How can you learn the tough Russian grammar most easily?

Answer 1

Russian is one of the more difficult languages for native English speakers to master, mainly because of the changing of the endings of almost all words. On the bright side, there is a pattern to the complex endings and Russian is, in general, said how it is written. To master the language, you MUST study the grammar. Practical advise: * Get a good grammar book (Russian for beginners by Duff, Living Language, or another. Make sure the instructions are simple) * Learn a little English grammar to understand Russian things like cases (a book that's not essential but that helps: English Grammar for Students of Russian by Edwina Cruise).

* Get a grammar chart. Use it to examine how to change words.

* Memorize (not my favorite thing either but it is necessary to learn the pattern of Russian grammar). Key things to remember:

* Russian has 6 cases - used to show how adjectives and nouns interact in sentences (ex: not "Me saw he." but "I saw him."). * You need to know the gender of the nouns to know how to change the words: masculine, feminine, neuter, or if it is plural. * Russian adjectives are probably the hardest words to learn all the endings: up to 24 endings, 6 cases and 4 genders (although many are similar). * Russian verbs are probably almost as difficult or as difficult as adjectives. Past tense ends with "L" instead of "ed" as in English and goes by gender. Present changes according to 1st-3rd person and singular or plural (6 endings).

* Russian lacks "a", "an", "the". * Prepositions are easy (e.g. in, over, from) as well as adverbs (e.g. well, fairly). It's intimidating at first but there is a pattern and it becomes much easier when this pattern "clicks". Just keep practicing.