Terence Wade - A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

General Editor: Glanville Price

The Blackwell Reference Grammars are essential companions for students of modern languages at senior secondary school and undergraduate level. The volumes provide a comprehensive survey of the grammar of each language and include plentiful examples.

Published

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, Fourth Edition
Terence Wade
Updated, with additional material, by David Gillespie, Svetlana Gural and Marina Korneeva
Advisory Editor for previous editions: Michael J. de K. Holman

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Grammar Workbooks

A Russian Grammar Workbook, Second Edition
Terence Wade
Updated, with additional material, by David Gillespie

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Esther Santamara Iglesias

A French Grammar Workbook
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Fourth Edition

Terence Wade

Revised and updated by
David Gillespie, Svetlana Gural and Marina Korneeva

This edition first published 2020
2020 Terence Wade & John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Edition History
Terence Wade. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 1992 and 2e, 2000, 3e, 2011)

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The right of Terence Wade, David Gillespie, Svetlana Gural and Marina Korneeva to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Wade, Terence, 19302005, author. | Gillespie, David, 1957 author. | Gural, S. K., author. | Korneeva, Marina (Marina Aleksandrovna), author.
Title: A comprehensive Russian grammar / Terence Wade ; updated, with additional material, by David Gillespie, Svetlana Gural and Marina Korneeva.
Description: Fourth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : WileyBlackwell, 2020. | Series: Blackwell reference grammars | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019045086 (print) | LCCN 2019045087 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119520290 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119520320 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119520283 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Russian languageGrammar.
Classification: LCC PG2106 .W33 2020 (print) | LCC PG2106 (ebook) | DDC 491.782/421dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045086
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045087

Cover image: Nicki Averill/Wiley
Cover design by Wiley

To May

The Comprehensive Russian Grammar is meant for Englishspeaking pupils and students of Russian at the postintroductory stage. It is also a reference aid for teachers, translators and interpreters and others who use the language in a professional capacity.

The first new reference grammar of Russian to have been published in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, it is based on personal research and observation, long experience of teaching Russian at all levels from beginners up to the Honours Degree and the Civil Service Interpretership, and on a close study of reference materials by Russian, British and American linguists.

The approach is descriptive throughout, and rules of usage are constantly measured against current practice as reflected in contemporary journalistic and literary sources. It is entirely practical in conception and design and has no pretensions to theoretical disquisition. Particular emphasis is laid on problems which are of especial difficulty for the English speaker.

The grammar provides comprehensive guidance to usage, with exhaustive tabulated material and succinct explanations. It is presented in 484 sections which are further subdivided to take account of finer points of usage. It provides mainstream rules for quick reference, as well as access to the subtleties of the language for those who need more detailed information.

The intention is to provide the essential facts of the language and to tackle perennial problems such as adverbs and pronouns in and , agreement, animacy, conjugation, declension, gerunds, long and short adjectives, numerals, participles, the partitive genitive, verbs of motion, and so on, as well as problems which have often received less attention: the gender of acronyms, alphabetisms, softsign nouns, the differences between / and other key prepositions, and between and , the use of capital letters, particles, the principles of word order etc. Treatment of verbal aspect differentiates usage in the past, future, imperative and infinitive, thus throwing the rules into sharper relief. Special emphasis is given to stress patterns.