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Privet! Russian · Module 4 of 8
📱 Shared phone

Привет! Hello in Two Sizes

Russian has a small hello for friends and a big hello for adults, and using the wrong one is the first mistake every learner makes.

привет 🙋 friends | здравствуйте 🤝 adults
Short one for your age-mates. Long one for teachers, elders and anybody official.

🎒 What you need

✋ Do this

  1. Open the audio for the five greeting words and listen to the whole list twice before you say anything.
  2. Say привет after the recording five times. It is easy. pri-VYET, with the punch on the second half.
  3. Now attack здравствуйте. Break it: ZDRA - stvuy - tye. Say it slowly six times, then once at full speed.
  4. Repeat спасибо and пожалуйста until they run smoothly. Note that пожалуйста is said much faster than it is spelled — most Russians say roughly pa-ZHAL-sta.
  5. Record yourself saying all five, play it back, and pick the worst one to fix.
  6. Hand the phone back and greet three people today with привет. Greet one adult with здравствуйте.

💡 Why it works

Hearing a real voice is the only way to learn that пожалуйста loses syllables in ordinary speech — no written form can tell you that. Learning the two levels of politeness together also builds the habit of noticing who you are talking to, which is half of speaking any language well.

🔥 Challenge

Greet your teacher or an elder with здравствуйте tomorrow and keep a straight face when they ask where that came from.

📖 New words

привет privethi (to a friend)
здравствуйте zdravstvuytehello (polite)
спасибо spasibothank you
пожалуйста pozhaluystaplease; you're welcome
до свидания do svidaniyagoodbye
🙋
Two Hellos

Tap when you have finished this module.