The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners

by Nicholas J. Brown

Whether you’re learning alone or attending classes, you’ll find this complete Russian language course for beginners both accessible and indispensable. Designed to provide the student with an excellent command of basic Russian (the equivalent of A’ level standard) the book features thirty lessons punctuated by revision exercises to ensure you have fully understood what you have learned. The emphasis is on acquiring vocabulary, experiencing conversational language and learning useful grammar. The book also includes a vocabulary of 1,500 words and a glossary of grammatical terms.

Genres: Language, Russia, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks, Linguistics, Academic

Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 1996

Reviews

[Rosemarie Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very useful, I found especially when teamed with the Michel Thomas Total Russian Language Program. That will take care of your pronunciation which this guide will help you relate to seeing Russian words on the page. Highly recommended.

[Alan Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like it's predecessor (the old Penguin Russian Course) that I read in the 1980's this has a strong grammar-centric approach. Unlike that book it's much more dense and progresses at a far greater pace. I do appreciate some areas where it seems to take itself less seriously than the previous edition of this book. For example, the author sprinkles tips about what learning items can be deferred for later, etc. The vocabulary lists that accompany each chapter are very long relative to other similar books.

A word about the typography: the print seems quite small to my eyes, and I prefer serif typefaces for Cyrillic text as opposed to the Helvetica type in which this book is set.

In a word, it's a good course; but definitely for the very serious student of Russian. Anyone who's not serious about it will give up too quickly on this book.

[Anya]

Tracking my progress at my langblr so I won't be updating here.

[Manuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Penguin Russian Course (NPRC) is a good "second" book for people wanting to learn Russian. For a first book, I would recommend a shorter course, one that gives you a taste of how the language works but doesn't go into too many details. It will allow you to make enough progress and not get discouraged by this difficult and exotic language. Only after you have the basics down would I advise getting a 'heavier', more grammar-laden course, like the NPRC. I myself tried using the NPRC when I began to study the language, but because of the large number of explanations and grammar rules, progress was too slow, got discouraged, and stopped using it. It is only after going through shorter books that I could really take advantage of this course. It's a traditional course, involving nothing but text, translation exercises and reading comprehension. All texts have translations at the end of the book; there's a key for all the exercises, and a handy (very abbreviated) grammar table as well. Still, the greatest pitfall of the NPRC is the lack of repetition of sentences and words. For any language, repetition is essential to really drive home the concepts and rules of the grammar. The readings at the end of each chapter, for example, are almost all independent of one another, so there's no real buildup from previous chapters. And the vocabulary, while pretty good for a beginner's book in terms of quantity, is not always the most practical, and so we don't see certain words more than once, which makes for poor retention. All in all, a decent book, but not the best for a newcomer.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes this book gets a little advanced a little fast, especially toward the end. But it's has the best explanation of Russian grammar of any one-volume textbook. The "Teach Yourself Russian" book isn't nearly as good in terms of exercises or methodology, and you'd really have to buy the "Teach Yourself Russian Grammar" supplement to match Penguin's breadth of grammatical instruction.

[Azaghedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Very exhaustive, at least for someone up to the beginner intermediate level--so exhaustive that I'm going to have to re-read it in order to absorb it all. Highly recommend it.

[Michael Haase · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is really a rather poor device for education. Sure, it teaches the many nuances of the grammar, offering a comprehensive guide, compacted in a single volume, but the study is very intense, as each chapter contains over 50 new vocabulary and very little practice for them is given. Typically the text offers a list of all the newly presented vocab but offers only one or two passages of sample text for most of them. On top of that, the book keeps adding more and more vocabulary per chapter until the last few chapters have 100+ new terms to learn each. I customarily copied the new vocab in my journal and by the end it was like copying directly from the dictionary. How could anyone expect to learn 100+ new terms in a brief time, especially when given only a single 2-page passage to use for reading practice.

There are no illustrations to soften the intensity of the study or help memorization by association, neither are the passages very fascinating or informational. They're typically just about people inviting each other to dinner or something the like. An Esperanto-learning guide I have uses famous tales of world history and folklore as sample texts. This book should have done something similar.

