[Anatheme]

Russian Learners' Society

Unlike the Russian Society in the International Lounge, this thread is for students learning Russian at school, college, university or for fun. Its aim is to provide students with help from other students. Discussions can be about grammar points, vocabulary, or even nice chats in English or Russian to share opinions and ideas about Russia, Russian language, universities, etc. I believe that there are not that many people studying this language (in comparison with French or German), but this number is growing and a thread like this one will help people getting help easily.

For those who have never studied Russian before, here are some little stuff to get you started with Russian:

I - The Alphabet (Russian keyboard online)
For some of you, learning a language with a different alphabet may sound very difficult. However, and many people will tell you so, it's not the most difficult part of language. It'll require you to get use to different shapes of letters and different pronunciations of them, and you may be a bit confused at first when you read words, mixing Latin pronunciation with Cyrillic way to read a letter, but the more you practice and the better you'll read !

Russian Alphabet

А а [a]
Б б [b]
В в [v]
Г г [g]
Д д [d]

Е е [je]
Ё ё [jo]
Ж ж [ʐ]
З з [z]
И и [i]

Й й [j] yoga
К к [k]
Л л [l]
М м [m]
Н н [n]

О о [o]
П п [p]
Р р [r]
С с [strike]
Т т [t]

У у [u]
Ф ф [f]
Х х [h]*
Ц ц [ts]
Ч ч [ch] chick

Ш ш [sh]
Щ щ [shch]
Ъ ъ hard sign*
Ы ы special sound (open i)*
Ь ь soft sign*

Э э [e]
Ю ю [ju]
Я я [ja]

As you can see, there are some more letters and special sounds. These are a bit difficult to pronounce, so in order to help you pronouncing them, here is a video:

For handwritten alphabet (if I were you, I'd make an effort to learn it and use it as it's so much nicer than the other one!), you can refer to this very useful link: Handwritten alphabet. If you want to train, I wrote these lists of words you can use to get used to joined-up handwriting. I apologise, I don't underline or make any differences for any letter, but you can put a line under or above ш or т (in handwritten Russian only) to make them easier to read, because you'll quickly notice that some words like миллион and машина are a bit confusing .

II - Greetings
Now that you can write and pronounce, here are some basic greetings that you can use all the time. This film presents the most current forms of greetings and the list below is here to help you writing them without the film.

Greetings

Доброе утро = Good morning
Добрый день = Good afternoon
Добрый вечер = Good evening

Привет = Hi
Здравстуйте = Hello (formal)
Как поживаите = How are you
Как дела = How are things

Прекрасно = Great
Хорошо = Good
Неплохо = Not bad
Плохо = Bad
Ужасно = Terrible

Как тебя/вас завут = What is your name (тебя: informal; вас: formal)
Меня завут/Я = My name is/I am

Рада тебя видеть = Nice to meet you
До свидания = Bye (formal)
Пока = Bye (informal)
Увидимся = See you later

III - To go further

Here are some links you may find useful while learning Russian. If you have other websites, don't hesitate to post!

Russian Lessons
Master Russian
Russian keyboard online
Russian keyboard
Another Russian keyboard

Facebook groups

I hate unpronounceable words in Russia… Especially окно!
I am never going anywhere in Russia so I don't have to use verbs of motion
You know you've been in Russia too long when…
The Terence Wade Club
Koshmar!! The Randomness that is Russian Grammar

Members or the Russian Learners' Society

Absurd - Russian and International Relations (University of Edinburgh)
Anatheme - Russian and Arabic (University of Manchester)
adilmorrison - Russian and German (University College London)
Bella_trixxx - Modern Languages and International Relations (University of St Andrews)
clozet - Russian and French (grades permitting University of Birmingham)
commando - Russian and French (grades permitting University of Durham/University College London)
Donnchadh - History and French (grades permitting University of Oxford)
Fillette - Russian and French (University of Manchester?)
imomo16 - History (University College London)
insparato - Medicine (University of Aberdeen)
My Tosis Is…? - ?
parfait-ego - ?
Svefngenglar - Medicine (University of Aberdeen)
thatwhichiam - Russian and German (University of Manchester)
Wren - Russian and French (grades permitting University of Exeter)

[Fillette]

*subscribes* sounds good, I will post when I know more than 3 words (which I wll do after september hopefully)

[Absurd]

I'm in.

[Svefngenglar]

Хорошо!

I'm in.

[Anatheme]

(Original post by Absurd)
I'm in.

I so haven't seen you in ages

[Absurd]

(Original post by Anatheme)
I so haven't seen you in ages

It's been too long!

Old, but.. oh dear.

[insparato]

I'm in.

You've got me doing russian language trainers on that site of yours.

[Donnchadh]

Ah, St Basil's.
I know you've already got a link to an online keyboard, but this one is pretty decent too: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...r/screen_e.htm

Edit - another Russian learners' Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...gid=2205126415 (sorry, can't remember how to insert links so you can see the title of the page they take you to...).

[Absurd]

Another online keyboard.

[parfait-ego]

got any questions you can also ask me, im russian

[Bella_trixxx]

I'm in! <3 Russia

[commando]

OOO nice, I'm in.

[Anatheme]

(Original post by parfait-ego)
got any questions you can also ask me, im russian

Quick question, for the word окно, the ending in singular nominative case is -о, but when it's genitive plural окон, what is the ending?

[anaxor13791]

anyone with a mac - they have the best keyboard in russian it's phonetic too

[Anatheme]

(Original post by commando)
OOO nice, I'm in.

Good
I made this thread mainly because of you, bunch of Russian language students-to-be, haha.

[Anatheme]

(Original post by anaxor13791)
anyone with a mac - they have the best keyboard in russian it's phonetic too

I set mine on Hebrew and I'm a bit stuck now, because I forgot how to change it . I shall try to find a solution!
EDIT: It's fine, now!

[parfait-ego]

(Original post by Anatheme)
Quick question, for the word окно, the ending in singular nominative case is -о, but when it's genitive plural окон, what is the ending?

plural would be окнa

[Anatheme]

(Original post by parfait-ego)


plural would be окнa

For genitive plural, not nominative plural, I asked

[parfait-ego]

(Original post by Anatheme)
For genitive plural, not nominative plural, I asked

what context is it in? there are so many endings

[commando]

(Original post by Anatheme)
Good
I made this thread mainly because of you, bunch of Russian language students-to-be, haha.

I joined it because I knew you'd made it for us - I feel so privileged.