Talking about where someone is from, what they are, and what language they speak is among the very first things you do in any conversation — and Russian does all three with one family of words that behaves differently from English at every turn. The country, the nationality, and the language often share a root (Росси́я → ру́сский → ру́сский язы́к), but they are grammatically three different things: a noun that declines, a person-noun with masculine and feminine variants, and an adjective or adverb. This page sorts them out, with the one rule English speakers break constantly: nationalities and languages are not capitalised in Russian.
Naming the countries
The most common country names are nouns, and like all Russian nouns they have a gender and they decline. Here are the ones you will meet first:
| Country | English | Gender | "in / to" (location) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Росси́я | Russia | fem (-ия) | в Росси́и |
| Аме́рика / США | America / the USA | fem / plural | в Аме́рике / в США |
| А́нглия | England | fem (-ия) | в А́нглии |
| Герма́ния | Germany | fem (-ия) | в Герма́нии |
| Фра́нция | France | fem (-ия) | во Фра́нции |
| Кита́й | China | masc (-й) | в Кита́е |
Notice that most country names are feminine and end in -ия (Росси́я, А́нглия, Герма́ния, Фра́нция, Ита́лия, Япо́ния…). These decline like any -ия noun, which means "in France" is во Фра́нции, not в Франце — the -ия ending becomes -ии in the prepositional. Кита́й is the odd one out here: it is masculine, so "in China" is в Кита́е.
Я живу́ в Росси́и, а мой брат — в Герма́нии.
I live in Russia, and my brother lives in Germany.
Она́ две́ри гла́вного офи́са откры́ла в Кита́е.
She opened the main office in China.
Мы бы́ли во Фра́нции про́шлым ле́том.
We were in France last summer.
В or на with a country?
For the overwhelming majority of countries, "in / to" is в (в Росси́и, в Герма́нии, в Кита́е, в США). A small set of places — mostly islands and a few peninsulas — take на instead: на Кубе́ (in Cuba), на Ки́пре (in Cyprus), на Мальди́вах (in the Maldives). The reason is partly that islands are felt as "on" a surface rather than "inside" a bounded territory, but the list is short enough to memorise as exceptions. The general logic of the в/на split is covered on location: в vs на.
Они́ отдыха́ли на Кубе́ це́лый ме́сяц.
They holidayed in Cuba for a whole month.
В А́нглии сейча́с идёт дождь, а на Ки́пре +30.
It's raining in England right now, and it's +30 in Cyprus.
Nationalities: nouns in masculine/feminine pairs
A person's nationality is a noun, and it comes in a masculine and a feminine form — you cannot use one for the other. Unlike English, where "a Russian" covers both sexes, Russian forces the choice:
| Country | Man | Woman | Plural (people) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Росси́я | ру́сский | ру́сская | ру́сские |
| Аме́рика | америка́нец | америка́нка | америка́нцы |
| А́нглия | англича́нин | англича́нка | англича́не |
| Герма́ния | не́мец | не́мка | не́мцы |
| Кита́й | кита́ец | китая́нка | кита́йцы |
| Фра́нция | францу́з | францу́женка | францу́зы |
Two things to watch. First, the plurals are not always regular: англича́нин → англича́не and не́мец → не́мцы are irregular and must be learned (you cannot derive англича́не from the singular by rule). Second, ру́сский / ру́сская / ру́сские look exactly like adjectives — and historically they are. This is the only common nationality that is grammatically an adjective; all the others (америка́нец, не́мец, кита́ец) are ordinary masculine nouns with the diminutive-looking suffixes -ец / -анин.
Мой сосе́д — не́мец, а его́ жена́ англича́нка.
My neighbour is German, and his wife is English.
На конфере́нции бы́ли францу́зы, кита́йцы и не́сколько америка́нцев.
There were French, Chinese and a few Americans at the conference.
Ты ру́сская? — Нет, я украи́нка.
Are you Russian? — No, I'm Ukrainian.
Languages: two patterns, both lowercase
There are two ways to talk about a language, and learners constantly mix them up.