[Mary Goth · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جامع و خوبی برای شروع‌کننده‌ها هستش. منتهی بنظرم در یک حد کلی‌ای، اگر با basic زبان روسی آشنایی‌ت داشته باشید و کاملاً صفر نباشید، براتون کتاب بهتری می‌شه.
در این صورت بهتون کمک می‌کنه چیزهایی که می‌دونید رو طبقه‌بندی کنید و بفهمید چی‌ها رو هم نمی‌دونید!
برای من در ترمیم یک‌سری اشتباهات گرامری و بهتر کردن خوندن handwriting ام کمک‌کننده بود.
این رو خیلی وقت پیش یک دوست روس بهم معرفی کرد تا توی سفرم به یادگیری زبانشون، یک کمکی بهم باشه.
اگر بهش ۴ دادم و ۵ ندادم بخاطر اینه که یک منبع "کافی" نیست. حتماً باید به هزار و یک روش دیگه هم خودتون رو بالا بکشید.
اما راهنمای شروع خوبیه.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concise and well-explained w/ various different formats and exercises. 5/5

[Simon Alamos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good as a grammar reference guide.

[Jess Portchmouth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга мне понравилась, chapter on participles could’ve been made clearer though

[Jacob Rundle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standard Russian Language. But, it has good pronunciation guides.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for leaning Russian grammar! Very clear explanations and well ordered. it doesn't get 5 stars because in my opinion there are not enough exercises to really practice well, and also because there is no audio component, without which listening and speaking is impossible to master.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to say 9/10 with this one.
This comprehensive, detailed guide will leave one with a decent foundation for understanding the Russian language. There's no easy way to comprehend the moronic, absurd, absolute dumpster fire that is the Russian grammar system with all of its cases, genders, and tenses, but this book covers every nook and cranny there is to it, even when doing so is very overwhelming for the beginner. Yes, it's quickly approaching the ripe old age of 30 (and with that a lot of the vocab in this book is kind of dated), but at the same time this book is one of the only resources in the world that can adequately explain the aspects of this crazy language.

And for that reason I'm going to recommend it as the first resource that anyone should go to when learning Russian. You're not going to find a more straightforward volume of grammatical explanations elsewhere in such a well-structured format as in this book. The key element of mastering Russian is to be able to use the six cases and not misgender/mis-case the words in your sentences, so mining vocabulary all day long isn't going to cut it. Nevertheless, this book does have quite a deep level of vocabulary that it teaches throughout the 30 chapters, enough to get you talking in Russian and understanding quite a bit as well.

My only immediate complaint is the exponential increase in difficulty of the texts in the last few chapters. Though it does provide translations of all the texts and also of the key words, it's still pretty hard to work with. But the rest of the book is really good and very thorough, so it should be very useful.

**GET ANKI SO YOU CAN MEMORIZE ALL THE WORDS**

Вот так, я учу русский язык с помощью многих источников, эта книга очень хорошая для цели понимания сложной русской грамматики. Нет многих хороших ресурсов для изучения этого языка, и особенно для грамматики. Даже если скорость учения книги очень быстрый, он всё обысняет и своя структура много лучше чем другие ресурсы. Количество слов которых он преподает тоже высокое, можно по-говорить с людами и тоже достаточно понимать.

[IcyBlue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What makes this book unique, compared with other textbooks out there, is that it was composed specifically for people who wish to self-study the Russian language independently (although, of course, it can also be used as a supplement to a traditional classroom-based course). It assumes no prior knowledge of the language whatsoever and takes you from the Cyrillic alphabet (which, you might be delighted to hear, is quite easy to master) to covering all of basic Russian grammar.

The teaching of grammar is done gradually and logically, with clear and thorough explanations that were written with the autodidactic learner in mind. Each section is followed by exercises intended to test what you've learned and entrench it in your mind. At the end of each chapter, there are texts/dialogues in Russian with comprehension exercises, along with a vocabulary list of new words introduced in the chapter. Overall, the book introduces you to over 1500 words.

Russian grammar is commonly perceived as being fearsomely difficult to understand and master, what with the notorious six cases and nouns being classified into three genders, verbal aspects, and verbs of motion, etc. I'd be lying if I'd say it's easy, but on the other hand - it's not very hard, either. In some cases, you'd have to read the explanations more than once, but this book equips you with everything you need in order to put these concepts under your belt.

