The state and its institutions
Each noun shows its gender (m. masculine, f. feminine, n. neuter) and a typical phrase. Several are used with на rather than в for “in”, and some exist only in the plural. Tap any word to hear it.
| Word | Meaning | Gender | In a phrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| state, country (as an institution) | n. | ||
| power; (plural) the authorities | f. | ||
| government | n. | ||
| president | m. | ||
| parliament | m. | ||
| member of parliament, deputy | m. | ||
| minister | m. | ||
| ministry | n. | ||
| law (a specific law) | m. | ||
| constitution | f. | ||
| election(s) | pl. only | ||
| (political) party | f. |
Elections and decisions: the verbs
Political verbs come in aspect pairs: an imperfective for the process or the habit, a perfective for the completed result (see verb aspect). Learn each with its preposition and case, shown in blue.
Society and social issues
The topics of essays, interviews and exam discussions. Most of these are abstract nouns (names of ideas rather than things), which in Russian are usually feminine in -ость or neuter in -ние.
One verb, a whole family
Formal Russian builds its vocabulary from verbs. A suffix (an ending added to the root) turns the action into a process (-ние), a person (-тель) or a quality (-ость). Recognising the pattern lets you read unfamiliar words in any news article. More in word formation.
| Verb | The process · -ние | The person · -тель |
|---|---|---|
Weighing up an issue
The phrases that structure a debate or an exam essay. They are neutral to formal, and each one comes with a fixed grammatical frame, so learn them whole.
Reading news language
News Russian packs a lot into few words. Two features stand out: chains of nouns in the genitive (“of… of…”), and the passive or a “they” verb with no subject. Here is how to unpack two typical sentences.
Check yourself
Say the Russian out loud, then reveal it.