How Gramota.ru can help foreigners learn Russian
The main portal on the rules and spelling of the Russian language will not only help you to understand where and when to use the mysterious soft and hard signs. But, it will also reveal the meaning of words, the interpretation of phraseological expressions and much more.
Every time Russians doubt how to write this or that word or whether a comma is needed in a certain place, they surely open Gramota.ru.
What is ‘Gramota’?
The word ‘gramota’ in the Russian language has several meanings, but the very first one, which Russians learn even from a young age, is the basics of literacy, the rules of reading and writing texts.
A ‘грамотный’ (‘gramotny’) person is a ‘literate’ person, one who, first of all, knows how to read and write. Now, this word is also applied to those who have sufficient knowledge in this or that area. Being ‘gramotny’ in some areas means doing something correctly and well.
Soviet workers during literacy classes in the factory club
One of the first tasks of the Bolsheviks after their 1917 revolution was to eliminate illiteracy. According to various estimates, a few years before the revolution, less than 40% of the Russian population knew how to read and write. Therefore, the Soviet government obliged everyone from the age of eight to 50 to learn to read and write. And this brought results: in the first 20 years of Soviet rule, 90% of the population became literate.
And what is ‘Gramota.ru?’
Gramota.ru is a reference and information portal about the Russian language. It contains all spelling rules and a huge number of handbooks and dictionaries (explanatory, orthographic, accent dictionaries and others).
In addition, Gramota.ru has a help service, where experts answer a variety of questions from users. Questions can be about complex cases of word usage, case endings or punctuation rules, as well as about writing the latest neologisms in the language. Experts always refer to authoritative sources, where you can learn more about the rules.
New articles about language rules, difficulties and new trends are constantly published on the website. Experts don’t just follow the strict rules that have been developed over the years, but also keep an eye on the living language and the changing norms, as well as Internet communication and the peculiarities of everyday speech.
How can a foreigner use ‘Gramota.ru’?
To use the site requires already confident knowledge of the Russian language, not quite elementary level.
- Which version is correct: “я купил 5 килограмм” or “я купил 5 килограммов”?
- Where to put the stress in the word: ‘иконопись’?
- How to differentiate whether to write ‘тся’ or ‘ться’ at the end of a verb?
Answers to these and many other questions can be found on Gramota.ru. You can also just check the correct spelling of the word.
“If a foreigner has this or that question or difficulty, they can always ask it in our help desk,” says Maria Lebedeva, Ph.D. in philology, head of the educational direction on Gramota.ru and head of the laboratory of cognitive and linguistic research at the Pushkin Institute.
"In addition, we can see how to form this or that form of a word. After all, it’s not easy to study Russian! You'll find all the forms of Russian words in the boxes next to each dictionary entry. That way, you won't make a mistake with any tricky Russian verbs!" Maria adds.
Here are some useful links:
1) Basic rules of spelling and punctuation.
2) The help desk question form (if in doubt, you can translate your question through an online translator, experts only answer questions in and about Russian). You can see what the most popular questions are on their FAQ page.
3) Some fun, interactive exercises for advanced levels (You can even see what kind of exercises Russian students have on their Russian language exams).
This article was prepared in partnership with Gramota.ru.