The Russian variant of the Cyrillic (in America, pronounced "sirillic"; in Britain, "kirillic") alphabet has 33 letters. There is a set of "jotated" vowels in Russian, meaning that these vowels have a y-like sound at the beginning; this brings the Russian complement of vowels to 10. The Russian alphabet in order is: Аа ("a"), 'б ("b"), 'в ("v"), Гг (hard "g"), "д ("d"), Ее ("ye"), Ё' ("yo"), --ж ("zh"), ---з ("z"), Ии ("i" in "machine"), Йй ("y" as a consonant, never a vowel), Кк ("k"), Лл ("l"), Мм ("m"), Нн ("n"), Оо ("o"), Пп ("p"), Рр ("r"), Сс ("s"), Тт ("t"), Уу (long "u"), Фф ("f"), Х... ("kh"), Цц ("ts"), Чч ("ch" as in "chair"), Шш ("sh"), Щщ ("shch," although there is regional variation), Ъъ (hard sign--silent), Ыы (somewhat like the "i" in "it"), Ьь (soft sign--silent), Ээ ("e" in "yet"), Юю (yu), Яя (ya). Even though the soft and hard signs are silent, they affect the way other letters are pronounced: soft palatalizes a letter, and hard sign shows that a letter is not palatalized even though it normally would be. To hear the Russian alphabet pronounced, see Resources below.
Russian words have variable stress, which means that stress varies between words and even within a word. For instance, the nominative case of the word for "water" is "вода," which is stressed on the second syllable, while the accusative case is "воду," with the stress on the first syllable. Stress is often unpredictable and must simply be learned (either by hearing the word aloud or by checking a dictionary). Pronunciation is strongly affected by stress: almost every Russian word has only one stressed syllable and therefore only one stressed vowel. Vowels not in the stressed syllable are shortened. For instance, "о" in an unstressed syllable sounds like "ah" or "uh" (as in "...орошо," which is pronounced "khah-ruh-shoh"). The vowels that are not strongly affected by vowel shortening are "у," "э" and "ю." "Ё" is always stressed, so there is no shortened form.
There are three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and two cases (singular and plural) of Russian nouns. Unlike German or French, the gender of a Russian noun is usually easy to identify. Almost all masculine nouns end in a consonant, like "автобус" ("bus") and "стол" ("table"); some masculine nouns end in "-a," such as "мужчина" ("man"), and some end in a soft sign (which is a consonant, but often marks feminine nouns), such as "путь" ("way" or "path"). Feminine nouns usually end in "-a," like "книга" ("book") or "полка" ("shelf"), while some, like "мать" ("mother") and "ночь" ("night"), end in a soft sign. Almost all neuter nouns end in "-o," such as "окно" ("window") and "село" ("village"); a small class of Russian neuter nouns end in "-мя," including "племя" ("generation"), "бремя" ("burden") and "время" ("time"). Almost all Russian masculine and feminine nouns form their plural by adding "-ы" or "-и" to the end, while almost all neuter nouns form their plural by adding "-а"; forming plurals often causes a slight internal change in the noun.
Russian has a fairly straightforward pronoun system. The nominative pronouns of Russian are "я" ("I"), "ты" ("you" singular informal), "он/она/оно" ("he/she/it"), "мы" ("we"), "вы" ("you" informal plural or "you" singular formal) and "они" ("they"). The corresponding possessive pronouns are "мой/я/'/и" ("my"), "твой/я/'/и" ("your"), "его/е'/его" ("his/her/its"), "наш/а/е/и" ("our"), "ваш/а/е/и" ("your") and "и..." ("their").
Russian verbs have three tenses (present, past and future) and are also marked to show aspect, a concept unfamiliar to speakers of English. Generally, verbs in Russian have two aspects, imperfective and perfective. Imperfective verbs are used to discuss actions that are, were or will be in progress, while perfective verbs cover actions that were or will be completed (they have no present tense). Consider the imperfective verb "читать," which means "to read." In the present tense, its conjugation is: "я читаю," "ты читаешь," "он/она/оно читает," "мы читаем," "вы читаете," "они читают" ("I read," "you"--singular informal--"read," "he/she/it reads," "we read," "you"--plural or formal--"read," "they read"). In the past tense, Russian verbs are marked for gender and number, but not person; "читать" in the past tense is "читал" (masculine singular), "читала" (feminine singular), "читало" (neuter singular), "читали" (all plural. The future tense of imperfective verbs is formed using the verb "быть" ("to be") plus the infinitive, so "читать" in the future tense is "буду/будешь/будет/будем/будете/будут" ("I/you/he, she or it/we/you/they will") "читать" ("read"). The future tense of perfective verbs is formed by adding the same endings used in the imperfective present tense to the perfective verb. One perfective form ("читать" has several) of "читать" is "почитать," which means "to read a little." The past tense is also formed with the same endings with the inclusion of the prefix. Not all perfective verbs are formed using prefixes: for instance, the perfective form of "говорить" ("to speak") is "сказать."
Russian adjectives agree in gender and number with their nouns. There are stem-stressed and end-stressed adjectives in Russian. One stem-stressed adjective in Russian "красивый" ("beautiful"): "красивый/красивая/красивое/красивые" (masculine/feminine/neuter/plural). End-stressed adjectives in Russian end in the stressed ending "-ой," and the stress is always on the ending: "болшой/болшая/болшое/болшие." Short-form adjectives in Russian are used as attributive verbs: for instance, "он красив/она красива" means "he is beautiful/she is beautiful."
Most adverbs in Russian end in "-o" and many are clearly related to their adjectival forms. Examples include "красиво" ("beautifully"), "...орошо" ("well"), "пло...о" ("poorly"), "быстро" ("quickly") and "медленно" ("slowly"). Some adverbs do not end in "-o" and have variable endings; these include "очень" ("very"), "вдруг" ("suddenly") as well as the adverbial forms of languages, including "по-русски," as in "я говорю по-русски" ("I speak Russian").
Russian nouns, pronouns and adjectives are declined in six cases, which are endings used to show a word's function within its clause. These are: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), genitive ("of" and several other uses), prepositional (location and other uses--this case is always used with a preposition), dative (indirect object and some other uses) and instrumental ("with," "by means of" and some prepositions). Cases are governed by both verbs and prepositions. Here is the noun "стол" ("table") in all its cases using a variety of verbs and prepositions: "'от стол" ("here is a/the table"--nominative); "Я вижу стол" ("I see a/the table"--accusative); "Нет стола" ("there is no table"--genitive of negation); "Я собрал книги со стола" ("I gathered up the books from the table"--genitive); "Я подош'л к столу" ("I went up to the table"--dative); "Я думаю о столе" ("I'm thinking about the table"--prepositional); "Есть лампа над столом" ("there is a lamp over the table"--instrumental).