Russian Lesson 10 - Part II - Babel Yak

Learn Russian with Babel Yak's new system. You read, hear and then speak - the easiest way to memorize a language.

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This is Lesson 1 of Babel Yak's Russian Unit I. It is not similar to other language learning programs in that:

1. Our program is comprehensive

2. You are not constrained to sitting next to a computer

3. You learn on-the-go

4. Our videos are made specifically for portable players such as iPod, zune or any other MP3/MP4 player.

5. You learn the alphabet naturally as you progress into the lesson. Phonetic spelling also makes it easy to pronounce the words (read the bottom line of the video text)

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• language
• humanities
• learn
• russian
• cyrillic
• alphabet
• slavonic
• foreign
• langauge

[dmc949]

great russian tutorials, many thanks.

[ProphetLuong]

I, too, am very confused about this A/O switch until my Russian private tutor told me about the stress. I asked her so when do you know where and when to stress it to which she responded that it's simple a matter of memorization and practice! LOL!!!

Wow, I can see Russian being a very very hard language. I think I'll just stick to Vietnamese, French & English. LOL!!!

[nejmenvakul]

Thank you!

[BoksiKoksi]

O in standard pronunciation is pronounced as A every time when it is not stressed. That's simple.

[nejmenvakul]

O and A in the Russian language was very confusing for me in the beginning since O is sometimes pronounced as A, but now I'm starting to understand...

If O is the first vocal in a word it's pronounced as an A, right?

Correct me if i'm wrong :)

[wilddaffodil]

Maybe it is because you can put between the verb "любить" and the noun another verb: I don't like (to drink) beer. Even though "to drink" is missing it makes the noun take the accusative case. That is my little theory. Anyhow, this can be a good way to remember this exception.

[wilddaffodil]

But it seems that after the verb "любить" (to like, to love) the noun has to come in the accusative case. And cannot think of any other exception like that. You should say " я люблю пиво/воду/сок - я не люблю пиво/воду/сок"( I like beer/water/juice or whatever), but never "пива/воды/сока".

[wilddaffodil]

It is more preferable to use genetive case with the negation, but in some cases you can use either genetive or the accusative case ( я не смотрел этот фильм - a.c. ; я не смотрел этого фильма - g.c. I didn't watch this movie).

[wilddaffodil]

I totally agree with the first point, indeed it is not an exception, but a part of a rule - masculine animate nouns have the same form in the genetive and in the accusative cases.

But the second point gives something to think about.

[Mishgan1983]

It's not exception and you are wrong sometimes. Ya vizhu druga - I see friend. It's Accusative case. But.. Eto dom druga - It's house of friend. It's genetive case. ! In Russian masculine animate nouns (like person) have the same form in genetive and accusative cases (vizhu druga (a.c.), dom druga (g.c.) ! But cases are not same and ones don't have to be replaced. Like non animate and neuter nouns have the same form in accusative case and nominative cases