From your own bank account to the national budget: how to pay, save, borrow and lend, how economists and journalists describe growth and decline, and how Russian handles percentages and very large numbers.
B1 to C1·46 words and phrases·Audio for every word
вы́рос на 5 % (VY-ras na pyat’ pra-TSEN-taf), “rose by 5%”. The amount of change follows на + accusative; the level reached follows до + genitive.
The short answer
Де́ньги (money) exists only in the plural. The verbs of money each fix a preposition: you pay за something, spend на something, save up на something, and borrow у someone. For the economy, the key words are эконо́мика, ры́нок (market), рост (growth) and кри́зис. A change is described with на + accusative (“by”) and до + genitive (“to”). An English billion is a миллиа́рд.
Money and banking
Each word shows its gender (m., f., n.) or that it exists only in the plural. счёт has two everyday meanings, a bank account and a bill in a restaurant; context makes it clear. Tap any word to hear it. For shopping and prices, see shopping vocabulary.
Word
Meaning
Gender
In a phrase
money
pl. only
rouble
m.
kopeck (1/100 rouble)
f.
cash
pl. only
(bank) card
f.
account; bill
m.
bank
m.
loan, credit
m.
debt
m.
percent; interest
m.
salary, wages
f.
price
f.
Paying, saving, borrowing, lending
English uses “borrow” and “lend” for opposite directions; Russian uses one phrase, в долг (“as a debt”), with брать (take) or дава́ть (give). The pattern each verb needs is in blue. Verbs are given as aspect pairs: ongoing / completed.
The economy
The vocabulary of business news and economics lectures. Many terms come in opposite pairs, shown side by side: дохо́д / расхо́ды (income / expenditure), при́быль / убы́ток (profit / loss), спрос / предложе́ние (demand / supply).
Describing rises and falls
Two prepositions carry the numbers. на + accusative gives the size of the change (“by”); до + genitive gives the level reached (“to”); с + genitive gives the starting point (“from”). The noun after a number follows the usual counting rules: 1 проце́нт, 2 проце́нта, 5 проце́нтов.
Present tense for what is happening now, perfective past (вы́росли, упа́ли) for a change that is complete: Це́ны вы́росли на 5%, “prices rose by 5%”, with на for the amount.
Verb
Meaning
Example
расти́ / вы́растиras-TEE / VY-ras-ti
to grow, rise
увели́чиваться / увели́читьсяu-vi-LEE-chi-va-tsa
to increase
па́дать / упа́стьPA-dat’ / u-PAST’
to fall
снижа́ться / сни́зитьсяsni-ZHAT-sa / SNEE-zit-sa
to decrease, decline
остава́ться / оста́ться на у́ровнеas-TAT-sa na U-rav-nye
to stay at the level (of)
вдво́еVDVO-ye
twice, by half
Big numbers and percentages
Large numbers behave like nouns: ты́сяча is feminine, миллио́н and миллиа́рд are masculine, and the counted noun goes into the genitive plural after them. In writing, Russian puts a space between thousands and a comma before decimals: 1 500,5.