A Comprehensive Russian Grammar
Blackwell Reference Grammars

4. Edition March 2020
640 Pages, Softcover
Textbook
The most comprehensive guide to Russian usage, fully revised and updated.
A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, by Terence Wade, is the definitive resource on Russian usage, providing complete and accurate guidance for students and professionals alike. Now in its fourth edition, this authoritative text continues to be an indispensable reference for English-speaking learners of Russian. Detailed yet accessible chapters cover the essential rules of the Russian language, placing emphasis on the nuances and problems that English speakers find especially difficult.
Thoroughly revised and updated by Russian language experts David Gillespie, Svetlana Gural, and Marina Korneeva, this edition reflects changes in the grammar, the lexis, and the contemporary practice of the language in Russia's increasingly globalized, market-oriented economy. New content includes coverage of words and phrases from IT and social network terminology that have entered the Russian language, original contributions by leading Russian language scholars, and numerous modern usage examples taken from Russian websites, social media, and post-Soviet literature. The standard Russian language reference for English speakers for more than a quarter of a century, this volume:
* Provides a comprehensive, user-friendly approach to Russian grammar exposition
* Covers every essential aspect of the Russian language, including prepositions, conjunctions, numerals, and word order
* Features updated examples and illustrations, new insights into recent developments in Russian language usage, and more consistent transliteration of Russian names
* Includes a glossary of grammatical terms, word and subject indexes, and a complete bibliography
Part of the successful Blackwell Reference Grammars series, A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, Fourth Edition is the ideal guide and reference text for students and teachers of Russian across the English-speaking world, as well as professionals with knowledge of Russian seeking to keep pace with recent changes in the language.
Preface to the Second Edition xxviii
Preface to the Third Edition xxx
Preface to the Fourth Edition xxxii
Acknowledgements xxxiii
Acknowledgements to the Second Edition xxxv
Abbreviations xxxvi
Introduction
Pronunciation
Orthography
Division of Words
Punctuation
The Noun
Word Formation
Gender
Declension
Case Usage
Diminutive and Augmentative Nouns
The Pronoun
The Adjective
The Long Form of the Adjective
The Short Form of the Adjective
The Comparative Degree of the Adjective
The Superlative Degree of the Adjective
The Numeral
Cardinal, Collective and Indefinite Numerals
Ordinal Numerals
Special Functions of Numerals
The Verb
Conjugation
Aspect
Reflexive Verbs
Impersonal Constructions
The Passive Voice
The Conditional and Subjunctive Moods
Constructions Expressing Obligation, Necessity, Possibility or Potential
Verbs of Motion
Participles
Gerunds
The Adverb
The Preposition
Spatial Prepositions
Prepositions that Denote the Position of an Object in Relation to Another Object (Behind, in Front of, Below, on Top of etc.), or Movement to or from that Position
Prepositions that Denote Spatial Closeness to an Object, Movement Towards or Away from an Object, or Distance from an Object
Prepositions that Denote Along, Across, Through a Spatial Area
Prepositions that Denote Spatial Limit
Temporal Prepositions
The Use of Prepositions to Denote Action in Relation to Various Time Limits
Other Meanings
Other Important Meanings Expressed by Prepositions
The Conjunction
Co-ordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating Conjunctions
The Particle
Word Order
Appendix: English Words and Phrases in Modern Russian 533
Glossary 537
Bibliography 544
Subject Index 554
Word Index 571
David Gillespie is Professor at Tomsk State University, Russia. He was Professor of Russian at the University of Bath, UK, where he taught Russian language and culture since 1985. He has published ten books, contributed seventeen chapters and has written more than 100 papers on modern Russian literature, culture and film.
Svetlana Gural is Doctor of Education at Tomsk State University, Russia. She has edited numerous books including The Situational Context Effect in Non-Language-Majoring EFL Students' Meaning Comprehension (2015) and Consecutive Interpreting Training in Groups of Foreign Students (2015).
Marina Korneeva is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Tomsk State University, Russia. She is author of over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on discourse analysis referencing Russian language teaching and the forthcoming work, Methodology of Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language through Discourse Analysis (2020).