Russian Motion Verbs for Intermediate Students (Yale Language Series)

by William J. Mahota

Release Date: May, 1996

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

Outstanding Book for Students of Russian!

I've been a Russian-language teacher / learner for well over two decades now and out of the twelve books I have pertaining to Russian verbs, this is by far my favorite and the most useful for either a student or a teacher. I call myself a teacher / learner both because I have taught Russian at both the highschool, college, and university level, but because I think that learning a language is a continual process (even for one's native language) and I'm still learning happily!

For students it has a comprehensive and not-overly-complicated explanation of how Russian verbs work grammatically with coherent examples and, best of all, wonderful illustration that make comprehending the complicated (in comparison with English) Russian verb system accessible. It has easy work sheets, which can be used in the book or xeroxed for multiple uses.

For teachers, those same work sheets can be made as in-class reinforcement of the verb section in your primary textbook. It also has such wonderful explanations of how the verb system works (I wish I could explain it as wonderfully as the author does with my imperfect English) that I frequently borrow his explanations for the home-made handouts and reference sheets that I prepare for my students.

I highly recommend this book in addition to the main textbook that a student may be using or as a side study to help a student master Russian verbs. This book is especially useful when combined with "501 Russian Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses Alphabetically Arranged (501 Verbs Series)" by Thomas R., Jr. Beyer.

If you want to eventually speak Russian fluently then this book is a great way to start!

I've been told it's not completely idiomatic

It's impossible that any decent book on Russian verbs of motion wouldn't be helpful, and I think this book does a pretty good job. However, I've been told by native speakers that the language is a little awkward.