I've been learning Russian for the past two months, mainly using Duolingo. It's a cute mobile app but is extremely lacking when it comes to covering declensions. I already have a Russian-English dictionary, so wanted another quick phrasebook as a supplement.
I like that this phrasebook is handy to pick and and read. Pronunciation tips are particularly helpful. However, one of the most important topics for Russian learners are word declensions (nominative, accusative, dative, etc.) and this phrasebook only covered it for a couple of pages superficially, one could argue even the material is a bit misleading.
The differences in genitive endings between genders + animate/inanimate (masculine nouns ending in consonants would be "a", otherwise "я'... while feminine and neuter match the plural rules e.g. o->a and e->я for neuter) objects, for instance, are essentially ignored--it only had a small table covering words ending in consonants, claiming they are "most common", and did not factor at all animate/inanimate and word ending exception rules!
As an example, if you go off this book, you will think the genitive for "pen" (inanimate feminine noun, ручка) is "ручкы" when in reality it should be "ручки" due to the vital "hard к, г, х or ж ш" rule. These types of words are not at all uncommon in Russian, and should not be just skipped over. You _will_ be confused if you rely on this book to try to understand word endings.
While I realize this is more a touristy phrasebook than a grammar book, but declensions could've been easily table-ized in 5-6 pages and made this book extremely useful.
So unfortunately, deducting 1.5 stars for this--it did advertise itself after all as "phrasebook & DICTIONARY" after all.
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I loved it! It was so easy to pronounce words! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
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Useful and handy for picking up and learning some new words/phrases, but wish it had more grammar notes. 3.5 stars.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 9, 2017Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 20, 2016
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 8, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2017
Top reviews from other countries
Literature_lover
Small easy book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 20, 2017Bakes1003
Buy this book, if you need to learn Russian.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 19, 2015ReaderCris
Much improved phrasebook
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 14, 2013
