Traveling in a foreign country such as Russia suddenly becomes a lot more exciting when you can engage in elegant small talk with the locals. Russian Phrases For Dummies is your handy guide to everyday words and phrases you can start using immediately to make your visit more rewarding and a whole lot easier.

This user-friendly phrasebook will jump-start your comprehension and have you speaking basic Russian in no time. Its quick-and-easy approach gives you language fundamentals up front, the Words to Know section helps you find the right word fast, and the easy-to-use pronunciation key helps other people understand what you're trying to say. You'll learn how to:

• Get directions, shop, and eat out
• Talk numbers, dates, and time
• Chat about family and work
• Discuss sports and the weather
• Deal with problems and emergencies
• Pronounce familiar English words and phrases in Russian and English
• Beware of words that sound to English but don't mean the same thing
• Read signs that use the Russian alphabet
• Follow the conventions of Russian pronunciation
• Use basic Russian grammar correctly
• Keep ten commonly used Russian phrases on the tip of your tongue
• Use basic telephone vocabulary and send letters, emails, and faxes

Don't have time to study the language before you get to Russia? No worries. Just flip through Russian Phrases For Dummies, find the section that fits your needs, and start talking!

Serafima Gettys, PhD, earned her doctorate degree in Foreign Language Education from Gertzen State Pedagogical University, Leningrad, USSR. She is currently a Coordinator of the Foreign Language Program at Lewis University, where she also teaches Russian. Prior to coming to Lewis University, she taught Russian at Stanford University. Gettys is also a member of a number of professional language associations.

Nina Wieda is a doctoral student in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University in Chicago. A trained linguist with an MA in Social Sciences, Nina also has a book of poetry published in Russian, and a number of scholarly articles on Chekhov and contemporary drama published in English.

Hundreds of useful phrases at your fingertips

Speak Russian instantly!

Traveling to Russia but don't know Russian? Need to kick up your conversation skills? This handy little phrasebook will jump-start your comprehension and have you speaking basic Russian in no time.

Discover how to:

• Get directions, shop, and eat out
• Talk numbers, dates, and times
• Discuss sports and the weather
• Deal with problems and emergencies

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Russian 5

Looking at the Russian Alphabet 5

From A to Ya: Making sense of Cyrillic 5

I know you! Familiar-looking, same-sounding letters 10

Playing tricks: Familiar-looking, different-sounding letters 10

How bizarre: Weird-looking letters 11

Sounding Like a Real Russian with Proper Pronunciation 12

Understanding the one-letter/one-sound principle 12

Giving voice to vowels 12

Enunciating consonants correctly 15

Surveying sticky sounds 17

Chapter 2: Grammar on a Diet: Just the Basics 21

Making the Russian Cases 22

Nominative case 22

Genitive case 22

Accusative case 22

Dative case 23

Instrumental case 23

Prepositional case 23

Building Your Grammar Base with Nouns and Pronouns 24

Getting the lowdown on the gender of nouns 24

Checking out cases for nouns 24

Putting plurals into their cases 27

Picking out pronouns 34

Decorating Your Speech with Adjectives 39

Always consenting: Adjective-noun agreement 39

A lot in common: Putting adjectives into other cases 41

Nowhere to be found: The lack of articles in Russian 43

Adding Action with Verbs 43

Spotting infinitives 43

Living in the present tense 43

Keep it simple: Forming the past tense 44

Past again: Perfective or imperfective? 45

Planning for the future tense 46

Using the unusual verb byt' (to be) 47

Chapter 3: Numerical Gumbo: Counting of All Kinds 49

Counting in Russian 49

Numbers 0 through 9 50

Numbers 10 through 19 51

First, Second: Ordinal Numbers 51

The Clock's Ticking: Telling Time 52

Counting the hours 52

Marking the minutes 54

Asking for the time 56

Knowing the times of the day 56

Monday, Tuesday: Weekdays 57

Talking about time relative to the present 58

Checking Your Calendar 59

Recognizing the names of the months 59

Saying the year 60

Surveying the seasons 61

Money, Money, Money 62

Changing money 62

Heading to the ATM 62

Spending money 63

Paying with credit cards 64

Chapter 4: Making New Friends and Enjoying Small Talk 65

To Whom Am I Speaking? Being Informal or Formal 65

Comings and Goings: Saying Hello and Goodbye 66

Saying hello to different people 66

Handling How are you? 67

Taking your leave 68

Break the Ice: Making Introductions 68

Getting acquainted 68

Asking for people's names and introducing yourself 69

Introducing your friends and family 70

Let Me Tell You Something: Talking about Yourself 71

Stating where you're from 71

Telling your age 72

Talking about Family 73

Beginning with basic terms for family members 73

Talking about family members with the verb to have 74

Where Do You Work? 75

Let's Get Together: Giving and Receiving Contact Information 78

I'm Sorry! I Don't Understand 79

Chapter 5: Enjoying a Drink and a Snack (or a Meal!) 81

Focusing on Food Basics 81

Eating up 81

Drinking up 83

Using utensils and tableware 85

Enjoying Different Meals 86

What's for breakfast? Almost anything! 86

Let's do dinner (not lunch) 87

A simple supper 90

Going Out for Groceries 90

Picking out produce 90

Surveying other grocery items 92