Table Of ContentRUSSIAN
Phrase Book
&Dictionary
Elena Filimonova
i
Published by BBC Active, an imprint of Educational Publishers LLP, part
of the Pearson Education Group, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE,
England.
© Educational Publishers LLP 2007
BBC logo © BBC 1996. BBC and BBC ACTIVE are trademarks of the British
Broadcasting Corporation.
First published 2007. Third impression 2010.
The right of Elena Filimonova to be identified as author of this Work
has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means
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London EC1N 8TS.
ISBN: 978-1-4066-1212-7
Cover design: Two Associates
Cover photograph: OJPHOTOS/Alamy
Insides design: Pentacor book design
Layout: Oxford Designers & Illustrators
Illustrations © Joanna Kerr, New Division
Development manager: Tara Dempsey
Series editor: Philippa Goodrich
Editor: Natasha Kurashova
Senior production controller: Man Fai Lau
Printed and bound in China. CTPS/03
The Publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.
how to use this book
This book is divided into colour-coded sections to help you
find the language you need as quickly as possible. You can
also refer to the contents on pages iv–v, and the contents
lists at the start of each section.
Along with travel and language tips, each section contains:
YOU MAY WANT TO SAY…
language you’ll need for every situation
YOU MAY SEE…
words and phrases you’ll see on signs or in print
YOU MAY HEAR… questions, instructions or
information people may ask or give you
On page 2 you’ll find essentials, a list of basic, all-purpose
phrases to help you start communicating straight away.
Many of the phrases can be adapted by simply using another
word from the dictionary. For instance, take the question Где
аэропóрт? gdye aerapórt (Where is the airport?), if you want to
know where the station is, just substitute вокзáл vagzál (station)
for аэропóрт aerapórt to give Где вокзáл? gdye vagzál.
The pronunciation guide is based on English sounds, and is
explained on page vi. If you want some guidance on how the
Russian language works, see basic grammar on page 135.
The dictionary is separated into two sections: English–Russian
(page 145) and Russian–English (page 187).
We welcome any comments or suggestions about this book,
but in the meantime, have a good trip – Счастли´вого пути´!
schaslívava pootí
contents
pronunciation guide vi directions 31
information and tickets 34
The Russian alphabet vi trains 36
the basics 1 buses and coaches 39
underground 41
essentials 2 boats and ferries 43
numbers 4
air travel 44
ordinal numbers 5
taxis 45
fractions, days, months 6
hiring cars and bicycles 47
seasons, dates 7
driving 48
telling the time 8 mechanical problems 50
time phrases 9 car parts 51
measurements 11 bicycle parts 52
clothes and shoe sizes 12
national holidays and accommodation 53
festivals 13
accommodation 54
general booking in advance 55
conversation 15 checking in 57
hotels, B&Bs and hostels 58
greetings 16
camping 59
introductions 17
requests and queries 60
talking about yourself 18
problems and complaints 61
asking about other
checking out 62
people 20
self-catering/
chatting 22
second homes 63
the weather 23
likes and dislikes 24 food&drink 65
feelings and opinions 24
food and drink 66
making arrangements 26
making bookings 67
useful expressions 27
at the restaurant 68
travel&transport 29 ordering your food 69
ordering your drinks 70
arriving in the country 30
bars and cafés 71
iv
special requirements 72 photography 109
problems and complaints 74 at the tobacconist 110
paying the bill 74 at the off-licence 110
buying food 75 at the post office 111
menu reader: at the bank 112
– general 76 changing money 112
– drinks 77 telephones 114
– styles of cooking 78 mobiles 116
– food 79 the internet 117
faxes 118
sightseeing
&activities 85 health&safety 119
at the tourist office 86 at the pharmacy 120
opening times 87 at the doctor’s 121
visiting places 88 describing your
going on tours symptoms 122
and trips 90 medical complaints
tourist glossary 92 and conditions 123
entertainment 92 parts of the body 126
booking tickets 95 at the dentist’s 128
at the show 96 emergencies 129
sports and activities 97 police 131
at the beach, river or reporting crime 133
pool 100
basic grammar 135
shops
&services 101 English – Russian
dictionary 145
shopping 102
paying 105
Russian – English
buying clothes
dictionary 187
and shoes 106
changing rooms 107
exchanges and refunds 108
v
pronunciation guide
* the Russian alphabet
Russian is the most widespread of the Slavonic languages.
