Listen to your free Russian audio lesson below

Thank you for checking out my audio lesson. It's the first lesson of my new Russian Conversations Unlocked Course.

It's a completely new "guided speaking" method that helps you speak Russian from day #1.

Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of The Russian Conversational Blueprint

So listen to the lesson below and start speaking Russian today.

Tip #1: You can also download the lesson by clicking on the 3 dots and pressing "download"
Tip #2: Read the transcript while you listen to the lessons. That helps with focus and memory.

Lesson Transcript

Welcome to the course, all you need to do in these lessons is listen to me and whenever I give you a prompt, think about the answer and if possible, say it out loud.

Let’s begin. To say “this is” in Russian, you say the word это. Это means “this is”. Это.

Now it’s your turn. How would you say “this is":

…

Naturally, you want to follow it up. You want to say “this is something”, right?

And I’ve got good news: if you speak English, French, German, or any other Romance or Germanic language, you likely already know a lot of words in Russian.

Take the word for theater, for example. In Russian, theater is театр - театр.

Now you: театр.

…

It’s basically the same word, but “Russified”.

So how would you say “this is theater":

…

You’ve probably noticed an incongruence here. I asked you in English “this is theater”. But we skipped the article, you would usually say in English “this is A theater”.

“This is theater”: doesn’t it sound like any Russian character in a Hollywood movie?

Well, the Russian language does NOT have these articles. This is a reason to be happy, because it’s simply one less thing to think about.

If a Russian person says это театр, it can mean “this is a theater”, or “this is the theater”. Context usually makes this clear. This is refreshing, because to be honest, a and the don’t really add that much to our speech. If I were to create a new language from scratch, I’d also skip the articles.

Native Russian speakers who speak English find this difficult, that’s why they often forget it. and then they say something like “I put chicken in oven” or “this is theater”. Which, by the way, how would you say “this is theater” in Russian again?

…

Now, in the rest of the course I WILL say articles in the English prompts. This just makes it easier on your ears.

So whenever I ask you to say “this is a bank”, you say the Russian equivalent of “this is bank”. How would you say “this is a bank":

…

If you guessed that bank is банк, good job. If not, we’ve just learned another word. Just like театр, банк is a cognate. A cognate is a word that exists in both languages. And these words make it much easier to learn Russian, since you already know them.

Want to know a secret? Here it is: секрет. Now you: “секрет”:

…

And how would you say “this is a secret”:

…

If you’re reading along, you see that these cognates are usually written similarly, and only the pronunciation changes. Speaking about that…

You may be wondering about your pronunciation and if you say the words correctly? The reality is that pronunciation is not that important in the beginning. I know plenty of native Russian speakers who moved abroad, and who have a horrible accent in English or Dutch, but they still manage to live their lives perfectly fine.

So you have my permission to be bad at pronouncing Russian words.

And here’s a little-known секрет: If you just listen carefully to the correct pronunciation, and repeat it, your pronunciation will get better over time automatically, without you focusing on it.

Listening + repeating is key here.

Let’s try it, how would you say “this is a bank":

…

And how would you say “this is a secret":

…

But what if you want to say “this is NOT a bank"? In English you just add the word not in front of the thing that’s not there.

Luckily, Russian works the same way, you just add не in front of the word. Repeat that: не:

…

So how would you say “not a bank":

…

And how would you say “not a secret":

…

And how would you then say “this is not a secret":

…

Or how would you say “this is not a theater":

…

Now, another interesting thing is that это can also mean “it is”, so это means “this is” and “it is”.

So how would you say “it is not a secret”:

…

Yes, it’s the same это не секрет. This is a fun phrase to reply if someone asks you a common question and you want to add a bit of playfulness to the conversation.

Now, let’s try combining everything we’ve learned in the last couple of minutes. Imagine you’re taking a walk in the center of your city with a Russian-speaking friend named Ivan. He points at a magnificent old building, and asks “театр?”

How would you reply "It's not a theater, it’s a secret":

…

Or how would you say “it’s not a secret. It’s a bank":

…

Now, do you remember that Russian does NOT have articles? Russian usually uses fewer words than English to express the same thing. Это президент means “this is the president”.

We say “the president” here, because there’s usually only one president.

But did you notice that we only needed 2 Russian words to explain 4 English words here?

"This is the president” - 4 words in English is 2 Russian words: это президент.

Repeat this: это президент:

…

So we can forget about the articles, but you can also skip the “is” form. Это actually means just “this” or “it”, but in Russian you don’t need to say “is”. It’s like pointing at the president in English and saying “this president”. In Russian that means “this IS the president. This is great because you need one less thing to think about.

See how we’re already making larger sentences? We’ve just broken down simple grammatical constructions, such as это, and это не, and how Russian does not have articles or the absence of the “is” form. Then we’re putting them together to create everyday sentences.

