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Quiz about Russkiy Yazyk
Quiz about Russkiy Yazyk

Russkiy Yazyk! Trivia Quiz


Privet! I noticed that the quizzes on Russian were focused on key phrases like 'Hallo', 'Goodbye' etc. and wanted to write one that is a bit more in depth of the language. Have fun playing!

A multiple-choice quiz by reeshy. Estimated time: 3 mins.
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Author
reeshy
Time
3 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
318,010
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
724
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 174 (10/10), Guest 78 (2/10), Guest 131 (9/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. "Zima" is the Russian word for which season of the year? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Now a bit of verb conjugation: If "govorit'" (to speak) is the infinitive form, which of these is the third person singular (he/she/it) form? (In other words, how do you say "He speaks" in Russian?) Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Who in the family are "deti"? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. In the phrase "dom Ivana" what form does the name Ivan take? (I.e. in which grammatical case do masculine names add an 'a' when ending in a consonant? There is more than one, but only one is listed as a possibility, and it should be clear using the example sentence above.) Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. If "utro" means "morning", how would you say "in the morning"? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Which of these words mean "little sister" in Russian? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. In Russian, who or what is your "drug"? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. You will most likely have come across Russian words used in English, like "sputnik", "glasnost" and "perestroika" (relating to the politics of Mikhail Gorbachyov), and possibly "matryoshka". Which of them means "openness" or "publicity"? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Which of these pairs of words is the correct form of the Russian for "Moscow" and the country name itself, "Russia"? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Regarding its meaning, which of these words is the odd one out? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 18 2024 : Guest 174: 10/10
Mar 16 2024 : Guest 78: 2/10
Mar 13 2024 : Guest 131: 9/10
Mar 07 2024 : masfon: 9/10
Feb 11 2024 : Guest 205: 9/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "Zima" is the Russian word for which season of the year?

Answer: Winter

"Zima" is indeed winter. "Vesna" is spring, "Leto" is summer, and "Ocen'" is autumn.

Russian is the seventh most spoken language worldwide: approx. 164 million people speak it as their first language, and approx. 114 million speak it as a second language, giving a total of 278 million speakers!

The title of this quiz, "Russkiy Yazyk" is of course Russian for "Russian tongue" or "Russian language".
2. Now a bit of verb conjugation: If "govorit'" (to speak) is the infinitive form, which of these is the third person singular (he/she/it) form? (In other words, how do you say "He speaks" in Russian?)

Answer: Govorit

"Govorit" is the correct answer; "govorit'" is a second conjugation verb - i.e. one that ends in "it'" (Second conjugation is not exclusively "it'" verbs, but contains most that have multisyllabic infinitives). This means that the third person conjugation is made up of the stem "govor-" and the third person ending "it", giving "govorit".

"Govoriu", "Govorish'" and "Govorim" are the first person singular (I), second person singular (you), and the first person plural (we) forms respectively: "I speak", "You speak", and "We speak".
3. Who in the family are "deti"?

Answer: Children

"Deti" means children - the singular is "ditya", although "rebyonok" (child) is more commonly used in the singular (pl. "rebyata").

"Brothers" would be "brat'ya", "parents" would be "roditeli", and "cousins" "kuzeny".

Russian is part of the Indo-European language family, and along with Ukrainian and Belorussian (or Byelorussian) makes up the East Slavic languages.
4. In the phrase "dom Ivana" what form does the name Ivan take? (I.e. in which grammatical case do masculine names add an 'a' when ending in a consonant? There is more than one, but only one is listed as a possibility, and it should be clear using the example sentence above.)

Answer: Genitive

"Ivana" is the genitive, or possessive form of "Ivan", therefore it means "of Ivan", or "of John", John being the English cognate of Ivan. "Dom Ivana" therefore means "the house of Ivan" or "Ivan's house". "Ivana" is also the accusative form - masculine animate nouns have this special accusative form, when ending in a consonant. A regular masculine noun would not change in the accusative, as in the example "Ya lyublyu hleb" - "I like bread."

"Ivan" is of course the nominative, or subject form, as in the sentence "Ivan lyubit Lyudu" - "Ivan loves Lyuda".

The instrumental case is used mainly for "with" but also for expressions such as "by" and "at" as in "at night". The instrumental form of Ivan would be "Ivanom" meaning "by Ivan". For "with", you would include "s": "s Ivanom" - "with Ivan".

