One of the big stumbling blocks when it comes to learning Russian is Russian verbs. The good news is Russian verbs have only three tenses – present, past and future. The bad news is that to make up for such simplicity, most Russian verbs have two aspects – imperfective and perfective. This makes Russian verbs somewhat frustrating to learn.... Read More

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How is your work week going so far? Now that понедельник (Monday) is over, things should be getting easier, right? Well, let’s look at some Russian приметы (omens) and суеверия (superstitions) for each day of the week.... Read More

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One of the most difficult aspects of learning Russian is figuring out the proper ударение (stress) in different words. What makes it so difficult is that in Russian there are virtually no rules that dictate which syllable has to be stressed. There are some закономерности (patterns), such as it never falls on the endings -ий/-ый. However, as Russians acknowledge нет правил без исключений (there are no rules without exceptions) and Russian grammar rules are particularly riddled with long lists of those.... Read More

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If you remember from the previous post about Maslenitsa, Russian phrase просить прощения means “to ask forgiveness”. But how exactly do you ask forgiveness in Russian? There are actually quite a few phrases for the simple “I am sorry” and depending on the situation you are in, some will be more appropriate than others.... Read More