Well?

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

Are we going to talk about Russian or argue over the correct use of вы versus Вы all day? ;-) I barely know how to conjugate in Russian! Can someone provide some basic verbs, the most common ones and things like that, irregular things, greetings, simple phrases, etc.?

I'm assuming everyone here who's learning Russian has the alphabet down and somewhat of an idea of correct pronunciation and stress. I know that much, at least... so... anything?

Спасибо!
-Брэдли

Comments

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

Haha, thanks for the links. I'll check them out. I'm very very aware of agreement and the 6 cases (or however many there are), etc. and other grammar rules because of my experience with Spanish (although Spanish doesn't have cases, but it has the subjunctive mood, imperfect, subject-verb-adjective-number-gender agreement, all that jazz, 17 tenses/moods in total, etc.)

Sorry about spamming your inbox. Here's the real comment.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Hey, sure!

Every once in a while I post something to my journal I call "Russian in 31678 Easy Steps." It's not in any particular order, since I post about whatever strikes my fancy at the time (it's mainly to help *me* remember), but I have a couple of things that might be useful for you.

Here is a post about greetings (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=ladybirdsleeps&itemid=79917).

I haven't done any other posts suitable to your "jumping in blind" level except for this one (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=ladybirdsleeps&itemid=80454) about adjectives and agreement.

yers has corrected my spelling before, so you might want to keep that in mind.

(Maybe once I get these proofread by a native speaker and in some semblance of order I'll start posting them here.)

Re: Sorry about spamming your inbox. Here's the real comment.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Hah, I love those posts! I'll have to start doing things like that on mine. Then maybe the zombies will stop attacking.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

That's a lot to ask in one post! I'll do my best, however.

Everything is off the top of my head so might not be absolutely correct.
Common verbs:

читать/прочитать : to read
писать/написать : to write
говорить/сказать : to say (talk, speak)
видеть/увидет : to see
делать/сделать : to do
понимать/понять : to understand
быть/бывать : to be
покупать/купить : to buy
знать/узнать : to know (a thing, not a person)


Some simple phrases:

меня зовут... - my name is... (lit. "they call me...")
идёт дождь - it's raining
идёт снег - it's snowing
У меня (есть) + nominative - I have ....
У меня нет + genative - I don't have...
e.g. У меня есть машина - I have a car.
but: У меня нет машины - I don't have a car.
(there's slightly more to it than that, but I'm keeping it simple here)
Я люблю + accusative or infinitive - I like... (hobbies, interests, etc - e.g. Я люблю читать романи - I like to read novels; Я люблю котёноков - I like kittens)


That's everything I could think of in a couple minutes.

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm aware of some of that after reading this:
http://anaproy.homeip.net/lmc/learnrussian_en.php
yers might want to add that to his list of links if he sees this.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

That page uses the word автомобиль, whereas my book and teacher (non-native) have always used машина for "car" -- any native speakers want to shed light on current usage?

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

Mashina, cognate with English machine? LOL. Well, no, machine does not equal car. But a car is a "machine." Blah.

[cjoy.livejournal.com]

машина & автомобиль (meaning the car) are used both side by side in modern Russian. Regarding the style автомобиль is a bit more formal, машина is more colloq.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

There's also MasterRussian.com (http://www.masterrussian.com), which might have some tutorials and excersizes that you'll find useful. Part of learning a language is practice, after all.

[yay4pikas.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming everyone here who's learning Russian has the alphabet down and somewhat of an idea of correct pronunciation and stress.

No, but I suppose I don't count since I haven't really started learning yet. Will teach myself Cyrillic soon, and see how much of the grammar I can learn before I take an actual course. Sigh. Not enough time.