Extending Your Russian

KEYS TO RUSSIAN

Stress Hints

The following rules account for the stress of most Russian words. Individual words may be exceptional, however, and you should learn them as they are encountered.

1. Nouns and Adjectives default: Stress the final vowel of the stem.

Major exceptions: a number of foreign words (ми'тинг, телеви'зор)

Most noun and adjective suffixes are not stressed--but see #3 below (вто'рник, кре'пость, зда'ние, кра'сный, усто'йчивый) but...

...compound suffixes starting with a vowel are stressed (ребёнок, факти'ческий)

2. Verbs default: Stress the final vowel of the stem. If no suffix is present, stress the first vowel after the root.

Major exceptions: '-ыва, '-ствова, -и'рова, '-нут (ppp), '-анн (ppp), '-т (ppp)

The ppp suffix -енн is stressed (-ённ) if the verb has no suffix or if the verb has default stress

3. Ending Stress is found in

a. monosyllabic masc nouns (not foreign) (врач)

b. nouns with the suffix: -ак, -як, -арь, -ач, -ок, -ун, -ец (1-syllable root), -ови'к, -еви'к, -овщи'к (рыба'к, оте'ц)

c. adjectives with the suffix -ов (root is 1-syllable) (мирово'й)

4. Shifting Stress occurs in

a. some initially stressed masc noun w/ nom pl in -a' (го'род-города')

b. most fem/neut nouns with stress on the ending in the sg (рука', окно')

с. in the past tense of verbs with non-syllabic root (звать)

d. short form of monosyllabic adjectives (но'вый - нова')

e. in a/0 verbs (писа'ть-пишу'-пи'шешь)

f. in many 2nd conj verbs whose derived imperfective is in -ыва- or which indicate movement, putting, dropping, buying, giving, receiving, asking (купи'ть, cпроси'ть)

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