Pattern 1 — the noun phrase: [adjective] + язы́к. When the language is a thing you study, know, learn, or translate, use the adjective plus the noun язы́к ("language"): ру́сский язы́к, англи́йский язы́к, неме́цкий язы́к. In many contexts язы́к can be dropped once context is clear (Я учу́ ру́сский = "I'm studying Russian").
Я изуча́ю ру́сский язы́к уже́ два го́да.
I've been studying Russian for two years now.
Э́та кни́га перево́дится на неме́цкий язы́к.
This book is being translated into German.
Pattern 2 — the manner adverb: по-…-ски. When you describe how someone speaks, reads, writes, or understands — the manner of the action — Russian uses a fixed adverb formed with по- and -ски/-цки: по-ру́сски, по-англи́йски, по-неме́цки, по-францу́зски, по-кита́йски. This is the form that goes with говори́ть ("speak"), понима́ть ("understand"), чита́ть ("read"), писа́ть ("write").
Ты говори́шь по-ру́сски?
Do you speak Russian?
Он чита́ет по-кита́йски, но почти́ не говори́т.
He reads Chinese but barely speaks it.
Извини́те, я не понима́ю по-неме́цки.
Sorry, I don't understand German.
The crucial point: with verbs of speaking you use the adverb, not на ру́сском. Say говори́ть по-ру́сски, never говори́ть на ру́сском языке́ in normal speech (на + the noun does exist, but it answers "in what language?" for writing/publishing — писа́ть на ру́сском языке́ — and sounds heavy for ordinary "speak Russian"). For the verb говори́ть itself, see говори́ть / сказа́ть.
Дава́й говори́ть по-англи́йски, мне ну́жно потренирова́ться.
Let's speak English, I need to practise.
Она́ свобо́дно говори́т по-францу́зски и непло́хо — по-италья́нски.
She speaks French fluently and Italian fairly well.
The capitalisation rule
This is the single most common written mistake English speakers make in Russian. In English, "Russian", "English", "German", "French" are all capitalised — nationalities, languages, and adjectives derived from them. In Russian, they are all lowercase. Only the country name itself (Росси́я, А́нглия, Герма́ния) is capitalised.
| English (capitalised) | Russian (lowercase) |
|---|---|
| Russia | Росси́я (capitalised — it's the country) |
| a Russian / Russian [adj.] | ру́сский |
| the Russian language | ру́сский язы́к |
| in Russian (manner) | по-ру́сски |
| German cuisine | неме́цкая ку́хня |
So the only capital letter in "I speak Russian" is none at all on the language word: Я говорю́ по-ру́сски. The full set of rules lives on capitalisation rules.
Он америка́нец, но воспи́тывался в семье́, где говори́ли по-испа́нски.
He's American, but was raised in a family where they spoke Spanish.
How this differs from English
English keeps all four uses identical and capitalised: He is Russian. He speaks Russian. The Russian language. Russian cuisine. Russian splits them into three grammatical categories and writes them all in lowercase. So the English sentence "The Russian speaks Russian" becomes Ру́сский говори́т по-ру́сски — one word is a noun (the person), the other is an adverb (the manner), and neither is capitalised, while the underlying country Росси́я is. There is no shortcut: you must hold "country (capital noun) / nationality (lowercase noun, gendered) / language (lowercase adjective or по-adverb)" as three separate slots.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я говорю́ по-Ру́сски.
Incorrect — the language word is lowercase: по-ру́сски. Russian never capitalises nationalities or languages.
✅ Я говорю́ по-ру́сски.
I speak Russian.
❌ Ты говори́шь на ру́сском?
Marked/heavy — for the manner of speaking use the adverb по-ру́сски, not на + the noun.
✅ Ты говори́шь по-ру́сски?
Do you speak Russian?
❌ Она́ англича́нин.
Gender error — a woman is англича́нка; англича́нин is the masculine form.
✅ Она́ англича́нка.
She's English.
❌ На конфере́нции бы́ли мно́го англича́нинов.
Plural error — the plural of англича́нин is irregular: англича́не (genitive plural англича́н).
✅ На конфере́нции бы́ло мно́го англича́н.
