Master grammar with comprehensive explanations and examples
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The Russian alphabet
A good first topic
Can read and write the Cyrillic alphabet and identify Russian letters
Can apply Russian stress and vowel reduction rules when reading aloud
Can distinguish and produce hard and soft consonants in Russian
Can use soft sign and hard sign correctly and pronounce Ы, Щ, Ч sounds
Can use personal pronouns to refer to self and others, and choose appropriate ты/вы register
Can identify objects using это/вот and form questions with что это
Can ask basic questions using кто, что, где, когда, как, сколько
Can use мой, твой, наш and ваш with the right gender and number, and his/her/their as invariable его, её and их
Can use этот and тот in all genders and the plural, and tell the invariable это ('this is') apart from этот/эта/это/эти ('this')
Can form present-tense sentences without 'to be' and use the dash convention
Can conjugate common first-conjugation verbs such as читать and работать in the present tense
Can conjugate common second-conjugation verbs such as говорить and любить in the present tense, including the consonant change in the я form
Can conjugate хотеть, есть and пить in the present tense and use them to order food and drink and say what they want to do
Can conjugate жить and say where they and other people live, using the prepositional case after в and на
Can choose between идти and ходить, and between ехать and ездить, to talk about a trip in progress, regular trips and completed round trips
Can conjugate verbs ending in -ся/-сь and use common ones such as учиться, встречаться and нравиться correctly
Can conjugate мочь and хотеть, use them with an infinitive, and tell мочь apart from уметь
Can talk about past events using the past tense in -л/-ла/-ло/-ли, matching the verb to the speaker's or subject's gender and number.
Can talk about future processes and plans with буду + imperfective infinitive (Завтра я буду работать).
Can make one-off promises and plans with the perfective future (Я позвоню, Я прочитаю) and tell it apart from буду + infinitive.
Can tell imperfective from perfective verbs in common pairs (читать/прочитать) and choose between process and result in simple sentences.
Can give instructions and make polite requests with the ты and вы imperative (читай/читайте, скажите, пожалуйста) and say don't with не.
Can negate sentences and use double negation correctly
Can use neutral word order, move new information to the end of the sentence and ask yes/no questions by intonation alone.
Can link ideas with и, а, но, или, потому что and что, choosing а for contrast and но for the unexpected, with the right commas.
Can say what people have and do not have with у меня есть / у меня нет + genitive, including у него, у неё and nouns as owners.
Can say what someone needs to do or needs to have with мне нужно/надо + infinitive and нужен/нужна/нужно/нужны + noun.
Can use numbers 0-100 and apply number-noun agreement
Can ask and tell the time in Russian, including half and quarter hours, and say at what time something happens
Can form and use ordinal numbers 1st-10th with the right gender, for floors, school years, centuries and dates
Can say how old someone is and give today's date or the date of an event in Russian
Can determine the grammatical gender of Russian nouns by their ending
Can form plural nouns correctly including common irregulars
Can identify and use nominative case for subjects and predicate nouns
Can use accusative for direct objects with animate/inanimate distinction
Can express location using в/на + prepositional case
Can form the genitive singular and use it for possession, absence with нет, quantity and after prepositions such as из, у, без and для
Can choose the right noun form after numbers (1, 2-4, 5-20 and the teens) and use it for prices, times and counting people
Can form the dative singular and use it for the recipient, with нравится, нужно and age, for feelings like мне холодно, and after к
Can form the instrumental singular and use it with с ('together with'), for tools without a preposition, and for jobs after работать and стать
Can name the six Russian cases, ask their questions (кто? кого? кому? ...) and recognise which case a common noun form is in.
Can make adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number, choosing hard or soft endings and applying the и-after-к/г/х/ж/ш/ч/щ spelling rule
Can use the short adjectives рад, готов, занят, свободен and болен with the right gender and number, including the plural with polite вы
Can name the days of the week, months and seasons and say when something happens: в понедельник, в мае, зимой
Can place events in time with сейчас, сегодня, вчера, завтра, сначала/потом and утром, днём, вечером, ночью.
Can understand typical TORFL task instructions and use classroom phrases to ask for repetition, clarification and permission.
Can say where people and things are using в, на, у, около, рядом с, между, над, под, за and перед with the right case.
Can ask and answer куда?, где? and откуда? and choose в/на/к with the right case for direction, and из/с/от for origin.
Best after: Prepositions of place: saying where something is
Can say how often something happens with всегда, обычно, часто, иногда, редко and никогда не.
Can form manner adverbs from adjectives (быстрый → быстро) and use здесь/сюда, там/туда and дома/домой correctly.
I can express possession, absence and origin with full genitive singular forms.
I can form all three genitive plural models and use them after numbers and quantity words.
I can mark direct objects correctly by animacy in both numbers.
I can decline nouns in all plural cases using the gender-blind endings.
I can choose the right aspect member for process, repetition and results.
I can express arriving, leaving, entering and crossing with prefixed motion pairs.
I can pick the right motion verb by direction, habit and vehicle, including carry/lead pairs.
I can express wishes, polite requests and unreal conditions with the бы system.
I can pick the right aspect for requests, prohibitions, warnings and warm invitations.
I can express obligation, permission and prohibition with должен/надо/можно/нельзя including the aspect trick.
I know the case government of the 20 most frequent Russian verbs.
I can use every personal pronoun form across the six cases, including the н- forms.
I can choose between -то, -нибудь and кое- by knownness, sentence type and time.
I can build multiple-negation sentences and split ни-pronouns around prepositions.
I can use свой correctly whenever the owner is the subject and avoid it in subjects.
Best after: Possessive pronouns: мой, твой, наш, ваш, его, её, их
I can describe people and things with который clauses in the right gender, number and case.
