110–111 The Pronoun 135

(c) The alternative instrumental form of он ( ю) is preferred to ей in

educated speech and is particularly important in passive constructions,
avoiding possible confusion with the dative:

Револцией перестр
йку м
жно назвть в слу радикльности
поствленных ю цлей (Izvestiya)
Restructuring can be called a revolution by virtue of the radical nature
of the goals set by it

(Ей would imply a dative meaning: ‘the goals set for it’.)

(2) The oblique cases of он, он, он, он

take initial н- when governed
by a preposition: от нег
‘from him’, к ней ‘to her’, с нми ‘with them’
etc. However, some compound prepositions take a third-person pronoun
without initial н-. They include:

(i) A number of derivative prepositions governing the dative: благодар&

им ‘thanks to them’, ем навстрчу ‘to meet him’, на зло ей ‘to spite
her’. Others include вопрек
‘contrary to’, наперекр ‘counter to’,
подбно ‘similar to’, соглсно ‘in accordance with’.

(ii) Some which take the genitive: внA ‘outside’, в отнош нии ‘in relation
to’. ВнутрO ‘inside’ takes alternative forms with or without н-: внутрo
их/них ‘inside them’.

Note
When a declined form of the third-person plural pronoun combines with
a declined form of все ‘all’, a pronoun with initial н- is the norm:
сме&ться над всми нми ‘to laugh at all of them’. У/от неё ‘She
has/from her’ has an alternative form у/от ней, used nowadays mainly
in verse.

111 Use of personal instead of possessive pronouns

(1) Personal pronouns are more usual than possessive pronouns in

referring to parts of the body, articles of clothing, location etc.: Он
пожл мне рку ‘He shook my hand’, Он пришёл ко мне в к
мнату
‘He came to my room’, Плтье у неё всё испчкано ‘Her dress is all
stained’. The reflexive pronoun (see 117) is used similarly: Он лёг у
себ в к
мнате ‘He lay down in his room’ etc.
136 The Pronoun 111–113

(2) Note also the idioms: мне пришл

в г
лову ‘it occurred to me’
(lit. ‘came into my head’), Красот здния бр
силась ем в глаз ‘He
was struck by the beauty of the building’.

112 Use of the nominative pronoun with ønj

In contrast to English, nominative pronouns are used in such phrases as

то я ‘It’s me’, то он ‘It’s him’, то мы ‘It’s us’ etc.

113 The pronoun z

(1) Я ‘I’ combines with first-person singular forms of the present and future
of verbs: я читю ‘I read’, я прочитю ‘I shall read’, я бду читть ‘I
shall be reading’. The gender of predicative adjectives, of other pronouns
and of past verbs depends on the sex of the speaker:

Я довлен, я од
н, я пришёл
I am pleased, I am alone, I have arrived (of a male speaker)

Я довльна, я одн, я пришл

I am pleased, I am alone, I have arrived (of a female speaker)

(2) Compare also the oblique cases: Оствьте мен& одног ‘Leave
me by myself’ (of a male), Оствьте мен& одн ‘Leave me by myself’
(of a female).

Note
(a) ‘You and I’ is rendered as мы с вми, ‘he and I’ as мы с ним etc.
(also, in relevant contexts, though less usually, ‘you and ourselves’,
‘he and ourselves’).

(b) Я as a noun may be qualified by neuter modifiers: моё вторе я ‘my

alter ego’.

(c) Я is often omitted in everyday speech (Начн сейчс! ‘I’ll begin

at once!’) and in official applications and announcements (Прош
предоствить мне
тпуск ‘I apply to be granted leave’). In
spoken Russian, pronouns in general are often omitted, since present
and future verb forms alone are sufficient to express person and
number (i.e. пиш is first-person singular, п
шешь second-person
 113–115 The Pronoun 137

singular and so on), while past tense forms indicate gender and number.
Thus, Вы писли? Да, я писл ‘Did you write?’, ‘Yes, I wrote’
could be rendered as Вы писли? Да, писл or Писли? Писл,
depending on the degree of familiarity of the speech mode.

