A few very important Russian grammar rules

In this post for beginners we’ll cover a few Russian grammar rules and features of special importance. Studying them carefully will let you avoid many mistakes especially in written Russian in the future.

Stress (Ударе́ние)

In Russian there are no rules about the position of stress. Learning Russian words you should learn them with stress at once. Moreover, the position of stress can change if the word changes its form, for example:

hand: рука́ (singular) – ру́ки (plural)
leg: нога́ (singular) – но́ги (plural)

In other cases a change of position of the stress can change the meaning of the word. For example:

мука́ (flour, meal) – му́ка (torment, torture)
замо́к (lock) – за́мок (castle)
уже́ (already) – у́же (narrower)

 

Capitalization (Загла́вные бу́квы)

Russians don’t capitalize:

Names of the days of the week and months:
– а́вгуст (August),
– вто́рник (Thuesday).
Words derived from proper names:
– Москва́ -> моско́вский (of Moscow),
– Росси́я -> росси́йский (of Russia, Russian).
Words designating nationality:
– италья́нец (Italian person),
– америка́нец (American person),
– францу́женка (French woman).
Titles and modes of address:
– господи́н (sir),
– профе́ссор (professor).

The only two cases when you should use the capital letters are:

if it’s a beginning of a sentence:
– “Была́ зима́.” – It was winter.
if it’s a proper name:
– Дми́трий,
– Санкт-Петербу́рг.

 

Spelling: vowels Я, Ю, Ы and О
(Правописа́ние: гла́сные Я, Ю, Ы и О)

There are three important rules of Russian spelling. Memorize them and you will never have a hard time trying to write a lot of Russian words correctly.

1. Never write vowels Я and Ю after the consonants Г, К, Х ,Ш, Ж, Щ, Ч and Ц.
Я must be replaced by А, and Ю must be replaced by У.

Examples (приме́ры):

ча́шка – cap
шага́ть – to step
пти́ца – bird
восхища́ться – to admire

Exceptions (исключе́ния):

парашю́т – parachute
брошю́ра – booklet, pamphlet, brochure

2. Аfter the consonants Г, К, Х ,Ш, Ж, Щ, Ч (but not Ц) the vowel Ы is never used and must be replaced by И.

широ́кий – wide
хоро́ший – good
жизнь – life

3. Аfter the consonants Ш, Ж, Щ, Ч and Ц, unstressed vowel О is replaced by Е.

stressed: жучо́к – small beetle (diminutive form)
ustressed: вну́чек – grandson (diminutive form)
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17.02.2016
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