INTRODUCTION & SPY 101
Hi! Privet! Привет!
I guess if you landed on this page you either are interested in learning something about Russian language or you are not. Hopefully, you are, or else, I mean get out of here... HAHA, No, I am not THAT rude, just feeding the stereotype that us, Russians, are harsh heartless folks living in the land where atomic war has long began. ;)
Seriously now, welcome to my blog. I hope I will be useful in helping you learn Russian at least at the most basic level. You are welcome to provide your suggestions for topics I need to cover. Are you travelling to Russia sometime soon? Then you may need few useful phrases to get around and show off in front of your new Russian friends! Have you just met that attractive Russian girl? (I should include "/man" , but let's admit that's not as probable ;)? Then impressing her (I hope we agreed there's no place for "him" on here :P) with few sweet phrases can be on your list too. Whatever the reason is for you to catch up on some Russian language, rest assured I will be somewhere near in my Matryoshka outfit always ready to share some of my simple knowledge.
Ah yeah, I guess I forgot to do what polite people think of in the 1st place -to introduce myself. )
My name is Irina. And if you are already somehow familiar with the Slavic world, or are yet to conquer it, I am most probably going to be not the last Irina in your life. ) I live in Moscow and no, I don't drink vodka 24/7. It's mosCOW, so we drink milk in here, alright? ;) And by the way, you can call me as simple as Comrade Iri ;)
In any case, it's nice to meet you, folks. Let's get started with the 1st Lesson, which will be called SPY 101.
Yes, that's write, as a Spy the first thing you will need to learn is...decoding the secret codes.
Here's the 1st : МАГАЗИН. That's a very important place where you will be able to top up your energy once in Russia. They are everywhere, but you won't know what they are, even if you know how to say the word, simply because you will not be able to match it to the letters you see on a building. It's basically like being a kid: you know the words, but you can't read them. I assume you are past the age you could not read (taking into account you've managed reading to this point), so learning how to read Russian letters is the KEY.
Most people say, oh, Russian language looks as horrifying as Chinese or Arabic, BUT here's the good news, folks - we have stand alone letters which you can learn and read easily, as Russian language is similar to Latin in how you read letters- you just read them all, not skipping half of them like in French or English language (Queue for Q, what?!) or turning same combinations in totally different sounds (e.i. blOOd/flOOr/hOOk). You will be surprised that many letters are pronounced the same as their Latin alphabet twins, e.i. A, T, K, M. Some look the same, but sound completely different, and here's where practice and only practice will make you master the art of decoding the Russian letters into something readable. Let's take a look at the secret code and try to decode the word I gave your earlier - "МАГАЗИН":
М = М (that's right, no brainer!)
A = A (aha, I told ya!) - pronounced as A in father, or U in word mUg.
Г = G (that's the kind of letter you should just welcome into your world, pronounced as g in Go)
A = A
З= Z (Yea, it looks like number 3, and it can be easy to remember it this way maybe)
И = I (That's the famous upside down N, which scares everyone but should not scare you, as I have 2 of those in my name ;) and you pronounce it as EE in feet, or EA in flEA.
H=N (Hard one, but you just gonna remember that it's not an h anymore, it's n ;).
Congrats, you've encrypted your first word, my dear spies. Ok, so you probably wonder what this word means Magazin! Magazine? Nah, it may look familiar, but don't let it fool you. Actually, many Russian speakers confuse these words too, and may be looking for a magazine to buy a bottle of water on a hot day somewhere in an English-speaking community. ) Aha, that's right, МАГАЗИН means shop. Pretty important , I guess, no? :P
Let me now quickly cover all the 33 beautiful Russian letters one by one now, before I give you a small exercise to work on (yes, I'm THAT evil) :
A = A (Cmon! you know that already, folks!)
