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How to Talk About Yourself in Russian
How to introduce yourself in Russian: name, age, job, where you're from. Essential phrases and conversation skills for beginners.
It's important to know how to introduce yourself and talk about yourself briefly. Your name, age, job, etc. Let's do it now! If you're just starting to learn Russian or beginning your Russian language learning journey, mastering these basic phrases is one of the first steps. You'll also want to learn how to apologize in Russian and use filler phrases to avoid awkward silence in conversations.
What's your name?
For us to say "my name is" we say МЕНЯ ЗОВУТ + Our name. For instance:
Меня зовут Андрей — my name is Andrey
Меня зовут Александр — my name is Alexander
Most likely, your name will not be common in the Russian language, so make sure to look up the spelling and pronunciation of your name.
For us to ask "what's your name?" we say КАК ТЕБЯ ЗОВУТ? You will likely hear this when getting to know Russian natives! For us to ask the same question back to them we say А ТЕБЯ? So, a conversation may look like this:
— Привет, как тебя зовут? (Hi, what's your name?)
— Привет, меня зовут Александр. А тебя? (Hi, my name is Alexander. And yours?)
— Меня зовут Ляна. (My name is Lyana.)
How old are you?
When you want to ask someone their age, you say СКОЛЬКО ТЕБЕ ЛЕТ? It means "how old are you". And the way we answer is very unusual — МНЕ + # + ЛЕТ. For example:
Мне 35 лет — I'm 35 years old
Мне 20 лет — I'm 20 years old
And to ask the same question back, we say А ТЕБЕ? (and you). But it's not so simple—for the full list of Russian numbers, see our counting guide. Let's learn the difference between different words for "years".
ГОД, ГОДА, ЛЕТ
When we tell our age, we have to consider what digit our number ends on. It will tell us which word to use.
If our last digit is:
- 1 — we use ГОД
- 2-4 — we use ГОДА
- 5,6,7,8,9,0 (including numbers 11-19) — we use ЛЕТ
Мне 41 год — I'm 41 years old
Мне 22 года — I'm 22 years old
What's your job?
We can ask 2 main questions about someone's job.
The 1st question is ГДЕ ТЫ РАБОТАЕШЬ? — Where do you work? Which, of course, needs an answer of a place of work, not a position. We answer it like this Я РАБОТАЮ В + (your workplace). For example:
Я работаю в ресторане — I work in a restaurant
Я работаю в банке — I work in a bank
Я работаю в музыкальной школе — I work in a music school
And the second question is КЕМ ТЫ РАБОТАЕШЬ? — What's your job? Which requires an answer about your actual position. We can answer like this:
Я работаю учителем — I work as a teacher
Я работаю блогером — I work as a blogger
Я работаю официантом — I work as a waiter
To ask the same question back we say А ТЫ? — And you? Here's an example of a conversation:
— Где ты работаешь? (Where do you work?)
— Я работаю в ресторане. А ты? (I work in a restaurant. And you?)
— Я работаю в школе. Кем ты работаешь? (I work in a school. What's your job?)
— Я работаю официантом, а ты? (I work as a waiter, and you?)
— Я работаю учителем. (I work as a teacher.)
Where are you from?
And then how do you ask "where are you from?" We say ОТКУДА ТЫ? The question is very simple, but the answer is more difficult. We say Я ИЗ + (your country). And we put our country name in genitive case. It could look something like this:
Я из России — I'm from Russia
Я из Америки — I'm from America
And to ask this question back we say А ТЫ?
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