114 The pronoun vs

(1) Мы ‘we’ combines with first-person plural forms of the present or

future tense of a verb (мы говор
м ‘we speak’), with plural forms of the
past tense (мы говор
ли ‘we were speaking’), and with plural adjectives
and pronouns: Мы одн
‘we are alone’.

(2) Мы can also be used to refer to the whole of a social or other group,
or all society etc.: Я подчёркиваю сл
во «мы», бо имю в виду всё

бщество в цлом ‘I stress the word “we” since I have in mind society
as a whole’.

(3) Мы also expresses the royal ‘we’ (мы, всероссйский импертор

‘we, Emperor of all the Russias’), the authorial ‘we’ (Мы пришл к
слдующим в1водам ‘We (i.e. I) have come to the following
conclusions’) and the jocular paternal ‘we’ used by doctors (Ну, сег
дня
нам лчше? ‘Well, are we better today?’). Мы may also convey a
nuance of mockery (Мы улыбемся! ‘So we’re smiling!’) or contempt
(Видли мы такх! ‘We’ve seen your type before!’).

115 The pronouns ns and ds

(1) Ты

(i) Ты ‘you’ (familiar) takes second-person singular forms of the present

and future tenses of a verb (ты говор
шь ‘you speak’ etc.). Like я, ты
is of common gender: Ты од
н ‘You are alone’ (to a male), Ты одн ‘You
are alone’ (to a female).

(ii) Ты is used in addressing a relation, a friend, a colleague of similar

age and status, a child, God, nature, oneself, an animal etc. While ты is
generally acknowledged as the ‘familiar’ form, older people are likely
to restrict its use to a circle of close friends and colleagues, whereas
young people are usually quicker to address members of their own age
group as ты.
138 The Pronoun 115–116

(iii) Ты may also be used in conveying generalized information or

instruction (cf. English ‘you’), as in the following guidance for correct
breathing in singing: Ты набирешь п
лную грудь в
здуха, а пот
м
мhло-помлу выпускешь ег
изо рта ‘You fill your lungs with air
and then expel it little by little through your mouth’.

(2) Вы

(i) Вы is used to address any group of more than one person, or an adult
who is not a relation, friend or colleague of similar age and status. When
writing to someone, Вы is usually spelt with a capital letter.

(ii) Вы combines with plural forms of the verb, whether the pronoun
represents an individual or a group: вы читете, вы читли ‘you read,
were reading’. When reference is to one person, the pronoun combines
with the singular forms of long adjectives (Вы такй дбрый (to a male),
Вы такя дбрая (to a female) ‘You are so kind’, Я считю вас
мным (to a male)/мной (to a female) ‘I consider you clever’), but
with the plural forms of short adjectives and participles: Вы првы
‘You are right’.

(3) Ты or вы

Usage may depend on social status, age difference, education and context
of situation (e.g. teachers may address each other as вы in the presence
of pupils or students but as ты in their absence). Any transition from вы
to ты is normally initiated by the senior in age or rank. Вы is used as a
mark of respect to adult strangers, and by academic staff to students and
(desirably, though many school teachers prefer to use ты) to senior pupils.
Subordinates have traditionally used the formal вы to their superiors, but
have been addressed by them with the familiar ты. This practice is still
widespread, despite condemnation in official circles of its perpetuation in,
for example, the armed forces, the health service and industry.