Б=B (pronounced as B in bad)
В= V (pronounced as V in vine)
Г = G (pronounced as G in Goal)
Д = D (in handwriting capital D is pretty similar to D,so you can just use the normal capital D, as this letter can be quite hard to master even for the Russian kids ;), it's pronounced as d in dome)
Е= E [je] (it's pronounced as ye in YEt)
Ё = YO [jo] ( that's right, you pronounce this letter as YO! Whatsup? Or YO in Yolk) ;)
Ж=ZH (it sounds as S in pleaSure, or j in French bonJour).
З= Z (pronounced as z in zipper),
И = I (pronounced as E in me)
Й= I kratkoe (kratkoe=краткое=brief) (it is a very soft brief sound similar to И, but it interapts quickly; it is pronounced similar to YE in YEs with rising intonation)
К = K (pronounced as C in Cake, or K in Karaoke)
Л = L (pronounced as L in Leg)
М = M (pronounced as M in Milk)
Н= N (pronounced as N in No)
О= O (pronounced as OO in Door)
П= P (pronounced as P in sPell or Pig)
Р = R (pronounced as R in Robot)
С = S (pronounced as S in Sea)
Т = T (pronounced as T in Tourist)
У=U (pronounced as U in bUll, or OO in mOOd)
Ф= F (pronounced as F in Final)
Х= KH (pronounced as 'h" in hahaha, or ch in loch or kfh in KHaki).
Ц= TS (it doesn't have similarity in English, but still is close to combination of letters T and S, if you say them quickly together, like in let's)
Ч=CH (pronounced as CH in chair)
Ш = SH (pronounced close to SH in SHarp)
Щ= SCH (pronounced close to S in Sure, famous Russian borsch has actually 4 letters, SCH being the Щ)
Ь = мягкий знак (myagkiy znak or soft mark). This one is also silent, but unlike Ъ makes the preceding letter much softer and is more common in words than the Ъ. For instance, wonderful word ЛЮБОВЬ which means LOVE, has it ( thus that's a very important letter ;). You would pronounce this word as LYUBOV, but V beinf very very soft, you don't even pronounce the whole letter, it just make a small brief touch if it!)
Э =E (it's pronounced as E in mEt, or A in cAt).
Ю=YU (it's funny but this letter sounds exactly as word YOU in English)
Я= YA[ja] (pronounced as YA in YArd, and it is a word by itself already meaning I or I am ;)
And now, try to encrypt the following summer related words and phrases for me:
СОЛНЦЕ
МОРЕ
ЛЕТО
ЧЕРЕПАХА
Я ТЕБЯ ЛЮБЛЮ
Answers will be at the bottom of the page, if you keep scrolling down ;)
Here's Cheburashka, a famous Russian cartoon character. Listen to this Friendship Song and KEEP SCROLLING)
Tired? Maybe some Kefir for you? Don't know what it is? A Russian dairy product so good for your health, you going to encounter it in all МАГАЗИНs in Russia, so don't be puzzled then.
Ahhhh! Finally you are here:
Compare your answers to mine, let's see who's mastered it, my dear Spies:
СОЛНЦЕ - SOLNTSE (SUN, hope it's shining bright upon you ;)
МОРЕ - MORE (SEA!!! don't forget, you pronounce each letter, it's not same as More in English, more like more in italian aMORE, E being more clear and long eeeeeeee)
ЛЕТО - LETO (it's majesty SUMMER)!
Я ТЕБЯ ЛЮБЛЮ - YA TEBYA LYUBLYU (I love you! Yes, summer, we love you ;)
ЧЕРЕПАХА - CHEREPAKHA (TURTLE! Now that the summer is here, it's fine to be slow, so take it slow ;)
Next Lesson will be more closely related to Vocabulary, which is the Key for travelers of any kind and random show off cases ;)
Hope the information is of any value to you. Don't hesitate to give suggestions and pose questions!
Sincerely yours!
Comrade Iri
Hi! Privet! Привет!
