Subject Index

This page may be useful to those readers who know what they are looking for and have a grasp of the basic parts of the Russian grammar. Those who are still learning the concepts may prefer the Table of Contents, where the material is presented chronologically, as it would be covered in a first-year Russian course.

The Alphabet | Grammatical Terminology
Vowels and Consonants; Spelling Rules
Roots | Nouns | Verbs | Adjectives | People's Names | Pronouns
Numbers, Numerals and Related Constructions
Deverbal Forms | Prepositions | Comparisons
Pseudo-Passive | Time Expressions | Sentence Types
Modality: Нђдо, нџжно, дћлжен, мћжно, and нельзї
Conditional Sentences | Expressing Wishes: The Conjunction чтобы
Yes-no Questions, Time Clauses, and Correlative Constructions
Word Study

The Alphabet (p. 4)
Russian Letters, Their Names, and English Equivalents

Vowels and Consonants; Spelling Rules
Palatalized and unpalatalized consonants
Two kinds of vowel letters
Spelling rules for case endings
Inserted vowels

Roots
Discussion
ЛЁГ (лог-, лож-, лаг-, леж-, леч-, ляг-, ляж-, лёг-) 'lay, lie, put; -pose, -pone'
УК (ук-, уч-) 'learn, study'
ДАЙ (дай-, да-, дад-, дар-) 'give'
ЕД (ед-, ес-, е-) 'eat'
ЗНАЙ (зна-, знай-, знак-) 'know, cogn-, sign'
РОД (род-, рожд-) 'birth; gen-'

Grammatical Terminology
Parts of speech
Inflection

Nouns
The four declension classes of nouns
Gender classes: masculine, feminine, and neuter
Stress patterns for nouns
Cases of nouns: form and function
Nominative Singular endings
Nominative Plural endings
Accusative case
Prepositional case endings
The functions of the Prepositional case
Genitive Singular endings
Genitive Plural endings
The two Genitive Plur. forms of the word гћд
The functions of the Genitive case
Genitive with quantity-words
Genitive after numerals
Genitive to express possession
Genitive in the нљт construction: present, past, and future
Genitive object with a negated verb
Genitive for identifying color, gender, and aspect
Genitive after the prepositions у, от, and из
Dative case endings
The functions of the Dative case
Dative with certain verbs
Dative with certain prepositions
Dative with o-forms
Dative with нџжен
Instrumental case endings
The functions of the Instrumental case
Instrumental to express 'with, by means of'
Instrumental after the prepositions с, под, мљжду, and за
Instrumental with the verbs рабћтать, интересовђться, and занимђться
Instrumental with linking verbs and double-object verbs
Marginal cases: the meaning of Partitive and Locative
Genitive and Partitive to express 'some'
Locative case
The basic case endings of nouns and ordinary adjectives
The chart
The effect of spelling rules
Variants of specific endings
Prep., Dat.of nouns in -ий, -ия, and -ие
Optional variant of Inst. Sg. ending
На-nouns
Count nouns vs. mass nouns; нљсколько vs. немнћго

People's Names
Russian Naming Customs
Addressing people: ty vs. vy
Case forms of first names and patronymics
To decline or not to decline a last name?
Case forms of last names in -ин and -ов/ев/ёв

Pronouns
The six case forms of pronouns
Plural pronouns with singular meaning: мІ с нљй, etc.

Pseudo-Passive
The pseudo-passive: word order
3rd Plural passive
A passive -ся verb: продавђться

Verbs
The two tenses of Russian verbs
The past tense
The non-past tense
Conjugation classes
Predictable and non-predictable conjugation
Rules for predicting key forms
A list of non-predictable verbs
Spelling rules for verb endings
Stress patterns for verbs
Regular and irregular verbs
Irregular non-past forms
Irregular past forms
Consonant alternation in 2nd conjugation verbs
Verb stems in к and г
Imperative forms
Verbs ending in -ся ('reflexive' verbs)
Meaning and usage
Spelling
Examples
Aspect: Perfective and Imperfective verbs
Perfective взїть and Imperfective брђть
Perfective пойтќ and Imperfective ходќть
How to express past, present, and future
Learning aspect pairs
Perfective or Imperfective?
-ыва-/-ива- verbs
-ить verbs vs. -ять/-ать verbs
Prefixed vs. unprefixed verbs
Aspect partners with different roots
Verbs whose aspect is impossible to guess
Three types of semantic relationships in aspect pairs
Aspect usage: a specific instance vs. repeated occurrences
Aspect usage: Questions out of the blue
Aspect usage: trying and failing, or not even trying
Aspect usage: polite imperatives
Imperfective aspect and plurality
Pf-awhile and Pf-begin
Pf-once
One-way and Non-One-way verbs of motion
Round trip vs. One-way motion
Six sample verbs of motion
Perfective verbs of motion
Prefixed verbs of motion
Expressing 'go' with a Pf. verb: пойтќ, пољхать
Comparing пойтќ and ходќть
The prefixes от-/у-/вы-
Usage and examples
Conjugation of -йти/-ходить
More Pf. and Impf. prefixed verbs of motion
More examples
Verbs for travelling by X
Two verbs in a row: пойдџ куплє
The past and future of нљт 'there is no'
Expressing possession: to have and to have not
Unstressed как vs. что with verbs of perception
A passive -ся verb: продавђться
An Impersonal verb: хотљть vs. хотљться
The verb (под)готћвить(ся)
Expressing 'stand,' 'lie/lay,' and 'sit/seat/put'
Meaning and usage
Conjugation
Motion vs. location
The verb стђть
Common verb prefixes
ПРО- 'past, by'; 'past, miss'; 'down; through'; к + Dat: asking directions
ПЕРЕ- 'trans-, across'
ДО- with до + Gen. 'to, up to'; used in asking directions (synonymous with про-).
ЗА- (1) к + Dat. 'stop in' (at somebody's place); (2) за + Inst. 'stop by for' (to pick somebody up)

