Holidays

Каникулы

Holidays are one of the topics you will be asked to talk and write about: where you go, how you get there, and what you do. Every word below is shown three ways: the Cyrillic spelling, a transliteration in brackets to help you say it, and the English meaning. Read the Cyrillic first and use the transliteration only to check the sound.

Key words (1)

Start with four holiday words:

Match each word to its meaning

What plyazh means in Russian

What does the Russian word пляж (plyazh) mean?

• the beach
• the sea
• summer
• the holidays

Key words (2)

Now four more words you need for a holiday:

Match each word to its meaning

Getting there

Select the TWO Russian words that are ways of travelling.

• поезд (poezd)
• самолёт (samolyot)
• чемодан (chemodan)
• гора (gora)

Choose the Russian word

In Russian, the word for 'the sea' is _____, and the word for 'summer' is _____.

No word for "a" or "the"

Russian has no articles at all. There is no word for "a" and no word for "the", so море (more) on its own can mean sea, a sea or the sea. The context tells you which. This works the other way too: when you translate into Russian, you simply drop the English "a" and "the". To say how you travel, learn the whole phrase: на поезде (na poezde) by train, на самолёте (na samolyote) by plane.

One word, three meanings

You see the Russian word море (more) in a sentence. What can it mean?

• sea, a sea or the sea, depending on the sentence
• only "a sea", never "the sea"
• only "the sea", never "a sea"
• nothing, until you add a Russian word for "the"

Where and how

Holiday words fall into two groups. Sorting them this way makes them easier to recall, and adds one more place: остров (ostrov), an island. Learn the transport column as whole phrases.

Russian builds the sentence its own way

You have met на поезде and на самолёте on their own. Inside a sentence, на does two different jobs, and the ending tells you which: - Я еду на море на поезде = "I am going to the sea by train". The first на means "to" and goes with a motion verb, so море keeps its plain form. The second means "by" and takes поезде, the changed form you practised. - Я люблю море = "I like the sea". No motion, no на. люблю simply takes the thing you like, and море does not change because neuter nouns like this one look the same either way.

The ending after на tells you whether it means "to" or "by"

The ending after на tells you whether it means "to" or "by". Which says "I am going to the sea by train"?

• Я еду на море на поезде (ya yedu na more na poezde)
• Я еду на поезд на море (ya yedu na poyezd na more)
• Я еду на море на поезд (ya yedu na more na poyezd)
• Я люблю море (ya lyublyu more)

Planning a holiday

Plan a summer holiday using the words you have learned.

• You want to spend the summer somewhere you can swim. Which place do you choose?
• The beach you have chosen is on an island a long way off. How do you get there?
• You are packing the night before. Which word describes what you pack your clothes in?

One more

The Russian word for 'a suitcase' is _____, the word for 'a mountain' is _____, and the word for 'an island' is _____.

Your turn: write in Russian

Write two or three sentences IN RUSSIAN about a holiday, using this module's own travel pattern. Write in Cyrillic - the transliteration in brackets is a reading aid only.

• Say how you travel with the pattern this module taught: на поезде (na poezde - by train), на самолёте (na samolyote - by plane) or на автобусе (na avtobuse - by bus)
• Name where you go: море (more - the sea), гора (gora - mountain), остров (ostrov - an island) or пляж (plyazh - the beach)
• Name the season or the break: лето (leto - summer) or каникулы (kanikuly - the holidays)
• Say what you like with Мне нравится… (mne nravitsya - I like ...)