На уроке русского языка
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Recognize, say, and write the complete thirty three letter Cyrillic alphabet, including the letters not introduced in Chapter 1.
- Identify people and objects in a classroom using Это....
- Ask and answer Кто это? and Что это?.
- Recognize the three noun genders in the nominative case, and match a first set of adjectives to a noun's gender.
- Describe classroom objects using basic colors.
- Understand and follow a small set of classroom instructions.
- Count from 0 to 20 in Russian.
Communication Scenario
It is the second evening of Anna's beginner Russian class. Before the group can talk about anything else, they need a shared way to talk about the room itself, the people in it, and the things on the desks. The teacher spends the evening pointing at objects, asking what they are, and asking who people are, building the class's first working vocabulary of the classroom itself.
- You will meet the complete Cyrillic alphabet in this chapter, building directly on the letters from Chapter 1.
- You will learn to identify people and things using the same zero copula pattern from Chapter 1, now expanded to a wider set of nouns.
Core Vocabulary
The words below continue building your productive Russian vocabulary. As in Chapter 1, each new multisyllabic word is marked with an acute stress mark.
| Russian | English | Gender |
|---|---|---|
| учи́тель | teacher (male) | masculine |
| учи́тельница | teacher (female) | feminine |
| студе́нт | student (male) | masculine |
| студе́нтка | student (female) | feminine |
| стол | table, desk | masculine |
| стул | chair | masculine |
| кни́га | book | feminine |
| тетра́дь | notebook | feminine |
| ру́чка | pen | feminine |
| каранда́ш | pencil | masculine |
| окно́ | window | neuter |
| дверь | door | feminine |
| доска́ | board | feminine |
| сло́во | word | neuter |
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| кра́сный | red |
| си́ний | blue |
| жёлтый | yellow |
| зелёный | green |
| бе́лый | white |
| чёрный | black |
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| чита́йте | read (polite/plural command) |
| слу́шайте | listen (polite/plural command) |
| говори́те | speak (polite/plural command) |
| пиши́те | write (polite/plural command) |
| откро́йте кни́гу | open the book |
| закро́йте кни́гу | close the book |
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| 11 оди́ннадцать | eleven |
| 12 двена́дцать | twelve |
| 13 трина́дцать | thirteen |
| 14 четы́рнадцать | fourteen |
| 15 пятна́дцать | fifteen |
| 16 шестна́дцать | sixteen |
| 17 семна́дцать | seventeen |
| 18 восемна́дцать | eighteen |
| 19 девятна́дцать | nineteen |
| 20 два́дцать | twenty |
All vocabulary in this chapter is productive. Numbers 0 to 10, from Chapter 1, are recycled below and remain active.
Pronunciation: Completing the Cyrillic Alphabet
Chapter 1 introduced a first working set of Cyrillic letters through its vocabulary. This chapter completes the full thirty three letter alphabet, so that by the end of this chapter you can read and write any Russian word using accurate letter shapes, even before every sound rule is fully explained.
| Letter | Approximate sound | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Б б | b | |
| В в | v | |
| Г г | g | |
| Ё ё | yo | always stressed when it appears; not marked with a separate stress mark |
| Ж ж | zh, as in "measure" | always hard, explained fully in Chapter 3 |
| З з | z | |
| Й й | y, as in "boy" | a short consonant, not a vowel |
| Л л | l | |
| П п | p | |
| Ф ф | f | |
| Х х | kh, a raspy h | |
| Ц ц | ts | always hard |
| Ч ч | ch | always soft |
| Ш ш | sh | always hard |
| Щ щ | shch | always soft |
| Ъ ъ | hard sign, no sound of its own | rare; introduced receptively here |
| Ы ы | a deep, back-of-the-mouth vowel | has no close English equivalent |
| Ь ь | soft sign, no sound of its own | softens the preceding consonant; fully explained in a later chapter |
| Э э | e, as in "let" | |
| Ю ю | yu | |
| Я я | ya |
The letter ё is always stressed wherever it appears in a word, so this textbook does not add a separate acute stress mark on top of it. Every other new multisyllabic word in this chapter's vocabulary is marked for stress, exactly as in Chapter 1.
- Practice writing each new letter by hand, in both its printed and its capital form.
- Say each classroom word aloud slowly, then at a natural pace, checking the marked stress each time.
Language Focus: What Is This?
Purpose: identify people and objects, ask who or what something is, recognize noun gender, and describe an object using a color adjective that agrees with it.
