learning russian by myself

[haxyr3]

Hey Eugenia!! hope everything is fine. I'm reading a reader for beginners and I want to start looking for synonims in Russian for X or Y word in Russian. For example, are these sentences interchangeable? он забирается на нос корабля and он поднимается на нос корабля, I mean, are those verbs synonims or is there a difference in the quality, the way you move (go up in this case)???

Hi! One of the possible ways of working with synonyms is to look them up in the Wiktionary.

Забираться

Подниматься

As you can see the verbs are partial synonyms. They overlap in "to climb", but забираться rather means to get into some place that is remote or hard to access (hence climbing), and подниматься is about moving upward literally and figuratively.

When you map the meanings of synonyms this way, you'll see the overlapping areas and the differences. This is a very helpful thing to do as it improves your understanding of words and word formation.

If you need to learn synonyms for specific words, check Russian Wiktionary. This is what you can find for подниматься:

Good luck!

[haxyr3]

Привет! About разработка and развитие. Both are translated as "development". But I'd like to know whether развитие only applies when you talk about human or animal/ plants development. Заранее спасибо!

Привет!

Развитие indeed applies to living creatures, but not only. Развитие could be развитие культуры, развитие науки, развитие ситуации, развитие общества. Развитие is what happens organically, even if it is carefully directed by Matrix-style architects.

Разработка has "работа", work in its root, so it implies the development as a work in progress. Разработка as a synonym of construction projects etc.

[haxyr3]

No! A question about these verbs опускаться/опуститься and снижаться/снизится. Both pairs are translated as to go down, to descend? So They're synonyms. Are they used interchangeably or is there any nuance regarding their use? Which one is more frequently used? Thanks in advance

Hi!

You are right, both verbs describe the downward movement, as for to go down, to descend, or decrease.

Let's take a closer look at them.

снижаться/ снизиться - to fall, to drop down, to descend.

Самолёт снизился и готов зайти на посадку. The plane has descended and is ready to land.

Цены на нефть снизились на 30%. Oil prices are down 30%.

Опускаться / опуститься has more meanings, and some of them do not overlap with снижаться/ снизиться:

- To take a lower level, lower ground: Листик опустился на землю. The leaf sank to the ground.

- By going through water or air, touch the bottom (снижаться doesn't have that meaning). Парашютист плавно опустился на поле. The parachutist descended smoothly onto the field. (= he touched the ground!)

- To change position into lower one: to sit down or to lie down. Он со стоном опустился на кресло. He sank back in his chair with a groan.

- About fog, darkness, or clouds: to come down and cover: Туман опустился на город. The fog covered the town.

As you can see, all these meanings has something in common: landing, touching the ground.

In other words, снижаться/ снизиться implies that there is more room to go down, while опускаться/ опуститься implies reaching a certain level/ ground AND stopping descending, at least for some time.

Even when talking about, say, prices, one would say: Цены снизились на 30%. BUT Цены опустились на рекордно низкий уровень. - Prices hit the record low level.

[haxyr3]

Привет Eugenia!! Hope you're doing well!! Can you tell us about the use of subjunctive in Russian besides expressing conditional clauses (if... I would...)? I was watching a Russian film (брат, btw great movie!!) with subtitles and there is a sentence main character's mom says to him "ехать бы к брату в Ленинград" and it's translated as "you'd rather go to your brother's house in Leningrad. So I wanted to know whether you use it in this way to give advice, for example? Заранее спасибо!!!

Привет! бы is not necessarily a sign of a conditional sentence. And yes, бы may express advice:

- Ты бы сходил к врачу - третий день ведь температура держится! You'd better see a doctor - you've been having a fever for three days already!

An advise that is actually a rebuke:

- Лучше бы ты меня послушала! You should've listened to me!

Or a threat:

- Ты бы помолчал! (You'd better shut up! - or else...) The past tense here signals "I have a total control over you/ situation".

An advise where you put yourself in the position of a listener:

- Я бы давно уже к врачу обратилась! (I would have seen a doctor a long time ago! = If I were you). This is not a conditional per se, this is a disguised suggestion.

Ехать бы к брату в Ленинград! - she suggests that going to Leningrad would be beneficial. The form of infinitive signals that she believes it would be for better.

бы may express a wish (and with no verb at all!)

- Чаю бы сейчас! (I wish I could have a tea now)

- Поспать бы! (I want to sleep so much!)