Overall, if you know nothing of Russian and wish to self-study it on your own, this book is a godsend. Highly recommended. It was published in 1995 but is better than all contemporary books for beginners that I'd surveyed. Combine it with Duolingo/other Internet resources for hearing practice, and by the end of it, you should be at the upper-beginner/lower-intermediate stage.

Good luck!

[Dulguun Gantumur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moves at a very quick pace, explains its topics extremely well and makes sure that every instance of the grammar rule it teaches in a chapter is properly deployed in its practice grammar and reading sections at the end. Each lesson builds on the past and there is always a coherent line of grammar development as the book progresses, and if there are exceptions that must be taught early on, it makes sure to mention that it will be explored at a later point. When a lesson is finished, you can be confident that you know everything there is to know about that particular grammar point.
Only downside is there is no audio accompanying, however it can be supplemented with other resources online, and every detail one needs to pronounce a word properly and its many derivations is given in the word list, or explained in a lesson, such as stress pattern and declension pattern.
I wish there existed a similar book such as this for other languages.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the last year of learning Russian, this is the one book that I’ve returned to again and again. I used it initially to get a grasp on grammar. I then returned to it anytime I needed a refresher.

Just yesterday even, I borrowed it from my library again because I want to see in one place the prepositions and cases for constructing time phrases like “next week”, “last year”, “at three o’clock”, etc.

It’s surprising that a book this old hasn’t been superseded by a more recent book. Or maybe it has? If so, I haven’t met its equal yet.

Will you be able to learn Russian from just this one book? No! Of course not. You still need to do a ton of listening and speaking and reading.

Take this book for what it is: an excellent primer and reference material.

До свидания!

[Emmanuel B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does what it promises: a good, comprehensive description of Russian grammar.

As for the effectiveness of the method, however, not much can be said. There are better ways to understand the intricacies of the language intuitively. It works best as a reference guide to be used only when encountering something confusing in actual Russian content.

It gets a little bit too dense and heavy around chapter 20. The explanations become hard to comprehend when the author is bombarding you with rules and exceptions; it's not intuitive.

[Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt that a few grammatical concepts weren't explained very well, and had me checking online for more thorough information, but by and large this is an excellent resource and mostly very easy to understand, especially for such a complicated language. Obviously best paired with lessons, but you can do a lot just on your own, too.

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a wonderful introductory course for beginners. this is my first russian coursework, and currently i'm onto other books and I gotta say that this one made it EASY compared to the others that really is *major* pain. This was a relatively easy introduction. i recommend this one to those whom are going to learn russian, at the very early steps. Thank you, Mr. Brown.

one minor detail; третий also declines like волчий

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for somebody who already understands the basics. It tells you everything you need to know to get by at an intermediate level. Though, if you don't know anything I would definitely not get this book. It focuses mostly on grammar so having some understanding of it is necessary.

[Rheia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super useful and straight to the point. Best used as reference or review and not the sole or primary resource for a beginner. I personally love the small size and font as well as the 'key phrases' sections. Part of my regular review books for sure!!

[Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vocabulary list? Check
Grammar explained? Check
Grammar tables? Check
Exercises, including short stories? Check
What more could you want?

Probably a book that is also actually 'fun' to learn.
Hence 4 stars.

[Benji · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the most helpful resource when I was studying Russian

[Dorotea · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[leoncito · Rating 5 out of 5]

good primer and reference for grammar.

[Eva Hnizdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had better texbooks

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly based, that's all.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first picked up this book I had very poor Russian. I think I had just begun to pick up падежи. It managed to be straight to the point without being impenetrable. Even years later I found it a perfect reference for Russian grammar. I think it would be hard to do better than this. In other grammar books I’ve picked up in the past, specifically French ones, you have something like 80 pages on useful content padded with 200 pages of fluff. You won’t find that here. I recommend this for intermediate and beginner speakers alike.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1197225.html

I think it is not a bad course. It alerted me to a number of tricky exceptions to the general rules which my previous textbook had rather glossed over (eg the irregular prepositional в Крыму, 'in the Crimea'). But I would have needed regular human lessons as well to get me through to the end, so I'm leaving it here, and switching to a quite different Indo-European language.