words and language

This book of 450 different roots of the Russian language is the ultimate tool and guide to learning not only how to build your own words in conversation and in writing, but also (and I feel most importantly) in determining how to deconstruct words you pick up in reading and listening to better grasp their meaning.

Patrick could easily have stopped at simply providing the roots, as well as words built from those roots, but he also gives you sentences with the words in them as examples. Last but not least, he provides a handful of exercises for practice at the end of the book.

This book should be on the top shelf of every translator and/or student of the Russian language.

More than any other language I know, Russian is built upon roots. This book does a good job of presenting the most important roots of the Russian language, usually listing five or more different words formed from each root. Each new word is used in a sample phrase with English translation. The introduction discusses suffixes and prefixes (including prepositions that are used as prefixes). And, importantly for beginning students, all the Russian text is shown with accents!