Lesson 2. Two simple Russian exclamations that Russian alphabet teaches you!

Hello guys! In Lesson 1 of Learn to Read Russian video curse I told you that there was not much use in learning the Russian alphabet, but still there is at least one reason why you shouldn’t ignore the alphabet completely. That’s because there are two very often used Russian exclamations that derive right from the alphabet – ЁПРСТ! and ЁКЛМН!

Ok, before moving to Russian exclamations I highly recommend you to listen to The Russian alphabet in Lesson 1 so that you could spot the places we are going to talk about today. So, the Russian exclamations I want to teach you are: ЁПРСТ and ЁКЛМН. I like to write them in uppercase because it gives the feeling that you are cursing emotionally. When you write them in lowercase like this: ёпрст and ёклмн it looks like you are too tired to curse with relish. Or like you have been cursing for too long and don’t put much spirit into that anymore.

These two Russian exclamations are very easy: just add Ё and that’s it!

As I said these Russian exclamations derive right from the alphabet. Let’s have a look at two specific spots of the alphabet: П Р С Т and К Л М Н. In both cases it is four letters that go one after another, and in both cases we add the letter Ё in front. That’s how ЁПРСТ and ЁКЛМН appear.

How to pronounce these Russian exclamations correctly

Notice that the letters in these exclamations are pronounced a little bit differently. When we are pronouncing the alphabet we say: ПЭ ЭР ЭС ТЭ and КА ЭЛ ЭМ ЭН – that’s how these letters sound in the alphabet. But when we use these letters to make an exclamation, we pronounce them this way: ПЭ РЭ СЭ ТЭ and КЭ ЛЭ МЭ НЭ. Together with Ё it sounds like ЁПРСТ and ЁКЛМН.

Notice the difference between how you prononce the letters in the alphabet and in the exclamation itself.

I encourage you to practice saying these Russian exclamations, because they sound really funny and not rude.

When can we use these Russian exclamations?

In all the situations when you want to say something like Duck! Sh*t! Damn! Blast it! Gosh! For example:

1) Ёпрст, дождь пошел! – Damn, it started to rain!

2) Ёклмн, опять вылетел интернет! – Shit, the internet is off again!

3) Да ёпрст, опять не наш автобус! – Duck it, that’s another bus we don’t need!

4) Ёклмн, ты что делаешь?! – Blast it, what the hell are you doing?

You can also check Blin – a common Russian pancake and a swearword which will teach you more funny and useful exclamations.

And here is my video to the Lesson 2.