In our next Russian lesson will introduce words and phrases associated with families. This will allow you to talk about your family, which is a very popular topic of conversation in Russia. One of the important concepts that we will introduce in this lesson is possessive pronouns. Possesive pronouns are words such as: my, your, his, her, and our. Personal pronouns are normally used to indicate the ownership of an object. The other method to indicate ownership is to use the genative case.
Russian Family Words
Here are the words Russians commonly use to refer to members of their family:
Мать - mother
Отец - father
Мама - mum
Папа - dad
Сестра - sister
Брат - brother
Дочь - daughter
Сын - son
бабушка - grandmother
Дедушка - grandfather
Жена - wife
Муж - husband
Тётя - auntie
Дядя - uncle
Родители - parents
Дети - children
Внучка - granddaughter
Внук - grandson
Семья - family
Just like English, in Russian there are two ways to refer to your mother and father. For example we use the words mum and dad. Most commonly Russians use the words Mama and Papa to refer to their parents.
Basic russian phrases
Quite often you want to tell people how many brothers and sisters you have. Here are some Russian phrases you could use.
У меня есть сестра - I have a sister.
У меня есть брат - I have a brother.
У тебя есть дети? - Do you have children?.
У меня есть сын и дочь - I have a son and a daughter.
У меня нет детей - I don't have any children.
Note: This grammar explained in lesson 10.
Possesive Pronouns
In order to talk about your family you normally need to use possesive pronouns so we will introduce them now. You should always choose the possesive pronoun that matches the gender of the item it owns.
Мой (m), Моя (f), Моё (n), Мои (pl) - my
Твой (m), Твоя (f), Твоё (n), Твои (pl) - your
Его (m n) ("yevo"), Её (f) - his, her
Наш (m), Наша (f), Наше (n), Наши (pl) - our
Ваш (m), Ваша (f), Ваше (n), Ваши (pl) - your
Их - their
Now you will be able to combine Russian words and phrases that your learnt in earlier lessons to talk about your family. Here are some Russian phrases and sentences you could say with words you already know.
Моя мама любит музыку - My mother loves music
Моя сестра читает газету - My sister is reading a newspaper
Мой брат любит спорт - My brother loves sport
Твой брат любит спорт - Your brother loves sport
Наш брат любит спорт - Our brother loves sport
When you introduce members of your family you will need to adapt one of the phrases we learnt lesson 3. For example, you may wish to say her name is Anna. However, the only problem is that this particular phrase is unusual. The pronouns need to be used in the genative case, which we have not learnt yet. So here are two examples that you can use for now:
Меня зовут Анна - my name is Anna
Её зовут Анна - her name is Anna
Его зовут Иван - his name is Ivan.
This is...
The Russian word Это means 'this is'. Here is how you can use it with some possesive pronouns.
Это мой дом - This is my house
Это моя квартира - This is my apartment
Это твоя квартира? - Is this your apartment?
Common greetings
Finally, we will introduce some common greeting phrases that you may wish to use every now and again.
Доброе утро - good morning
Добрый день - good afternoon
Добрый вечер - good evening
Спокойной ночи - goodnight (when going to bed)
More Words
Click Here to visit our vocabulary section to find more Russian words related to families.
Conclusion
In this lesson we have learnt the basic Russian words and phrases for talking about your family. And possibly more importantly you can use possesive pronouns. For some practice it would be good idea to try and describe members of your family, perhaps you could try writing a paragraph about each member of your family discussing their names, hobbies, where they live and which languages they can speak. When you get the chance to talk to Russian people in Russia, you will find that this is often a popular topic of conversation, in particular when you're having conversations with people you don't know in times such as travelling on a train.