Russian guide - Guía de ruso

The Russian language (in Russian русский язык, romanization russki yazyk, pronunciation [ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]) is an Indo-European language of the East Slavic branch, and official language in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan; widely used in eastern Ukraine, being a recognized or co-official regional language in some regions and cities in the south and east of the country, and in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia; widely used in Estonia and Latvia (whose populations are composed of one-quarter to one-third Russian speakers) and de facto official in Transnistria (Moldova region). In addition, it is one of the six official languages ​​of the United Nations. It is also spoken by important sectors of the population of the other nations once belonging to the Soviet Union.

It is the most widely spoken among the Slavic languages ​​and, the seventh among all the languages ​​of the world (by number of native speakers), being the fourth most spoken language in the world taking into account the total speakers.

Alphabet

Lyrics	Transliteration
Аа	to
Бб	b
Вв	v
Гг	g
Дд	d
Ее	and
Ёё	io
Жж	j
Зз	z
Ии	i
Йй	Y
Кк	k
Лл	l
Мм	m
Нн	n
Оо	or
Пп	p
Рр	r
Сс	s
Тт	t
Уу	or
Фф	F
Хх	kh
Цц	ts
Чч	tch
Шш	ch
Щщ	chtch
ъ	without sound
ы	Y
ь	without sound
Ээ	AND
Юю	you
Яя	already

Some basic rules

Russian consonants (and Slavic ones in general) are hard (tongue retracted towards the back of the mouth, towards the pharynx) or soft (tongue advanced below the front of the palate). The pronunciation of consonants more or less clearly influences that of vowels, which the spelling reflects:

• To indicate a soft consonant when it is at the end of a word or in front of another consonant, we generally use the letter ь called "soft sign".
• Some consonants are always soft or always hard, the letters denoting the vowels that follow are arbitrarily fixed: we write ЧА, ШИ but pronounce TCHy-A (as if there was an я), CH-Î (as if there was a Ы).
• The letters that designate the vowels are listed in alphabetical order. They are actually organized into five pairs, each of which represents one of the five vowels we hear in Russian:

a / я, э / e, or / ё, ы / и, and / ю.

• Russian reduces atonal vowels like English and there are sometimes silent letters, but much less than in Romance languages.

• In the Middle Ages, the vowels pronounced like the atonal vowels above; in modern language if they indicate whether the preceding consonant is hard or soft.

ъ TVYOR-di znak

fixed sign (systematically removed at the end of a word, rare in modern Russian)

ь MYAH-ki znak

soft sign

Typical expressions

Привет. (pri-VIET) / Hello

пока. (pa-KA) / Goodbye

Как дела? (kak diela?) / How is he?

Как вас зовут? (kak vas za-VOUT?) / What's your name?

Меня зовут ____ (mi-gna za-VOUT _____) / He called me __

Очень приятно. (O-tchen pri-YAT-na) / Nice to meet you

Извините. (iz-vi-NI-tyè) / Excuse me

Пожалуйста. (pa-JAL-sta) / Please

Спасибо. (spa-SI-ba) / Thank you

Да (da) / yes

Нет (grandson) / no

Я не говорю по-русски. (ya gné ga-va-RIOU pa-ROU-ski) / I don't speak Russian

Где туалет? (GDYÈ toi-LETTE?) / Where is the bathroom?

Помогите! (pa-ma-GUI-tyè!) / Help!

Interrogative pronouns^[1]

Interrogative sentences in Russian are constructed the same as in Spanish, that is, the order of the words in the sentence does not change, but the intonation does and the emphasis is on the word on which the question falls. On the other hand, in Russian there is no question mark (or exclamation mark) at the beginning of a sentence. The interrogative pronouns are the following:

• что? [chto] that?
• кто? [kto] who?
• где? [gdié] where? Let's see some examples:
• Ч то это? [chto éta]: What is this?
• Э то стол. [éta stol]: This is a table.
• К то это? [kto éta]: Who is it?
• Э то Иван [éta iván]: It's Ivan.
• Где Иван? [gdié iván]: Where is Ivan?
• О н там. [on tam]: He is there.