I guess if you landed on this page you either are interested in learning something about Russian language or you are not. Hopefully, you are, or else, I mean get out of here... HAHA, No, I am not THAT rude, just feeding the stereotype that us, Russians, are harsh heartless folks living in the land where atomic war has long began. ;)
Seriously now, welcome to my blog. I hope I will be useful in helping you learn Russian at least at the most basic level. You are welcome to provide your suggestions for topics I need to cover. Are you travelling to Russia sometime soon? Then you may need few useful phrases to get around and show off in front of your new Russian friends! Have you just met that attractive Russian girl? (I should include "/man" , but let's admit that's not as probable ;)? Then impressing her (I hope we agreed there's no place for "him" on here :P) with few sweet phrases can be on your list too. Whatever the reason is for you to catch up on some Russian language, rest assured I will be somewhere near in my Matryoshka outfit always ready to share some of my simple knowledge.
Ah yeah, I guess I forgot to do what polite people think of in the 1st place -to introduce myself. )
My name is Irina. And if you are already somehow familiar with the Slavic world, or are yet to conquer it, I am most probably going to be not the last Irina in your life. ) I live in Moscow and no, I don't drink vodka 24/7. It's mosCOW, so we drink milk in here, alright? ;) And by the way, you can call me as simple as Comrade Iri ;)
In any case, it's nice to meet you, folks. Let's get started with the 1st Lesson, which will be called SPY 101.
Yes, that's write, as a Spy the first thing you will need to learn is...decoding the secret codes.
Here's the 1st : МАГАЗИН. That's a very important place where you will be able to top up your energy once in Russia. They are everywhere, but you won't know what they are, even if you know how to say the word, simply because you will not be able to match it to the letters you see on a building. It's basically like being a kid: you know the words, but you can't read them. I assume you are past the age you could not read (taking into account you've managed reading to this point), so learning how to read Russian letters is the KEY.
Most people say, oh, Russian language looks as horrifying as Chinese or Arabic, BUT here's the good news, folks - we have stand alone letters which you can learn and read easily, as Russian language is similar to Latin in how you read letters- you just read them all, not skipping half of them like in French or English language (Queue for Q, what?!) or turning same combinations in totally different sounds (e.i. blOOd/flOOr/hOOk). You will be surprised that many letters are pronounced the same as their Latin alphabet twins, e.i. A, T, K, M. Some look the same, but sound completely different, and here's where practice and only practice will make you master the art of decoding the Russian letters into something readable. Let's take a look at the secret code and try to decode the word I gave your earlier - "МАГАЗИН":
A = A (aha, I told ya!) - pronounced as A in father, or U in word mUg.
Г = G (that's the kind of letter you should just welcome into your world, pronounced as g in Go)
A = A
З= Z (Yea, it looks like number 3, and it can be easy to remember it this way maybe)
И = I (That's the famous upside down N, which scares everyone but should not scare you, as I have 2 of those in my name ;) and you pronounce it as EE in feet, or EA in flEA.
H=N (Hard one, but you just gonna remember that it's not an h anymore, it's n ;).
Congrats, you've encrypted your first word, my dear spies. Ok, so you probably wonder what this word means Magazin! Magazine? Nah, it may look familiar, but don't let it fool you. Actually, many Russian speakers confuse these words too, and may be looking for a magazine to buy a bottle of water on a hot day somewhere in an English-speaking community. ) Aha, that's right, МАГАЗИН means shop. Pretty important , I guess, no? :P
Let me now quickly cover all the 33 beautiful Russian letters one by one now, before I give you a small exercise to work on (yes, I'm THAT evil) :
A = A (Cmon! you know that already, folks!)
Б=B (pronounced as B in bad)
В= V (pronounced as V in vine)
Г = G (pronounced as G in Goal)
Д = D (in handwriting capital D is pretty similar to D,so you can just use the normal capital D, as this letter can be quite hard to master even for the Russian kids ;), it's pronounced as d in dome)
Е= E [je] (it's pronounced as ye in YEt)
Ё = YO [jo] ( that's right, you pronounce this letter as YO! Whatsup? Or YO in Yolk) ;)
Ж=ZH (it sounds as S in pleaSure, or j in French bonJour).
