User:Speckler/Russian grammar

Russian grammar encompasses:
 * a highly synthetic morphology
 * a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
 * a Church Slavonic inheritance;
 * a Western European style;
 * a polished vernacular foundation.

The Russian language has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place.

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

NOTE: In the discussion below, various terms are used in the meaning they have in the standard Russian discussions of historical grammar. In particular, aorist, imperfect, etc. are considered verbal tenses rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs.

Nouns, categories
Genders: 3, masculine, feminine, neuter

Numbers: 2, singular, plural

Definiteness: no distinction

Cases: 6, nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, prepositional, instrumental

Gender
Russian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Gender is assigned according to the ending.

Number
There are two numbers in Russian: singular and plural.

Definiteness
There are no definite or indefinite articles in Russian. The definiteness of a noun is determined from the context in which that noun appears. For example, "паспорт" could mean either "the passport" or "a passport". There are however some means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite. They are:
 * 1) The use of a direct object in the genitive instead of the accusative in negation signifies that the noun is indefinite, compare: "Я не вижу книги" ("I don't see a book" or "I don't see any book") and "Я не вижу книгу" ("I don't see the book").
 * 2) The use of the numeral one sometimes signifies that the noun is indefinite, e.g.: "Почему ты так долго?" - "Да так, встретил одного друга, пришлось поговорить" ("Why did it take you so long?" - "You see, I met a friend and had to talk").
 * 3) Word order may also be used for this purpose, compare "В комнату вбежал мальчик" ("A boy rushed into the room") and "Мальчик вбежал в комнату" ("The boy rushed into the room").
 * 4) The use of plural form instead of singular may signify that the noun is indefinite: "Вы купите это в магазинах." - "Вы купите это в магазине." ("You can buy this in a shop." lit. "...in shops" - "You can buy this in the shop.")

Case
There are six cases in Russian: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, prepositional, and instrumental. Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks,  although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six simple cases). The most well-recognized additional cases are locative (в лесу, в крови, в слезах), partitive (сапог, чулок, вольт), and several forms of vocative (господи, деда, батянь).

.
The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four, eg. (два стула, "two chairs", recategorized today as a genitive singular), it has been lost.

The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative form in many paradigms has two possible forms depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (people and animals), the accusative form is identical to the genitive form. For inanimate referents, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form. This principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the first declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). In the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation "N or G" in the row corresponding to the accusative case.

In Russian there are three declension types, named simply first, second, and third declensions. The first declension (the second in Russian school grammars) is used for masculine and most neuter nouns. The second declension (the first in school grammars) is used for most feminine nouns. The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in ь and for neuter nouns ending in мя.

First declension - masculine nouns
Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with - (thus no ending).

Notes:
 * 1) After a sibilant (ж, ч, ш, or щ) or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
 * 2) After a sibilant, ей is written.
 * 3) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

First declension - neuter nouns

 * 1) After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
 * 2) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
 * 3) For nouns ending in ие in the nominative singular, и is written.
 * 4) After a consonant use ь otherwise use й.

Second declension - feminine nouns (primarily)

 * 1) After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
 * 2) After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
 * 3) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

Adjectives
Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

Declension

 * 1) After a sibilant or velar consonant, и, instead of ы, is written.
 * 2) When a masculine adjectives ends in -ой, the -ой is stressed
 * 3) After a sibilant consonant, neuter adjectives end in ее. It is sometimes called the хорошее rule.

Russian differentiates between hard-stem (as above) and soft-stem adjectives. Note the following:
 * Masculine adjectives ending in the nominative in ий and neuters in ее are declined as follows: его, ему, им, and ем.
 * Feminine adjectives in яя are declined ей and юю.
 * Plural adjectives in ие are declined их, им, ими and их.

Personal pronouns

 * Russian is subject to T-V distinction. The respectful form of the singular you is the same as the plural form, but beginning with a capital letter: Вы, Вас, Вам etc. Compare the distinction between du, sie and Sie in German.
 * When a preposition is used directly before a 3rd-person pronoun, н- is prefixed: у него, с неё, etc. Because the prepositional case always occurs after a preposition, the third person prepositional always starts with an н-.

Demonstrative pronouns
этот "this" and тот "that"

Possessive pronouns
мой "my" and твой "your (sing.)"

наш "our" and ваш "your (plur.)"


 * The third person possessive pronouns его (masc./neut. sing.), её (fem. sing.) and их (plural) are invariant genitive forms.

