This document provides an overview of a Russian grammar and phrasebook for beginners. It includes the Russian alphabet with pronunciations, essential grammar topics like cases, conjugations, and tenses. It also contains over 1000 common Russian words and phrases organized by topic for daily use when traveling or speaking. The goal is to give beginners the basics needed to start learning Russian independently through understanding the logic and structure of the language.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 5
MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH. .............................................................. 7
PART 1: RUSSIAN ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION. .................................................................. 9
PART 2: ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR.................................................................................................... 14
Genders of nouns.......................................................................................................................... 14
Nouns in Plural.............................................................................................................................. 16
Introduction to Russian Cases....................................................................................................... 19
Conjugating Russian nouns. Declensions...................................................................................... 22
Russian adjectives and their conjugation by cases....................................................................... 27
Russian pronouns.......................................................................................................................... 31
Personal pronouns ............................................................................................................ 31
Personal pronouns in Russian cases.................................................................................. 32
Possessive pronouns.......................................................................................................... 33
Possessive pronouns in all Russian cases.......................................................................... 34
Russian verbs. Aspects of Verbs vs Tenses. .................................................................................. 35
Conjugation of verbs. Conjugation types...................................................................................... 38
Present Tense................................................................................................................................ 40
Past Tense ..................................................................................................................................... 41
Future Tense ................................................................................................................................. 47
Negative form of words and sentences........................................................................................ 50
Question form of sentences ......................................................................................................... 52
Word order ................................................................................................................................... 54
PART 3: COMMON RUSSIAN WORDS AND PHRASES FOR TRAVELING AND DAILY SPEAKING
Addressing someone..................................................................................................................... 56
Introducing yourself. Small talk. ................................................................................................... 57
Languages and nationalities.......................................................................................................... 60
Signs and announcements............................................................................................................ 62
At the train station........................................................................................................................ 65
Renting a car ................................................................................................................................. 67
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Taxi................................................................................................................................................ 69
Bus ride ......................................................................................................................................... 70
In the restaurant ........................................................................................................................... 71
Foods and Ingredients .................................................................................................................. 72
Vegetables..................................................................................................................................... 75
Fruits and berries.......................................................................................................................... 76
In a grocery store.......................................................................................................................... 78
At the doctor’s office .................................................................................................................... 79
At the pharmacy............................................................................................................................ 80
Currency exchange. Bank.............................................................................................................. 82
Weather ........................................................................................................................................ 83
Seasons ......................................................................................................................................... 85
Time span...................................................................................................................................... 86
Days of the week........................................................................................................................... 87
Months.......................................................................................................................................... 88
Numbers........................................................................................................................................ 90
What time is it?............................................................................................................................. 92
Professions.................................................................................................................................... 96
Clothes and accessories................................................................................................................ 99
Family.......................................................................................................................................... 101
Emotions ..................................................................................................................................... 103
Common adjectives..................................................................................................................... 104
Question words and phrases ...................................................................................................... 107
Most common Russian prepositions and cases they are used with........................................... 108
BONUS ........................................................................................................................................ 109
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.................................................................................................................. 111
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INTRODUCTION
Do you want to communicate with your Russian-speaking family members, colleagues or
friends? Or maybe you want to read blogs and journals in Russian? Are you preparing for
university studies or an exciting business trip to one of the Russian-speaking countries? There
are many reasons to start learning Russian. Regardless of the reason, it’s well worth the effort.
The purpose of this book is to give you a head start for your Russian language journey, as it
introduces you to Russian reading rules, essential grammar, and basic vocabulary – everything
you need to get on your feet fast when learning Russian for business or pleasure, so you can
start being independent and sure of yourself.
In short, this book will help you grasp the logic of the Russian language. Written for English
speakers (either native or fluent in English), it explains how the Russian language functions in
comparison with English and gives plenty of examples with English translations for each rule
explained.
Even if you already speak some Russian, this book will give you an abridged program of the
beginner level in Russian. Keep it handy and refer to it later when you need to refresh your
knowledge.
The first part of this e-book features the Russian alphabet including handwritten letters;
pronunciation rules, including cases when vowels and consonants change their sound.
