Advice: what grammar book for Russian ?

[franzrus]

Hello, I'm french, and I would like to learn a bit of Russian. However, I have discovered this reality: what makes russian a supposedly difficult language is not the language itself but the disastrous level of grammar instructions about it.

Example:
first learning step about language, letters and sounds. In Larousse dictionary, there are two sounds mentionned, [a] and [ ə]. In another dictionary, there are...three ones ( [a], [ ə] and [i]), and icing on the cake, in one grammar book, there are only 2 for letter A, the [i] sound corresponding to ... я letter.
I remain silent about the lack of common sens in grammar tables.
I suspect most of russian french teachers not being able to make their own laces and to explain it clearly...

So, one question you guess: I want to find a grammar book, excellent level, with all main nuances (I don't want to become a scholar). Any advice ?

[leosmith]

Full disclosure – I haven’t studied Russian full time since 2015, so these resources may be dated. Also, I’m a native English speaker. There may be better material for native French speakers.

Imo, the best (only?) true grammar based in English is A Comprehensive Russian Grammar. That is definitely not a good way to start the language though; it’s pretty complex. The best English based textbook, quite easily, is The New Penguin Russian Course BUT...the pronunciation section is terrible. I mean, it does an ok job of explaining the basic vowel and consonant sounds, but it goes on to say vowel declension is optional, and doesn't even completely define it. After doing some audio courses and having a grasp of basic pronunciation, I learned the rules below, which I got somewhere online. I feel learning them from scratch would be tough, but learning them after having some contact with the language really cements them in.
1. Vowels ‘а’ and ‘о’ are pronounced [a] either in initial position or 1 syllable before stress. Otherwise they reduce to “schwa” [ə].
2. Unstressed vowels ‘e’ and ‘я’ (and ‘a’ after ‘ч, щ’) are pronounced [ə] in final position and [йи] if word-initial. Otherwise they reduce to [и].

[Kamlari]

Hello, I'm French, and I would like to learn a bit of Russian.

If it is just 'a bit', you might start here:

1.
Do Not Study Russian Grammar!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcYCT9wEUuU
2.
Russian Audio Language Course
https://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/ENRU/ENRU002.HTM


and then you might worry about grammar.