Spoken in countries of the former Soviet Union.

The written language

• Uses the Cyrillic alphabet with many letters deceptively similar to letters used in the Latin alphabet.
• Commas set off a dependent clause: *He knows, that we are right. 47.

Sentence structure and word order

• Word order not necessarily Subject-Verb-Object, but can be Object-Verb-Subject: *Good grades received every student in the class. 62b.
• Long descriptive elements precede a noun: *A nine-meter high impressive monument to Lenin. 46.
• Russian has no equivalent of the English there is/there are structure: *I'm happy that a lot of people on the streets.

Nouns and pronouns

• Some countable nouns are uncountable in English: *His hairs long. 60c.
• The one form of the relative pronoun does not make the human/nonhuman distinction: *The people which arrived . . . 46a.
• No distinction between this/these and that/those. 44d.

Verbs and verbals

• Be as a linking verb can be omitted, especially in present tense: *India more religious than America. 38c; 41c; 61a.
• It is is implied: *For them very hard to live in a city. 64f.
• No forms equivalent to the English perfect or progressive tense aspects: *He admitted that he lost. *She said she already deposited the money. *When I walked in, she slept. 41d.
• No auxiliary verbs, such as do, will, have: *When she left? 41c.
• No inflections for third person singular: *My father live there. 43.
• Sequence of tenses not observed: *He told me that he wants to emigrate. 41d, 41h.
• Passive voice not equivalent to English and more restricted in use: *The room is cleaning. 42a.
• No object + infinitive structure: *I want that they try harder. 61e.

Adjectives and adverbs

• Comparisons are not a direct translation: *She is more tall than he. 45h.

Articles

• Russian has no articles: *Boris student. 60.