So, бы is much more than just a particle for conditional sentences!

Thanks for asking!

[haxyr3]

I’m a little bit confused about when быть uses the instrumental case. Is it correct to say мы были счастливы вместе or мы были счастливыми вместе? Is it correct to say я была художница, ну теперь я изучаю на факультете учительницы or я была художницей, ну теперь etc.? How can you tell when to use nominative and when to use instrumental? Огромное спасибо in advance.

Hi! In the present tense, быть is skipped, so you need Nominative to say that something or somebody is (I am, you are etc): 

Она художница. Она хорошая художница. Они - счастливые люди. 

In the past tense, you may see both Nominative and Instrumental. 

Nominative is common when you only have one (and, usually, very specific) word after был/ была

Она была художница. Он был художник. 

But if there is an adjective modifying a noun, Instrumental is preferable: 

Она была хорошей художницей. Он был известным художником. 

If the verbal part has another verb, Instrumental is the only option: 

Она хотела быть художницей. Он мечтал стать художником.

You can not use short adjectives/ participles in the Instrumental case for predicates: 

Они были счастливы. 

BUT 

Они были счастливыми, свободными людьми. 

Он был расстроен. 

Он ушёл домой расстроенным. 

Often, both Nominative and Instrumental would be correct, but Nominative tends to describe more narrow, permanent qualities, while Instrumental often gives a sense of temporary qualities (she was, but no longer is), or arbitrary judgement.

More examples from the Russian National Corpus: 

Он был художник, лучший в школе, особенно замечательно он рисовал акварелью. (it was his nature, something permanent) 

Чернов был художником по костюмам в знаменитом шоу на Бродвее. (He worked as a costume artist) 

По профессии он был художник, рисовал обложки и иллюстрации для книг. (something that he always did, permanently). 

Соостер был художником интеллектуального строения. (We expand the description: not just an artist, but an intellectual creator).   

[learningrussianbymyself]

how to say shut up in Russian

[learningrussianbymyself]

ДИАЛОГИ | О русском по-русски

These dialogues in Russian in different situations are very helpful and you can learn a lot of new words and expressions!! check them out

[learningrussianbymyself]

4 great videos about how to express your opinion in Russian (the first one totally in Russian language)

[haxyr3]

Hello Eugenia!! I'd like to know how to say, for example "I'm a doctor with postgraduate degree in Cardiology", would it be "я врач с аспирантурой по кардиологии"??? Does спесиальност mean career or major and аспиратура postgraduate studies????And how to say high school in Russian??? спасибо!!

Hi! You know, the academic systems in Russia/ post-Soviet countries and in the West are slightly different.   

Аспирантура is what you need to get a кандидат наук degree, which can be translated to a PhD in the West. When I immigrated to Canada, кандидат наук would count as PhD for immigration officers. 

As far as I understand, you have PhD (or similar degree), and you are one step further. In Russia, it would be докторантура. But you can (and probably) should say “Я врач-кардиолог, постдокторант” This would describe your background most accurately. 

[learningrussianbymyself]

This video is very helpful to understand how’s the educative system and how to say different stuff related to education in Russian

[haxyr3]

Hi Eugenia!! Hope you're doing fine! I have a little doubt. When you take your dog out for a walk, what verb would you use: вести??? сейчас я веду свою собаку на прогулку. I ask because I've heard in a video the definition of вести as going on foot with another person no matter if you take his/her hand or not. There's no mention to a scenario like the one I'm talking about. So I'm not sure whether you can apply it also when you walk with your pet, thanks in advance!!

There are many ways of saying that in Russian. 

Indeed, you may say “Я веду свою собаку на прогулку” = I am going to walk my dog. 

Вести does not necessarily means taking somebody by the hand. It just means “take somebody to/ for smth”. 

Usually, for walking the dog, we say “выгуливать собаку”

- Я выгуливаю собаку утром и вечером. I walk my dog in the morning and in the evening. 

Perfective verb would be выгулять.

- Ты забыл выгулять щенка! You forgot to walk the pup! 

You may also say гулять/ погулять с собакой: 

- Он погулял с собакой сегодня? 

- Я люблю гулять с собакой, когда погода хорошая. 

