MTEL Russian flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Prepositional case use

The prepositional case appears only after prepositions, chiefly в/на for location, о/об for topic, and при for circumstance. It never serves as a subject or direct object.

Genitive plural masculine

Masculine nouns typically drop the nominative ending to form genitive plural (стол - столов, студент - студентов), but some take a zero ending (раз - раз, солдат - солдат) that must be memorized.

Accusative of animate nouns

For animate masculine and all plural nouns, the accusative equals the genitive form; for inanimate masculine and all neuter nouns, it equals the nominative. Feminine accusative uses -у/-ю.

Instrumental case functions

The instrumental marks the means or instrument of an action (писать ручкой), the agent in passive constructions, and follows prepositions с (with), между (between), над, под, and перед.

Imperfective vs perfective

Imperfective verbs describe ongoing, repeated, or habitual actions and have a present tense; perfective verbs describe a completed result or single bounded act and have no present tense, only past and future.

Unidirectional vs multidirectional motion

Unidirectional verbs (идти, ехать, лететь) describe motion in one direction at one time; multidirectional verbs (ходить, ездить, летать) describe repeated, habitual, or round-trip motion without a single direction.

First conjugation endings

First-conjugation verbs take -у/-ю, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут/-ют. Most verbs ending in -ать/-ять and -еть belong here, with exceptions such as смотреть and видеть.

Second conjugation endings

Second-conjugation verbs take -у/-ю, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ат/-ят. Verbs in -ить plus eleven exceptions (гнать, держать, дышать, слышать, смотреть, видеть, ненавидеть, обидеть, терпеть, вертеть, зависеть) follow this pattern.

Past tense formation

The past tense is built from the infinitive stem plus -л, with agreement in gender and number: -л (masculine), -ла (feminine), -ло (neuter), -ли (plural). Verbs in -сти and -чь have irregular past forms.

Reflexive verbs with -ся

The postfix -ся/-сь marks reflexivity (мыться), reciprocity (встречаться), or passive meaning (дом строится). After consonants -ся is used; after vowels -сь appears in some forms.

Short-form adjectives

Short adjectives (красив, больна, рады) appear only in predicative position and agree in gender and number, not case. They often express a temporary state or an evaluative judgment.

Comparative adjective formation

Comparatives use -ее/-ей (быстрее), the prefix по- (побыстрее), or suppletive forms (хороший - лучше, плохой - хуже). The comparative is followed by чем or the genitive of comparison.

Numerals with nouns

After один the noun is singular nominative; after два/три/четыре it is singular genitive; after пять and above it is plural genitive. Compound numerals follow the last component's rule.

Negation and double negatives

Russian requires multiple negatives to reinforce rather than cancel each other: Я никогда ничего не говорил (I never said anything). Ни-words and не co-occur in the same clause.

Yes/no question intonation

A yes/no question is formed by intonation alone, with a sharp rise on the focused word, without changing word order or adding an auxiliary. Question words (кто, что, где) occupy the initial position.

Cyrillic soft sign ь

The soft sign does not represent a sound; it palatalizes the preceding consonant (мать, соль) or marks a grammatical category, such as feminine nouns ending in -ь or the second-person singular verb ending -ешь.

Hard sign ъ function

The hard sign appears only after prefixes ending in a consonant and before е, ё, ю, я, preventing palatalization and adding a y-glide: объявление, съезд, подъём.

Vowel reduction (akanye)

In unstressed syllables, о is pronounced like а (молоко sounds like малако), and е/я reduce toward и in pretonic position. This affects pronunciation but not spelling.

Spelling: ы after ц

After ц, ы is written in noun endings and adjective endings (отцы, куцый) but и is written in roots (цирк, цифра) and in words ending in -ция (революция).

Spelling: о/е after hushing

After ж, ш, ч, щ, stressed о appears in noun and adjective endings (врачом, большой) while ё appears in verb endings and many roots (печёт, жёлтый). Unstressed position uses е.

Prefixes з-/с-

Prefixes раз-/рос- and из-/ис- write з before voiced consonants and vowels, and с before voiceless consonants: разбить, расписать, издать, исправить. The rule reflects pronunciation.

Verb of motion prefix по-

Adding по- to a unidirectional verb creates a perfective meaning of starting out or a brief duration: пойти (to set off), поехать (to depart by vehicle), посидеть (to sit for a while).

Conditional with бы

The conditional mood uses the past-tense form plus the particle бы, which may follow the verb or another word: Я бы поехал. It expresses hypothetical, counterfactual, or polite wishes.

Imperative formation

The imperative uses -и (говори, пиши) or a zero ending (читай, встань). The particle -ка softens it (скажи-ка), and давай(те) plus infinitive expresses a joint or polite suggestion.

Aspect in the imperative

Imperfective imperatives invite or urge general activity (Садитесь, пожалуйста), while perfective imperatives request a specific completed result (Сядьте). Negative imperatives usually take the imperfective.

Patronymic naming system

Russian full names consist of first name, patronymic, and surname (Анна Сергеевна Иванова). The patronymic derives from the father's name plus -ович/-евич or -овна/-евна and signals formality.

Ты vs вы address

Вы is the polite or plural form used with strangers, elders, and formal settings; ты is used with family, friends, children, and close colleagues. Switching from вы to ты marks growing intimacy.

Russian New Year

New Year (Новый год) is the central winter holiday, celebrated with a decorated ёлка, Ded Moroz and Snegurochka, and gift-giving at midnight. It replaced Christmas as the main family holiday in the Soviet period.

Maslenitsa

Maslenitsa is a week-long pre-Lent festival marking the end of winter, featuring blini, outdoor games, and the burning of a straw effigy. It preserves pre-Christian Slavic seasonal ritual.

Victory Day

Victory Day on 9 May commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, marked by military parades, the St. George ribbon, and remembrance of the Great Patriotic War dead.

Golden Age of Russian literature

The 19th-century Golden Age produced Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Pushkin's Eugene Onegin established the Russian literary language and the Onegin stanza form.

Russian formalism

Russian Formalism, associated with Shklovsky, Jakobson, and the Moscow and Petersburg linguistic circles, emphasized literariness, defamiliarization (остранение), and the analysis of poetic devices over biographical or social readings.