I can express states and necessity with subjectless dative constructions.
I can express purpose and wishes with чтобы, switching infinitive/past by subject identity.
I can compare with both the чем and the genitive patterns, including the irregular set.
I can form superlatives with самый, the bookish suffixes and быстрее всех.
I can state years, full dates and centuries with correct ordinal and genitive forms.
I can quantify with много/мало/несколько and measure words plus the right genitive.
I can place events in time with через/назад/по/с-до and distinguish на vs за periods.
Best after: Time expressions: today, tomorrow, in the morning
I can make requests, ask permission and propose plans at the right politeness level.
I can recognize active participles and convert them to and from который clauses.
I can compress same-subject actions with -я and -в gerunds without dangling them.
I can build process and result passives and name the agent in the instrumental.
I can use motion verbs in their figurative senses with the fixed forms they demand.
Best after: Motion verbs: ехать/ездить, везти/возить and other pairs
I can pick the aspect under negation to distinguish never-did from didn't-complete.
I can decline numerals through the cases together with their nouns.
I can use двое/трое with the right noun classes and avoid them with female nouns.
I can report statements, commands and questions with что/чтобы/ли and no tense shift.
I can build real conditions with double future and unreal ones with double бы.
I can order words by information structure so the sentence answers the intended question.
I can chain sentences into coherent paragraphs with cause, contrast and sequence connectors.
I can mark parentheticals with commas and tell them from look-alike predicates.
Best after: Linking sentences: поэтому, однако, зато, кроме того
I can attach cause, concession, time and purpose clauses with the right conjunctions.
I can punctuate quotations and dash dialogues the Russian way.
I can use short adjectives as predicates and feel the full/short meaning splits.
I can compare adverbs and use как можно and всё + comparative patterns.
I can derive verbal nouns and inherit the verb's case government correctly.
I can form diminutives and deploy them for tenderness, softening and irony.
I can decode and build prefixed verbs using the core prefix meanings.
I can navigate куда/где/откуда with the consistent в-из, на-с and к-у-от pairings.
Best after: Prepositions of place: saying where something is
I can distinguish same-type from same-token and glue clauses with то, что.
I can season speech with же, ведь, ли and даже in their proper slots.
I can build and deploy all four participle types in written Russian.
I can handle adverbialized, negated and idiomatic gerunds with correct punctuation.
I can choose position verbs by orientation and use the класть/положить suppletive pair.
I can use the general-factual imperfective for experience and annulled results.
I can apply the normative government in the constructions natives get wrong.
I can classify -ся verbs by function and respect their case restrictions.
I can decline complex numerals including сотни, полтора and оба/обе in all cases.
I command all four indefinite series plus некого/нечего predicatives.
I can separate negating не from intensifying-generalizing ни in all key patterns.
I can deploy разве, неужели, -ка, ну and уж with their exact attitudes.
I can highlight any element with fronting, именно, это-clefts and emphatic и.
I can produce the major impersonal types including the elemental instrumental.
I can punctuate participial and gerund phrases by position, knowing the exceptions.
Best after: The full participle system: four participles and how to pick one
I can build proportional and paired-conjunction sentences with correct comparatives.
I can speak with natural ellipsis, давай-constructions and echo answers.
I can choose predicate agreement with quantified, collective and profession subjects.
Best after: Quantity words and the genitive: много, мало, несколько
I can build whatever/however/wherever concessions with бы ни patterns.
I can keep the classic paronym pairs apart, including their case patterns.
I can dose participle chains and rewrite bureaucratic stacks into readable prose.
Best after: The full participle system: four participles and how to pick one
I can read bookish conjunctions and deploy them for high style or irony.
Best after: Subordinate clauses: потому что, хотя, пока, чтобы
I can detect bureaucratese and rewrite it into plain Russian.
I can wield iteratives, бывало and the narrative perfective for storytelling color.
Best after: The imperfective for plain facts: Ты читал «Анну Каренину»?
I can read official documents fluently and draft a standard заявление.
I know where norm and usage split and can pick the right form per register.
Best after: Putting things somewhere: ставить, класть, вешать
I can place the single comma in compound conjunctions and know what forces the split.
Best after: Subordinate clauses: потому что, хотя, пока, чтобы
I can choose colon or dash in asyndetic sentences by the implied conjunction.
Best after: Direct speech and its punctuation: «ёлочки» and dialogue dashes
I can build and punctuate three-level sentences and know when to break them up.
Best after: Subordinate clauses: потому что, хотя, пока, чтобы
I can relay others' words with мол/дескать/якобы at the right trust level.
I can choose genitive or accusative under negation by abstractness and definiteness.
I can resolve the animacy edge cases of dolls, queens, oysters and the dearly departed.
I can decline or freeze any surname by its type, origin and bearer's gender.
I can hear and produce the seven IK contours, especially the question-making ИК-3.
I can explain and predict stem alternations through their historical sources.
Best after: What verb prefixes mean: за-, пере-, до-, раз-, недо-
I can parse and produce nonce words riding productive morphological patterns.
Best after: What verb prefixes mean: за-, пере-, до-, раз-, недо-
I can parse verse syntax and hear what each inversion and ellipsis does.
I can recognize archaic forms, their idiom hideouts and their ironic potential.
I can recast one message across five registers and switch without seams.
I can navigate the live normative battles and read the social meaning of each choice.
I can use relic-grammar idioms intact and explain the fossils inside them.
Best after: Verbal adverbs at B2: aspect, set phrases and gerunds turned adverbs
I can recognize native-speaker errors, explain their system logic and read their social signal.
I can apply the н/нн and не-spelling systems including their exception islands.
Best after: The full participle system: four participles and how to pick one
I can move logical stress to recolor a sentence and anchor только/даже scope.