How was your weekend?

Whenever you want to ask your friends how they spent their weekends or a day off, use the phrase:

Как отдохнули вчера?                       

How did you relax yesterday?

Как отдохнули на выходных? How did you relax on weekends?
How was your weekend?

Note that the word "вы" is omitted in these phrases without changing the meaning of the phrase. The full sentence would look like this: Как вы отдохнули вчера? You can use either one of them.

The question “Как отдохнули вчера?” (as used in the lesson conversations) refers to a group people. In other words, it is about how the speaker and his friends spent their time yesterday. This question can also refer to a single person because, as you already know, the formal polite address to a person (Вы, you) is similar to the address to a group of people (вы, you).

Would you like to join me?

It really isn’t much fun to go to a night club or a movie alone. Next time you know someone’s free and might be willing to have a great time with you, use this simple sentense to ask them to join you:

Ты не хочешь… [activity]?         

Would you like to... [activity]?
(Literally: You not want...?)

Here is the list of possible activities to add to the first part of the sentense.

пойти в ночной клуб                Go to a night club
пойти в кино Go to a movie
пойти в театр Go to the theater
пойти в ресторан Go to a restaurant
пойти за покупками Go shopping
пойти в кафе Go to a cafe
поиграть в теннис play tennis
поиграть в футбол play soccer
поиграть в воллейбол play volleyball
Ты не хочешь пойти в ночной клуб?              Do you want to go to a night club?

If you look at the structure more closely then you’ll notice that the literal translation into English will be “Don’t you want to…?” It is negative in Russian because we ask someone to join us but we don’t really know if they are going to accept our invitation. We are basically being tentative and asking “Do you want to …, by chance?”

Let's...

Another way to make a suggestion is to say:

Давай... [activity]                 Let's... (informal)
Давайте... [activity]          Let's... (formal and plural)

The way you need to change Russian verbs describing activities is tricky. We are going to learn about this in later lessons. For now, just try to learn the phrases by heart.

 



Free Russian Course

Russian Grammar

Verb Conjugations

Russian Vocabulary

Russian Names

Russian Literature

Russian Dictionary

Online Translator

Russian Video

Russian Conversations

Russian Holidays

Russia Travel

Russian Language


Testimonials

"I found your interesting web site recently. I am quite impressed with what you have made available to the public. Thank you. I have been a learner of Russian for many years, but have achieved only the intermediate level. So I will continue to study and will use some material on your web site."
- Jasmin, USA
"Thank you very much for your informative web site. My family and I are trying to learn Russian so that we can communicate with the Russian children that we are trying to adopt. Your site is very helpful."
- Terry, United Kingdom
"Thank you for a great site. I enjoy it a lot. It is arranged in a logical manner, and it presents the language basics in a pleasant and clean way."
- Aki, Israel
"Only been on this site for about an hour. I have all the sounds down o_o This is a great site to start learning Russian."
- User comments
"Very good course indeed !! The best Russian website!"
- User comments