The second part covers essential topics of Russian grammar, such as genders, plurals, cases,
conjugations of verbs, and tenses. This will help you "unlock" the Russian sentence structure –
you will be able to understand/translate phrases you see or hear and construct your own.
Knowing the basics of Russian grammar is a must, but focusing solely on grammar in the early
learning stages will “linger” your speaking.
Therefore, the third part - the phrasebook - features the most common Russian words and
phrases for daily speaking (organized by topics). All words and phrases are given with stress
marks, transcription, and an English translation, like this:
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A good practice is to learn 10 words a day from this mini-dictionary. If you have Russian-
speaking friends, try to use as many Russian words from this list as you can when you
communicate. Practice is king!
Get yourself unstuck and dive into learning the Russian language without fear! I’m sure that
everyone can ace at least a beginner’s level of Russian.
MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH
The Russian language may seem daunting at first sight. But is Russian so difficult? Not really! It’s
just different. It requires a switch in your mindset. In fact, in some ways, it’s even easier than
English. Let’s look at the main differences between Russian and English to give you a quick
initial overview.
Conjugation
While English words have minimal inflection (a change of ending in a word to express a
grammatical function or attribute such as tense, number, case, and gender), Russian grammar
is based on inflections.
The core of Russian grammar is the case system. The 6 cases – Nominative, Genitive, Dative,
Accusative, Instrumental, and Prepositional – show the relationship between the objects and
sometimes substitute for the prepositions.
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Genders
In Russian, a noun can belong to one of three genders – masculine, feminine or neuter. Also,
personal pronouns and adjectives agree with nouns in gender, case, and number (singular or
plural). This means that there are different endings for adjectives and personal pronouns
depending on the number, case, and gender of the noun they are attached to. Genders, as well
as conjugation of words based on gender and case, does not exist in English grammar,
therefore this aspect is pretty hard to grasp for foreigners.
Verbs and Tenses
There are only 3 tenses in Russian: Present, Past, and Future Tense. Furthermore, the Russian
verbal system is based on the concept of aspect: actions are either completed or not
completed. This is shown by appending affixes to the verb stem.
In contrast, the English verbal system has indefinite, continuous, and perfect tense forms, and
uses auxiliary verbs to form them.
Compare: How do you do it? – Как вы э́то де́лаете? (literally, How _ you do it?)
Russian uses Present (Simple) for phrases that would require Present Continuous in English, and
Past (Simple) where you would use Present Perfect in English.
Compare: Have you done it? – Вы это сде́лали?
Also, Russian relies on prefixes to modify the meaning of verbs. The same work is done in
English by adverbs.
Compare: He moved away. – Он уе́хал.
Sentences
In Russian, sentences are less structured. In general, a sentence starts with a pronoun / noun
which is followed by a verb, and the rest follows. Words can be placed in different parts of a
sentence to emphasize certain aspects, while the most important word stands at the beginning.
In English, the word order is rather fixed.
Negation
Russian tends to use a lot of constructions with double negation; the method of expressing the
thought “from the reverse” is frequent. In English, affirmative sentences prevail, negative
structures are rare, and double negation is not used at all.
Compare: John ate nothing. – Джон ничегó не съе́л. (Literally, “John did not eat nothing”)
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Spelling
Unlike English, which is filled with homonyms and irregular spelling rules, Russian spelling is
very intuitive. Once you know the alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes, you’ll always
be able to spell the word just by speaking it out loud.
Pronunciation
Russian rhythms are different from other languages. Often, the melody of Russian sentences
sounds strange to foreigners. The general tune may seem monotonous, without ups and
downs. Also, a lot of Russians end questions with a falling intonation instead of a rising one,
which can sound impolite to English speakers. Just bear this in mind and don’t be surprised. No
one means to be rude.
Articles
And finally, there are no articles in Russian. The entire concept does not exist in the Russian
language. The sense of a noun (definite or indefinite) is determined by the context in which it
appears.
