— where English says “is”
Russian leaves out “is” and “are” in the present. When both sides are nouns (or a noun and a number or infinitive), a long dash marks the gap. Two nouns side by side without it would read like “Moscow capital”. The dash has a space on both sides. Compare with our guide to English punctuation rules.
| Use | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Noun — noun | The most common use. With a pronoun as subject, no dash: Он врач. | |
| Noun — infinitive | Also between two infinitives: Жить — зна́чит люби́ть, “To live is to love”. | |
| Definitions | In definitions Russians often add э́то after the dash. | |
| Summing up a list | A dash before a word that sums up the list (всё, everything). | |
| A sudden result | Marks a surprise, contrast or quick consequence. | |
| Missing verb | The dash shows where the repeated verb лю́бит has been left out. |
«Ёлочки» and „ла́пки“
Russian’s main quotation marks are «angle quotes», called ёлочки (little fir trees). Inside them, a quote within a quote uses „ла́пки“ (little paws), low at the start and high at the end. They also mark the names of books, films, companies, ships and shops.
Four patterns for quoting what someone said
Direct speech is someone’s exact words; the author’s words are the narration around it (“she said”). Russian punctuates the four possible orders in four fixed ways. Learn them by their shapes: П is the speech, а or А the author’s words.
Rule: Author’s words, a colon, then the speech in «» with a capital letter. The full stop goes after the closing quote.
In novels and stories, a conversation is set out with each speaker on a new line beginning with a dash. No quotation marks are used.
The commas English leaves out
Russian commas are required by grammar, not chosen for rhythm. Besides the comma before every joining word (see joining sentences), six more cases catch English speakers. Each is shown with the commas in red.
A colon before lists, reasons and quoted words
The colon (двоето́чие) works much as in English, with one important difference: after a colon, Russian continues in lower case unless direct speech or a proper name follows.
Fewer capitals, a decimal comma, the day first
Russian capitalises far less than English, and writes numbers the continental European way.
| What | English | Russian | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Months | May | Small letter, except at the start of a sentence. | |
| Days | Monday | Small letter. | |
| Languages | Russian (language) | Small letter. | |
| Nationalities | an Englishman | Small letter. | |
| “I” | I | Small letter: only the polite Вы in letters gets a capital. | |
| Titles | War and Peace | Only the first word capitalised. | |
| Decimals | 3.5 | A comma, not a point. | |
| Large numbers | 1,000,000 | A space between thousands, never a comma. | |
| Dates | 10/21/2026 | Day, month, year, separated by full stops. |