Azbuka. Russian for Beginners E-Book

Elena Minakova-Boblest

• Herausgeber: Learn Russian
• Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 89

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

eBook with audio files - from the author of „Russisch mit System"(Langenscheidt 2011). "Azbuka" is an intensive introductory course of Russian intended for everybody who wish to learn Russian spelling and pronunciation in the shortest possible time. „Azbuka" is the other name for the Cyrillic script. Step by step, "Azbuka" will enable you to read Russian, as well as to communicate in Russian in typical everyday situations. ✓ 10 lessons with exercises and audio files ✓ Complete and clear explanation of the pronunciation and spelling rules ✓ Recordings by Russian professional speakers ✓ Basic vocabulary for everyday situations ✓ Grammar summary and dictionary The course consists of 10 lessons. Every lesson begins with presenting of new letters of the Russian alphabet, followed by a complete and clear explanation of the pronunciation and spelling rules. Finally, each unit provides exercises which train you to read and to understand the first words and sentences, as well as to hear different types of intonation. All practice material has been recorded by Russian professional speakers and is accompanied with an English translation, making it suitable for self-study as well as classroom use. In the chapter "Everyday Russian" you will learn how to use the basic vocabulary of the lessons, in order to master most common everyday situations in Russian. In addition, all grammar topics of the lessons are summarized in the chapter "Grammar". Finally, you will find all words of the lessons in the Russian/English and English/Russian dictionary. To attention of the German speaking learners: This course is available on iTunes in German language - as the application for iPad "Asbuka".

Leseprobe

AZBUKA. RUSSIAN FOR BEGINNERS. BY ELENA MINAKOVA-BOBLEST

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

LESSON 1

Don‘t be afraid of the Cyrillic script!

The Russian Alphabet in Dictionary Order

Vowel letters Аа, Оо, Уу, Ээ

Sounds and letters

Consonant letters Мм, Нн

LESSON 2

Consonant letters Пп, Бб, Тт, Дд

Voiced and unvoiced consonants

Exercises Пп, Бб, Тт, Дд

LESSON 3

Word stress and reduction of vowels

Аа and Оо in the unstressed syllables

Consonant letters Вв, Фф, Зз, Сс

Vocabulary lesson 3

LESSON 4

Vowel letters Ии, ы

Exercises Ии, ы

The consonant letter Йй

The intonation of a statement and the pronoun это

LESSON 5

Vowel letters Яя, Ее, Ёё, Юю

Exercises Яя, Ее, Ёё, Юю

Hard and soft consonants

Exercises Hard and Soft Consonants

Vocabulary exersices

LESSON 6

Consonant letters Гг, Кк, Хх

Exercises Гг, Кк, Хх

The consonant letter Рр

Exercises Рр

The pronunciation of the letters е and я in the unstressed syllables

The negative particle не

LESSON 7

The consonant letter Лл

Exercises Лл

The soft sign ь

Exercises the soft sign ь

Vocabulary exercises

LESSON 8

Consonant letters Ж ж, Ш ш

Exercises Ж ж, Ш ш

The consonant letter Чч

Exercises Чч

The intonation of the WH-Questions

LESSON 9

The consonant letter Цц

Exercise Цц

The consonant letter Щщ

Exercises Щщ

The hard sign ъ

Vocabulary exercises

LESSON 10

Pronunciation of consonant connections

Word linking in connected speech

The intonation of the general question

EVERYDAY RUSSIAN

The personal pronouns

First contact and formulas of politeness

Numbers 0 - 10

Asking for directions

GRAMMAR

The Russian alphabet. Sounds and letters

Stress and reduction of vowels

Russian Vowels

The reduction of unstressed vowels [o], [a], [e]

Russian Consonants

Hard and soft consonants

The soft sign ь and the hard sign ъ

Consonant Connections and Assimilation

Word Linking in Connected Speech

Intonation Types in Russian

VOCABULARY ENGLISH-RUSSIAN

VOCABULARY RUSSIAN-ENGLISH

AZBUKA. RUSSIAN FOR BEGINNERS.

BY ELENA MINAKOVA-BOBLEST

© 2014 Dr. Elena Minakova-Boblest

All rights reserved. No part of this book or any of its contents including audio files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission from the author.

INTRODUCTION

This intensive introductory course of Russian is intended for everybody who wish to learn Russian spelling and pronunciation in the shortest possible time. Step by step, “Azbuka” will enable you to read Russian, as well as to communicate in Russian in typical everyday situations.