2.1 Это, Кто это?, and Что это?
Chapter 1 introduced Это [noun] with no verb "to be," using it for names. This chapter widens the same pattern to classroom people and objects. To ask about a person, use Кто это?, literally "who is this?". To ask about a thing, use Что это?, literally "what is this?".
- Что э́то? — Э́то кни́га. What is this? — This is a book.
- Кто э́то? — Э́то учи́тель. Who is this? — This is the teacher.
Use Кто for people and Что for things and ideas. This distinction is consistent throughout Russian.
2.2 Noun gender in the nominative case
Every Russian noun belongs to one of three genders, masculine, feminine, or neuter. In the nominative case, the dictionary form of the noun, gender is usually predictable from the noun's ending.
| Typical ending | Gender | Example |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | masculine | стол, стул, каранда́ш |
| -а / -я | feminine | кни́га, ру́чка, доска́ |
| -о / -е | neuter | окно́, сло́во |
| -ь | masculine or feminine, learned individually | тетра́дь (feminine), дверь (feminine) |
Nouns ending in -ь do not show gender from spelling alone, so each one must be learned with its gender, as the vocabulary table above already does.
2.3 Basic adjective agreement
- Э́то си́ний стул. This is a blue chair. си́н+ий, masculine ending, agrees with стул
- Э́то жёлтая ру́чка. This is a yellow pen. жёлт+ая, feminine ending, agrees with ру́чка
You are only responsible for producing the three basic endings shown here, applied to this chapter's color words. Full adjective agreement across all cases is developed gradually in later chapters.
Model Dialogue: В классе
Context: The teacher holds up objects and points to people, and the class answers together.
The teacher points toward the door, where another student has just arrived.
Notice that the teacher's question changes word order, А э́то что?, without changing its meaning. Russian word order remains flexible even in a fixed classroom routine.
Listening Practice
If no audio recording is available, ask a partner, instructor, or text to speech tool to read the lines below aloud, or read them aloud to yourself slowly, paying attention to the marked stress.
- Listen to (or read aloud) the script above, and write down the two objects that are named.
- For each object, write down its color in Russian.
- Listen for the stressed syllable in тетра́дь and in зелёная. Which syllable carries the stress in each word?
Speaking Practice
Управля́емая пра́ктика — Controlled practice: name the object
Point to five objects in the room around you, real or imagined, and say Э́то... followed by the Russian word and its color, choosing objects and colors only from this chapter's vocabulary.
Коммуникати́вное зада́ние — Communicative task: Кто это? Что это?
With a partner, take turns pointing at people and objects and asking Кто э́то? or Что э́то?. Answer using Э́то... and, where useful, a color.
Самостоя́тельная пра́ктика — Solo alternative
Record yourself asking and answering Что э́то? for five objects around you, and Кто э́то? for one person. Listen back and check your stress and your adjective endings.
Reading Practice
В кла́ссе — In the classroom
Э́то стол. Стол чёрный. Э́то стул. Стул си́ний. Э́то кни́га. Кни́га кра́сная. Э́то окно́. Окно́ бе́лое.
Задание по чтению — Reading task:
- List the four objects named in the passage, in the order they appear.
- Write the color given for each object.
- Find one masculine noun, one feminine noun, and one neuter noun in the passage.
Writing Workshop
Complete the following linked writing tasks in order.
Зада́ние 1 — Copy and mark stress: Copy each word from the Core Vocabulary tables by hand, including its stress mark, three times each.
Зада́ние 2 — Complete the description: Fill in the missing adjective ending so that each color agrees with its noun.
Зада́ние 3 — Short written description: Write four short sentences describing four objects around you, using Э́то..., a noun from this chapter, and a color that agrees with it.
- Copy the vocabulary with stress marks first. Include every remaining alphabet letter you practiced in this chapter.
- Complete the adjective ending exercise. Check each ending against the gender of its noun.
- Draft your four sentence description. Keep every word within this chapter's vocabulary and Chapter 1's vocabulary.
- Read your description aloud once. Listen for the stressed syllable in each word.
- Check your Cyrillic letter shapes against the alphabet table. Correct any letter that does not match.
Спи́сок прове́рки — Editing checklist:
- Every word is written in Cyrillic, with no Latin letters.
- Stress marks are included where the vocabulary tables show them.
- Each adjective ending matches the gender of its noun.
