Introduction

What is necessary for learning a foreign language in short time and without great effort?

The answer is – some basic grammar knowledge, reading, listening, interest and practice.

Some grammar – you need to know in general terms types of verbs, nouns and other language elements and the way they can change their forms
Reading – is necessary to get accustomed to the language, to “feel” it. It is the best way to improve vocabulary knowledge
Listening – often words are pronounced not as they are written. Listening will help you to remember correct pronunciation
Interest – any knowledge or activity is achieved much easier when you are interested and focused on it. Study must not be boring
Regular practice – it’s better to practice 15 minutes a day everyday than 2 hours every Sunday
Speaking is also helpful. However at first it is better to enrich vocabulary and then begin speaking practice.

Onward is the explanation of our learning method

Vocabulary

Put a cursor upon a word that you don’t know and you will see the translation. Omit the words that you already know. Your vocabulary will grow immensely!

Genders

Do you know, which genders these words have: гвоздь (nail), мышь (mouse), леди (lady), такси (taxi), время (time), слуга (servant), города (cities)? And which syllable is stressed? One can not know it for sure, because there are a lot of exceptions. But at this site – stressed vowel is always underlined, masculine is in bold type – гвоздь, feminine is in cursive – мышь, neutral is marked with asterisk – *время, and plurals are underlined – города.

Word endings in different cases

Russian nouns, adjectives and posessive pronouns change their endings according to gender and case in which they are used. For example English words “my” and “mine” have plenty forms in Russian – мой, моя, моё, мои, моему, моей, моим etc. Here is a table with adjectives’ endings

How can you remember all these forms? Would you like to cram it, to learn this table by heart? There is no need for it! You only need to read questions and answers in a hint above the word and notice the color of the word. Each case correspond to its color. Word by word you will remember questions and endings of words in corresponding cases. Какой (masc), какая (fem), *какое (neutral) и какие (plural) are different forms of the word “which” in Nominative (original) case. They change their forms according to the case as well as corresponding adjectives. For example – Я читаю новую интересную книгу – I am reading a new interesting book. (cyan colour – Accusative case, cursive – fem. gender) Question – Я читаю какую книгу? Answer – Я читаю новую интересную книгу. Practice the forms of posessive pronouns (чей, чья, *чьё, чьи – whose) the same way.

“Why is this case used here?!”

That is the question which ask many foreigners trying to learn case rules. Now there is nothing easier! Look at the hint above the word and notice the number in parenthesis. After that move the cursor upon the button with that number. You will see explanation why precisely this case is used in this situation.

Verbs

There are verb translations and their infinitive forms in green hints. Two types of verbs (perfective and imperfective) are marked in different colors. Since in past tense verbal forms differ according to the gender, they are also written in different style: прийти – to come, она пришла – she came, он пришёл – he came, мы (они) пришли – we (they) came.

Text translation

Sometimes it is difficult to translate all the sentence even though you know translation of each word. No problem! Put your cursor upon light blue button and you will see text fragment’s translation.

Audiofiles

Put your cursor upon first red button and listen to the text fragment. If it is still hard to understand, then move the cursor upon second red button and listen to the same fragment in a low pace.

LESSONS

The materials of the site are prepared mostly for people who prefer learning Russian without a tutor. You can get access to the Premium part of the site with all stories just for 20$ (from the 1st till the last day of a month). If you need explanations we can make lessons. At the lessons I will teach you correct pronunciation and basic rules of Russian grammar (types of verbs, cases and forms of nouns, adjectives and posessive pronouns). After that we can practice reading stories together. We can use Google documents, Zoom or Skype.

One-hour lesson costs 13$, first trial lesson is free. Feel free to contact us by facebook by Whatsapp: +79189897002 or by e-mail: georgiyy.lebedev@lenta.ru . You can see an introductory video on Youtube
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