The course consists of 10 lessons. Each lesson has basically the same structure: Every lesson begins with presenting of new letters of the Russian alphabet, followed by a complete and clear explanation of the pronunciation and spelling rules.

Finally, each unit provides exercises which train you to read and to understand the first words and sentences, as well as to hear different types of intonation.

In these exercises, you will learn not only new sounds and letters, but also many useful words, expressions and phrases for everyday conversations.

All practice material has been recorded by Russian professional speakers and is accompanied with an English translation, making it suitable for self-study as well as classroom use.

In the chapter „Everyday Russian“ you will learn how to use the basic vocabulary of the lessons, in order to master most common everyday situations in Russian.

In addition, all grammar topics of the lessons are summarized in the chapter „Grammar“. Finally, you will find all words of the lessons in the Russian/English and English/Russian dictionary.

To search for a Russian word you should add a Russian keyboard to your iPad: Open Settings General -> Keyboard -> Add New Keyboard -> select Russian. To switch to the Russian keyboard tap the Globe icon at the bottom of the screen.

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN WITH AZBUKA!

Moscow, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

LESSON 1

А a

Б б

В в

Г г

Д д

E е

Ё ё

Ж ж

3 з

И и

Й й

К к

Л л

M м

H н

О о

П п

P p

С с

Т т

У у

Ф ф

X х

Ц ц

Ч ч

Ш ш

Щ щ

ъ

ы

ь

Э э

Ю ю

Я я

Don‘t be afraid of the Cyrillic script!

The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: 10 letters to designate vowel sounds, 21 letters to designate consonant sounds as well as 2 special letters without any sound of their own: the hard sign ъ and the soft sign ь. They indicate hardness and softness of consonants.

You already know six Russian letters because they look and sound the same as in the Latin alphabet. These are the letters A, Е, O, K, M, T. Just read your first Russian words consisting of these letters.

Then you can listen to them:

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мамаmama

какhow?

тамthere

такso

ктоwho?

You can even read your first sentences formed from these words:

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Как мама?

How‘s mama?

Как так?

Why?

Кто там?

Who is there?

Мама там.

Mama is there.

After this short sample, you are probably less afraid of the Russian alphabet, which can be found on the next page. To get an overview, you can hear the pronunciation of Russian letters or skip this part and just start with the first sounds and letters.

The Russian Alphabet in Dictionary Order

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Letter

Transliteration

Letter

Transliteration

Letter

Transliteration

A a

a

Б б

b

В в

v

Г г

g

Д д

d

E е

1. е after consonants 


2. ye otherwise

Ё ё

1. yo

2. o after
ж, ш, ч, щ

Ж ж

zh (voiced)

3 з

zh (voiced)

И и

i

Й й

1. y 2. j

К к

k

Л л

l

M м

m

H н

n

О о

o

П п

p

P p

r

С с

s (voiceless)

T т

t

У у

u

Ф ф

f

X х

ch

Ц ц

ts

Ч ч

ch

Ш ш

sh

Щ щ

shch

ъ

hard sign

separation

ы

y

ь

soft sign,

indicates softness of the preceding consonant

Э э

e

Ю ю

yu

Я я

ya

Vowel letters Аа, Оо, Уу, Ээ*

The letters Аа and Оо designate the vowel sounds [a] and [o]. They look and sound similar to their Einglish counterparts. The letter Уу looks like an English one but has a different sound - [oo], and the letter Ээ looks unfamiliar but has familiar pronunciation - [e].

*All letters are represented here and subsequently as upper- and lower-case characters

А а

[a]

as in father

Уу

[oo]

as in moon

О о

[o]

as in more or not

Ээ

[e]

as in end

1 Listen to the first examples and repeat:

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a – o - у - э

а – о – у

э – а – о

у – о – а

э – о – у

Sounds and letters

А a

Б б

В в

Г г

Д д

E е

Ё ё

Ж ж

3 з

И и

Й й

К к

Л л

M м

H н

О о

П п

P p

С с

Т т

У у

Ф ф

X х

Ц ц

Ч ч

Ш ш

Щ щ

ъ

ы

ь

Э э

Ю ю

Я я

The Russian language has more sounds than letters: 33 letters designate 42 basic sounds. Most of Russian sounds are similar to English sounds, so you don’t need any special training to pronounce them.