116 The third-person pronouns (jy, jyá, jyó, jyπ)

(1) Он, он may replace nouns denoting persons or things of masculine
and feminine gender respectively:

Где брат? Вот он Where is my brother? There he is

Где стол? Вот он Where is the table? There it is
Где мо сестр? Вот он Where is my sister? There she is
 116–117 The Pronoun 139

Где кн
га? Вот он Where is the book? There it is

(2) Он replaces neuter nouns:

Где кр сло? Вот он Where is the armchair? There it is

(3) Он
replaces plural nouns denoting persons or things:

Где мльчики? Вот он

Where are the boys? There they are
Где кн
ги? Вот он
Where are the books? There they are
Где кр сла? Вот он
Where are the armchairs? There they are

(4) Он
may be used when the plural noun it replaces has been
mentioned: Что длают маляр0? Он
крсят дом ‘What are
the painters doing?’ ‘They are painting the house’. In impersonal
constructions, however, the third-person plural of the verb is used
without a pronoun: Здесь стрят общежтие ‘They (identity
unspecified) are building a hostel here’ (or ‘A hostel is being built
here’). This is in marked contrast with English, in which the pronoun
‘they’ is used in both personal and impersonal constructions. Note
also the phrases: Здесь не крят ‘No smoking’, говорт ‘they say,
it is said’ etc.

(5) Verbs of yearning (скучть ‘to miss’, тосковть ‘to yearn’ etc.)
and the verbs стрелть ‘to shoot’ and ударть ‘to strike’ take the
preposition по + the prepositional case of first- and second-person
pronouns (Скучли по вас ‘They missed you’, Стрел&ли по нас
‘They were firing at us’) and either the dative or the prepositional of
third-person pronouns (Скучли по нем/по нём ‘He was missed’).
Such verbs take пo + the dative of nouns (e.g. скучть по мжу ‘to
miss one’s husband’).

(6) ‘He and Sergei/she and Sergei’ etc. may be rendered as он

с
Сергем (also, in context, ‘they and Sergei’).

(7) The instrumental case of a third-person pronoun may be the

equivalent of English ‘one’: Он стал вратарём, потом что решл им
стать (Makarov) ‘He became a goalkeeper because he had made up
his mind to become one’.

117 The reflexive pronoun ct,Ω

(1) The reflexive pronoun себ declines as follows:

140 The Pronoun 117

Nom. —
Acc./Gen. себ-
Dat. себ-
Instr. соб-й /соб-ю
Prep. о себ-
(2) The reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject of the clause or,
more exactly, to the subject or agent of the nearest verb or adjective
(it therefore has no nominative case, since it cannot itself be a subject).
The same form is used for all persons (Он дов
льна собй ‘She is pleased
with herself’, Мы дов
льны собй ‘We are pleased with ourselves’ etc.),
there being no differentiation between singular and plural or between the
genders.
(3) Себ expresses more varied relationships than -ся, -сь (see also 285
and 286), e.g. the indirect object (Он купла себ кнгу ‘She bought
herself a book’) and government by preposition (Он см
трит на себ в
зркало ‘He looks at himself in the mirror’, Он разговривают
мAжду собй ‘They are talking among themselves’).
(4) Считть себ гнием means ‘to consider oneself a genius’,
считться гнием ‘to be considered a genius’ (cf. лишть себ ‘to deprive
oneself’ and лишться ‘to be deprived’).
(5) Some verbs combine with себ on a seemingly arbitrary basis: вест
себ ‘to behave’, представл&ть собй ‘to represent, be’, чвствовать
себ ‘to feel’.
(6) Ambiguity may arise when there are two verbs in a sentence: Мать
вел ла с1ну нал
ть себ чю (мать is the subject of the sentence,
сын is the logical subject of налть). The sentence should be taken to
mean ‘The mother told her son to pour himself some tea’, but the
following can be used to avoid confusion: Мать велла, чтbбы сын налл
себ чю ‘The mother told her son to pour himself some tea’, cf. Мать
велла, чтbбы сын налл ей чю ‘The mother told her son to pour her
some tea’.
(7) Russian is more consistent than English in the use of reflexive
pronouns: Он разложл перед собй крту ‘He spread out the map in
front of him’, Он закр1ла за собй дверь ‘She closed the door
behind her’, Возьмте мен& с собй ‘Take me with you’.

