Bootstrapping Russian: Grammar Lesson One: Personal pronouns. And the verb ‘to be’

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.]