Pronoun is a word that could replace noun in a sentence. Function of pronouns not only in writing but also talking to other people, it is useful for everyday bases so you don’t have to repeat a noun over and over again. Most language around the world have pronouns to be used, so is Russian. Here, we will provide you Russian personal pronouns including their declension that affected by Russian grammatical cases.
One of the key to learn foreign language is familiarize yourself with studying pronouns of the language, do not just memorizing it but you must trying to understand the purpose of its use also. Thus, learning that way allows you to understand quickly rather than just memorizing. For beginners we suggest you to visit How to Learn Russian for Beginners as an introduction to Russian language, this article also friendly for beginners since it is completed with pronounciation and English translation.
Use The Pronouns Properly
Before we proceed to type of Russian personal pronouns, we would like to explain how to use pronouns properly. In Russian there are two situation for greeting people with pronouns called formal and non formal situation. Russian language has two form of utterance “You” in Russian, which is for formal or non formal communication.
As we know that first impression are comes from greetings, inside greeting there must be pronouns in it. There are two ways of approaching person or to start a communication depending on the situation whether it is formal or not. If you talk to a friend, family or somebody that you know well, you might use pronoun “Ты (Tiy)” to call them directly. Meanwhile if you talk to strangers, people older than you, teacher or someone that you respect, you should use pronoun “Вы (Viy)” to call them.
For now, let’s take a look at Russian personal pronouns :
[table]
[tr][th]Russian Pronouns[/th] [th]Pronounciations[/th] [th]Translations[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Я[/td] [td]Ya[/td] [td]I[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Ты[/td] [td]Tiy[/td] [td]You (singular/non formal)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Вы[/td] [td]Viy[/td] [td]You (plural/formal)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Мы[/td] [td]Miy[/td] [td]We[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Он[/td] [td]On[/td] [td]He[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Она[/td] [td]Ana[/td] [td]She[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Оно[/td] [td]Ano[/td] [td]It[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Они[/td] [td]Anyi[/td] [td]They[/td][/tr]
[/table]
That was eight common Russian personal pronouns that you can find at daily conversation.
Point of View (Person)
1. First Person
First person point of view means that the speaker refers to herself or himself, just like in the novel as well at daily conversation. You will see in Russian “Я” and “Мы” are the first person pronouns and refer to speaker. Look at the sentence below :
- Я всегда прихожу домой поздно после работы
(Ya vsegda prikhazhu damoy pozdna poslye rabotiy)
I always come home late after work
“я” is someone that refers to the speaker whose saying this sentence
- Мы поехали в ресторан возле озера
(My payekhali v restaran vozle azyera)
We went to a restaurant near the lake
“мы” refer to the speaker along with other people with her/him to perform an action.
2. Second Person
Second person point of view refers to someone who addressed you directly or the person you’re talking to. In Russian “Ты” and “Вы” were used as the second person pronouns. Look at the example below :
- Тина,Ты хорошо говорите по русски
(Ty kharashyo gavarite pa russkiy)
You speak Russian well
“ты” refers to Tina as the addressed person
- Вы можете войти в театр с детьми
(Vy mozhete vayti ve teatr se djet’mi)
You may enter the theater with children
“вы” refers to someone (formal) or other people (more than one) addressed.
3. Third Person
Third person point of view means that these type of pronouns did not refers to narrator as herself/himself. Not also as someone being addresed directly, it is more like someone or something being talked about or in other words there are other observer. In Russian you will see “он”, “она”, “онo”, “они” as third person pronouns. Look at the example below :
- Он любит заниматься спортом
(On lyubit zanimat’sya sportom)
He loves to play sport
“он” refers to man or male gender
- Она читала книгу в библиотеке целый день
(Ana chitala knyigu ve biblioteke tsyeliy jyen’)
She reads a book in the library all day
“она” refers to woman or female gender
- “Вот море, Oно очень красивое”
(Vot morye, ano ocyen’ krasivoye)
Here is the sea, it‘s so beautiful
“оно” refers to neutral gender for thing. As a note, not all Russian use “оно” as pronouns for “it” instead, they usually use “это” as substitute for neutral gender thing.