The Russian spelling system is far simpler than that of English. The system is basically this: one letter, one sound. For example, the letter K is pronounced as the sound [k], and the letter T represents the sound [t].!However, the sound value of the letter may vary according to the position in the word and the stress – not randomly but following some strict, easy-to-understand rules which are provided in this course.

Since there are a number of differences between spelling and pronunciation in Russian, all Russian sounds are represented in transcriptions by means of English orthography (in square brackets). Moreover, all sounds, words and phrases in this course are accompanied by audio files to help you to pronounce correctly. However, keep in mind that even „similar“ Russian and English sounds are never absolutely identical, so learning to read Russian properly, you should rather listen to the audio examples then to look at the English transcription.

Consonant letters Мм, Нн

Now let’s start with your first consonant letters: the letters Мм and Нн designate the sounds [m] und [n] and sound very similar as compared to their English counterparts.

Мм

[m]

as in mother

Нн

[n]

as in nose

2 Listen and repeat:

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ма – мо – му – мэ

ам – ом – ум – эм

на – но – ну – нэ

ан – он – ун – эн

Did it work? Three of those syllables form your first words:

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он he

но but

ум mind

Saint Petersburg, Alexandrinsky Theatre

LESSON 2

А a

Б б

В в

Г г

Д д

E е

Ё ё

Ж ж

3 з

И и

Й й

К к

Л л

M м

H н

О о

П п

P p

С с

Т т

У у

Ф ф

X х

Ц ц

Ч ч

Ш ш

Щ щ

ъ

ы

ь

Э э

Ю ю

Я я

Consonant letters Пп, Бб, Тт, Дд

The letters Пп, Бб, Тт, Дд designate the consonants [p], [b], [t], [d]. These consonant sounds are very similar to their counterparts in English. However, keep in mind that consonants are pronounced in Russian with less tension than in English:

Пп

[p]

as in pot

Tт

[t]

as in table

Бб

[b]

as in book

Дд

[d]

as in day

1 Listen and repeat the following syllables. Pay attention to the consonants [p] and [t] designated by the letters Пп and Тт: They are pronounced without aspiration as typical for the respective English consonants.

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па – по – пу – пэ

ба – бо – бу – бэ

та – то – ту – тэ

да – до – ду – дэ

Voiced and unvoiced consonants

While trying the consonants [b]/[p] and [d]/[t] you certainly noticed the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants. Most of them come in pairs:

Pairs of voiced vs. unvoiced consonants

always voiced

always unvoiced

voiced

б в г д ж з

м н р л й[y]

unvoiced

п ф к т ш с

х ц ч щ

The difference in pronunciation between the two groups is he same as in English: Unvoiced consonants are pronounced without vibration of the vocal cords, voiced consonants are pronounced with active vibration of the vocal cords. You can feel the difference, by placing your fingers on the throat when you pronounce [b] - [p], [v] - [f], [g] - [k], [d] - [t]. Do you feel the vibration of your vocal chords when pronouncing the first consonant in the pair?

The important rule is that the voiced consonants in Russian lose their „voice“ at the end of a word and turn into their voiceless counterparts. For instance, the word клуб (club) is actually pronounced as [kloop] and йод (iodine) becomes [yot].

Now practice the pronunciation of the voiced and unvoiced consonants:

Exercises Пп, Бб, Тт, Дд

2 Listen to these pairs of syllables and repeat, paying attention to the difference between the unvoiced [p] und [t] and the voiced [b] and [d]:

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па – ба

пу – бу

по – бо

пэ – бэ

та – да

ту – ду

то – до

тэ – дэ

3 Listen and repeat. Make sure you pronounce the voiced consonants [b] and [d] in the final position as the unvoiced [p] and [t]. Keep in mind that the consonants [p] and [t] are pronounced without aspiration!

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[p]

[t]

ап – оп – уп – эп

ат – от – ут – эт

аб – об – уб – эб

ад – од – уд – эд

4 Congratulations! Now you can read whole words! Read the following words. After that, listen to them and repeat:

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дом

да

он

тон

там

тут

house

yes

he

sound

there

here

как

так

кто

но

мак

куб

how

so

who

but

poppy

cube

5 Here is your vocabulary for this lesson. Read these words and try to learn them. You can practise the vocabulary covering the Russian or the English column with a piece of paper.

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да

yes

как

how

дом