Russian Grammar Examples

I'm just a simple human trying to learn Russian grammar 😅 Да пребудет с нами Сила!

[russian-grammar-examples]

New vocab about people: да́чник 🏡 a person who spends the summer in their dacha. сора́тник 🤝 a comrade-in-arms, ally, associate, colleague.

гаста́рба́йтер👷 a migrant worker in Russia aka a person who leaves a nearby CIS country to perform unskilled labor in Russia. This word comes from the German Gastarbeiter, "guest worker".

руси́ст 🎓  a Russianist, a person who studies Russian language, culture or history.

Глафи́ра 🚺 a female name. The diminutive form is Глаша.

Шалта́й-Болта́й 🥚 Humpty Dumpty. Пятачо́к 🐖Piglet from Winnie the Pooh. The word пятачок is also used for a pig's snout🐷 and the 5-kopeek coin🪙. By the way, did you know that Winnie the Pooh loses his middle name in Russian? He's simply Винни Пух.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week:  ▪️ If you like to cook, check out Кухня наизнанку. It's my favorite Russian cooking channel. 🍽️ The hosts speak so clearly and slowly + every recipe I've tried has been delicious!  ▪️ This reddit discussion on how to pronounce ль vs. л has some good tips. I can hear the difference, but I still can't say ль correctly.🥴

 ▪️ Play Wordle in Russian: Вордли. My score was bad - Не отгадали как и 20.38% из 60798 игроков - but the game was fun. ▪️ This extensive list of resources for Russian learners: online dictionaries, listening practice, etc.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week: 🔥 Дачественная is my word of the week. 😁 This adjective comes from дача summer house outside of the city 🏡 but to be honest, it might just be a word invented by some marketing manager at Вкусвилл (a popular healthy-ish convenience store/grocery store) rather than a real word.

🐈Help, I can't stop watching these AI cat videos. 🙈🐱 Подкаст Котов: чем люди заняты дома 9 min Подкаст Котов: house cats vs street cats 8 min 💡The fastest way to understand 19 Slavic languages, 28 min, in English. It's a long video but an excellent overview, including short examples of each language. And I like his main idea: learn one language from each major group of Slavic languages. 💸This week I was curious about the origins of the symbol ₽. Do you know anything about it? Turns out the official symbol is only 13 years old! The symbol's Wikipedia page has all the details. 😂 A friend sent this ТАСС article about 2026's top memes of the year so far. I wasn't familiar with any of them, but my friend explained the first one - Можно, а зачем? - and it's great)) Here's the story: Сама фраза возникла во время интервью топ-менеджера ВАЗа Олега Груненкова одному из блогеров, когда медиадеятель задал вопрос: можно ли сделать так, чтобы ВАЗ выпустил конкурента BMW? Впоследствии ответ «Можно, а зачем?» стал мемом.

[russian-grammar-examples]

New phrases I learned recently: Я болею за тебя 🎉 I’m rooting for you! Держу кулачки 🤞 fingers crossed! Так держать 👏 way to go! Держись 💪 hang in there! Ты справишься 🙌 you’ve got this! Я неважно себя чувствую 🥴 I feel a bit out of sorts, I'm not feeling well. It's interesting how the word неважно is used here. I haven't yet had the chance to ask anyone about it, but I always think of this word as unimportant. Mulitran translates it also as poorly, so-so, etc. «Грозовой перевал» 📕 Wuthering Heights Катись колбаской! 😠 Get out of here! Get lost! (literally: roll like a sausage) Will I ever say this? Probably not. Is it funny enough to remember? Definitely! I do prefer греби отсюда (literally: row away from here!). That phrase might be ruder though...? Отдам за связку бананов ⇄ I'll give this away in exchange for a bunch of bananas. This is not an idiom; it's just an example of how to freecycle stuff you don't need anymore. You can give it away for free - отдам / отдам даром - or offer it in exchange for another item - отдам за шоколадку, I'll give it to you in exchange for chocolate. Она объехала весь мир… она ездит везде дикарем. 🎒🗺️ She has traveled all over the world... she travels everywhere independently. I read this in a book. The author was describing how her mother prefers to arrange her own trips instead of signing up for a group tour. Ездить дикарем (literally: to go as a savage) was a brand new phrase for me. I have heard of ездить зайцем (to fare-dodge, literally: to ride as a hare) though. 😅 Back to the topic at hand, you can google отдых дикарем в России to see ideas for camping/backpacking/travel-off-the-beaten-path options in Russia. У тебя ширинка расстёгнута 👖 your fly is unzipped  Застегни ширинку 👖 zip up your fly Мне надо бы подтянуть русский 📖 I need to brush up on my Russian. AKA the story of my life. Как сказать «нет» без угрызений совести ❌ How to say "no" without feeling guilt/remorse