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PART 1:
RUSSIAN ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION
Russian alphabet
THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IS BASED ON CYRILLIC SCRIPT, WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY
INTRODUCED INTO KYIV RUS’ AT THE TIME OF ITS CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY (988
AD). IT IS NAMED IN HONOR OF THE BYZANTINE SCHOLAR AND MISSIONARY, CYRIL,
WHO, TOGETHER WITH HIS BROTHER METHODIUS, CREATED THE FIRST SLAVIC WRITING
SYSTEM TO TRANSLATE CHRISTIAN TEXTS INTO THE SLAVIC LANGUAGES. IN ITS MODERN
FORM, WITH MINOR VARIATIONS, CYRILLIC SCRIPT IS USED IN MANY SLAVIC (RUSSIAN,
UKRAINIAN, BELORUSSIAN, BULGARIAN, SERBIAN, MACEDONIAN, MONTENEGRIN) AND
NON-SLAVIC LANGUAGES.
To read and speak Russian, you will first need to understand the alphabet. The Russian alphabet
may seem way too different, but don’t feel overwhelmed. You will soon notice that many
letters resemble Latin script.
Russian “cursive” (handwritten Russian language) is slightly more difficult; however, the good
news is that you’ll mainly come across computer-typed Russian words, just as they appear in
dictionaries.
You will notice that this book will feature words with small stress marks over vowels – these are
called accents. Accents are only used in materials for teaching Russian to show you which
syllable is stressed. You will not see these marks in literature, menus or any street signs. If you
wish to learn more about accents and know how to type them, this article will explain
https://expressrussian.com/russian-letters-with-accents/
Impatient to read signs, menus, maps, and announcements in Russian? The table below will
guide you!
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Pronunciation
In Russian, the pronunciation is slightly different from the spelling. Two important things to
keep in mind are:
• the stress (for vowels)
• the influence of surrounding letters (for consonants). In short, a soft neighbor letter
makes the preceding letter softer, and a voiced letter makes the preceding letter sound
stronger.
You will be understood if you just pronounce the words the way they are written, but don’t be
surprised if you hear half-sounds. The next chapters will shed light on the pronunciation
peculiarities in Russian.
Vowel pronunciation
The stress of a word always falls on a vowel. Stressed vowels are marked with the acute accent
(´) in dictionaries. Words have only one stress, except for compound words (two words joined
by a hyphen), like Москва́-река́ (Moscow River), де́вушка-краса́вица (beautiful girl).
While stressed vowels are pronounced rather distinctly, unstressed vowels undergo
pronunciation changes (so-called voice reduction).
Unstressed ‘O’
The farther the vowel is from the stress, the less sound it gets. For example, all three vowels ‘O’
in the same word, молоко́, are pronounced differently [m-la-kо́]:
the first ‘O’ is the farthest from the stressed syllable, so it is almost not pronounced at all;
the second one is reduced to the “u” sound as in “under”;
and the third one is fully pronounced because it appears with the stressed syllable.
Unstressed ‘E’ and ‘Я’
Similar voice reduction happens to vowels “e” and “я”: in unstressed position they sound close
to “и”, for example, ведро́ [vi-drо́] (bucket), темно́ [ti-mnо́] (it’s dark), интере́сный [in-ti-rés-
nyy] (interesting), язы́к [yi-zу́k] (language), янва́рь [yin-vár’] (January).
Other vowels in unstressed syllables undergo minor reductions, unnoticeable for foreigners and
even for many natives. Generally, they are pronounced like a weaker version of themselves.
The letter ё, if present in the word, is always stressed, but no accent (stress) mark is typed over
it.
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When a word has only one syllable – for example, зуб (tooth) and хлеб (bread) – the accent
mark is also not inserted, as the stress will always fall on this very syllable.
Placing the stress on the correct syllable is important when speaking Russian. Mistaken word
stress not only sounds weird; it can also change the meaning of a word. Words that sound alike
or are spelled alike but have different meanings are called homonyms. Read about the most
common Russian homonyms in this article: https://expressrussian.com/homonyms-in-russian/
Consonant pronunciation
Consonants in Russian differ from each other in terms of whether they are voiced or voiceless,
their point of articulation, and their manner of articulation.
With few exceptions, Russian consonants can be pronounced either “soft” or “hard”, “voiced”
or “voiceless”, depending on the type of letter that follows them.
Voiced and voiceless consonants form pairs. Voiced consonants devocalize (in other words,
their voiceless pair is pronounced instead of them) when:
• they are the last letter in a word: зуб [zup] (tooth), хлеб [khlep] (bread), Ивано́в [ivanо́f]
(Ivanov)
• they are followed by another voiceless consonant: слáдкий [slatkii] (sweet), ло́жка
[lо́shka] (spoon), под столо́м [pat stalо́m] (under the table).
Voiced consonants Voiceless consonants
pairs voiced < > voiceless Б [b]
В [v]
Г [g]
Д [d]
Ж [zh]
З [z]
П [p]
Ф [f]
К [k]
Т [t]
Ш [sh]
С [s]
consonants
not forming pairs
Л [l]
М [m]
Н [n]
Р [r]
Й [ij]
Х [kh]
Ц [ts]
Ч [tch]
Щ [sch]
On my YouTube channel, I have a video where I pronounce each Russian letter in words
“HOW TO READ RUSSIAN LETTERS” https://bit.ly/how-to-read-russian-letters, do take a look!
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PART 2:
ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR
Genders of nouns
In Russian, all nouns fall into 3 genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. All nouns are also split
into animate (everything alive) and inanimate (not alive). Note: in Russian, not all nouns
denoting inanimate objects are neuter: some are masculine and some are feminine.
Why would one need to know which gender a Russian noun belongs to? As you already know,
in Russian, words conjugate, and nouns of different gender conjugate differently = they have
different endings. Also, the gender of a noun determines the gender of the corresponding
adjective and, subsequently, its ending.
Unlike other languages, where there are no rules or regularities for gender patterns, in Russian,
it is quite simple to know which gender a noun belongs to.
The gender of a noun can generally be determined by its last letter. Let's see how one can
determine the gender of Russian pronouns by paying attention to the last letter.
To masculine gender belong:
Nouns ending in a consonant or -ь
Стул (chair), карандáш (pencil), музéй (museum), соловéй (nightingale), фонáрь (lantern),
слéсарь (mechanic)
To feminine gender belong:
Nouns ending in -a, -я, -ь
Рекá (river), собáка (dog), пéсня (song), ня́ня (nanny), тетрáдь (notebook), дочь (daughter)
Note: nouns ending in -а, -я with a clear meaning of masculine gender, are exceptions: па́па
(father), дя́дя (uncle), Валéра, Вáся (Valera, Vasya – masculine names). They will belong to the
masculine gender but will conjugate like words of the feminine gender (see case-related
endings).
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To neuter gender belong:
Nouns ending in -о, -е, -мя
Окнó (window), пóле (field), врéмя (time)
Which gender for nouns ending in –ь?
As you have seen from the table above, nouns ending in -ь can belong either to the masculine
or feminine gender. How do you tell the difference? For these nouns, it’s best if you learn the
gender by heart or check in a dictionary. However, among them, we can distinguish several
groups that would belong to a particular gender.
These belong to the masculine gender:
a. nouns ending in -тель, -арь: учи́тель (teacher), фона́рь (lantern)
b. names of the months: февра́ль (February), ию́нь (June)
These belong to the feminine gender:
a. nouns ending in -ость, -есть: ра́дость (joy), све́жесть (freshness)
b. inanimate nouns ending in -знь, -сть, -вь: жизнь (life), часть (part), любо́вь (love)
c. nouns ending in -шь, -жь, -щь, -чь: мышь (mouse), рожь (rye), ночь (night)
This topic is also addressed in my YouTube Video “Genders of Russian Nouns”
https://bit.ly/genders-plurals-russian-nouns
Nouns in Plural
In Russian, nouns conjugate in number, gender, and case. Plural form of a noun in Russian is not
a fixed suffix / ending, like in many languages, it depends on both the gender and the case.
Russian nouns in plural usually have the following endings:
-и or -ы (for masculine and feminine) *, -а or –я (for neuter).
* In masculine and feminine gender, after г, к, х, ж, ш, ч, щ > use –и,
after the rest of the consonants > use –ы.
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Conjugating Russian nouns. Declensions.
In grammar, inflection of nouns by cases is called conjugation.
Nouns conjugate (take endings in various cases) according to their declension type.
Declension (склонéние) is the variation in the form of a noun, pronoun or adjective by which its
grammatical case, number, and gender are identified.
Let's dive deeper into declensions and their endings when they conjugate by cases!
Nouns declension types and respective endings
In Russian, there are 3 declension types of nouns.
This table will help you decide which declension type the nouns falls into:
1st type declension
and endings
2nd type declension
and endings
3rd type declension
and endings
all nouns in masculine and
feminine with endings -а, -я
the rest of the nouns in
masculine and neuter gender
the rest of the nouns in
feminine
in singular
-а, -я
in sing. masc. – (*), -й, -ь
in sing. neuter -о, -е
in singular
-ь
in plural
-ы, -и
in plural
-а, -я
in plural
-и
Examples:
соба́ка, ла́па, ли́ния, тётя
Examples:
хруста́ль, сто́л, молоко́, мо́ре
Examples:
но́чь, дичь, мете́ль
(*) Interesting fact: Many nouns that end in a consonant in Nominative case (initial form) are
called nouns with zero (or absent) ending, which means that the ending is absent in Nominative
case (it is shown with the sign “ – “ ) but reappears later when conjugated in other cases. Let’s
see on examples!
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Declension of nouns of I type, endings and examples:
Case Possible Endings
Singular Plural
Nominative -а, -я
странá (country), тётя (aunt)
-ы, -и
стра́ны, тёти
Genitive -ы, -и
страны́, тёти
–
стран, тёть
Dative -е, -и
cтранé, тёте
-ам, -ям
стрáнам, тётям
Accusative -у, -ю
страну́, тётю
-ы,–, -и, -ей
стрáны, тёть
Instrumental -ой (-ою), ей (-ею)
странóй, тётей
-ами, -ями
стрáнами, тётями
Prepositional -е
о странé, о тёте
-ах, -ях
о стрáнах, о тётях
Declension of nouns of II type, endings, and examples:
Case Possible Endings
Singular Plural
Nominative Masc.: –, й, -ь : стол, музéй, фонáрь
(Table, museum, lanthern)
Neut.: -о, -е : óблако, мóре
Masc.: -ы, -и : столы́, музéи, фонари́
Neut.: -а, -я : облакá, моря́
Genitive -а, -я
столá, музéя, фонáря
óблака, мóря
-ов, -ев, -ей
столо́в, музéев, фонарéй
облако́в, морéй
Dative -у, -ю
столу́, музéю, фонáрю
óблаку, мóрю
-ам, -ям
стола́м, музéям, фонаря́м
облака́м, моря́м
Accusative Masc.: –, -й, -ь
Neut.: -о, -е
стол, музéй, фонáрь
óблако, мóре
Masc.: -ы, -и, -ей
Neut.: -а, -я
столы́, музéи, фонари́
облакá, моря́
Instrumental -ом, -ем
столóм, музéем, фонарём
óблаком, мóрем
-ами, -ями
столáми, музéями, фонаря́ми
облакáми, моря́ми
Prepositional -е
o столé, в музéе, на фонарé
об óблаке, на мóре
-ах, -ях
o столáх, в музéях, на фонаря́х
об облакáх, на моря́х
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Declension of nouns of III type, endings, and examples:
Case Possible Endings
Singular Plural
Nominative –
мышь, дверь
-и
мы́ши, две́ри
Genitive -и
мы́ши, двери́
-ей
мыше́й, двере́й
Dative -и
мы́ши, двери́
-ам, -ям
мыша́м, дверя́м
Accusative –
мышь, дверь
-ей, -и
мыше́й, две́ри
Instrumental -ю
с мы́шью, за две́рью
-ами, -ями
с мыша́ми, за дверя́ми
Prepositional -и
о мы́ши, на двери́
-ах, -ях
о мыша́х, на дверя́х
How is this related to 6 Russian cases? Declension type will prompt the endings the noun will
take while conjugating by cases. Cases are a subject which deserves a book on its own. See
suggestion in Bonus page.
This may seem like a lot to take into consideration, but just accept the fact that nouns change
their ending and knowing the declension type and the case will help you decide on which
endings to use for nouns.
Please bear in mind that an average native Russian speaker does not know all this information –
they just absorb the language as it is, from their environment. These rules exist to explain the
logic behind them, and as you progress with your Russian, you will also forget to follow the
rules and just speak naturally.
18. 17
Russian adjectives and their conjugation by cases
Adjectives, as well as possessive pronouns, are an integral part of sentences, they stay beside
the noun they describe.
Adjectives in the Russian language agree with nouns in gender, number, and case. So, if the
noun is in Genitive (Gen.), the adjective must be in Genitive too and have the same gender
(masc., fem. or neuter) and number (sing. or plural) as the noun.
For example, if you want to say, “a black pen”, start with the word “pen” = “ру́чка”: it is in the
nominative-feminine-singular form. Then you should adjust the form of the adjective describing
it.
The dictionaries give you the nominative-masculine-singular (or initial) form of adjectives by
default: these will almost always end in “-ый” or “-ий”.
For our expression, you’d find черный” (black) in the dictionary but knowing that you’ll need
the feminine form to match with “pen” = “ручка”, you should transform “чёрный” into
“чёрная” instead.
See how you form gender-, number- or case-related endings:
(Nom., fem., sing.) чёрная ру́чка (black pen) > (Gen*., fem., sing.) чёрной ру́чки
(Nom., masc., sing.) чёрный кот (black cat) > (Gen., masc., sing.) чёрного котá
(Nom., neuter., sing.) Чёрное мóре (Black Sea) > (Gen., neuter., sing.) Чёрного мóря
(Nom., fem., pl.) чёрные ру́чки (black pens) > (Gen., fem., pl.) чёрных ру́чек
*In the section Adjectives in Russian cases, you’ll see examples of adjective conjugation in all
cases. For now, let’s concentrate on their initial form (in Nominative).
Most Russian adjectives have a stem ending in a hard consonant. In other words, their last
letter before the ending is a hard consonant (чёрный, белый).
In the nominative case, such adjectives have the ending:
-ый (for masc. sing.)
-ое (for neuter, sing.)
-ая (for fem. sing.)
-ые (for plural form which is the same for all genders)
19. 18
This was a free abstract from the book
”Russian Grammar & Phrasebook:
Beginner’s Russian”
You may find the full version at
https://expressrussian.com/russian-grammar-for-beginners-phrasebook/
20. 19
BONUS
I think you will also find these e-books useful for improving your Russian.
Check them out on Expressrussian.com! Happy learning!
Basic Russian Vocabulary:
1000 Russian words for travelling, business, study, and day-to-day speaking
----------
Russian Cases For Beginners:
a complete guide with detailed explanations for each case usage, color-coded tables and
exercises with keys
21. 20
Top 100 Russian Proverbs and Sayings
with word-to-word and literary translations into English
22. 21
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dear readers!
Let me introduce myself. My name is Darya Gunay. I am a native Russian speaker, born and
raised in Eastern Ukraine. Apart from Russian, I speak Ukrainian, English, and French. I hold
Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Language Teaching (specialization – Ukrainian and English). I
am also certified as a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language by the International Centre of
Russian Language in Moscow.
Initially trained as a teacher, I gained my second degree in Marketing, and throughout my
career, I've had jobs in both fields – as a private language tutor and communications specialist.
Following my passion for languages and my wish to share the knowledge I “store” within me, I
founded Express Russian – Learn Russian Online, a blog and an e-learning resource for
foreigners who wish to learn Russian and are interested in Russian culture. It is truly different
from the Western or Eastern world, and that’s why it’s so interesting!
I hope you enjoyed this book. If you’re interested in learning Russian online, please join my
social media community to access fun educational content and browse other learning
resources.
Simply visit ExpressRussian.com and
/expressrussian/ /expressrussiancom/
https://www.tiktok.com/@expressrussian.com
/YouTube/LearnRussianWithExpressRussianCom/