Though, it’s probably not everyday that you’re discussing architecture or the president.

You probably also want to introduce yourself. The word for “I” is я. Repeat that “я”:

…

Just take the English I and say it the opposite direction. Iiiiijj = jjjjaaa.

So how would you say “I am the president":

…

Just like how это театр means “this is a theater”, and you can skip the “is”, in a sentence like “I am the president”, you skip the “am” and just say the Russian equivalent of “I president” - я президент.

Though it’s more likely you’re not the president”, right? How would you say “I am not the president":

…

Now, a common Russian word for “hi” is привет. Now you: привет:

…

So how would you say “hi, I’m the president”:

…

And how would you say “hi, it’s not a secret. I’m the president”:

…

A phrase like this may be a bit silly, but it’s great to break the ice or answer a question about your work or something. It shows you’re learning the language because you want to communicate with people and create a connection and not just robotically say phrases.

Want another fun word to use on an occasion like this? The Russian word for “spy” is шпион. Now you шпион:

…

So how would you say “I’m not a spy”:

…

And if someone asks why you’re learning Russian, how would you reply “hi, I’m a spy”:

…

Though to be honest, I wouldn’t say that to a Russian customs agent who’s checking your passport.

Alright, imagine meeting Ivan the first time, it would be nice to explain where you’re from, right? Let’s say you’re from Canada or the U.S., so you’d be an American.

An American in Russian is американец. Now you: американец:

…

But if you’re a woman, it’s американка. Now you: американка:

…

So you could say that the Russian language isn’t very politically correct, as there are different endings for a single word, depending whether you’re a man or a woman. Russian is very gender-centric, so you’ll encounter these differences between masculine and feminine more often in the rest of the course.

Now, the official translation of американец or американка is ”an American” - a noun, but in colloquial language you can also use it to indicate “American” as a nationality. So how would you say “I’m American” as a man:

…

And how would you say “hi, I’m American” as a woman:

…

But what if you’re from Britain, then you’d be a британец. Now you: британец:

…

And a woman from Britain would be an британка. Now you: британка:

…

Now, imagine meeting Ivan. He looks at you and asks “британец?”

But if you’re not from Britain, but from America, how would you say as a man “it’s not a secret. I’m American":

…

Or oppositely, how would you reply “I’m not American, I’m British”

…

And if you’re an American woman, how would you say “I’m not British. I’m American"

…

And to make a great first impression, how would you say “hi, it’s not a secret. I’m American. I’m a spy”:

…

In these examples I used 2 common nationalities. But maybe that’s not you, in that case, you can look up your nationality in the table in the additional materials below. Or, what’s easier, just go to any translation app or site, and just translate your nationality. Type in “I am Dutch - I am Spanish - I am Chinese”, or wherever you are from. If you’re a woman, just write “I am a German woman - I am a Swedish woman - I am a French woman” and you’ll get the feminine word.

By the way, about translating, it’s good to get into the habit of writing sentences when you use these translation apps. That drastically increases your chances of getting a correct translation - versus if you were to just translate a single word.

Alright, that was it for the first lesson. I hope you enjoyed it, and see you in the next one!

Lesson Vocabulary

э́то = this
теа́тр = theater
банк = bank
секре́т = secret
не = not
президе́нт = president
я = I
приве́т = hi
шпио́н = spy
америка́нец = American (man)
америка́нка = American (woman)
брита́нец = Brit (man)
брита́нка = Brit (woman)

Lesson Prompts

This is = Э́то
This is a theater = Э́то теа́тр
This is a bank = Э́то банк
This is a secret = Э́то секре́т
Not a bank = Не банк
Not a secret = Не секре́т
This is not a secret = Э́то не секре́т
This is not a theather = Э́то не теа́тр
It's not a secret = Э́то не секре́т
It's not a theater, it’s a secret = Э́то не теа́тр, э́то секре́т
It's not a secret, it’s a bank = Э́то не теа́тр, э́то банк
It’s not a bank, it’s a theater = Э́то не банк, э́то теа́тр
This is the president = Э́то президе́нт
I am the president = Я президе́нт
I am not the president = Я не президе́нт
Hi, I’m the president = Приве́т, я президе́нт
Hi, it’s not a secret. I’m the president = Приве́т, э́то не секре́т. я президе́нт
I’m not a spy = я не шпио́н
Hi, I’m a spy = Приве́т, я шпио́н
I’m American = Я америка́нец
Hi, I’m American (W) = Приве́т, я америка́нка (W)
It’s not a secret. I’m American = Э́то не секре́т. Я америка́нец
I’m not American, I’m British = Я не америка́нец, я брита́нец
I’m not British. I’m American (W) = Я не брита́нка. Я америка́нка
Hi, it’s not a secret. I’m American. I’m a spy = Приве́т, э́то не секре́т. Я америка́нец. я шпио́н