1.5 Language and Speech – И, А

Heather Rice

Уро́к 1

1.5 Language and Speech – И, А

Conjunctions И and А

Conjunctions and connectors are very important function words in any language. Knowing and using them immediately helps expand your ability to express yourself. One of the simplest conjunctions is the word ‘and’ in English.

In Russian, ‘and’ is expressed either with ‘и’ which shows similarities between subjects or predicates, or with ‘а’ which shows differences between subjects or predicates.

И = ‘and’

А = ‘whereas / but / and’

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Например

Read and listen here for examples.

Notice, that the third and fourth examples are the SAME except for the use of -а and -и. Based on the examples above, try to translate these sentences.

Listen to the difference in pronunciation.

Question: What’s the difference here?

	Э́то ко́шка и соба́ка. ‘This is a cat and a dog.’
	Э́то ба́бушка и де́душка. ‘This is grandmother and grandfather.’
	Э́то молоко́ и сок. ‘This is milk and juice.’
	Э́то молоко́, а э́то сок. ‘This is milk, but/and this is juice.
	Аня студе́нтка, а Дима аспира́нт. ‘Anya is a student, and/but Dima is a graduate student.
	Э́то ноутбу́к, а э́то планше́т. ‘This is a laptop, and/but this is a tablet.’