The most important Russian words
In today’s lesson we will learn a few Russian words and phrases that can help you to establish contacts witt Russians.
Update: we have created a whole website to help you learn Russian words and enrich your Russian vocabulary on a daily basis. Check it our now!
Listen to the audio and repeat after it.
да – yes
[da]
нет – no
[nyet]
спаси́бо – thank you
[spa-sée-ba]
пожа́луйста – please / you’re welcome
[pa-zhá-lus-ta]
здра́вствуйте – hello (formal)
[zdrás-tvuî-tye]
приве́т – hello / hi (informal)
[pree-vyét]
добро́ пожа́ловать – welcome
[dab-ró pa-zhá-la-vat’]
до свида́ния – goodbye (formal)
[da svee-dá-nee-ya]
пока́ – bye (informal)
[pa-ká]
мо́жно – can, (it’s) allowed
[mózh-na]
нельзя́ – (it is) not allowed
[neel’-zyá]
извини́те – sorry / excuse me
[eez-vee-née-tee]
прости́те – sorry / excuse me
[pras-tée-tee]
без пробле́м – no problem
[byes prab-lyém]
хорошо́ – good, well, okey
[ha-ra-shó]
пло́хо – bad
[pló-ha]
ла́дно – okey, agreed
[lád-na]
This is it for this lesson. We hope our course helps you on your way to learn Russian. Practice the examples with the audio provided and don’t hesitate to post your questions in the comments!
The offline version of this lesson is available here
More lessons on Russian vocabulary
- The most important Russian words
- Hello! and How are you? in Russian
- Goodbye in Russian
- Thank you, please, and you're welcome in Russian
- "I speak Russian" in Russian and other useful phrases
- Calling for help in Russian
- My name is ... in Russian
- Seasons in Russian
- Congratulations in Russian
- Talking about health in Russian
- Meeting your Russian in-laws
- Making friends in Russian
- Talking about family in Russian
- Talking about the weather
- Internet vocabulary and phrases
- Colors in Russian
- Visiting a pharmacy
- Directions in Russian
- New Year's dialogues
- Happy birthday in Russian, Russian birthday wishes
- Going to the movies
- I love you in Russian and other romantic phrases
- Russian terms of endearment
- Professions in Russian
- Hotel dialogues in Russian
- Visiting a doctor
Hello,
Is there an “infinitive” in adjective or noun, adverb in Russian?
I see хорошо́ and хороший most likely have the same meaning.
Thanks!
Hi Truong,
Thanks for the question.
The infinitive is the initial form of the verbs only. It’s the equivalent of the English form “to do”.
But other parts of the speech have their own initial forms. For nouns, pronouns, adjectives and participles, it’s the singular masculine form (хороший is an example of it).
As for the adverbs, their form never changes.
While the meaning of хороший and хорошо is the same, they are not interchangeable. Adverbs describe actions, adjectives describe nouns and pronouns.
I love your literally “step by step” chunks. I would like to see some simple vocabulary and sentences on two themes: Kitchen items (cooking and dining) & foods (buying fruits and vegetables at the market). Thanks!
Hello Diane,
I’m very sorry for replying to your comment so late. Something went wrong with the comment notifications.
We do not many publish new lessons lately due to the simple lack of time, but we will definetely add these topics as soon as we can. Meanwhile, you can check out our other resources with related topics:
– Cooking (words with examples)
– Eating out
– Negotiating a discount
What is the difference between извини́те and прости́те both meaning are same so how can we find which we use or not??
Hello Manish,
Простите is a bit more strong as it’s also used to say “forgive me”, but overall these verbs are interchangable, you can use either one of them.
Hello,
Have a question about the pronunciation of the letter “o” in russian.
I noticed that in some cases, it’s pronounced “o” but also sometimes it sounds like an “a” (french pronunciation).
For example:
– спаси́бо – sound like an a
– па́спорт – sound like an o
I tried to look into it but didn’t found the reason yet.
will really appreciate the help for this 🙂
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the question.
Russian O sounds very much like A when it’s not accentuated. For example:
– молоко́ (milk) [ma-la-kó]
– по́мощь (help) [pó-masch]
In паспорт, actually, the last O sounds close to A too – [pás-part].
We have a lesson about it here. Here is the lesson about accents.
Hello,
I just want you to thank you for these Russian lessons, they are really great.
Hello Vanja,
Thanks a lot for the comment, it warms our hearts. 🙂
If you have any questions, we are here to help. Good luck!
I appreciate so much your work, thanks! I found just one little problem: all previous and next post buttons at the end of each lesson are wrong because they link to the French or the Spanish page.
Hello Giancarlo,
Yes, you are right. These are some technical limitations but we will avoid them in the next design of the site.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving your comment.
I have one question –
how to write following sentences in russian ?
These are books. / men / women / houses.
These are not books.
Is genitive case of books / men / women/ houses used in negative ?
Thanks.
Это книги. Это мужчины. Это женщины. Это дома.
Это не книги.
The genitive case of nouns is used in negative sentences when the meaning is “there is no” or “I don’t have”.
For example:
Это не книги (nominative), здесь нет книг (genitive).
These are not books, there are no books here.
I am confused about the transalation for lesson 014. It says sister is feminine, and passport is masculine.
I came up with these answers:
эта сестра моя.
этот её паспорт.
тот автомобиль его.
то место моё
but the answers here have different demonstrative pronouns for the first and second sentences.
What did I do wrong?
Hello,
When you say ‘Эта сестра моя’ it’s more like ‘This sister is mine’. It sounds awkward both in English and in Russian.
1. ‘Эта сестра’ refers to a specific sister, while ‘это’ can refer to any object.
What is it? – Что это?
It’s a book. – Это книга.
What book? – Какая книга?
This book. – Эта книга.
2. ‘Этот её паспорт’ is grammaticaly wrong.
Что это? – What is it?
Это паспорт. – This is a passport.
Чей это паспорт? – Whose passport is this?
Это её паспорт. – This is her passport. (‘это’ can be anything)
But:
Этот паспорт её. – This passport is hers. (‘этот’ refers to a specific masculine object).
Pay attention to the order of the words here.
Some more explanation are given in the comment to the lesson 014.
I hope it helps.
someone said i should have my blog in russian. я нит знаю. я плоха гавару па росски.
Hello I want to learn Russian, Please help me.
Hello Nabin,
All lessons here are free.
Feel free to ask questions about Russian language if you have them.
Good luck.
It will surely help me to learn Russian. Great job!! Spasiba 🙂
Best Regards.
You are welcome. Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Thank you so much
This website mean a lot to me to learn Russian, very helpfull.
Hello Nuzul,
Very nice to hear that. Feel free to ask if you have questions. Good luck.
very handy, good way to learn.
Thanks Jason.
Very useful site. Can learn pronunciation well from here
Thanks for the comment. Good luck with your studies.
it’s realy so useful
Nice to hear that.
Feel free to leave your questions or suggestions.