«Цигель, цигель, ай-лю-лю!» 🎬 This is a крылатая фраза catchphrase from the famous Soviet film Бриллиантовая рука. According to this article on kinoafisha, the words are gibberish and were made up on the spot. It became a popular saying, however, and most people assume it means hurry up! in a fictitious European language.

[russian-grammar-examples]

My list of words that are pronounced almost the same - but not quite! - in Russian and English: - ройбуш rooibos - Эйнштейн Einstein - мангуста mongoose - Букингемский дворец Buckingham palace - та дам! ta da! although it seems та да! is also acceptable - хаки khaki

Are there any words you would add to this list?

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week: 🔷 A beginner's review of when to use звать vs называться. 13 minutes 🔷 Почему в СССР делали заборы с ромбиками aka those geometric concrete fences you see everywhere. 1 minute, in Russian

🔷 A comprehensible input video about one girl's childhood memories from the 90s. I found this video super relaxing. 12 minutes, in Russian

[russian-grammar-examples]

Кроме is a preposition that can translate into a million similar words: but, except, except for, aside from, besides, excluding, and so on. It's followed by the genitive case родительный падеж. Here are some uses of кроме + родительный падеж that I found online: Пролив открыт для судов всех стран, кроме тех, кто нарушают границы Ирана. The strait is open to ships of all countries, except those that violate Iran's borders. Я никого не люблю, кроме вас/тебя. I love no one but you (formal/informal). Я побывал(а) везде, кроме Москвы. I've been everywhere save for Moscow. Пляж был пустынным, кроме нескольких чаек. The beach was empty except for a few seagulls. The picture above shows a no parking sign (blue with a red X) that's next to an electric car charger. Cars parked within 6 meters of the sign will be towed кроме электромобилей except for electric vehicles.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Word of the day: фейхоа feijoa 🥝💚It seems like this green fruit is quite well known in some parts of the world and totally absent in others. Фейхоа is grown only in one area of Russia - near Sochi, read some historical notes on it here - but it's found everywhere in Russia as a popular flavor in food and drink.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week 🔸A cool idea: a listening test in the form of a story that becomes more and more complex. How much do you understand? Test your level of Russian A1 - native. 10 minutes 🔸Who are the Buryats? A hidden people of Russia explained. 11 minutes, in Russian 🔸A song just for fun: You have a mortgage, у тебя ипотека 2 minutes 🔸On reddit this week: Best original (and not too obscene) insults in Russian. The top comment has a lot of good options. 📸 Btw, this picture is a screenshot from a Moscow news channel that I follow, breaking the news of Chuck Norris' death. I didn't know that he visited Russia in the 1990s... did you know that?