And here are a few more sample sentences for you: 

- Владельцы собак живут дольше, чем люди, у которых собак нет. Это потому, что собак нужно выгуливать каждый день. Собака всегда зовёт своих хозяев на прогулку, и приходится вести её гулять, хочешь ты или нет. Люди гуляют с собаками в любую погоду, и, значит, больше двигаются и ведут более здоровый образ жизни. 

[haxyr3]

Hi Eugenia!! I want to know, 'cause I'm not 100% sure: are единый and единственный synonims? can they be used interchangeably?

Hi! These words means two different things and are not interchangeable. Though both words have “one”, един- in their roots, единый refers to “one as a whole”, единственный refers to one as single, sole.  

единый - united, unified, solid, common, indivisible; 

единственный - the only, sole, single, unique,  exceptional. 

Видео-потоки с камер наблюдения интегрированы в единую систему. Video streams from surveillance cameras are integrated into a unified system.

Все детали соединяются в единое целое. All parts are connected into a single whole.

Дети не должны учить английский как единственный иностранный язык. Children should not learn English as the only foreign language. 

Социальные перемены неизбежны. Единственный вопрос - будут ли они ненасильственными. Social change is inevitable. The only question is whether it will be non-violent.

Все школы учат по единой программе, и в этой программе английский - единственный иностранный язык. All the schools follow the unified educational program, and in this program, English is the only foreign language. 

In negative sentences, единый with ни or без (ни единого, ни единой) means “not a single one”. 

У него не осталось ни единого зуба. He didn't have a single tooth.

Они построили дом без единого гвоздя. They built a house without a single nail.

I hope this helps. 

[haxyr3]

Hey Eugenia!! I was just watching a video about Putin and they say he graduated "с отличием", which (I found out) is translated as magna cum laude. How can I say summa cum laude and cum laude??? саранее спасибо!

Hi! in Russia, it is slightly different. Russian honor system is based on the grade point averages. At least 4.75 out of 5.0 points are required for the summa cum laude degree ("с отличием" ("s otlichiem") in Russian or "with excellence"). It can also be called красный диплом, red diploma.  The graduate has to receive a perfect grade on all final examinations. Usually less than 2% of all graduating students accomplish this (depending on the university and year).

Russian high schools also award a gold medal to the student who achieves a perfect score in all final examinations and in all other subjects not requiring a final exam. A silver medal is awarded to high school students who have one or two grades of 4 ("хорошо" in Russian or "good", being second highest grade) on their final exams or other subjects as listed in the high school diploma ("attestat o (polnom) srednem obrazovanii").

I graduated from the university with красный диплом and I have a silver medal from my high school. 

[haxyr3]

I think counting in Russian is also hard like English, with the cases which makes it even harder. Both aren't my native language and I always count them in my mother language faster (so far only for this)😫. Any tips to memorize counting patterns in Russian? Thank you very much!

As I wrote before, counting is the last thing we acquire when learning a new language. If you find it difficult to count in the languages that are not your mother-tongue, it is not because you are doing something wrong. It is because this is because our brain works this way. 

I passed a few fluency tests for my immigration to Canada, and each test confirmed that I am fluent in English. I have been living in English speaking environment for ten years. Guess what? I count in Russian in my mind. Yet, I can easily read dates, sums, phone numbers etc, so for everyone else, my struggle is unnoticeable (I hope). 

You can reach that level of fluency by practicing. Just keep watching movies, listening to news and podcasts - little by little, your memory will acquire the patterns. 

And knowing the patterns helps, too, of course. 

Case and number agreement with numbers in Russian is the following: 

1 + Nominative,  check  the gender of the noun as well: 

один дом, одна улица, одно озеро, одни сутки. 

2, 3, 4 + Genitive Singular, also gender-specific: 

два дома, две улицы, два озера (!!! двое суток! - you need collective двое for pluralea tantum and Genitive Plural for the noun)

три, четыре - do not have genders. 

три дома, четыре улицы, четыре озера (трое, четверо суток). 

5 ...N + Genitive Plural: 

пять домов, пять улиц, пять озёр. 

Starting from 21 - repeat.

21, 31, N1 - Nominative

22, 23, 24 ... N2, N3, N4  - Genitive Singular

25, 26 .... N5+ - Genitive Plural 

Familiarize yourself with this patterns, but for memorizing them, just practice, practice, practice. Expose yourself to the authentic Russian as much as possible. Even listening without actually understanding helps - your ear memorizes the patterns on the background. 

Good luck! 

