Russian For Dummies Cheat Sheet

You can travel more comfortably in Russia when you know a bit of the language, such as how to greet locals, use common expressions, and ask basic questions in Russian. Knowing about the use of cases is also essential for speaking Russian properly in any situation.

Meeting and greeting in Russian

Whether you’re traveling to a Russian-speaking country for business or pleasure, make sure you know how to greet and get acquainted with people. Some common Russian greetings include the following:

Handy and polite Russian expressions

Being polite is welcome in any language, including Russian. Try the following Russian phrases for help in almost any situation and to make a good first impression:

Asking useful questions in Russian

If you’re lost, you need to know the time, or you’re just trying to communicate more clearly in Russian, practice the pronunciation of the following essential Russian phrases and questions:

Introducing different Russian cases

What’s a case? In simple terms, cases are sets of endings that words take to indicate their function and relationship to other words in a sentence. Different languages have different numbers of cases. Russian has 6 cases, which isn’t that bad compared to Finnish, which has 15! English speakers, on the other hand, never have to bother with cases. Here’s an introduction to Russian’s six cases:

About This Article

About the book authors:

Andrew Kaufman, PhD, is a published scholar and an award-winning teacher of Russian language, literature, and culture at some of the country's top universities.

Serafima Gettys, PhD, is a Coordinator of the Foreign Language Program at Lewis University, where she also teaches Russian.

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