Learn Russian A1 Essentials: 260 Spoken-Russian Flashcards, Case Forms and Particles

Russian Vocabulary A1 — Essentials (deck BP9830, 260 cards, English → Russian) is not a textbook A1 list. You won't find colours, food or the days of the week. It is a frequency list built from film and TV dialogue, so it gives you the words that hold spoken Russian together: pronouns, prepositions, particles and the first forms of the most common verbs. That is a strong place to start, but you need to know how the deck is built before you study it.

Eight cards that show what the deck is

The deck covers these:

• Pronouns in their case forms: меня, мне, тебя, тебе, тобой, мной, его, ему, него, ним, ей, ней, нас, нам, вас, вам, их, им, них, себя, себе
• Prepositions: в/во, на, с/со, у, о, за, из, к, для, по, от, до, без, после, через, под
• Particles: же, ли, бы, вот, ну, ведь, ни, даже, только
• Verbs in scattered forms: знаю, знаешь, знаете, знать; хочу, хочешь, хочет, хотел; могу, можешь, может, можем, мог; был, была, было, были, будет, буду
• A few content words: время, жизнь, человек, люди, отец, мама, друг, деньги, место, день

The cards to suspend first

Cards 100–138 repeat cards 1–99. что, это, на, как, у, меня, так, а, его, все, за, же and the rest come back with slightly different glosses. Only надо (need to) is new. Suspend the other 38 and the deck drops to about 220 real items.

The е/ё pairs are one word each. ее/её (78, 88, 128, 134) and еще/ещё (67, 95, 125, 144) are the same word with and without the dots. Keep the ё versions. все (23) and всё (48) really are different words, though: все means "everyone/all (plural)" and всё means "everything". The deck glosses both as "everything".

Fix or delete these cards:

• Card 81 ("p (abbreviation) → п") is a leftover from processing the subtitles. Delete it.
• Card 84 (потому = because) only means "because" in потому что. Rewrite it with both words.
• Card 168 (порядке) only makes sense in в порядке ("all right, OK"). Add the в.
• мистер and сэр (190, 200) are dubbing Russian. You'll hear them in translated American films, not in everyday speech.

Study tip: turn scattered cards into tables

About 40 cards are forms of six verbs. Another 25 are forms of the personal pronouns. Learning them one by one makes no sense in Russian, because the endings are the grammar. Make one card per paradigm instead:

• я → меня, мне, мной
• ты → тебя, тебе, тобой
• он → его/него, ему, ним
• мочь: могу, можешь, может, можем

Then use the original cards for quick recognition drills. Remember the н- rule: after a preposition, его/ему/им/их become него, нему, ним, них (с ним, у них). That covers cards 149, 186 and 189.

Where to go next

This deck is the first step of a three-deck frequency series. When the A1 words feel automatic, move on to Russian A2 — Everyday and then Russian B1 — Expanding, which follow the same pattern with longer lists of case forms.

Search for deck code BP9830 in the library on Flip It to start.