“First” is one of those words that make students learning Russian think about the meaning in a given context and consider which of the various possible Russian words is the most appropriate.
Ordinal Number
“First” can be an ordinal number indicating relative position in a series (second, third, fifth, tenth, etc.).
Первый (first) is one of the exceptions that doesn’t derive from its corresponding cardinal number like, for example, пятый – fifth (from пять – five). Russian ordinal numbers decline like hard-stem adjectives:
Вот первая страница отчёта. – Here is the first page of the report.
Вы можете найти эту информацию на двадцать первой странице книги. – You can find this information on the twenty first page of the book.
Мы отмечаем этот праздник первого мая. – We celebrate this holiday on the first of May.
Этот спортсмен почти всегда приходит к финишу первым. – This athlete almost always finishes first.
Ordinal Adverb
Ordinal (or ordering) adverbs are used to enumerate related points: first(ly), second(ly), third(ly).
“Во-первых” is often used when providing reasons.
Мы готовы работать с этим автором. Во-первых, его идеи кажутся интересными. Во-вторых, нам нравится, как он пишет. В-третьих, у него есть популярный блог.
We are ready to work with this author. First, his ideas seem interesting. Second, we like his writing style. Third, he runs a popular blog.
NB! Don’t confuse “во-первых” and “впервые”. The latter means “first time”.
Он здесь впервые. – It’s his first time here.
Telling Stories
“Сначала” is often confused with “во-первых”. However, it is very different and means also “as a first thing”. It is actually opposite to “затем” (then) or “потом” (later) and often used when talking about a sequence of events.
Сначала я пошёл в магазин, а потом в кино. – First, I went to the shop and then to the cinema.
Мы сначала были согласны, а потом изменили своё мнение. – We agreed first but then changed our mind.
(“Во-первых” wouldn’t work in both of these cases.)
NB! “сначала” looks similar to the word “начала” which can be a form of the words начать (to begin) or начало (beginning).
Когда она начала изучать русский? – When did she start to learn Russian?
Хорошее начало! – It’s a good start!
When you want to be precise, use “в начале” which can be followed by a noun in the Genitive case:
В начале урока учитель объяснил новое правило. – At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher explained a new rule.
В начале текста было несколько новых слов, которые я не знал. – At the beginning of the text, there were some new words that I didn’t know.
Do the exercise below to practise how to use the Russian word for “first” correctly. Choose the correct option: