Armenia Russian Language Unified Exam cheat sheet

Russian has six vowel phonemes under stress: /a, e, i, o, u, ɨ/; unstressed vowels reduce in quality and length.

Consonant voice pairs: б–п, в–ф, г–к, д–т, ж–ш, з–с; unpaired voiced are й, л, м, н, р; unpaired voiceless are х, ц, ч, щ.

Word-final voiced obstruents devoice: друг [друк], мороз [марос], нож [нош].

Regressive voicing assimilation: a voiceless obstruent before a voiced one becomes voiced (сделать [зделать]); a voiced one before a voiceless becomes voiceless (все [фс'э]).

Letters е, ё, ю, я have two sounds word-initially, after vowels, and after ъ/ь; after consonants they indicate softness plus a vowel.

The letter ь never represents a sound; it marks preceding consonant softness (соль) or separates a consonant from a iotated vowel (семья).

Orthoepic stress is mobile and lexically specific: звонИть, красИвее, тОрты, договОр; unstressed о after hard consonants in the first pretonic is [ɐ].

Voiced and voiceless pairs neutralize before obstruents and at word end; this is why сдать sounds like [здат'].

Synonyms share or nearly share meaning and can be interchangeable in some contexts; antonyms express opposite meanings; homonyms share form but not meaning.

Polysemy is one word with related meanings; homonymy is different words accidentally sharing sound or spelling; a dictionary entry separates homonyms.

A phraseologism is stable and reproducible, with a holistic meaning not equal to the sum of its parts, e.g. бить баклуши = to idle.

Direct meaning names an object or action directly; figurative meaning transfers it by similarity, contiguity, or function (золотые руки).

Paronyms are similar in sound but different in meaning: адресат 'recipient' vs адресант 'sender'; compare also одеть/надеть.

Pleonasm is redundancy with overlapping meaning (главная суть); tautology repeats the same root or word (рассказать рассказ).

Stylistic marking distinguishes neutral, bookish, and colloquial words; neutral words fit most contexts, marked words carry evaluation or register.

Borrowings often retain foreign features but adapt in gender and declension; native synonyms may differ stylistically (лицо/физиономия).

Morphemes: root carries core lexical meaning; prefix precedes root; suffix follows root; ending follows stem and expresses grammatical meaning.

The ending is a changed part of a word: стол - стола - столу; immutable words such as метро have no ending.

Zero ending is a meaningful absence of ending, as in стол (nominative singular masculine) versus стола.

Word-formation methods: prefixal (писать → написать), suffixal (дом → домик), prefix-suffixal (окно → подоконник), zero suffixation (выходить → выход).

Compounding joins stems with connecting vowels о/е (пароход, землетрясение) or without a vowel (диван-кровать).

Derivational chain shows step-by-step formation: читать → читатель → читательский; a word-formation nest groups words by common root.

Morpheme boundaries can involve alternations: друг → дружок (г//ж), рука → ручка (к//ч), писать → пишу (с//ш).

Complex abbreviated words combine shortened parts: зарплата, вуз, РФ; their gender and declension follow the head or abbreviation type.

Russian has ten traditional parts of speech: noun, adjective, numeral, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, particle, interjection; participles and gerunds are verb forms.

Noun categories: gender, number, case; three declensions; indeclinable nouns keep one form (метро, пальто).

Adjective categories: qualitative, relative, possessive; adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number, case; qualitative ones have degrees of comparison and short forms.

Verb categories: aspect, tense, person, number, mood, voice; transitive verbs take direct objects; perfective verbs lack present tense.

Six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional; the prepositional case is always used with a preposition.

Pronoun categories include personal, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative, negative, indefinite, definite, and attributive.

Numeral categories: cardinal, ordinal, collective; cardinal numerals govern noun case in specific patterns (два стола, пять столов).

Participles combine verb and adjective features; gerunds combine verb and adverb features and usually do not change.

Main sentence parts are subject and predicate; secondary parts are object, attribute, and adverbial.

Simple sentences can be one-part or two-part, extended or unextended, complete or incomplete; one-part types include definite-personal, indefinite-personal, impersonal, infinitive, nominative.

Predicate types: simple verbal, compound verbal (with modal/phase verb), compound nominal (linking verb + nominal part).

Coordination links equal parts; subordination links a dependent clause to a main clause via conjunction, relative word, or asyndeton.

