Russian Grammar Lesson 1: Personal pronouns. And the verb ‘to be’
- The Russian personal pronouns are: *я* (I), *он* (he), *она* (she), *мы* (we), *вы * (you, plural), *они* (they).
- The pronoun ‘you’ (singular second person) depends on formality. This is introduced in the next topic.
- The Russian verb ‘to be’ is omitted in the present tense. This might seem strange at first.
- In phrases like ‘A is B’, when both A and B are nouns, a dash ‘—’ is used in place of the verb ‘to be’.
NOTE : Russian has no concept of articles like ‘a’ and ‘the’. We rely on context for this.
EXAMPLES:
Я учитель. (I am a/the teacher.)
[The article could be ‘a’ or ‘the’ from the context.]
Я русский. (I am Russian (male).)
[русский (masculine adjective) means ‘Russian’ .]
Кто он? (Who is he?)
[Кто means ‘who’; Note that the word order here is flexible – Он кто? is equally acceptable.]
Он Сергей. (He is Sergei.)
Он там. (He is (over) there.)
[там means ‘over there’.]
Кто онa? (Who is she?)
Она Ольга. (She is Olga?)
Онa здесь. (She is here.) [здесь means ‘here’.]
Они где? (Where are they?) [где means ‘where’]
Они дома. (They are at home?)
[дома mens ‘at home’ from the word дом which means ‘house’ or ‘home’]
Сергей и Ольга дома? (Are Sergei and Olga at home?)
[и means ‘and’.]
Да, они дома. (Yes, they are home?)
[да mean ‘yes’.]
Виктор — водитель. (Victor is a driver.)
[Notice the use of a dash ‘—’ when using ‘to be’ with two nouns (and no pronoun).]
Ольга — профессор. (Olga is a professor. )
[Notice the use of a dash ‘—’ when using ‘to be’ with two nouns (and no pronoun).]
Татьяна русская? (Is Tatiana Russian (female)?)
[русская (feminine adjective means ‘Russian’ ); No dash is required when a noun is used in combination with an adjective.]
Где Иван? (Where is Ivan?)
[Note that где can come either before or after the subject; Note that the word order here is flexible – Иван где? is equally acceptable.]
Вот Иван. (Here is Ivan.)
[вот means ‘here is’ – like the French ‘voilà’]
Музей там./Там музей. (The museum is (over) there.)
Вы где? (Where are you (plural)?)
[Note that the word order here is flexible – Где вы? is equally acceptable.]