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Маленькое кафе

The Little Café

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Russian.

Chapter 1A1

Добрый день, бабушка

Good Day, Grandma

Before you read
No word for is or am

Russian simply leaves out is, am, and are in the present. Это кафе means This is a café, and Анна здесь means Anna is here. You just put the two ideas next to each other.

Adjectives change with their noun

An adjective's ending shows the gender of the word it describes: маленький (masculine), маленькая (feminine), маленькое (neuter). Кафе is neuter, so it takes маленькое, старое, and хорошее.

Кофе is masculine

Кофе ends like a neuter word, but Russian treats it as masculine, so it says кофе хороший, never кофе хорошее. You will see Tetya Tamara insist on this later in the book.

Есть has two jobs

Есть can mean there is or there are: Здесь есть кафе. It can also be part of the verb to eat: ест means eats, as in Анна ест хлеб. Same spelling, two different words: the story makes clear which one is meant.

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About this story

The Little Café is an A1 Russian reader.

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Russian.

This free chapter contains 57 learner-friendly sentences. The complete book has 10 chapters.

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