[russian-grammar-examples]

Random Ozon (aka Russian Amazon) finds, part II: Попкорн with unusual flavors 🍿 Lemon cookie + sweet cinnamon I could get behind. Truffle, maybe. But crab + lemon juice popcorn? Or shrimp tom yum popcorn? The jury is still out on those flavors. I've fallen for the crab/tom yum potato chips before, and they were not great. Themed носки 🧦These are cool because they represent 3 super well-known brands: Русский сахар is the #1 brand of sugar in Russia according to their website, the ubiquitous white-and-orange baking soda box is from the Bashkir Soda Company, and the blue-and-white сгущённое молоко socks look like the traditional cans of condensed milk. Взрослые прописи против тревоги 📝 A notebook with anti-anxiety sayings for adults to copy. Метафорические ассоциативные карты "А что если это не так?" 😟 These cards would be an interesting way to learn new Russian phrases. And a fast way to remember all my problems and feel stressed out. I guess they're some kind of therapy cards. Адвент календарь Геркулес 🥰 🥣 An oatmeal-topping advent calendar for kids from an oatmeal company? Awwww, so wholesome. Влажные салфетки с ИИ 🤨 The product description calls it нейро аромат... аромат, созданный с участием искусственного интеллекта. But why would anyone think AI-designed scent would be an enticing sales pitch?? Ozon part I is here.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week: 🎧 I recently came across A Taste of Russian, a good podcast resource. It's no longer updated, but it has 400 podcasts on all kinds of topics. 🤝 From reddit: Promise swears or ‘rituals’ in Russia?

▶️ A helpful, 10-minute listening video for A2 learners: learn Russian cases naturally using 5 nouns (кровать, шкаф, книга, балкон, зубная щётка).

📖 If you enjoy academic research, this might be of interest to you - Russian-English Lexis: The "Recognizability Factor" as a Tool for Teaching ESL to Russian-Speaking Adults. This paper was written in 1993 and covers loanwords of the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries as well as overall grammar rules. 🤯 I've been looking for this page foreeeeeever and finally located it!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Mistakes in English frequently made by Russians. The page is 25 years old and looks it, but the material still passes the vibe check. 🔥 Categories include - words that are same in Russian but different in English - word order - errors in literal translations - phrases that need / don't need prepositions and lots of other useful stuff. Enjoy!!

[russian-grammar-examples]

The results of my January study plan (original post here): ✏️ meet weekly with my study buddy for English/Russian exchange Done! ✏️ continue tracking which videos I listen to in Russian Done! This habit went super well. I made a tracker (picture) and it really helped me stay motivated. I ended up adding Spanish videos here as well. ✏️ finish reading a 250-page Russian book about language learning... only 25 pages to go! Almost there. I ran out of steam with 6 pages to go.🙈 ✏️ start and complete a 3-part course called Глаголы с приставками Kinda.... I ended up cramming all the делать and помнить verbs, there's still писать left. ✏️ continue Russian and Spanish classes (the Spanish class is taught in Russian) Done! I attended one Russian speaking club for B1+ and 5 Spanish classes. ✏️ sit down and finally start working on some grammar posts. I have a folder of things to write about, I just need a lot of time and someone patient to pester with all the grammar questions that will inevitably come up. Fail. ✏️ unplanned bonus activity: I went to a macrame class taught in Russian. It was quite tough, both the activity itself and understanding all the instructions. I can't say I learned any new vocab, although I learned that macrame is not my cup of tea)) Wow, writing this update made me feel less lost. It originally felt like I didn't accomplish much this winter. Our sweet cat got sick in January and passed away in February. We were at the vet a lot and worrying about him all the time. After he died, I was lost for the rest of the month. It's still a struggle to not get stuck in the sadness. The video tracker has helped me to get moving again. Watch a single video, take notes on it and enter vocab into ANKI, write it down in the tracker, done. Simple. Another thing that helped is study crawling. A friend and I meet at a coffee shop and read (different books) for 45 minutes. Then we share a little of what we read or studied, move to another coffee shop, and repeat.