There were a lot of English people at the conference.
❌ Я изуча́ю по-неме́цки в университе́те.
Wrong pattern — for studying a language as a subject use the noun: неме́цкий язы́к. The по-adverb is only for manner (говори́ть по-неме́цки).
✅ Я изуча́ю неме́цкий язы́к в университе́те.
I study German at university.
Key Takeaways
- Country names are capitalised nouns that decline: most are feminine -ия (Росси́я → в Росси́и), but Кита́й is masculine (в Кита́е). Almost all take в; islands take на (на Кубе́). На/в Украи́не is a sensitive case — both are used.
- Nationalities are gendered nouns: ру́сский/ру́сская, америка́нец/америка́нка, не́мец/не́мка — with irregular plurals (англича́не, не́мцы). Only ру́сский is grammatically an adjective.
- Languages have two forms: the noun phrase ру́сский язы́к (for studying/translating) and the adverb по-ру́сски (for speaking/understanding). Use по-…-ски with говори́ть, not на + the noun.
- Lowercase everything but the country: ру́сский, по-англи́йски, неме́цкий — all lowercase, unlike English.
Now practice Russian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- From, To and At: Origin and DestinationA2 — The three location relations — FROM (из + genitive: Я из Росси́и, из Москвы́), TO/motion (в + accusative: Я е́ду в Росси́ю, в Москву́), and AT/IN (в + prepositional: Я живу́ в Москве́, в Росси́и) — and how the same noun takes three different forms across them, so Москва́ appears as из Москвы́, в Москву́, в Москве́. Includes the на-places pairing (на Кавка́з → с Кавка́за), the question words Отку́да?, Куда́?, Где?, and the born-in construction (Я роди́лся/родила́сь в…).
- Russia and the Post-Soviet StatesA2 — The countries where Russian is spoken — Росси́я and the former-USSR states (Белару́сь, Казахста́н, Кыргызста́н, Украи́на, the Baltics) — how to name them and their people, the в/на choice for each (в Росси́и, в Казахста́не; the sensitive на/в Украи́не), and the key distinction English collapses: ру́сский (an ethnic Russian, and the language) versus россия́нин (a citizen of Russia of any ethnicity), so a Tatar citizen of Russia is россия́нин but not necessarily ру́сский.
- World Countries, Capitals, Nationalities and LanguagesA2 — How major world countries decline and how to name their capitals, people and languages. Most country names are feminine -ия and decline normally (в Герма́нии, из Ита́лии), but some are masculine (Кита́й, Ира́н), neuter, or plural (США, Нидерла́нды), which changes agreement and prepositions. Capitals (Ло́ндон, Пари́ж, Берли́н, Пеки́н, indeclinable То́кио), nationalities in irregular masculine/feminine pairs (америка́нец/америка́нка, францу́з/францу́женка, не́мец/не́мка, кита́ец/китая́нка, япо́нец/япо́нка) with their own plurals (не́мцы, англича́не), and the по-…-ски language adverb (по-неме́цки) — all lowercase.
- Prepositional for Location (в and на)A1 — The prepositional's main job: saying WHERE something is, after в (in/at, enclosed) and на (on/at a surface or event). В Москве́, в шко́ле, на столе́, на рабо́те. The big contrast: location takes the prepositional (Я в шко́ле) but motion-to takes the accusative (Я иду́ в шко́лу) — same prepositions, different case. Plus the lexical на-list you must memorize.
- Capitalization RulesB1 — Russian capitalizes far less than English: days, months, nationalities, languages and religions are all lowercase, titles capitalize only the first word, the pronoun я ('I') is lowercase mid-sentence, and only the polite Вы in letters is capitalized as a courtesy.
- Говорить / Сказать (to speak / say)A1 — Complete conjugation-and-usage reference for the suppletive pair говори́ть (imperfective, 'speak/talk/say generally') and сказа́ть (perfective, 'say/tell — a single utterance'). Full paradigms — говорю́/говори́шь/говоря́т, скажу́/ска́жешь/ска́жут with the з→ж mutation — the meaning split говори́л vs сказа́л, and the contrast with разгова́ривать.