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Articles & Books From Serafima Gettys
Privyet! Explore the Russian language with this fantastic beginner's guideWith over 260 million speakers around the world, Russian remains one of the most popular and marketable languages you can learn. And for those who have no idea where to begin, Russian For Dummies is the perfect first step! In this easy-to-understand resource for Russian language beginners, you'll discover basic grammar and common expressions you might use while shopping, dining out, traveling, or conducting business.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-27-2022
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.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
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.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
How do you ask basic questions in Russian? Well, Russian interrogative words mean the same as they do for English: who, what, when, where, why, and how. By knowing basic Russian interrogatives, you'll be able to express your questions, even without an extensive vocabulary.
Kogo? (kah-VOH) (Whom?)
chto (shtoh) (What?
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Exploring Russian-speaking countries can be quite an adventure, but if you want to be sure to see everything on your list, you need to know how to ask for directions and how to understand the directions you are given. After all, if you don't understand what you're told, you might miss the very things you hoped to see.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Properly greeting people and making introductions in Russian can help you get off to the right start. After all, first impressions are important — they can start a friendship or set the tone for your interaction with someone.
The Russian language is more formal than American English. Likewise, introductions in Russian follow more of a pattern than they sometimes do in the United States.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
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:
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
When making plans, appointments, and travel arrangements in Russian-speaking countries, you need to be able to state dates and other calendar terms in Russian. Understanding the days of the week and the months of the year in Russian can help you to avoid confusion.
Days of the week
To ask what day of the week it is, says Kakoj syegodnya dyen'?
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
By mastering the basics of polite conversation in Russian, you put yourself and the person you're talking to at ease. Everyone should learn essential Russian conversational words and phrases before traveling to a Russian -speaking country. These words and expressions are sure to come up in most everyday conversations.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Every culture has a way of taking familiar words and turning them into something else. Russia is no exception. These uniquely Russian expressions don't translate literally to English and aren't essential to everyday conversation, but recognizing these expressions in speech and using them with ease can make you sound like a real Russian!