English the word order in Russian sentences is quite flexible. Usual structure of sentences OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT doesn’t work with Russian :-). The connections among words in a sentence are formed by the case-endings. 
 
For example,

Охотник убил волка.    (A hunter killed a wolf.)

Волка убил охотник. 

Убил волка охотник.

Охотник волка убил.

Волка охотник убил.

Убил охотник волка.

As you can see that the word order can be changed the way you like). But you are still able to tell the victim and the killer). The object will always be in Nominative case and the subject here is in Accusative. 

The word order doesn’t change the meaning). But if you want to emphasise that a hunter killed a WOLF than you put this word in the end of the sentence:

A hunter killed a wolf. Охотник убил волка.

In case you want to emphasise that a wolf has been killed by a hunter than you put A HUNTER in the end:

Волка убил охотник.

If you want to underline that a wolf was KILLED than you put the verb in the end:

Волка охотник убил.

And so on. The most important info is always in the end of the sentence :-) Remember it :-)

понедельник, 7 февраля 2011 г.

Russian Bath

It is difficult to imagine Russian culture without Russian bath.
Russian people love it and try to visit the bath as often as they can. 

In the Russian language it is called 'баня' ('banya').

The main part of 'баня' is a steam room, 'парилка' ('parilka') in Russian. The temperature in 'парилка' is more than 100 degees C. The steam is rather wet that is why it is difficult to breathe. But Russian people got used to be in 'парилка'. After sitting in 'парилка' people usually dive into the swimming pool, 'бассейн' ('basein') in Russian, river or lake or if it is winter into a snowdrift. During this procedure human vessels become wide and then narrow. It is like physical exersises for our vessels and heart. It is very good for blood circulation. 

In 'баня' people use 'веник' ('venik'). 'Веник' is a bunch of twigs of different trees. The trees can be birtch, oak and even fir-tree. People beat each other with these twigs in the bathhouse. It is a very good and useful massage.

Russian bath is very good for health. After the bath you feel ease in your body.
Personally I adore bath. I try to go there once a week. I advise everybody visitting this wonderful place.

___________________________

New words:

Баня - Bath
Парилка - Steam-room
Бассейн - Swimming pool
Веник - a bunch of twigs

Useful links:

The History of Russian Bath
Russina Bath in Wikipedia