Welcome! We are starting our journey together through the A0–A1 Russian Course. This complete series consists of 50 structured lessons designed to help you build a solid foundation calmly, step by step.
This course is crafted to help you develop practical speaking skills, understand basic spoken Russian, and build clear, correct sentences with confidence in daily situations.
In this very first lesson, we will learn how to greet people, introduce yourself, state where you are from, and ask simple questions without grammar overload.
I hope you enjoy this lesson and find it encouraging! If you’d like to support this project and continue studying with me, you can like this post, share your thoughts in the comments, or buy me a coffee. Thank you for learning with me!
Greetings & Introductions
To start a conversation, you need a warm greeting:
Здравствуйте! — Hello (formal and polite). Notice that the first “в” is silent, so it sounds like Здра-ствуй-те.
Привет! — Hi (informal).
Это... — This is... (e.g., This is Anna).
A quick grammar note: In Russian, there is no present tense verb for “to be” (am, is, are). Words connect directly to each other without a linking verb!
Asking and Stating Your Name
When asking or stating a name in Russian, we use the Accusative case. This is because the literal structure means “How do they call you?”
Как тебя зовут? — What is your name?
(тебя is the Accusative case)
Меня зовут... — My name is...
(меня is the Accusative case)
А тебя? — And you?
(Used to ask back for a name, keeping тебя in the Accusative case)
Очень приятно! — Nice to meet you!
Мне тоже приятно. — Nice to meet you too.
Stating Where You Are From
To talk about your origin, use the preposition из (from). Notice that the city or country name changes its ending to the Genitive case:
Откуда ты? — Where are you from?
Я из Лондона. — I am from London (Лондон ➔ из Лондона).
Я из Москвы. — I am from Moscow (Москва ➔ из Москвы).
А ты? — And you? (Notice we use “ты” here, as we are re-using the original question structure).
Forming Simple Yes / No Questions
In Russian, you don’t need to change the word order or add extra auxiliary verbs to ask a question like in English. You keep the sentence structure exact and simply raise your intonation at the end:
Ты Алекс? — Are you Alex?
Да, я Алекс. — Yes, I am Alex.
Нет, я не из Лондона. Я из Парижа. — No, I am not from London. I am from Paris.
Let’s Practice Together!
If you feel like sharing, I’d love to see your introduction in the comments. You can write a few simple words about your name and your home country (for example: «Привет! Меня зовут Анна. Я из Италии»).
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