(8) The reflexive pronoun appears in a number of set phrases: так

себ ‘so-so’, Он хор
ш собй ‘He is good-looking’, сам
собй
разумется ‘it goes without saying’.
 117–118 The Pronoun 141

(9) A reflexive pronoun may combine for emphasis with the emphatic
pronoun сам: — Я теб& не понимю. — Я сам себ не понимю!
‘I don’t understand you’. ‘I don’t understand myself!’ (see 131 (1)).

118 The possessive pronouns vjq, ndjq, yfi, dfi

(1) The possessive pronoun мой declines as follows:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nom. мой мо- мо-ё мо-

Acc. мой/мо-ег мо-3 мо-ё мо-

/мо-
х
Gen. мо-ег мо- й мо-ег мо-
х
Dat. мо-ем мо- й мо-ем мо-
м
Instr. мо-
м мо- й/- ю мо-
м мо-
ми
Prep. о мо-ём о мо- й о мо-ём о мо-
х

Note
Твой ‘your’ (familiar) declines like мой.
(2) The possessive pronoun наш declines as follows:
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nom. наш нш-а нш-е нш-и
Acc. наш/нш-его нш-у нш-е нш-и/нш-их
Gen. нш-его нш-ей нш-его нш-их
Dat. нш-ему нш-ей нш-ему нш-им
Instr. нш-им нш-ей/-ею нш-им нш-ими
Prep. о нш-ем о нш-ей о нш-ем о нш-их

Note
(a) Ваш ‘your’ declines like наш.
(b) Like мы and вы (see 113 note (a)), наш and ваш can form compounds
with other pronouns or nouns: вша с ппой машна ‘yours and
Dad’s car’, наш с тобй дом ‘our house’ (i.e. yours and mine).
(c) The colloquial phrase наш брат means ‘people like us’: Зню, что
нердко ругют ншего брта за рвчество (Russia Today) ‘I know
that our sort are often cursed for self-seeking’.
(d) Phrases of the type нша тма ‘our theme’ (i.e. ‘the present topic’)
are used by authors and lecturers (cf. 114 (3)).
(e) The use of possessive instead of personal pronouns is characteristic
of casual speech: Он сдлал б
льше моег (= б
льше, чем я)
‘He did more than me’.
(f) Ваш is spelt with a capital letter in correspondence.
142 The Pronoun 119–120

119 The possessive pronouns tuó, t/, b[

Ег ‘his’, её ‘her’, их ‘their’ are invariable:

ег сестр his sister
её кнги her books
их брат their brother
Я зню ег сестр I know his sister
Я дов
лен её бртом I am pleased with her brother

Note
(a) н- is never affixed to the third-person possessives: cf. письм

от нег (personal pronoun) ‘a letter from him’ and письм

от
ег (possessive pronoun) брта ‘a letter from his brother’ (see
110 (2)).
(b) Ег is pronounced [jo2vo]. See also 110 (1) note (b).

120 The reflexive possessive pronoun cdjq, cdjΩ, cdj/,

cdjπ

(1) The reflexive possessive pronoun свой declines like мой (see
118 (1)).
(2) Like себ, свой refers back to noun and pronoun subjects of any gender
and either number (see 117 (2): Я п
мню сво3 шк
лу ‘I remember my
school’, Ты п
мнишь сво3 шк
лу ‘You remember your school’, Дти
п
мнят сво3 шк
лу ‘The children remember their school’.
(3) In clauses which have a first- or second-person subject, свой can
be used as an alternative to мой, твой, наш and ваш (Я говор о
сво й/мо й раб
те ‘I am talking about my work’, Ты продаёшь
свой/твой дом ‘You are selling your house’, Мы м
ем сво3/ншу
машну ‘We are washing our car’), though свой is commoner.
(4) Where there is a third-person subject, however, care must be taken to
distinguish between свой and the possessive pronouns ег, её, их (see 119),
when rendering ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘their’, in order to avoid ambiguity:
Он дов
лен сво
м ученик
м
He is pleased with his (own) pupil
Он не лбит Дж
на, но он дов
лен ег ученикми
He does not like John, but he is pleased with his (John’s) pupils
 120 The Pronoun 143