Interrogative pronouns
кто "who" and что "what"

чей "whose"

Numbers
Cardinal Numbers
 * 0 ноль or нуль
 * 1 один одна одно   (раз is used when counting)
 * 2 два (m., n.), две (f.)
 * 3 три
 * 4 четыре
 * 5 пять
 * 6 шесть
 * 7 семь
 * 8 восемь
 * 9 девять
 * 10 десять

Ordinal Numbers Nominative case, masculine.
 * 1st первый
 * 2nd второй
 * 3rd третий
 * 4th четвёртый
 * 5th пятый
 * 6th шестой
 * 7th седьмой
 * 8th восьмой
 * 9th девятый
 * 10th десятый

Verbs
Grammatical conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with periphrastic forms for the future and subjunctive, as well as imperative forms and present/past participles, distinguished by adjectival and adverbial usage (see adjectival participle and adverbial participle). There are two voices, active and middle/passive, which is constructed by the addition of a reflexive suffix -ся/сь/- to the active form. An interesting feature is that the past tense is actually made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the participle in an originally periphrastic perfect tense formed with the present of быть (like the perfect passive tense in Latin), "to be", which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (откуда есть пошла русская земля, "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). Verbal inflection today is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient aorist, imperfect, and (periphrastic) pluperfect tenses have been lost, though the aorist sporadically occurs in secular literature as late as the second half of the eighteenth century, and survives as an odd form in direct narration (а он пойди да скажи, etc., exactly equivalent to the English colloquial "so he goes and says"), recategorized as a usage of the imperative. The loss of three of the former six tenses has been offset by the development, as in other Slavic languages, of verbal aspect. Most verbs come in pairs, one with imperfective or continuous connotation, the other with perfective or completed, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root. E.g., спать (to sleep) is imperfective; поспать (to take a nap) is perfective.

The present tense of the verb быть is today normally used only in the third-person singular form, which is often used for all the persons and numbers. As late as the nineteenth century, the full conjugation, which today is never used, was somewhat more natural: forms occur in the Synodal Bible, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (былины ) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian:

Present-future tense
There are two forms used to conjugate the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs.

The first conjugation (I) is used in verb stems ending in a consonant, -у, or -о, or in -а when not preceded by a sibilant:


 * -у/-ю, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут/-ют
 * -у/-ут is used after a hard consonant, a vowel or ш, щ or ч; otherwise -ю/-ют is used.
 * A mutating ultimate consonant may cause ending change.
 * е becomes ё when stressed.

The second conjugation (II) is used in verb stems ending in -и or -е, or in -а when preceded by a sibilant:


 * -у/-ю, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ат/ят
 * -у/-ат is used after a hard consonant, a vowel or ш, щ or ч; otherwise -ю/-ят is used.
 * Similar to the conjugation I, a mutating ultimate consonant may change an ending. Example: попро-сить — попро-шу, попро-сят (to have solicited — [I, they] will have solicited).

Past tense
The Russian past tense is gender specific: –л for masculine singular subjects, –ла for feminine singular subjects, –ло for neuter singular subjects, and –ли for plural subjects. This gender specificity applies to all persons; thus, to say "I slept", a male speaker would say я спал, while a female speaker would say я спала.

First conjugation
вернуть — to return [something] (stem: верн–)

читать — to read (stem: чита–)

Second conjugation
говорить — to speak (stem: говор–)

Irregular verbs
The following verbs have a stem change. The stem part of the verb is in the parentheses. The endings are regular.

брать (бер–) — to take


 * беру, берёшь, берёт, берём ,берёте, берут

вести (вед–) — to lead


 * веду, ведёшь, ведёт, ведём, ведёте, ведут

жить (жив–) — to live


 * живу, живёшь, живёт, живём, живёте, живут

звать (зов–) — to call


 * зову, зовёшь, зовёт, зовём, зовёте, зовут

давать (да–) — to give


 * даю, даёшь, даёт, даём, даёте, дают

идти (ид–) — to go


 * иду, идёшь, идёт, идём, идёте, идут

писать (пиш-) — to write (notice the с becomes a ш)


 * пишу, пишешь, пишет, пишем, пишете, пишут

The following verbs endings do not conform to the first or second conjugations.

дать — to give


 * дам, дашь, даст, дадим, дадите, дадут

есть — to eat


 * ем, ешь, ест, едим, едите, едят

The following verbs are irregular in the first person. Notice the д becomes ж in the first person. This is a common irregularity on stems ending with д.

