Cathedral inside the Moscow Kremlin. Click here for more pictures from Russia.

Russian Grammatical Tables

Noun Declension

Exceptions to the nominative case endings listed above:

• There are a few masculine nouns ending in -а/я. These are mostly:
  • Proper nouns, often Russian versions of foreign names, e.g. Лука, or Luka.
  • Many diminutives of Russian masculine names, e.g. Юра, diminutive of Юрий, or Ваня, diminutive of Иван.
  • Names of family relations, e.g. дядя, or "uncle".
  • So, see the classic piece of literature Дядя Ваня or Uncle Vanya.
• Nouns ending in -ь can be either masculine or feminine:
  • Nouns ending in any of ж, ч, ш, or щ followed by ь are feminine, e.g. дочь or "daughter", вещь or "thing".
  • However, nouns ending in any of ж, ч, ш, or щ and not followed by ь are masculine.
  • Nouns ending in -сть and almost always feminine, although a common exception is гость or "guest".
  • Otherwise, look it up!
• There are just ten neuter nouns ending in -мя, the most common are имя or "name", and время or "time".

Exceptions to the genitive case endings listed above:

• A few feminine plural words end in -ей, e.g.: тётя —> тётей
• Some neuter plural words end in й, e.g.: море —> морей, and здание —> зданий

Adjective Declension

Personal Pronoun Declension

Interrogative Pronoun Declension

As an adjective, "what" is какой and "which" is который. They decline like adjectives.

Possessive Pronoun Declension

These possessive pronouns do not decline:
his = его
her = её
their = их

Verbs — Present Tense

Conjugation I, Infinitive ends -ть

читать conjugates as:

Conjugation II, Infinitive ends -ить

говорить conjugates as:

Verbs — Past Tense

For regular verbs, replace -ть with:
-л masculine singular
-ла feminine singular
-ло neuter singular
-ли plural

For reflexive verbs, make the ending:
-лся masculine singular
-лась feminine singular
-лось neuter singular
-лись plural

Verbs ending in -ти are exceptions, and do not generalize easily. See a detailed grammar or table of verb endings.

Verbs — Future Tense

Use the future tense of -быть with the infinitive of the main verb.

Suggested references

This page is intended for my use as a simple set of tables. For real answers, see:

• The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners — Readable, it can answer my questions or remind me what I've forgotten.
• A Comprehensive Russian Grammar — Far more than I will ever know...

Home Unix/Linux Networking Infosec Travel Technical Radio Site Map Contact