Russian Phrases For Dummies

Andrew D. Kaufman, Serafima Gettys, Nina Wieda, Andrew Kaufman

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470149744
• eBook ISBN: 9781118068311
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Traveling in a foreign country such as Russia suddenly becomes a lot more exciting when you can engage in elegant small talk with the locals. Russian Phrases For Dummies is your handy guide to everyday words and phrases you can start using immediately to make your visit more rewarding and a whole lot easier.

This user-friendly phrasebook will jump-start your comprehension and have you speaking basic Russian in no time. Its quick-and-easy approach gives you language fundamentals up front, the Words to Know section helps you find the right word fast, and the easy-to-use pronunciation key helps other people understand what you're trying to say. You'll learn how to:

• Get directions, shop, and eat out
• Talk numbers, dates, and time
• Chat about family and work
• Discuss sports and the weather
• Deal with problems and emergencies
• Pronounce familiar English words and phrases in Russian and English
• Beware of words that sound to English but don't mean the same thing
• Read signs that use the Russian alphabet
• Follow the conventions of Russian pronunciation
• Use basic Russian grammar correctly
• Keep ten commonly used Russian phrases on the tip of your tongue
• Use basic telephone vocabulary and send letters, emails, and faxes

Don't have time to study the language before you get to Russia? No worries. Just flip through Russian Phrases For Dummies, find the section that fits your needs, and start talking!

Chapter 1

I Say It How? Speaking Russian

In This Chapter

Understanding the Russian alphabet

Pronouncing words properly

Discovering popular expressions

Welcome to Russian! Whether you want to read a Russian menu, enjoy Russian music, or just chat it up with your Russian friends, this is the beginning of your journey. In this chapter, you get all the letters of the Russian alphabet, discover the basic rules of Russian pronunciation, and say some popular Russian expressions and idioms.

Looking at the Russian Alphabet

If you’re like most English speakers, you probably think that the Russian alphabet is the most challenging aspect of picking up the language. But not to worry. The Russian alphabet isn’t as hard as you think.

From A to Ya: Making sense of Cyrillic

The Russian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which was named after the ninth-century Byzantine monk, Cyril. But throughout this book, we convert all the letters into familiar Latin symbols, which are the same symbols we use in the English alphabet. This process of converting from Cyrillic to Latin letters is known as transliteration. We list the Cyrillic alphabet here in case you’re adventurous and brave enough to prefer reading real Russian instead of being fed with the ready-to-digest Latin version of it. And even if you don’t want to read the real Russian, check out Table 1-1 to find out what the whole fuss is about regarding the notorious “Russian alphabet.”

Notice that, in most cases, a transliterated letter corresponds to the way it’s actually pronounced. As a rule, you may assume that the transliteration fairly well represents the actual pronunciation. The biggest exceptions to this are the letter

, which is transcribed as j but pronounced like an English y, and the soft sign

, which is transcribed as ‘ but only softens the preceding consonant.

Scholars do not agree on the letter j. Some believe that it’s a consonant; others think that it’s a vowel. We don’t want to take sides in this matter and are listing it both as a consonant and a vowel.

Consonants are pronounced softly if they a re followed by ye, yo, ya, or yu

. These letters (ye, yo, ya, and yu) preserve the y sound if they are at the beginning of the word (as in yes, your, yard, and youth).

I know you! Familiar-looking, same-sounding letters

You may notice that some of the Russian letters in the previous section look a lot like English letters. The letters that look like English and are pronounced like English letters are

Whenever you read Russian text, you should be able to recognize and pronounce these letters right away.

Playing tricks: Familiar-looking, different-sounding letters

Some Russian letters look like English letters but are pronounced differently. You want to watch out for these:

: It looks like English Bb, at least the capital letter does, but it’s pronounced like the sound v as in victor or vase.

: This one’s a constant annoyance for English speakers, who want to pronounce it like ee, as in the English word geese. In Russian, it’s pronounced that way only if it appears in an unstressed syllable. Otherwise, if it appears in a stressed syllable, it is pronounced like ye as in yes.

: Don’t confuse this with the ...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Russian
• Chapter 2: Grammar on a Diet: Just the Basics
• Chapter 3: Numerical Gumbo: Counting of All Kinds
• Chapter 4: Making New Friends and Enjoying Small Talk
• Chapter 5: Enjoying a Drink and a Snack (or a Meal!)
• Chapter 6: Shop ’Til You Drop
• Chapter 7: Making Leisure a Top Priority
• Chapter 8: When You Gotta Work
• Chapter 9: I Get Around: Transportation
• Chapter 10: Laying Down Your Weary Head: House or Hotel
• Chapter 11: Dealing with Emergencies
• Chapter 12: Ten Favorite Russian Expressions
• Chapter 13: Ten Phrases That Make You Sound Russian