Russian Lessons: Time Schedule

МОДА" is read ['mo-da). In other cases [o] sounds more like a weak 
[a], e.g. "
ВОДА" (water) is pronounced: [va-'da]. 
2. The so-called voiced consonants 
(б, в, г, д, з) are pronounced without voice (i.e. as
п, ф, к, т, с respectively) at the end of a word or before any of the five above listed 
"voiceless" consonants. For example, the Russian word
садовод (a gardener) is 
pronounced sa-da-'vot (not sa-da-'vod), and 
водка is sounded as 'vot-ka (not 'vod-ka) 

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3. In the word endings
его and ого, and also in the word сегодня (today), letter г is 
pronounced as
в. For instance, красного (genitive case of the word красный - red) 
is pronounced 'kras-na-va (not 'kras-na-ga). 
4. in the letter combination "
вств", the first "в" is usually not pronounced, e.g. 
"
чувство" (the Russian equivalent for the word “feeling”) should be read in this way: 
['chu-stva]. 
5. Russian vowel "e" in the end of words which have a foreign origin can be 
pronounced both a hard [e] (if it is under stress) and a soft [ye] (when without stress).
For example, comp
are Russian equivalents of words “café” and “coffee”. The first word 
in Russian (spelt 
кафе) is pronounced [ka-`fe], however the second one (кофе) with 
stress on the first syllable has a softer ending: ['ko-fye]. 
Now, as I promised above, I will give you only the basic principles of Russian 
Grammar in comparison with the English ones: 
(a) Russian language does not use articles (either definite or indefinite). 
(b) Unlike English nouns, all Russian nouns (not only personal ones) have a gender: 
masculine, feminine or neuter. Depending on gender, Russian nouns can have different 
endings even for the same Grammar Case both in Singular and Plural form (please note 

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that Russian nouns have six different Grammar Cases, and each Case may require 
different endings). 
(c) Depending on the number, gender and grammar case, Russian nouns may also 
require different endings for related pronouns or adjectives. 
(d) Items (b) and (c) above reflect the biggest difficulty in learning Russian language. 
How much easier to deal with English nouns or adjectives, which do not change 
whatever you do with them! 
Apart from possessive nouns, English nouns change their form only in plural; but even 
this transformation is very simple: usually it can be done just by adding "s" at the end of 
a singular noun). 
(e) An English sentence normally has strict order: subject, predicate, object. Russian 
language is much more relaxed. Take, for example, this sentence: I LOVE YOU. This is 
probably the most wonderful sentence in any language. But saying this, can you 
express various nuances without adding new words or changing your intonation? 
English speakers do not have much of a choice: they can change intonation and 
emphasis but not the order of the words (there is, perhaps, one exception which, 
however, is more appropriate for the theatre than for the everyday life: "You, I love!") 

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The Russian speaker is more fortunate. The Russian equivalent for "I love you" (