How to go about learning Russian?

I have learned some languages from the Romance language family, and the Germanic language family. I’m about to start learning Russian and I know that it is a highly inflected language. How should I learn the grammar? I’ve “absorbed” the grammar in other languages mostly by reading and listening with some explanations here and there, but I’m not sure if that would work for Russian. How would you recommend me learning the grammar? If you have any other recommendation about how to learn Russian it is more than welcome!

4 Likes

Just forget about the cases and learn it as you did with the other languages. Read and listen a lot . After reaching an intermediate level you should start talking to native speakers, that will finally help you master the language.

5 Likes

Just to add to your answer, the only thing that grammar has helped me so far was to keep myself more aware of why things are written in such a way and helps understand structure a little more, but not much more than that
So i guess it’s good to skim through grammar a bit every so often

2 Likes

I disagree with Bull.
Of course, you have to read and to listen a lot.
But at the same time, very gradually you have to familiarize yourself with some patterns of the Russian Grammar, moreover, your Latin and German help you, in any case, to absorb it quite easily. Otherwise, you will never speak Russian correctly!.. But don’t be in a rush!
You can use a lot of my courses in Russian here. In my courses and lessons I give a lot of examples using popular vocabulary and introduce Russian grammar in very small doses.
Here are some of my Russian courses for beginners:

Мои русские курсы для начинающих:
ПЕРВЫЕ ШАГИ:

БАЗОВЫЕ МОДЕЛИ:

РУССКИЕ ПРЕДЛОГИ:

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ ПО ГРАММАТИКЕ РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА:

МОИ ПЕРВЫЕ ДИАЛОГИ:

10 Likes

Thank you for everything that you do. Of course I will use the Russian courses. I’ve used many of your German courses out there.

Thanks! Good luck! Viel Erfolg! Желаю успехов!

1 Like

I’ve been reading the replies since I may do this some day. I would also suggest you watch master Steve’s videos of the subject.

1 Like

Can you please provide a link?

uh…YouTube.com/lingosteve?

Hullo gui! You just ask any time you didn’t get it. Always glad to help you.

How did you go about the Cases?

I’m just writing the course РУССКИЕ ПАДЕЖИ.
I give some examples and even some exercises about them.
Here is the link to this course:
Login - LingQ

2 Likes

If you don’t mind exercises then this is a great r

I did the first 50 before even starting LingQ and it gave me a great starting point. It can be really frustrating to have a small mistake and never find it. So there is an answer sheet online somewhere for help.

2 Likes

learnrussian.rt.com – explaurafying

2 Likes

Thank you both for the resource, it is great to start. It surprises me that they (the site developers) understand the concept of comprehensible input, even for beginners.

Собака укусила девушку.
Собаку укусила девушка.

What’s the diff? At least a smattering of grammar review will go a long way to jump-starting your understanding.

I learned grammar in school, memorized tables and was tested on it. I can’t comment on the “ignore grammar” approach from personal experience. But for Russian I can’t imagine not looking at the grammar. Maybe not memorizing tables, but understanding that there is, e.g., an instrumental case and what its uses are so that you’re not flummoxed or totally misinterpreting.

On the other hand there’s Ben from the YouTube channel Bald and Bankrupt. He holds a very interesting conversation with a Russian youtuber – SPEAKING RUSSIAN with Bald and Bankrupt - YouTube – wherein he discusses how he always wanted to speak Russian but found the grammar impossible. So he ignored the grammar and acquired vocabulary. He travels all over the hinterland of the former soviet countries and manages to have wonderful conversations with whomever he meets. But, boy, his grammar is sometimes pretty bad. That video, btw, has well-written English subtitles if your Russian listening skills are not far enough along. (On his own channel his videos are in English with subtitles whenever there is a Russian conversation.)

1 Like

We need Grammar for Russian or for German because they have a lot of endings that change the meaning of the words.
We need less Grammar for English or Spanish for first levels because we can understand the most of sentences there wirthout Grammar.
But nevertheless, if you would like to know a new language on the advanced levels B2 or C1 and to speak without mistakes, you NEED grammar.
But we have to study the grammar in very little pieces - step by step. And in any case - not only grammar lessons, but together with simple and interesting texts and dialogues for listening and reading.

2 Likes

Grammar is the worst part in Russian, as for me. I thought French is the most difficult with its tense forms, but then I started learning Russian and it just drove me crazy. I started with Duolingo, but it was in vain. So finally, I found a tutor on Preply who is helping me with grammar via Skype.

The most common mistake by learning Russian grammar that the learners would like to go through it very quickly and confuse a lot of rules.
Just you don’t have to hurry and to do a lot of Russian grammar in a go. Try to do it with very little portions - then you can even enjoy it like we enjoy some delicious food.
You can use one of my courses given below - I give Russsian grammar in little pieces and with a lot of examples.
Good luck with Russian!

5 Likes

“Grammar is the worst part…” IMO, once you know it, the grammar is the best part. If you look at an unknown English word out of context it’s highly likely that there will be absolutely no clue as to what sort of word it even is. In contrast, a standalone Russian word can be a whole sentence.

Consider the English word “left”. Is it a verb, noun, adverb, or something else? You don’t know by looking at it. Even if you know English you don’t know out of context. Is it a past tense verb (“she left”)? or an adjective (“left hand”)? or an adverb (“turn left”)? or a noun (“on the left”)?

Contrast Russian “уехала”. It looks like a verb. It looks like a verb in the past tense. It looks like a feminine verb in the past tense. You know that even if it’s a new word and you don’t know the meaning. That’s invaluable insight when you’re reading or listening to authentic material and you encounter a new word. Take that grammatical information in addition to the context, and you’re a long way towards understanding the sentence.

This example has an additional clue in the prefix “у”. Strictly speaking that’s not part of the inflected grammar, but it is another feature of the language that gives clues to meaning, Therefore you should consider verb prefixes your friends, too, not just another complexity.

3 Likes