Note that in English ‘his’ is used in both examples, and context is relied
upon to differentiate meaning. Russian её ‘her’ and их ‘their’ are similarly
distinguished from свой:
Орл
вы лбят сво
х детй
The Orlovs love their children
Он
бнял её, он положла сво г
лову ем на плеч

(Litvinova)
He embraced her, (and) she put her head on his shoulder
Иван
вы погбли в катастр
фе, и Орл
вы усыновли их детй
The Ivanovs died in an accident and the Orlovs adopted their children
(5) It is important to remember to use the reflexive possessive pronoun
even when it is distanced from the subject:
Он, првда, ником не даёт своег дреса (Trifonov)
It is true that he does not give his address to anyone
Он был свидтелем соб1тий своег врмени
He was a witness of the events of his time
(6) Свой cannot qualify the subject of a clause in this type of construction:
Он говорт, что ег друг б
лен
He says that his friend (subject of new clause) is ill
Врач и её пом
щник совещются
The doctor and her assistant ( joint subjects) are consulting
(7) In a sentence with two verbs, свой refers back to the subject of the
nearer of the two, cf:
Редктор попросл журналста прочитть сво3 стать
The editor asked the journalist to read his (the journalist’s) article
and
Редктор попросл журналста прочитть ег стать
The editor asked the journalist to read his (the editor’s) article
To avoid possible ambiguity, an alternative construction can be used:
Редктор попросл журналста, чтbбы он прочитл ег
стать
The editor asked the journalist to read his (the editor’s) article

Note
When ownership is obvious from the context, Russian usually dispenses
with a possessive pronoun: Я мю рки ‘I am washing my hands’ (it is
144 The Pronoun 120–122

clear whose hands are being washed – mine), Он потер&л прогрмму

‘He has lost his (or ‘the’) programme’.
Прень опускет рки, глову, закрывет глаз (Rasputin)
The lad lowers his hands hangs his head, closes his eyes
(8) Свой appears in the nominative case in phrases that denote
possession: У мен& сво машна ‘I have my own car’, У рсских —
сво в1страданная культра (Solzhenitsyn) ‘Russians have acquired
their own culture through suffering’. Note: Сво рубшка блже к тлу
‘Charity begins at home’, Он у нас свой человк ‘He is one of us’.

121 Declension of the interrogative/relative pronouns

1то ‘who’, что ‘what’, какй ‘what’ (adjective), котрый ‘which’ and
чей ‘whose’ function as both interrogative and relative pronouns. 1акй
and котрый decline like hard-ending adjectives (see 145 and 146 (3)
note (b)). 1то, что and чей decline as follows:
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nom. кт-о чт-о чей чь-я чь-ё чь-и
Acc. к-ог чт-о чей/чь-ег чь-ю чь-ё чь-и/чь-их
Gen. к-ог ч-ег чь-ег чь-ей чь-ег чь-их
Dat. к-ом ч-ем чь-ем чь-ей чь-ем чь-им
Instr. к-ем ч-ем чь-им чь-ей/- ю чь-им чь-
ми
Prep. о к-ом о ч-ём о чь-ём о чь-ей о чь-ём о чь-их

122 Rnj, xnj, rfróq, rjnóhsq, xtq as interrogative

pronouns

(1) Кто
(i) 1то ‘who’ is used in both direct questions (1то Aтот мужчна?
‘Who is that man?’, О ком вы говорте? ‘Who are you talking about?’)
and indirect questions (Он спросл, ком вы даёте ур
ки ‘He asked
whom you give lessons to’).
(ii) 1то takes a masculine predicate even when only females are
involved: Кто в0шел змуж? ‘Who (in a group of women) got
married?’ However, feminine agreement is possible if the subject
contains a reference to a female exponent of an activity: Кто из