Russian grammar, step by step

Russian verb endings encode the subject — you can drop the pronoun entirely. The stem stays fixed while the ending shifts.

Russian default word order is Subject–Verb–Object, same as English. Because verb endings encode the subject, the pronoun is optional. Word order is flexible for emphasis — but SVO is the neutral starting point.

Every Russian noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter — and there are no articles at all. No "the", no "a". The noun ending signals gender:

Russian marks the direct object by changing the noun's ending — this is the accusative case. The ending carries the object role, which is why word order is flexible.

Plural endings depend on gender. The third-person plural verb ending is -ют or -ят.

Russian past tense agrees with gender and number — not person. "Он читал" (he read) and "я читал" (I read, male) use the same ending.

Place не directly before the verb to negate. Russian also requires double negation: negative words like ничего (nothing) and никто (nobody) must pair with не on the verb.

Yes/no questions use the same word order as statements — only rising intonation changes. The particle ли after the verb makes it formal. Question words go first.

The genitive case marks three things: possession ("of"), absence ("there is no…"), and quantity. The word нет always triggers genitive.

Russian adjectives agree with their noun in gender, number, and case — all three at once. When the noun shifts case, the adjective follows.

Every Russian verb comes in two versions: imperfective (читать) for ongoing or repeated actions, and perfective (прочитать) for a single completed action. A prefix like про- creates the perfective. A perfective verb in present-tense form automatically means future.

Russian reflexive verbs add -ся after consonants or -сь after vowels to show the action loops back to the subject. This is a suffix on the verb itself, not a separate pronoun (unlike French or Spanish). Many everyday verbs exist only in reflexive form: учиться (to study), называться (to be called), улыбаться (to smile).

Russian future has two forms tied to aspect. Perfective present form = completed future (прочитаю). Imperfective uses буду + infinitive = ongoing future (буду читать). They are not interchangeable.

The dative marks the recipient. Russian also expresses "liking" with dative: мне нравится means "to-me is-pleasing" — the liker goes into dative, the liked thing is the subject.

The instrumental marks means, accompaniment ("with"), and predicate roles after быть (to be) — "she was a teacher" requires instrumental on "teacher".

The prepositional case only appears after prepositions — it is the only case that never stands alone. Almost all nouns take -е regardless of gender, making it the most regular case.

Russian grammar is six cases, two aspects, and gender agreement — all working together as a system. Once you can see those patterns simultaneously, you can decode complex sentences and build new ones of your own.