Greetings and Pronouns
Russian has two registers of greeting — informal and formal — and seven personal pronouns. Crucially, Russian has two words for 'you': ты (informal singular) and вы (formal or plural).
Hello and goodbye
Привет — informal hi, used with friends and family. Здравствуйте — formal hello, used with strangers, older people, and at work. Пока — informal bye. До свидания — formal goodbye (literally 'until [the next] meeting').
The seven pronouns
я (I), ты (you, informal singular), он (he), она (she), оно (it — for grammatically neuter nouns), мы (we), вы (you — formal or plural), они (they). Notice я is lowercase mid-sentence, unlike English 'I'.
Two words for 'you'
Use ты with one friend, child, family member, or someone clearly your age in a casual setting. Use вы with anyone you don't know well, anyone older, in any business or formal context, or whenever you're talking to more than one person. When in doubt, use вы.
How are you?
Как дела? — How are things? (informal). Как у вас дела? — How are you? (formal). Typical answers: Хорошо (good), Нормально (okay), Плохо (bad), Спасибо (thanks).