The locative, or prepositional, form would be "Ivane" - this case is used with "v" - "in", "o" - "about", and "pri" - "in the presence of". So "pri Ivane" would mean "in the presence of Ivan" or "in Ivan's presence".
5. If "utro" means "morning", how would you say "in the morning"?

Answer: Utrom

"-om" is the standard ending in the instrumental case for neuter nouns ending in "-o" and also for masculine nouns ending in a consonant - for example, "karandash", meaning "pencil", would become "karandashom" - "with a pencil".

Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. While it is widely spoken in the Ukraine, it is not an official language. It is also an official language of the United Nations.
6. Which of these words mean "little sister" in Russian?

Answer: Sestrichka

Diminutives are generally formed by adding "-ik" or "-chka" to the nominative form. In this case, we want "little sister" so we take the nominative for "sister" - "sestra", and add the ending "-chka" to make "sestrichka" - note that stem vowel "a" is changed to an "i". This form is commonly known as the double diminutive; the single diminutive of "sestra" is "sestritsa". There is also such thing as a triple diminutive!

Although diminutives do indeed convey smallness, they are more often used to convey affection, such as English words "puppy", or "Johnny", or "Frankie" etc. They also convey politeness. They are very common in Russian, and especially with Russian children.

"Sestra" is the nominative form of "sister", as stated above, and I made up the other two!
7. In Russian, who or what is your "drug"?

Answer: Friend

"Drug" is the singular form of "friend" - the plural is irregular, and is "druz'ya". A female friend would be a "podruga" - notice "drug" in the middle.

"Waiter" would be "ofitsiant", ("waitress" takes the feminine form of "ofitsianka"). A "mobile phone" is a "mobil'niy telefon" or a "sotoviy telefon". And a "drug" is a "medikament" in the medical sense, or a "narkotik" in the sense of illicit narcotics.

Russian is commonly written using a handwritten, cursive form, which has certain forms of each letter. This can be confusing for people studying the language, as not only are some letters sometimes indistinguishable from each other, but some letters look like other cognates of the Roman alphabet. For example, the Cyrillic character "d" is written as "D" in the capital cursive form, but as "g" in the lower case; similarly "t" is written more like an "m" which is very similar to the cursive forms of the Cyrillic character "m".
8. You will most likely have come across Russian words used in English, like "sputnik", "glasnost" and "perestroika" (relating to the politics of Mikhail Gorbachyov), and possibly "matryoshka". Which of them means "openness" or "publicity"?

Answer: Glasnost

"Glasnost" does indeed mean "openness" or "publicity" and was a domestic reform introduced by Gorbachyov (normally Romanized as Gorbachev), which gave new freedoms to the people, notably more freedom of speech.

"Perestroika" means "re-construction" or "reformation" and was another domestic reform which referred to the restructuring of the Soviet economy.

In "matryoshka" we meet another diminutive form, this time from "mat'" - "mother", thus "matryoshka" means "little mother". It is used in English to mean a set of Russian dolls.

Finally, "sputnik" means "traveling companion" and was the name given to each in a series of Soviet spacecrafts.
9. Which of these pairs of words is the correct form of the Russian for "Moscow" and the country name itself, "Russia"?

Answer: Moskva, Rossiya

The correct answer is "Moskva, Rossiya". The "o" is "Moskva" is what is known as an "unstressed o" and is pronounced more like an "a", with the stress falling on the last syllable of the word: "mask-VA".

The Russian term for the full name "Russian Federation" is "Rossiyskaya Federatsiya", and USSR is "SSSR", which stands for "Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik" ("Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"). You can see why it may be easier for learners of Russian to simply use the abbreviated form! The word "Soviet", sometimes Romanized as "sovyet", is simply the Russian word for "council".
10. Regarding its meaning, which of these words is the odd one out?

Answer: Inostranniy

"Inostranniy" is the odd one out; it means "foreign". The other three are color words: "byeliy" is "white" (partly seen in the country name "Byelorus'"/"Byelorussia", which is of course Belarus, which comes from "white Rus"). "Chyorniy" is "black", and "krasniy" means "red" (as seen in the Russian for the Red Square, "krasnaya ploshchad'").
Source: Author reeshy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
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