Last time we talked about time of the day, weeks, months and more. At the end of the lesson you had to translate a few sentences and phrases into English. Now you can check if you did it correctly.
- Ann goes to music school on Monday. Энн пойдёт в музыкальную школу в понедельник
- Tomorrow evening. Завтра вечером
- On Monday in the morning. В понедельник утром
- Tomorrow early evening. Завтра рано вечером
- It snows in winter. Зимой идёт снег.
- Mike’s birthday is in August. День рождения Майка в августе.
Today we will get back to the nouns and explore the world of plurals. Russian nouns (like in all other the languages I know) change for number. A noun can be either singular or plural. By default in dictionaries you will find a singular form.
Now, if we think about English we will see that we do not have any problems with the plural form at all, right?
dog-dogs
house-houses
doll – dolls
Other than few exception such as
foot – feet
child – children
goose – geese
you do not really face any complications with that. In Russian it is unfortunately not as simple.
But in the table below you will be able to find the patterns based on the gender of the noun (remember: masculine, feminine and neuter).
Of course, this rule is not safe from exceptions. There are some masculine nouns that can have –а or –я ending.
дом – house – дома – houses
лес – forest – леса – forests
глаз – eye – глаза – eyes
сорт – sort – сорта – sorts
поезд – train – поезда – trains
город – city – города – cities
остров – island – острова – islands
учитель – teacher – учителя – teachers
The endings -a and –я are always stressed.
Also, some masculine and neuter nouns might have the ending –ья in the plural form.
брат – brother – братья – brothers
стул – chair – стулья – chairs
лист – leaf – листья – leaves
друг – friend – друзья – friends
сын – son – сыновья – sons
дерево – tree – деревья – trees
One more thing I would like you to get to know today is the construction “У меня есть…” (I have). We will need it in our next lesson.
| English | Russian |
| I have a sister. | У меня есть сестра. |
| I have a book. | У меня есть книга. |
| I have a dictionary. | У меня есть словарь. |
Exercises:
1. Please build the plural form for the following nouns. Check the correct form in the dictionary if you have to.
Дорога, стол, книга, собака, дверь, крокодил, окно, ведро, театр, цирк, школа, комната, телевизор, дерево, плащ, тетрадь, старуха.
2. Tell us what do you have. Use the construction “У меня есть…” to create 10 sentences. Use both singular and plural forms of nouns.
Example: У меня есть собака. У меня есть собаки. (I have a dog. I have dogs.)