Vocabulary

The Weather

If you don’t know what to say to someone you’ve just met, “It’s hot today” might do the trick! Grammatically speaking, talking about the weather in Russian is a piece of cake. To say "It's hot" you need just one word: Жарко. You can add "сегодня" (today) or "сейчас" (now):

Сегодня жарко. = It's hot today.

As you can see, you don't need a verb or a subject!

You can use the same construction for other weather conditions, too:

Сейчас холодно. = It's cold now.

Сегодня солнечно. = It's sunny today.

Ветрено. = It's windy.

Туманно. = It's foggy.

Even though "жарко" is translated into English as "hot" (an adjective), in Russian it's an adverb.

It's used only in the sentences like"It's hot" or "I'm hot". If there's a noun in the sentence, we usually use

the adjective "жаркий":

Погода жаркая. = The weather is hot.

Лето жаркое. = The summer is hot.

It's a very common mistake to say "это жарко". Please, note that "it's" isn't translated, so you don’t need "это" to talk about the weather.

Here are some words and expressions that you might find useful:

Погода = weather

Жарко = It’s hot

Холодно = It’s cold

Тепло = It's warm.

Идёт дождь = It’s raining

Идёт снег = It’s snowing

Ветрено = It’s windy

Ветер = wind

Солнечно = It’s sunny

Солнце = the Sun

Облачно = cloudy

Облако = cloud

Туман = fog

Туманно = It’s foggy

Try the flashcards to help you learn the words!

Please, note that we use the verb «идти» (to go) to say «It’s raining» or “It’s snowing”, so literally it’s “The rain is going” and “The snow is going”! The Past Tense of “идти” is «шёл», so we say «Вчера шёл дождь» (It rained yesterday).

Practice: Try the exercise

Grammar

How old are you? (The Dative Case)

Unfortunately, talking about age in Russian isn't as straightforward as in English. You can't just say "Я двадцать", it's a bit more complicated than that.

Look at the example:

Сколько Вам лет? = How old are you? (formal)

Мне тридцать лет. = I'm 30.

As you can see, we use "вам" instead of  "вы" and "мне" instead of "я". "Вам" and "мне" are examples of pronouns in the Dative Case.

Here are all the pronouns in the Dative Case:

я - мне

ты - тебе

он - ему

она - ей

мы - нам

вы - вам

они - им

Look at the examples:

Ей тридцать один год. = She's 31.

Ему пятьдесят два года. = He's 52.

Тебе десять лет? = Are you 10? (informal)

Им три года. = They are three.

Вам двадцать пять лет? = Are you 25? (formal).

As you can see, to talk about someone's age, you use a pronoun in the Dative Case, the number and год / года/ лет.

To know which one you should use, follow a simple rule:

After 1, 21, 31 and other numbers ending 1, you use "год".

After 2, 3, 4 and numbers ending with 2, 3, 4 (22, 23, 34 etc.), you use "года".

After 5 - 20 and numbers ending in 5 - 9 or 0 (25, 46, 50 etc.), you use "лет".

Finally, to ask "How old are you?" you can ask

Сколько тебе лет? (informal)

or

Сколько Вам лет? (formal).

Practice: try this exercise

Grammar

The Past Tense

If you think that the Present Tense in Russian is a trifle too complicated (so many endings!), you'll be pleasantly surprised by the Past Tense. It's really easy to form and has very few exceptions. Let's take the word "быть" (to be) as an example.

The verb has four forms in the Past: был (masculine), была (feminine), было (neuter), были (plural).

Олег был в Лондоне. = Oleg has been to London.

Oleg is a man, so we use the masculine form of "быть": был.

Анна никогда не была в Париже. = Anna has never been to Paris.

Anna is a woman, so we use the feminine form of "быть": была.

Небо было синее. = The sky was blue.

"Небо" is neuter, so we use the neuter form of "быть": было.

Они были там? = Have they been there?

"Они" is plural, so we use the plural form of "быть": были.

If the subject is "я" or "ты", we use "был" if the pronoun refers to a man and "была" if it refers to a woman:

Я была в Москве в прошлом году. = I was in Moscow last year. (I'm a woman)

Ты уже был в Италии? = Have you been to Italy yet? (You're a man)

We always use "были" with "вы", even if we address just one person:

Иван Петрович, где Вы были? = Ivan Petrovich, where have you been?

 To use any other verb in the Past Tense, you do exactly the same thing. Let's take "говорить" (to speak)  as an example.

He spoke = Он говорил

She spoke = Она говорила

They spoke = Они говорили

So, to put any Russian verb in the Past Tense, you drop "ть" and add one of the following endings:

1) "л" if the subject is masculine (читал, работал, жил)

2) "ла" if the subject is feminine (читала, работала, жила)

3) "ло" if the subject is neuter (читало, работало, жило)

4) "ли" if the subject is plural (читали, работали, жили)

Practice:

Exercise 1 (был; была; были)

Exercise 2 (other verbs)

Grammar

Instrumental Case: Nouns

Last week you saw how easy it is to talk about your job: you just use "Я" + the job in the Nominative Case:

Я учитель. = I'm a teacher.

But what if you want to complicate things a little ans say "I work as a teacher"? In Russian it will sound like "Я работаю учителем."  "Учителем" is an example of the Instrumental Case.

The endings for masculine nouns in the Instrumental Case are "ом" or "ем":

- "ем" if the noun ends in "ь" or "й"

- "ом" for all the other masculine nouns (Он работает программистом = He works as a programmer).

The endings for feminine nouns are "ой" or "ей":

Она работает официанткой. = She works as a waitress.

Она работает продавщицей. = She works as a shop assistant.

А кем вы работаете? :)

Practice: try this exercise.