- Они работают в новой компании в Москве
(Anyi rabotayut ve noviy kampanii ve Maskve)
They work in a new company in Moscow
“oни” refers to more than one man or plural thing
That was all three point of view in Russian personal pronouns.
Declension of Personal Pronouns
In process of learning Russian language, you have to familiar with declension. Declension in Russian is grammatical system which include six cases such as nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and preposition. Those cases makes pronoun changing form. To increase your knowledge of related changing form of Russian word affected by grammatical system you may visit Colors in Russian Language and Numbers in Russian Language
Here are table of personal pronouns declension in Russian, start from first person and second person point of view.
[table]
[tr][th]Russian Cases[/th] [th]Singular[/th] [th]Singular[/th] [th]Plural[/th] [th]Plural[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Nominative[/td] [td]Я (ya)[/td] [td]Ты (ty)[/td] [td]Мы (my)[/td] [td]Вы (vy)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Genitive[/td] [td]Меня (menya)[/td] [td]Тебя (tebya)[/td] [td]Нас (nas)[/td] [td]Вас (vas)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Dative[/td] [td]Мне (mnye)[/td] [td]Тебе (tyebe)[/td] [td]Нам (nam)[/td] [td]Вам (vam)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Accusative[/td] [td]Меня (menya)[/td] [td]Тебя (tebya)[/td] [td]Нас (nas)[/td] [td]Вас (vas)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Instrumental[/td] [td]Мной (mnoiy)[/td] [td]Тобой (taboiy)[/td] [td]Нами (nami)[/td] [td]Вами (vami)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Prepositional[/td] [td](обо) Мне (oba mnye)[/td] [td](о) Тебе (o tyebe)[/td] [td](о) Нас (o nas)[/td] [td](о) Вас (o vas)[/td][/tr]
[/table]
After we explain first person and second person declension of pronouns, let’s proceed to third person declension pronouns.
[table]
[tr][th]Russian cases[/th] [th]Singular[/th] [th]Singular[/th] [th]Singular[/th] [th]Plural[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Nominative[/td] [td]Он (on)[/td] [td]Она (ana)[/td] [td]Оно (ano)[/td] [td]Они (anyi)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Genitive[/td] [td]Его (yewo)[/td] [td]Её (yeyo)[/td] [td]Его (yewo)[/td] [td]Их (ikh)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Dative[/td] [td]Ему (yemu)[/td] [td]Ей (yeiy)[/td] [td]Ему (yemu)[/td] [td]Им (im)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Accusative[/td] [td]Его (yewo)[/td] [td]Её (yeyo)[/td] [td]Его (yewo)[/td] [td]Их (ikh)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Instrumental[/td] [td]Им (im)[/td] [td]Ей, Ею (yeiy, yeyu)[/td] [td]Им (im)[/td] [td]Ими (imi)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Prepositional[/td] [td](о) Нём (o nyom)[/td] [td](о) Ней (o nyei)[/td] [td](о) Нём (o nyom)[/td] [td](о) Них (o nyikh)[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Note : Russian personal pronouns have absolute form for they are singular and plural. They only change form by cases but not affected by numbers.
In order to increase your knowledge about declension of Russian personal pronouns, here are some Russian personal pronouns in a sentence, you will see how those pronouns work with cases :
познакомитесь пожалуйста, меня зовут Анна
(paznakomites’ pozhaluiysta, menya zavut Anna)
Let’s get acquainted, my name is Anna
Если я дам тебе слово, ты мне поверишь
(yesli ya dam tyebe slova, ty mnye povyerish’)
If I give you my word, you‘ll believe me
Это Борис, мы с ним вместе работает
(eta Boris, my s nyim vmyeste rabotayet)
This is Boris, we work together with him
That was all about Russian personal pronouns, we highly recommend you to start a conversation with no doubts by using these pronouns. You may visit Common Greetings in Russian as your guide to daily Russian conversation and also visit Basic Russian Words to help you enrich your vocabularies.