ходить (ход–) — to walk


 * хожу, ходишь, ходит, ходим, ходите, ходят

ездить (езд–) — to travel


 * езжу, ездишь, ездит, ездим, ездите, ездят

видеть (вид–) — to see


 * вижу, видишь, видит, видим, видите, видят

Word formation
Russian has on hand a set of prefixes, prepositional and adverbial in nature, as well as diminutive, augmentative, and frequentative suffixes and infixes. All of these can be stacked one upon the other, to produce multiple derivatives of a given word. Participles and other inflexional forms may also have a special connotation. For example:

Russian has also proved friendly to agglutinative compounds. As an extreme case:

Purists (as Dmitry Ushakov in the preface to his dictionary) frown on such words. But here is the name of a street in St. Petersburg:

Some linguists have suggested that Russian agglutination stems from Church Slavonic. In the twentieth century, abbreviated components appeared in the compound:

Syntax
The basic word order, both in conversation and the written language, is Subject Verb Object in transitive clauses, and free word order in intransitive clauses. However, because the relations are marked by inflection, considerable latitude in word order is allowed even in transitive clauses, and all the permutations can be used. For example, the words in the phrase "я пошёл в магазин" (I went to the shop) can be arranged while maintaining grammatical correctness.
 * Я пошёл в магазин.
 * Я в магазин пошёл.
 * Пошёл я в магазин.
 * Пошёл в магазин я.
 * В магазин я пошёл.
 * В магазин пошёл я.

The word order expresses the logical stress, and the degree of definiteness. Primary emphasis tends to be initial, with a slightly weaker emphasis at the end.

Negation
Like most other languages but unlike English, multiple negatives are compulsory in Russian, as in никто никогда никому ничего не прощает "No-one ever forgives anyone for anything" (literally, "no-one never to no-one nothing does not forgive").

Coordination
The most common types of coordination expressed by compound sentences in Russian are conjoining (Соединительные отношения), oppositional (Противительные отношения), and separative (Разделительные отношения). Additionally, the Russian grammar considers comparative (сопоставительные), complemental (присоединительные), and clarifying (пояснительные). Other flavors of the meanings may also be distinguished.

Conjoining coordinations are formed with the help of the conjunctions "и", "да", "ни...ни" (simultaneous negation), также, тоже (the latter two have complemental flavor). Most commonly the conjoining coordination expresses enumeration, simultaneity or immediate sequence. They may also have a cause-effect flavor.

Oppositional coordinations are formed with the help of the oppositional conjunctions а, но, да, однако, зато, же, etc. They express the semantic relations of opposition, comparison, incompatibility, restriction, or compensation.

Separative coordinations are formed with the help of the separative conjunctions или, либо, ли...ли, то...то, etc., and are used to express alternation or incompatibility of things expressed in the coordinated sentences.

Complemental and clarifying coordination expresses additional, but not subordinated, information related to the first sentence.

Comparative coordination is a semantical flavor of the oppositional one.

Common coordinating conjunctions include:
 * и "and", enumerative, complemental;
 * а "and", comparative, tending to "but";
 * но "but", oppositional;
 * ибо "for", clarifying.

The distinction between и and а is important. И implies a following complemental state that does not oppose the antecedent. А implies a following state that acts in opposition to the antecedent, but more weakly than но "but".

The distinction between и and а developed after the medieval period; originally, и and а were closer in meaning. The unpunctuated ending of the Song of Igor illustrates the potential confusion. The final five words in modern spelling, князьям слава а дружине аминь can be understood either as "Glory to the princes and to their host! Amen." or "Glory to the princes, and amen (R.I.P.) to their troops". Although majority opinion is definitely with the first interpretation, there is no full consensus. The psychological difference between the two is quite obvious.

Subordination
Complementizers (subordinating conjunctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases) include:
 * если if;
 * потому что, так как because
 * чтобы in order to
 * после того, как after
 * хотя although

In general, there are fewer subordinate clauses than in English, because the participles (причастие ) and adverbial participles (деепричастие ) often take the place of a relative pronoun/verb combination. For example:

Absolute construction
Despite the inflexional nature of Russian, there is no equivalent in the modern language to the English nominative absolute or the Latin ablative absolute construction. The old language had an absolute construction, with the noun put into the dative. Like so many other archaisms, it is retained in Church Slavonic. Among the last known examples in literary Russian occurs in Radishchev's Journey from Petersburg to Moscow (Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву ), 1790:
 * Едущу мне из Едрова, Анюта из мысли  моей  не  выходила.  "As I was leaving Yedrovo village, I could not stop thinking about Aniuta."