Vocabulary: Prepositions
Vocabulary: Prepositions
Introduction to Common Russian Prepositions
- Prepositions in Russian language play a crucial role in sentence construction. They help to indicate the relationship between nouns and other parts of the sentence, such as verbs or adjectives.
Basic Prepositions
These words are commonly used in many Russian conversations and writing:
- в/во (v/vo) - in, at
- на (na) - on, at
- с/со (s/so) - with, from
- за (za) - for, behind
- о/об (o/ob) - about
- под (pod) - under
- над (nad) - above
- у (u) - near, at
Prepositions of Place
- между (mezhdu) - between
- перед (pered) - in front of
- позади (pozadi) - behind
- рядом (ryadom) - next to
- вокруг (vokrug) - around
Prepositions of Time
- до (do) - until
- после (posle) - after
- во время (vo vremya) - during
- через (cherez) - in (referring to a future period of time)
Prepositions to denote direction or movement
- к (k) - to/towards
- от (ot) - away from/from
- через (cherez) - through, across
Important Rules and Usage
- A key rule to remember in Russian is that prepositions always require the use of a case. The case used can change the entire meaning of the phrase.
- Prepositions may be paired with either the genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental or prepositional cases.
- For example, the preposition в can mean ‘in’ or ‘to’ depending on the case of the noun that follows. If it’s the prepositional case, в stands for ‘in’, and if it’s the accusative case, в stands for ‘to’.