A Short Russian Reference Grammar

The present book aims at giving a systematic exposition of Russian morphology, pronunciation and spelling for foreign students studying Russian without a teacher and for teachers of Russian. In this book, syntax is touched upon only briefly and in connection with morphology, when the uses of a morphological form are explained. Particular attention has been paid to the following aspects of Russian grammar which, in the opinion of the author, may present greater difficulty to beginners: the gender of the noun and the agreement in gender of a word with its head-noun, the meanings and uses of the cases with and without prepositions, the aspects of the verb and their use, the classification of verbs into productive-type and nonproductive-type verbs, and word-building. A short chapter at the beginning of the book outlines the main peculiarities of Russian pronunciation and spelling. Much attention has been devoted to stress in the Russian language. Not being a theoretical grammar, the present book contains no definitions of the grammatical categories. All the grammar material is expounded in tables accompanied by notes giving the most essential explanations. Each chapter is preceded by General Remarks setting forth the principal peculiarities of the part of speech concerned. All explanations are based on examples from colloquial Russian as well as from fiction, newspapers and magazines. Only the most essential rules of Russian spelling are dealt with. To facilitate the student's work on the meanings and uses of the cases, the uses are given first without prepositions and then with prepositions; in the tables, the prepositions are arranged in alphabetic order, first those governing one case and then those governing several cases. Meanings are given only in the cases of prepositions which have several meanings.