Subordinate clause types include subject, predicate, attributive, object, and adverbial (place, time, condition, cause, purpose, concession, comparison, result).

Agreement: predicate agrees with subject in number/gender; government: head word requires a specific case of dependent word; adjacency lacks formal marking.

Word order in Russian is relatively free but information structure affects it; theme usually precedes rheme.

A compound sentence joins coordinated clauses; a complex sentence joins a main and subordinate clause; a compound-complex sentence combines both.

Unstressed vowels are checked by stress: вода́ → во́ды; if no check exists, use a dictionary or the relevant root rule.

Alternating roots follow rules: -лаг-/-лож- (before г use а, before ж use о), -раст-/-ращ-/-рос- (before ст/щ use а, before с use о), -гар-/-гор- (stress).

Prefixes раз-/рас-, из-/ис-, без-/бес- write з before voiced consonants and с before voiceless: разбить, расписать, бездомный, бесшумный.

при- vs пре-: при- means approach, attachment, or incomplete action; пре- means very or re- (приехать, пришить, приоткрыть; прекрасный, преградить).

Suffixes -чик/-щик: -чик after д, т, з, с, ж; -щик elsewhere (переводчик, каменщик).

н/нн: adjectives use нн with suffix -енн-/-онн- or a stem ending in н; participles use нн when prefixed or perfective (решённый, but раненый).

Не with verbs and gerunds is separate; with nouns/adjectives it is separate under contrast or plain negation, together when the word is unused without не or gains a new meaning (неправда = ложь).

After sibilants, ь is written in feminine third-declension nouns (ночь) but not in masculine nouns (нож) or short adjectives (горяч).

ы/и after ц: и in roots and words ending -ция; ы in endings and suffix -ын (птицы, сестрицын).

A dash is placed between subject and predicate when both are nouns in the nominative and there is no link verb: Москва - столица; a colon is used when the second part explains the first.

Commas separate homogeneous members; no comma before a single conjunction и, или, да in the meaning 'and' when it joins two homogeneous members.

A participial phrase after the noun is set off by commas; before the noun it is usually not set off.

Introductory words and phrases are set off by commas; they express attitude, source, order, or connection and are not sentence members.

Direct speech is enclosed in quotation marks; after the author's words a colon is used, and punctuation inside the quotation follows the sentence type.

A comma separates the main and subordinate clauses; with homogeneous subordinate clauses joined by и, no comma before и if both depend on the same main clause.

In asyndetic complex sentences, a colon introduces explanation or cause; a dash introduces consequence, contrast, or rapid change.

Semicolon separates extended or internally punctuated parts; it is stronger than a comma but weaker than a period.

Functional styles: colloquial, official-business, scientific, journalistic, literary-artistic; each has typical lexicon, syntax, and purpose.

Speech qualities: correctness, accuracy, clarity, appropriateness, richness, expressiveness; correctness is conformity to language norms.

Norms include orthoepic, lexical, word-formation, morphological, syntactic, and stylistic; a violation is a speech error.

Stylistic coloring can be neutral, bookish, or colloquial; connotation adds evaluative, emotional, or expressive meaning.

Common lexical errors: pleonasm, tautology, paronym confusion, inappropriate borrowing, and mixed collocations.

Official-business style is standardized, impersonal, and clichéd; it favors verbal nouns, passive constructions, and formal prepositions.

Scientific style is objective and logical, with terms, definitions, citations, and nominalizations; it avoids emotional evaluation.

Journalistic style combines information and persuasion; it uses evaluative vocabulary, rhetorical figures, and headings.

Theme is what the text is about; the idea is the main message or position; the topic sentence states the paragraph's central point.

Text types: narration recounts events in time, description presents features, exposition explains, argumentation proves a thesis.

Cohesion is created by pronouns, conjunctions, lexical repetition, synonyms, ellipsis, and word order; coherence is the underlying logical unity.

A paragraph usually has a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding or transitional sentence.

Author's position is the viewpoint conveyed by the text; the narrator is the voice telling it and may differ from the author.

Fact is verifiable information; opinion expresses evaluation or belief; reading questions often ask to distinguish them.

Inference is a conclusion from stated information plus context; it is not directly stated and must be supported by textual clues.

Summary should capture the main idea and key supporting points, omit minor details, and preserve the author's stance.