Deverbal Forms
The six deverbal forms
Written vs. conversational style
Past vs. Present deverbals
Present deverbal adverbs
Past deverbal adverbs
Present active participles
Past active participle
Present passive participles
Short forms of past passive participles
Long forms of participles
Box constructions
Deverbal nouns vs. past passive participles

Time Expressions
In a year and of a year
In a particular season
In a month of the year
Dates
On the X of a month
On a day of the week
In the evening and at night
At X in the morning
Expressing habitual times: each Friday, every night, etc.
Years, seasons, months, days: summary
Telling time: on the hour
Telling time: the right side of the clock and the half hour
Saying what time it is
Saying at what time
Telling time: the left side of the clock
At this time; at that time; in those days
Intended time: for a week
Elapsed time: in a week
How long ago?
Duration: How long did it take?
How many times per day/week/etc.?
Давнћ with Imperfective non-past
Давнћ with past tense
From 9 to 5
Age: How old are you?

Adjectives
Adjectives-noun agreement
Two classes of adjectives: ordinary and special
The basic case endings of nouns and ordinary adjectives
The chart
The effect of spelling rules
Nom. Sg. masc. of end-stressed adjectives (-ћй)
Case forms of special adjectives
Stress patterns for adjectives
Adjectives used as nouns
Short adjectives
Past and future tenses of short adjectives
Adjectives with не-
The adjective одќн 'alone'
The adjective котћрый

Prepositions
The preposition variants о/об
Other preposition variants
The basic meanings of the prepositions по, к/ко, на, в/во, от/ото, у, о/об, and из
The basic meanings of the preposition в/во
Prepositions as part of verb government patterns
The prepositions из and от for 'from': people vs. places
The preposition с: Instrumental vs. Genitive
The preposition мљжду: no motion vs. location contrast

Numbers, Numerals and Related Constructions
Numbers: quick word finder
Numbers: case forms
Ordinal numerals
Cardinal <==> Ordinal numerals
Syntactic constructions with numerals
Agreement for numerals ending in одќн
Genitive Sg. for numerals ending in двђ, двљ, трќ, четІре
What case to use for nouns
What case to use for adjectives
What to do with nouns that have no Singular forms
Genitive Plural for numerals higher than 4
Numeral inversion: 'approximately'

Comparisons
Two kinds of comparatives
Long comparatives and по- comparatives
по- comparatives
Examples of regular and irregular short comparatives
The comparative form of adverbs
Expressing 'than'
Expressing 'much more/less,' and 'still more/less'
Adjectives with comparative meaning
Short and long superlatives
Adjectives with superlative meaning
стђрше vs. старље

Modality: Нђдо, нџжно, дћлжен, мћжно, and нельзї
Нђдо
Нџжный
Дћлжен
Нђдо and мћчь with не
Мћжно and нельзї

Word Study
и, тћже, and ещё
іто vs. ітот/іта/іто
себљ, себї, etc.
The particle не in polite speech
Rooms
Marriage
Professions
Wearing clothes
People and children
Свћй
The wrong one: не тћт
To and at people's places
Both and neither
Let's
Money: сдђча/сдђчи, мљлочь, дљньги
Expressing 'each other'
Дћм/домћй/дћма
Reference points using the compass
Unstressed ни- vs. stressed нљ-
-то vs. -нибудь
кђк/тђк vs. какћй/такћй
Approximately

Expressing Wishes: The Conjunction чтобы
Expressing 'in order to'
Expressing wishes, commands, and advice
When чтћбы cannot be used with infinitive

Conditional Sentences
Real and unreal conditions: general comments
Real conditional
Unreal conditional
Special cases
Warnings

Yes-no Questions, Time Clauses, and Correlative Constructions
Ли in yes-no questions
Introducing time clauses
Correlative constructions with тћ, что

Sentence Types
General comments
Structures with a Nominative subject
Structures without a Nominative subject
O-forms: Adverbs and Predicates
With a predicative
With a verb
To Contents © 1981,1982,1991 by R.L.Leed, A.D.Nakhimovsky, A.S.Nakhimovsky To Title Page
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