Welcome to the fourth lesson in our beginner's course. By now, you should have memorized the Russian alphabet, learnt some key basic Russian phrases, and understood how to recognize Russian nouns by gender and number.
Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns. There are nine types of pronouns in Russian.
In this lesson, we’ll introduce you to the personal (like "I") and possessive (like "my") pronouns in Russian.
Here are the personal pronouns in Russian:
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| я | I |
| ты | you (sing.) |
| он/она/оно | he/she/it |
| мы | we |
| вы | you (plur.) |
| они | they |
Please note that "вы" is also the polite form of "you" and can be used as such directed at one person.
And this is how we refer to them in grammar speak. You'll find this helpful for when you conjugate Russian verbs along the personal pronouns.
| Pronoun | Grammar term |
|---|---|
| я | 1st person sing. |
| ты | 2nd person sing. |
| он/она/оно | 3rd person sing. |
| мы | 1st person plur. |
| вы | 2nd person plur. |
| они | 3rd person plur. |
Personal pronouns themselves decline as well according to the Russian case system. However, we'll cover that in a later lesson.
Possessive pronouns indicate ownership (in English, "my," "your," "his," etc.). Each personal pronoun has a related possessive pronoun. Possessive pronouns agree with gender, number, and case of the nouns they modify – but more on that in a future lesson.
| Personal pronoun | Possessive pronoun |
|---|---|
| я | мой/моя/моё/мои |
| ты | твой/твоя/твоё/ твои |
| он | его |
| она | её |
| оно | его |
| мы | наш/наша/наше/наши |
| вы | ваш/ваша/ваше/ваши |
| они | их |
There are two additional forms of the possessive pronouns that we'll cover later on: the interrogative possessive pronoun and the possessive reflexive pronoun.
The interrogative possessive pronoun means "whose:" чей, чья, чьё, чьи.
The possessive reflexive pronoun is used when the subject of the sentence is the same as the referent of the possessive to mean "my own:" свой, своё, своя, свои.