It uses the Cyrillic alphabet, also used by some East
and South Slavonic languages (e.g. Bulgarian, Serbian,
Ukrainian), languages of the former USSR (some
Caucasian, Uralic, Turkic languages), and Mongolian.
Cyrillic is closely based on the Greek alphabet.
The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The letters are
best represented in three groups:
● those that look and sound similar to English: A, E, K, M,
O, T.
● those that look similar but sound different to English
letters: В, pronounced as English ‘v’, Н (n), Р (r), С (s),
e
У (oo), Х (kh as ch in Scottish loch).
d
i
u ● those that look totally different from English, e.g. Ж, Ф,
g
Ю, Я. Their sounds, however, are often quite similar to
n
those we encounter in English.
o
i
t
a LETTER NAME OF APPROX EQUIVALENT IN SHOWN IN
i LETTER ENGLISH BOOK AS
c
n А а a a as in ‘father’ a
u
Б б beh b as in ‘bad’ b
n
o В в veh v as in ‘voice’ v
r
p Г г geh g as in ‘good’ g
Д д deh d as in ‘date’ d
Е е yeh ye as in ‘yes’ ye
vi
Ё ё yo yo as in ‘yoghurt’ yo
Ж ж zheh s as in ‘pleasure’ zh
З з zeh z as in ‘zip’ z
И и ee ee as in ‘eel’ i
Й й ee krátkaye short ee as y in ‘boy’ ï *
(lit. short ee)
К к ka k as in ‘cat’ k
Л л el l as in ‘love’ l
М м em m as in ‘man’ m
Н н en n as in ‘nail’ n
О о o o as in ‘small’ o
П п peh p as in ‘pan’ p
Р р er rolled ‘r’ r
С с es s as in ‘sad’ s
Т т teh t as in ‘tap’ t
У у oo oo as in ‘book’ oo p
r
Ф ф ef f as in ‘food’ f o
n
Х х kha ch as in ‘loch’ kh u
n
Ц ц tseh ts as in ‘toilets’ ts
c
Ч ч cheh ch as in ‘cheap’ ch ia
t
Ш ш sha sh as in ‘sheep’ sh i
o
Щ щ shcha a long sh as in ‘shock’ sch n
ъ tvyórdy znak not pronounced, used (dash –) g
(hard sign) to make a gap between u
i
syllables d
e
ы y no equivalent in English. y
Start with i as in ‘bit’, then
lower the middle part of
vii
the tongue and draw it
backwards. No words
start with this letter.
ь myákhki znak not pronounced, softens no sign **
(soft sign) the preceding consonant
Э э eh e as in ‘Mary’ e
Ю ю yoo u as in ‘usual’ yoo
Я я ya ya as in ‘yak’ ya
Notes:
* due to unclear pronunciation in colloquial Russian, masculine
adjectives will have no ï after y and i in the final position in the imitated
pronunciation
** ь is not shown in the imitated pronunciation in this book
* vowels
e Some vowels when pronounced do not correspond to
d what is written. Essential rules are: if unstressed o turns
i
u to a, and e turns to i.
g
n Vowels in Russian are pronounced separately from
o each other, except for the combinations: oo, ye, yi, yo,
i
t yoo, ya, aï, oï, yeï. For example, the word for Russia
a
i Россия (rasiya) should be pronounced ras-í-ya, theatre
c
n театр (tiatr) is pronounced ti-á-tr, etc.
u
n
o
r
p
viii
* stress
Russian pronunciation depends a lot on stress. In words
with more than one syllable, one syllable will be more
prominent, pronounced more strongly than the others.
The stress may fall on any syllable in the word. In some
cases the meaning of the word depends on what syllable
is stressed, e.g. зáмок ‘castle’ but замóк ‘lock’. Some
complex words may have a secondary stress. In this
phrase book, we have indicated the stress by an accent
on top of the corresponding vowel.
The letter ё (yo) is always stressed. You won’t find a stress
mark in the words with ё. Usually the two dots on top are
not shown when written, Russians seem always to know
whether it’s e or ё. In this book, we have indicated the dots.
In the ‘You may see…’ sections, columns with Russian
phrases lack the stress signs, since it is the way you’ll
indeed see them. p
r
o
* intonation
n
u
Typically, in statements the intonation falls at the end of n
c
the sentence:
i
a
t
Вы хоти´те кóфе. You want coffee. i
o
n
Raising the intonation will transform a statement into
g
a question, without changing the word order. In yes/no
u
questions (where a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer is expected), the i
d
intonation rises towards the end of the most important e
word.
ix
