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by Nadia F., a Russian woman living in St Petersburg, Russia When traveling to Russia, you will discover that the majority of signs, street names, menus and other useful essential information is written only in Russian language. Though English language is now taught nearly in every school and University in Russia, nevertheless the conversation is mostly at the basic level. It is most likely you will have to ask several people before finding a person who understands you well. The American pronunciation is never heard at the Russian classes at school, so even if the person knows the word in written, he may not understand your pronunciation. So, for your comfort, safety, independence and security, we offer you a few tips to help you with Russian language when traveling to Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries, where Russian language used to be the official one. Russian alphabetThe Russian language uses the Cyrillic letters which are similar to the Roman alphabet, but are pronounced a bit different and sometimes the similar way of writing is even confusing. You can see the Russian alphabet with transliteration below.CapitalSmallPronunciation Example The good part of Russian language is that the words are written in the way they are pronounced and one character is always read in the same way. Meanwhile, in English language the characters are pronounced in different way, depending on the syllables, etc. So, once you learn the Russian letters, you can read any Russian text correctly yourself.
Basic Russian words with transliteration:Да - Da - means YesНет- Nyet- means No Привет - Privet - means Hello Пока - Poka - means Bye-bye Хорошо - Khorosho - means Good, Ok Плохо - Plokho - means Bad Имя - Imya - Name Фамилия - Familiya -Family name День - Den - means Day Завтра - Zavtra - means Tomorrow Вчера - Vchera - means Yesterday Дом - Dom - means Home Вода - Voda - means Water Деньги - Dengi - means Money Кофе - Kofe - Coffee Тепло - Teplo - Warm Холодно - Kholodno - Cold Снег - Sneg - Snow Вход - Vhod - Entrance Выход - Vyhod- Exit Also there are many international words that are pronounced in the same or similar way in Russian language: Метро - Metro Russian personal pronouns:Я - Ya - means IТы - Ty - means You, informal Вы - Vy - means You, polite Он - On - means He Она - Ona - means She Они - Oni - means They Мы - My - means We Common Russian phrasesДобрый день - Dobriy den - Good day!Рад встречи - Rad vstrechi- Glad to meet you! Я ... - Ya ... - My name is ... (For example, "Ya James Bond") Как дела?- Kak dela? - How are you? Всё хорошо - Vsyo khorosho - Everything is fine Я из США - Ya iz Se-She-A - I am from the USA Спасибо - Spasibo - means Thank you Пожалуйста - Pozhalusta - means Please Извините - Izvinite - means Excuse me Помогите мне - Pomogite mne - Help me До завтра - Do zavtra - See you tomorrow! До встречи - Do vstrechi - See you! Позвони мне - Pozvoni mne - Phone me Потом - Potom- Later Я не понимаю по-русски - Ya ne ponimayu po-russki - I don't understand Russian language Я не понял - Ya ne ponyal - I did not understand Мне нужен переводчик - Mne nuzhen perevodchik - I need an interpreter Я хочу...- Ya khochu... - I want ... - пить - pit - to drink - есть- est - to eat - спать - spat - to sleep Я хочу в отель - Ya khochu v otel - I want to come back in the hotel Russian question words: As we are in the 21st century in the era of computer technology, you can now use a handy speech to speech pocket translator instead of learning the whole language yourself. See our pocket translators here. |
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