‘Learn’ and ‘Study’ in Russian
Do you ever get confused by all the Russian words for ‘study’ and ‘learn’? Do you want to know when and how to use verbs such as учить, выучить, учиться and изучать?
If so, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll look at the meanings and uses of the following verbs of studying and learning in Russian:
- учить
- выучить
- учиться
- научиться
- изучать
- изучить
- заниматься
Учить
The verb учить means ‘learn’ or ‘study’. We usually use it with a direct object in the Accusative Case. In other words, we mention what we learn after this verb:
- Я учу русский.
- (I’m learning/studying Russian)
- Она учит новые слова.
- (She learns new words)
- Раньше я учил испанский.
- (I used to learn Spanish)
- Он хочет учить английский.
- (He wants to learn English)
If you don’t know what a direct object is or how to use the Accusative Case in Russian, check out our complete lesson on this subject.
A common phrase containing this verb is учить уроки, which means ‘do homework’:
- Я учу уроки.
- (I’m doing my homework)
- Когда ты будешь учить уроки?
- (When will you do your homework?)
Note that учить is an imperfective verb, so we use it to talk about the process of learning something in the present, past or future.
If you don’t know what imperfective verbs are, you can learn about them in this article.
Выучить
The next verb we’re going to look at is the verb выучить. This verb also means ‘learn’, but unlike учить, it emphasizes the completion of learning.
Here are some examples:
- Я выучил английский за два года.
- (I learned English in two years)
- Как я могу выучить русский?
- (How can I learn Russian?)
- Мне нужно выучить новые слова.
- (I need to learn the new words)
- Я выучу стихотворение завтра.
- (I’ll learn the poem tomorrow)
This verb is also used in the phrase выучить уроки, which means ‘do homework’:
- Она уже выучила уроки.
- (She’s already done her homework)
- Ты выучил уроки?
- (Have you done your homework?)
Note that выучить is a perfective verb, which means we cannot use it in the present tense. We can only use it for completed actions in the past or future.
To talk about learning something in the present, use the verb учить.
To find all the forms of the verbs from this lesson as well as some extra examples, check out the entries for these words in our dictionary.
Учиться
The next verb on our list is учиться. This verb has several uses and meanings.
Studying and going to school
We can use this verb to talk about studying or being a student:
- Я учусь в России.
- (I’m studying in Russia)
- Она училась в Германии.
- (She studied in Germany)
- Он не хочет учиться.
- (He doesn’t want to study)
We also use учиться to talk about being at or going to school, university or college. For example:
- Где ты учишься?
- (Where do you go to school/college/university?)
- Где ты учился?
- (Where did you go to school/college/university?)
- Мы учились в одной школе.
- (We went to the same school)
- Сейчас я учусь в университете.
- (I'm at university/in college now)
- Наши дети всё ещё учатся в школе.
- (Our kids are still at school)
We also use the verb учиться to say that someone does well or poorly at school, college or university:
- Она хорошо учится.
- (She does well at school)
- Наш сын очень хорошо учился.
- (Our son did really well at school)
- Он плохо учился в школе.
- (He did poorly at school)
Note that this verb doesn’t take a direct object in the Accusative Case. So, it would be wrong to say things like ‘Я учусь русский’ or ‘Она учится историю’.
The correct sentences would be ‘Я учу русский’ and ‘Она учит историю’.
It’s worth mentioning one more common way of using the verb учиться in the context of studying. We can use учиться followed by на + profession. For example:
- Я учусь на юриста.
- (I'm studying to be a lawyer)
- Она учится на переводчика.
- (She is studying to be a translator)
Note that the noun that comes after the preposition на is used in the Accusative Case.
Learning how to do something
We can also use the verb учиться with another verb to talk about learning how to do something:
- Я учусь играть на гитаре.
- (I'm learning to play the guitar)
- Она учится водить машину.
- (She’s learning to drive)
- Мы учимся плавать.
- (We’re learning how to swim)
Note that учиться is an imperfective verb, so we use it to talk about the process of learning or studying.
Научиться
Next, let’s look at the uses and meanings of the verb научиться.
This verb is also used to talk about learning how to do something, but unlike the verb учиться, it emphasizes the completion of learning.
Most often, the use of научиться implies that you’ve learned how to do something and now it’s part of the things you can do.
Here are some examples:
- Я научился писать по-русски.
- (I’ve learned to write in Russian)
- Когда ты научился плавать?
- (When did you learn to swim?)
- Он научился читать в пять лет.
- (He learned to read at the age of five)
- Я хочу научиться рисовать.
- (I want to learn how to draw)
- Мне нужно научиться готовить.
- (I need to learn how to cook)
Note that in the last two examples, we use the verb научиться to talk about the future. Although we haven’t learned to do those things yet, we want to learn and be able to do them in the future.
Изучать
Another Russian verb we use to talk about studying is изучать.
This verb refers to the process of studying something, usually a subject, and is most often followed by a direct object in the Accusative Case.
Here are some examples:
- Я изучаю английский.
- (I’m studying English)
- Какие предметы вы изучаете?
- (What subjects do you study?)
- Что мы будем изучать в этом семестре?
- (What are we going to study this semester?)
We can also use the verb изучать to talk about examining something carefully or conducting an experiment in order to learn more about something. For example:
- Учёные изучают снимки из космоса.
- (Scientists are studying images from space)
- Мы изучаем это явление.
- (We are studying this phenomenon)
Изучить
The next verb we’re going to look at is изучить. This verb has the same meanings as the previous one, but is used to talk about the completion of studying, not the process.
Some examples:
- Учёные изучили снимки из космоса.
- (Scientists have studied the images from space)
- Нам нужно тщательно изучить это явление.
- (We need to study this phenomenon carefully)
Заниматься
The last verb we’re going to discuss in this lesson is the verb заниматься.
We often use this verb to talk about spending time studying. Here are some examples:
- Я занимаюсь каждый день.
- (I study every day)
- Тебе нужно больше заниматься.
- (You need to study more)
- Мы занимаемся в гостиной.
- (We study in the living room)
We can also use this verb to say what we study or learn:
- Я занимаюсь английским.
- (I am learning/studying English)
- Она занимается русским каждый день.
- (She studies Russian every day)
- Он занимается физикой самостоятельно.
- (He’s learning physics on his own)
Note that in the above examples, the nouns for subjects (английским, русским, etc.) are used in the Instrumental Case.
How to practice
In this article, we looked at many different ways of talking about studying and learning something in Russian.
There’s a lot of information you need to remember in order to use those verbs correctly, so it’s important that you practice as much as possible.
You can start practicing with our interactive exercises that will help you remember all the main grammar and vocabulary points from this lesson.
After you’ve completed all the exercises, try and make your own sentences. Take a look at our examples once again and make similar sentences that are true for you and your family.
When you’re not sure how to change a verb for a particular tense or person, you can look it up in our dictionary. This will help you avoid mistakes and improve your accuracy.
Have fun learning Russian!
