When you learn Russian numbers, it is easier to learn nouns along with them. For example, you can learn how to say one cat, two cats, etc., so that you do learn more vocabulary than you would by just concentrating on numbers. For those whose native language is English, learning to speak Russian involves a lot of memorization. The reason is that it is not enough for you just to learn the singular form of a noun because of the way the nouns change in the plural form. So if when learning the plural, you associate them with numbers you do kill two birds with one stone.
The easiest way to do this is to learn the numbers in Russian from 1 to 10. These are:
1 Odin
2 dva
3 tri
4 chetyre
5 pyat
6 shest
7 sem
8 vosem
9 devyat
10 desyat
Once you know these numbers you can form the words for the numbers from 11 to 19 by adding nadtsat to the word for each number from 1 to 10. For example, 11 in Russian is odinnadtsat and 12 is dvenadtsat. You do drop the from the end of the word for four to form fourteen so that it is chetyrnadtsat. Twenty in Russian is davadtsat and to make the rest of the numbers in the twenties you simply use this word and the number word so that you have two separate words.
By learning the numbers in conjunction with nouns you can increase your vocabulary quite quickly. You also learn that there are several forms of the plural in Russian. The word for dog ends in /a/, but the plural form used with the numbers 2, 3 and 4, ends in /m/ and for five or more the word ends in/k/. When you are dealing with numbers higher than twenty in association with a noun, the use of numbers ending in 1, such as 21, 31, 41 and so on, the noun is written in the singular. The same rule for 2, 3, and 4 applies for 22, 23 and 24, as does the rule for five or more.
Once you master these numbers then move on to the hundreds and then the thousands. This may seem quite difficult but once you realize the pattern to the numbers in Russian it won't take you long to know how to form them. The course you take in Russian should have a listening and speaking component so that you can hear and say the words to learn how to pronounce them correctly. Listening exercises should consist of saying numbers that you have to write as numerals. You can also ask others to quiz you by saying a number in English that you have to write in Russian. If you have a friend who speaks this language it will be even easier because then you can say the word for the number rather than write it.
Learning Russian does take more time than learning French and Spanish, for example, because of the difference in the way the letters are formed to spell out the words.
![[Valid RSS feed]](/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