[haxyr3]

Heyyy, I wanted to ask my fellow Russian learners which Russian musicians/songs they listen to, especially Pop/Rock :) I'm looking for stuff to have on in the background to get more used to the sound of the language, and so far I have one song I like plus uuh a ton of Disney songs in Russian (I!! noticed!! that in Antastasia's "In the Dark of the Night", in English, he says "do svidanja, Anja" and in Russian he says "до свидания, Настя"!! I noticed something!!)

My dear Russian learners, can you help?

[learningrussianbymyself]

Ok, I can recommend some of my faves (pop music)

Sergey Lazarev - Max Barskih - Polina Gagarina - Zivert - Svetlana Loboda -  Dima Bilan 

I can make a list of some beautiful songs I’ve learned my heart 

I’d appreciate if anyone can recommend me some Russian rock songs to listen to!!

[haxyr3]

What is the difference between выпекать and печь??? both mean bake right?

Right. And both verbs are imperfective. 

Have you familiarized yourself with the grammatical category of verbal aspect (perfective/ imperfective verbs)? If you haven’t, you should.  

печь vs выпекать 

Grammatical differences: печь is primary imperfective, and выпекать is secondary  imperfective formed from the perfective выпечь. 

Grammatically, the aspect chain of words looks like this: 

a) печь --> b) выпечь (to finish baking, to complete the process of baking with the desirable outcome) --> c) выпекать (do the action b repeatedly, habitually). 

Understanding grammatical differences is necessary for understanding the differences in semantic. 

Meaning: 

печь - 1) to bake (be baking, the process, or regular action of baking); 2) to scorch (about the sun) 3) impersonal, only in 3rd person singular, печёт - to feel burning pain in the body; у меня в груди слева печёт. I have a burning sensation in my chest on the left side (heart attack symptom, probably). 

выпекать - to bake something until it is ready. (but do that normally, regularly, habitually).  This verb is mostly used for bread and pastry. For baking potato, I’d use запекать картошку. 

As you can see, печь as a basic, primary verb, has more meanings. Выпекать can only be applied to baking, and nothing else. 

Usage:

Печь is a neutral and widely used verb. 

Я занята, я пеку пироги! I am busy, I am baking pies!

Я пеку очень вкусные пироги! I bake delicious pies! (regularly). 

Russian national corpus found  17 524 entries for печь (v)

Выпекать is normally used in recipes:

Выпекать в духовке 20 минут. 

Or when talking about baking bread, traditions, etc: 

Какой хлеб выпекали в Советском союзе?  Как выпекали штоллены в Восточной Пруссии? 

Russian national corpus found 264 entries for this verb.  It is much more specific, and thus less frequent. 

[haxyr3]

Hey Eugenia!! Hope you're doing great! I just started reading some readers to improve my reading abilities and get vocabulary. It catches my attention some sentences in which a pronoun in the dative case is used immediately followed by a verb, example: что мне делать с этим мальчишкой?

Would it be the same if I say что я делаю с этим мальчишкои? Or is there any difference here? Are they frequently used? Заранее спасибо!!

Hi @mj-isback!  что мне делать с этим мальчишкой? = Что мне нужно делать с этим мальчишкой? What should I do with that boy?

It is an impersonal sentence with the predicate word нужно being skipped. 

As you might have already learned, impersonal sentences with можно, нужно, хочется etc use Dative case for actual agent in a sentence. 

Тебе нужно спать! Ему нужно найти работу!  Маме нужно отдохнуть! 

Sometimes, the predicate words can be skipped:

Что мне сказать ему? What should I tell him?  Куда ему пойти? Where should he go? Зачем тебе учиться в университете? Why should you learn at the university? 

I hope it helped :) 

[haxyr3]

the usage of the prefix до

до- • (do-)

(used with verbs) up to‎: до- (do-) + ‎-йти́ (-jtí, “to go”) → ‎дойти́ (dojtí, “to go up to, to reach”)

(used with verbs) completely (describing a completion of an action to its end): ‎до- (do-) + ‎чита́ть (čitátʹ, “to read”) → ‎дочита́ть (dočitátʹ, “to finish reading”)

(used with adjectives and nouns) pre-, ante- (earlier in time)‎: до- (do-) + ‎истори́ческий (istoríčeskij, “historic”) → ‎доистори́ческий (doistoríčeskij, “prehistoric”)

More on this prefix: here