Personalpronomen

Russian has the pronouns you would expect, with two differences that matter from the first conversation: there are two words for "you", and "he" and "she" are used for things as well as people.

Note that я is not capitalised in the middle of a sentence, unlike English "I".

ты or вы?

• ты is for family, friends, children, pets and people your own age in casual settings. Students say ты to each other straight away.
• вы to one person is the polite form: a stranger on the street, a shop assistant, a colleague you do not know well, a teacher, anyone older. Adults who meet at work start on вы and may agree to switch later: Дава́й на «ты»? ("Shall we say ты?").
• вы is also plain plural "you", whatever your relationship with the people.

English "you" covers all of this, so the risk is defaulting to one form. Saying ты to a pharmacist in Kazan sounds rude; saying вы to a five-year-old sounds odd. When unsure, use вы. In a personal letter or an email, the polite Вы is often capitalised; in ordinary printed text it is not.

он, она, оно for things

Every Russian noun has a grammatical gender, and the pronoun follows it, not the meaning. English says "it" for a table, a book and a window; Russian does not:

• Где стол? - Он там. (Where is the table? It's there.)
• Где кни́га? - Она́ тут. (Where is the book? It's here.)
• Где окно́? - Оно́ сле́ва. (Where is the window? It's on the left.)

English speakers reach for оно for every object, which a Russian hears as a mistake. Check the noun's gender (the page on noun gender shows how) and pick the pronoun from it.

Dropping the pronoun

Russian verbs show the person in their ending, so in conversation the pronoun is often left out in the present and future: Чита́ю. (I'm reading.) Куда́ идёшь? (Where are you going?) In the past tense, which has no person endings, pronouns are usually kept: Я чита́л, ты чита́л. Russian drops pronouns less than Spanish or Czech do, so keeping them is a safe choice at this level.