З= Z (pronounced as z in zipper),
И = I (pronounced as E in me)
Й= I kratkoe (kratkoe=краткое=brief) (it is a very soft brief sound similar to И, but it interapts quickly; it is pronounced similar to YE in YEs with rising intonation)
К = K (pronounced as C in Cake, or K in Karaoke)
Л = L (pronounced as L in Leg)
М = M (pronounced as M in Milk)
Н= N (pronounced as N in No)
О= O (pronounced as OO in Door)
П= P (pronounced as P in sPell or Pig)
Р = R (pronounced as R in Robot)
С = S (pronounced as S in Sea)
Т = T (pronounced as T in Tourist)
У=U (pronounced as U in bUll, or OO in mOOd)
Ф= F (pronounced as F in Final)
Х= KH (pronounced as 'h" in hahaha, or ch in loch or kfh in KHaki).
Ц= TS (it doesn't have similarity in English, but still is close to combination of letters T and S, if you say them quickly together, like in let's)
Ч=CH (pronounced as CH in chair)
Ш = SH (pronounced close to SH in SHarp)
Щ= SCH (pronounced close to S in Sure, famous Russian borsch has actually 4 letters, SCH being the Щ)
Ъ = твёрдый знак (tvyordiy znak or hard mark) (this letter is silent, but is used between letters at times to prevents palatization of the preceding consonant, that is if you see this sign you should just pronounce the letter before it, without making a consonation with the following, for instance word ВЪЕЗД which means Drive-In, should be pronounced as V-EZD. The hard mark intensifies the V, makes it hard and kind of separates it from the rest of the word. You make a small pause, before continuing. I really should make a video on that. But don't worry, there're not so many words in Russian language which have this letter. ;))
Ы = OK, this is a hard one, and again, thank God there're not sooo many words with this one, but still you better be familiar with it. It is probably easier to pronounce it if you try to say И (the one as E in mE) with you mouth open wide. So the strange sound from the back of your throat is the letter Ы ;)Ь = мягкий знак (myagkiy znak or soft mark). This one is also silent, but unlike Ъ makes the preceding letter much softer and is more common in words than the Ъ. For instance, wonderful word ЛЮБОВЬ which means LOVE, has it ( thus that's a very important letter ;). You would pronounce this word as LYUBOV, but V beinf very very soft, you don't even pronounce the whole letter, it just make a small brief touch if it!)
Э =E (it's pronounced as E in mEt, or A in cAt).
Ю=YU (it's funny but this letter sounds exactly as word YOU in English)
Я= YA[ja] (pronounced as YA in YArd, and it is a word by itself already meaning I or I am ;)
And now, try to encrypt the following summer related words and phrases for me:
СОЛНЦЕ
МОРЕ
ЛЕТО
ЧЕРЕПАХА
Я ТЕБЯ ЛЮБЛЮ
Answers will be at the bottom of the page, if you keep scrolling down ;)
Here's Cheburashka, a famous Russian cartoon character. Listen to this Friendship Song and KEEP SCROLLING)
Tired? Maybe some Kefir for you? Don't know what it is? A Russian dairy product so good for your health, you going to encounter it in all МАГАЗИНs in Russia, so don't be puzzled then.
Ahhhh! Finally you are here:
Compare your answers to mine, let's see who's mastered it, my dear Spies:
СОЛНЦЕ - SOLNTSE (SUN, hope it's shining bright upon you ;)
МОРЕ - MORE (SEA!!! don't forget, you pronounce each letter, it's not same as More in English, more like more in italian aMORE, E being more clear and long eeeeeeee)
ЛЕТО - LETO (it's majesty SUMMER)!
Я ТЕБЯ ЛЮБЛЮ - YA TEBYA LYUBLYU (I love you! Yes, summer, we love you ;)
ЧЕРЕПАХА - CHEREPAKHA (TURTLE! Now that the summer is here, it's fine to be slow, so take it slow ;)
Next Lesson will be more closely related to Vocabulary, which is the Key for travelers of any kind and random show off cases ;)
Hope the information is of any value to you. Don't hesitate to give suggestions and pose questions!
Sincerely yours!
Comrade Iri
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