🇷🇺 Russian
Русский • Cyrillic
Pattern: “I don’t understand” (negation in real life)
A survival phrase — and your first reliable negative sentence.
The pattern
Memorize this as a chunk. Then swap one word at a time.
- Say the positive and negative back‑to‑back (understand ↔ don’t understand).
- Keep the negation placement exactly like native sentences.
Я не понимаю.
ya ne ponimayu
I don't understand.
More examples
These are close patterns you can reuse. Read them aloud, then change one word.
Я не знаю.
ya ne znayu
I don't know.
У меня нет времени.
u menya net vremeni
I don't have time.
Я здесь.
ya zdes'
I am here.
Я хочу воду.
ya khochu vodu
I want water.
Вы говорите по-английски?
vy govorite po-angliyski
Do you speak English? (formal/plural)
Где туалет?
gde tualet
Where is the toilet?
Drills
Build the pattern
ya ne ponimayu
I don't understand.
Your sentence
Click tokens below to build the sentence.
Tokens
Mini‑quiz
Mini-quiz
1/8 • Score: 0
Which sentence matches “I don't understand.”?