- Кто is used only for people, and что only for things.
- No new vocabulary from outside this chapter or Chapter 1 has been used.
Culture and Communication
Many Russian language classrooms, in person and online, rely on a similar small set of instructor phrases, such as чита́йте, слу́шайте, and пиши́те. Learning these instructions early makes it possible to follow a Russian speaking classroom, or a Russian language exchange partner, without needing to switch back into English for routine directions.
The thirty three letter Cyrillic alphabet taught in this chapter is used for Standard Russian wherever it is taught, from Moscow to Almaty to a community classroom abroad. Some other languages that use Cyrillic script, such as Ukrainian or Kazakh, use a similar but not identical set of letters, a distinction this course will keep separate from Russian instruction throughout.
Common Mistakes
Error: Asking Что э́то? about a person, by analogy with English "what," instead of using Кто э́то?.
Correction: Use Кто only for people, and Что only for things, animals, and ideas, even in casual speech.
Error: Using the masculine adjective ending with every noun, such as saying кра́сный кни́га instead of adjusting the ending to the noun's gender.
Correction: Match the adjective ending to the noun, as in кра́сная кни́га, since кни́га is feminine.
Error: Assuming a noun's gender based on its English meaning, rather than its Russian ending, especially for nouns ending in -ь.
Correction: Learn the gender of each noun as part of its vocabulary entry, and rely on the typical endings in the Language Focus section as a starting guide, not an absolute rule.
Chapter Review
Часть A — Понимание (Comprehension)
1. Return to the Model Dialogue, and answer these short questions.
- What two objects does the teacher ask about?
- What color is the pencil that Misha names?
Часть B — Пи́сьменная речь (Writing)
1. Write three sentences, each naming one classroom object and its color, matching the adjective ending to the noun's gender.
2. Write the numbers 11 through 20 in Russian, with stress marks.
Часть C — Чте́ние (Reading)
1. Return to the reading passage, and identify which nouns are masculine, feminine, and neuter.
Часть D — Говоре́ние (Speaking)
1. Point to three objects near you and ask a partner Что э́то? for each one, then switch roles.
Practical Performance Task
Chapter 2 Practical Check
The Classroom, Named and Described
Complete the following connected tasks, in order, treating them as one short classroom routine.
- Read the model dialogue and the reading passage. Answer the comprehension questions above before continuing.
- Point to five objects and name them. Say Э́то... followed by the correct noun for each.
- Describe three of those objects with a color. Match each adjective ending to the noun's gender.
- Ask and answer Кто э́то? once. Identify a person using this chapter's vocabulary.
- Write your four sentence description from the Writing Workshop. Apply the editing checklist.
- Count aloud from 0 to 20. Check your stress against the vocabulary tables.
| Criterion | What is assessed |
|---|---|
| Identification accuracy | The learner correctly names classroom people and objects using Э́то.... |
| Кто/Что control | The learner selects Кто or Что correctly for people versus things. |
| Adjective agreement | The learner matches basic color adjective endings to noun gender. |
| Stress and pronunciation | The learner produces the marked stress on practiced vocabulary with reasonable accuracy. |
| Cyrillic control | The learner writes practiced vocabulary in accurate Cyrillic, using the complete alphabet. |
| Numbers 0 to 20 | The learner counts aloud accurately and with recognizable stress. |
This checkpoint uses only material introduced in this chapter and Chapter 1. No item on this rubric requires a system that has not yet been taught.
Answer Key
Model Dialogue — Comprehension
- The teacher asks about a book, and then a pencil.
- Misha's pencil is си́ний, blue.
Writing
- Sample answers: Э́то кра́сная кни́га. Э́то си́ний стул. Э́то жёлтое окно́. Other combinations of nouns and colors from this chapter's vocabulary are also correct, as long as the adjective ending matches the noun's gender.
- оди́ннадцать, двена́дцать, трина́дцать, четы́рнадцать, пятна́дцать, шестна́дцать, семна́дцать, восемна́дцать, девятна́дцать, два́дцать
Reading
- Masculine: стол, стул. Feminine: кни́га. Neuter: окно́.
Looking Ahead
Что вы уже уме́ете — What you can do now
You can read and write the complete Cyrillic alphabet, identify classroom people and objects with Э́то..., ask Кто э́то? and Что э́то?, recognize noun gender, describe an object using a color adjective that agrees with it, follow a small set of classroom instructions, and count from 0 to 20.