уметь
“уметь” (umet) — to know how to in Russian. Verb, level A2, topic — verbs. Skill, not permission: moy brat umeyet gotovit — "my brother can cook". Mogu would be ability; umeYu is skill. In a live sentence: “Мой брат умеет готовить” — My brother knows how to cook. Written with the characters у, м, е, т, ь. One of 108 words in the set “verbs” in the Russian course.
In short
| Written in Russian | уметь |
| Read in Latin letters | umet |
| Translation | to know how to |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Skill, not permission: moy brat umeyet gotovit — "my brother can cook". Mogu would be ability; umeYu is skill.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Мой брат умеет готовитьMoy brat umeet gotovitMy brother knows how to cook
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. The verb holds a sentence together: a few of the most frequent ones cover more everyday talk than a long list of nouns.
- хочуkhochuI wantOne of the two verbs that refuse the regular pattern — learn its row whole. It takes the object straight: khochu vodu, no preposition.
- питьpitto drinkThe present tense reshapes the consonant: pyu, pyosh, pyot. Its result twin is vypit — the same verb with a prefix for "down to the bottom".
- естьestto eatConjugated from a different root, like "to go" in many languages: yem, yesh, yest. Do not mix it with the "there is" of possession — that one is a lone form.
- я люблюya lyublyuI loveWorks for coffee as for people: ya lyublyu kofe is ordinary. English guards "love"; here it is the everyday word for liking things too.
- идтиidtito go (on foot)On foot; riding is another verb, ekhat. The pair is stricter than English "go": walking one way, transport the other. The present comes from a different root: idu, idyosh.
- ехатьekhatto go (by vehicle)Riding: yedu na avtobuse, yedu v Moskvu. Its present also comes from a different root: yedu, yedesh, yedet.
- бытьbytto beIn the present the linking verb simply vanishes: ya student — no "am" anywhere. One yest survives in the sense of "there is"; past and future are honest: byl, budu.
- иметьimetto haveGrammatically fine, but live speech says u menya yest — the owner stands aside while the thing "is at" them. Tengo and "have" both turn the sentence inside out.
- житьzhitto liveZhivu, zhivyosh, zhivyot — its yo is written, not guessed. Zhit v Moskve is about the address; zhit khorosho is about life.
- работатьrabotatto workFrom rabota, and rabota from rab — "a slave": an ancient trace in an everyday word. It answers both "where do you work" and "what do you do".
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to know how to” in Russian?
Skill, not permission: moy brat umeyet gotovit — "my brother can cook". Mogu would be ability; umeYu is skill.
- How do you say “to be” in Russian?
In the present the linking verb simply vanishes: ya student — no "am" anywhere. One yest survives in the sense of "there is"; past and future are honest: byl, budu.
- How do you say “to eat” in Russian?
Conjugated from a different root, like "to go" in many languages: yem, yesh, yest. Do not mix it with the "there is" of possession — that one is a lone form.
- How do you say “to work” in Russian?
From rabota, and rabota from rab — "a slave": an ancient trace in an everyday word. It answers both "where do you work" and "what do you do".
- How do you say “to go (by vehicle)” in Russian?
Riding: yedu na avtobuse, yedu v Moskvu. Its present also comes from a different root: yedu, yedesh, yedet.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “to know how to” in Russian?
«уметь», read “umet”. In a live sentence: “Мой брат умеет готовить” — My brother knows how to cook. Verb, level A2, from the set “verbs”; written with the characters у, м, е, т, ь.
How is “уметь” written in Latin letters?
umet. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Skill, not permission: moy brat umeyet gotovit — "my brother can cook". Mogu would be ability; umeYu is skill. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.