Spring 2026 plan: 🌱 continue: 🗣️meeting w/ study buddy, 🗣️Spanish classes, 🗣️Russian speaking clubs when the topic is fun. 🌱 finish up: ✏️the language-leaning book ughhh, ✏️the verb prefix course, ✏️another class I bought on verb cases if it's still available. 🌱 take 2 one-on-one Russian lessons. 🌱 read: 📕Умная собачка Соня (gift from a friend, it's a kids book so only 60 pages long), 📗100 pages of Crime & Punishment (in English, a gift from my mom), 📘Лучше Каждый День (300 pages but it's a re-read), 📙finish reading a book of поговорки. 🌱 textbooks: I have 2 textbooks and never use them. One is Новый Сувенир and the other is Leverage Your Russian with Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes. My plan is to make a plan🙃 to start using them. 🌱 make a content calendar for Russian Grammar Examples in order to share vocab, grammar, and cool resources more often. 🌱 one last thing that I don't even know how to change: do something with my notes after speaking clubs and Spanish lessons. I write down a bunch of notes to add to ANKI or research further, but I never end up doing those things. It seems like a boring chore. How to fix this? What are your study plans for the new season? ☀️📝📚 Wishing you very happy learning!

[russian-grammar-examples]

While reading the news today, I became curious about this verb and did some research on приостановить vs остановить. 🛑 приостановить = to stop temporarily, to suspend 🛑 остановить = to stop forever or for the foreseeable future For example: Международный аэропорт Дубая приостановил свою работу = Dubai's international airport has suspended operations. Международный аэропорт Симферополя остановил свою работу = Simferopol's international airport has stopped operations.

Disclaimer: this is a simplified look at приостановить and остановить and a reminder that there are many, many, many different Russian words that all translate as stop. 😵‍💫

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week: ☝️ What's the difference between ни разу and не раз? And which one needs a double negative? Watch this video to find out. 1 minute 📝 Ahhh.... my nemesis: глаголы движения. 😵‍💫 I've been studying this animated table of verbs of motion + the quiz at the bottom of the page. 📌 Lots and lots of excellent grammar topics for the A1-A2 levels here! 📺 I thought this was a good reddit read in the category of "what every Russian person knows but outsiders don't know": What are the differences and niches of Russian streaming services? As one redditor summed it up, the streaming market in Russia is mainly based on original content and almost every streaming service is linked to a provider of something else, like phone or banking services.

[russian-grammar-examples]

New vocab: менеджер ПБО is the fancy / technical term for someone who manages a fast food restaurant like Вкусно — и точка (the McDonalds replacement). 🍔 ПБО = предприятия быстрого обслуживания, literally a business of fast service.

столя́р 🔨 a carpenter

наобу́м 🤷 this adverb means at random, on a whim этого следовало ожидать ☝️ it is/was to be expected слушать фоном музыку 🎧 to listen to music in the background донимать вопросами ❔ to pester someone with questions суда́чить 👂 to gossip считать обратном счётом 🔢 to count backwards обратный отсчёт 🔢 a countdown првобы́тный is an adjective meaning primitive or primal. For example: первобытный человек primitive mankind, первобытный страх primal fear. я́мочка на подбородке 😊 a dimple on the chin я́мочки на щека́х 😊 dimples (in the cheeks) разводной мост 🌉 a bridge that can be drawn up for boats to pass underneath ка́зус бе́лли ⚔️ casus belli  мы̀льно ры̀льное 🧼 toiletries, personal hygiene kit. According to AI, this word is a combo of мыло́ soap and an Old Russian word рыльнóе which meant items for facial care. огры́зок яблока 🍎 an apple core

[russian-grammar-examples]

Resources of the week: 🤔 Something I have always wondered about: If you get into an argument with a stranger, do you switch to ты? 📰 Did you know there's a YouTube channel that reports the news in slow Russian? Here's the latest edition. 9 minutes 🚄 A song for the A1 level: Едем по транссибу. 2 minutes The music sounds a bit like an American country song, but the lyrics were written for people learning Russian. 😎 I wish there had been such songs when I was A1! By the way, the channel belongs to a Russian teacher, and she has several other songs for A1 students.

💡 A good review of mistakes you might be making: 10 ошибок иностранцев, изучающих русский 12 minutes 🎤 If you ever want to learn more about the famous singer Владимир Высоцкий, there's now a documentary film about him - Высоцкий. Неизвестные страницы… - made by someone who actually knew him in real life.

[russian-grammar-examples]

Phrase of the day: Как так? = How come? How so? How's that? Also the name of a tasty candy. 🍬😋