Explaining Vocabulary

Each day I will list 5 extra words for you to memorize. 5 words is nothing when you really think about it, and keep in mind that as you become more familiar with Russian words, this task will become easier. You should write these words out as many times as you can throughout the day (along with any other new words in each lesson that you try) and USE them by speaking them.

I keep a list of vocabulary words at my desk at work and write them out when ever I get the chance. By the time I come home from work I usually know them all.

Here are your first 5 words:

актёр (act-yor) - male actor
актриса (act-ree-sa) - female actress

артист (art-ist) - male artist (musical artist only)
артистка (art-ist-ka)- female artist (musical artist only)

баскетболист (basket-bol-ist) - male basketball player
баскетболистка (basket-bol-ist-ka) - female basketball player

писатель (piss-a-tel) - writer*

профессор (prof-ess-yor) - professor*

As you no doubt noticed, some Russian nouns (most actually) have a masculine and feminine version (there is also a neuter version which will come up later). The most common way to form the feminine word is by adding "ka" to the end, however some feminine nouns are completely different words, like the word for female actress; актриса. These you will have to memorize.

*with most professions it is not necessary to use a fem. version, in fact using the fem. version may even insult the person you are talking about/to. The masculine form of the words for "composer" and "professor" are used when talking about both females and males in those professions. You probably wouldn't want to call someone a female basketball player either (it might translate to playing basketball like a girl, no insult intended ladies!!) but it sounds cool so I listed it here.

My friend who is taking linguistics at the university told me that in order to survive one day of basic conversation you would need to know around 3000 words! That means, if you learn 5 words a day it will take you 400 days to be able to converse semi coherently in Russian. Don't let that discourage you because as we go along you will be learning a lot more than just 5 words a day. Just remember that the more you use a language, the easier it gets.

If you're just so curious you can't stand it (and you want to check out the 2000 most used words in Russian) go here.