Sentence Types: Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamatory

Every language sorts its sentences into a few basic purposes: stating something, asking something, telling someone to do something, and exclaiming. Russian has the same four — declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory — but the tools it uses to mark them are very different from English. The single biggest difference is that Russian does not rearrange words to make a question. There is no "Do you…?", no "Is he…?" inversion. Instead Russian relies on intonation, question words, and particles. Get that one idea and the whole system falls into place.

Declarative sentences: stating a fact

A declarative makes a statement. It uses neutral word order — typically subject–verb–object (see Word Order: The SVO Default) — and falling intonation: the voice drops on the last stressed word.

This is the baseline; the other three types are all departures from it. Note that in the present tense Russian has no word for "is" in such sentences — Он до́ма is literally "He at-home" — which is covered on Building a Simple Sentence.

Interrogative sentences: asking

Russian builds questions two ways, depending on whether you want a yes/no answer or a piece of information.

Yes/no questions — intonation alone

To turn a statement into a yes/no question, you change nothing but the intonation. The words stay in the same order; the voice rises sharply on the word in question instead of falling. In writing, only the question mark distinguishes them.

This is the headline fact for English speakers: where English flips in an auxiliary ("Is he home?", "Did you see…?"), Russian leaves the statement untouched and lets the voice do the work. (Full detail on yes/no questions.) You can optionally add the particle ли for a more formal or careful question: Он до́ма ли? / До́ма ли он? — but in everyday speech intonation alone is the norm.

Wh-questions — question word first

For information questions, Russian puts the question word first — где ("where"), что ("what"), кто ("who"), когда́ ("when"), почему́ ("why"), как ("how") — followed by the rest of the clause. The intonation typically falls (as in a statement), since the question word already marks it as a question.

Again there is no do-support and no inversion of the kind English requires — the question word leads and the rest follows in normal order. (See wh-questions.)

Imperative sentences: commanding

An imperative tells someone to do something. Russian uses a dedicated imperative verb form and, like English, usually drops the subject — the addressee is understood.

The imperative has an informal singular form (Иди́) and a polite/plural form in -те (Иди́те), matching the ты/вы distinction. Adding пожа́луйста ("please") softens a command into a request. The intonation is usually emphatic and falling.

Exclamatory sentences: exclaiming

An exclamation expresses strong feeling. The most common Russian pattern uses как ("how") with an adverb or short adjective, or како́й ("what a") with a noun, closing with an exclamation mark and rising-then-emphatic intonation.

The key contrast: как modifies an adverb or a short-form adjective (Как хорошо́! "How nice!"), while како́й modifies a full noun phrase and agrees with the noun in gender, number, and case (Кака́я красота́! "What beauty!", Каки́е лю́ди! "What people!"). Any declarative can also become an exclamation simply with strong intonation and an exclamation mark: Он прие́хал! ("He's come!").

Putting the four types side by side

How this differs from English

English signals sentence type largely through word order and auxiliaries: it inverts subject and auxiliary for yes/no questions ("Is he home?") and inserts do where there is no other auxiliary ("Do you see?", "Why didn't you call?"). Russian does none of this. Its statement and its yes/no question can be word-for-word identical (Он до́ма / Он до́ма?), separated only by the rise of the voice. Russian carries the grammatical work in intonation, fronted question words, and particles (ли) rather than in syntax-shuffling auxiliaries. The recurring English mistake is to import an auxiliary or an inversion that Russian simply does not have.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Russian has four sentence types — declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory — marked by intonation, question words, and particles, not by auxiliary inversion.
• A declarative and a yes/no question can be identical words (Он до́ма / Он до́ма?) — only the rising intonation and the question mark differ.
• Wh-questions put the question word first (Где он?); no do-support, no inversion.
• Imperatives use the imperative verb and usually drop the subject (Иди́ сюда́!); -те marks polite/plural.
• Exclamations use как
  • adverb/short form (Как краси́во!) or како́й
    • agreeing noun (Како́й день!).