Articles

There are none. No the, no a.

кни́га is "book", "a book" and "the book". Context decides, and Russians do not feel the loss.

What does the job instead

• Word order. New information goes at the END. На столе́ кни́га is "there's a book on the table"; Кни́га на столе́ is "the book is on the table". Same four words, and the position carries what English carries with a and the.
• э́тот / тот — this / that — when you genuinely need to point.
• оди́н "one" can work as an indefinite article: Оди́н челове́к сказа́л мне…

The consequence

You cannot translate word for word out of English, because there is no slot for the article to go into. And Russians learning English scatter articles or drop them, because their first language has spent its whole history without them.

No verb "to be" either

In the present tense, Russian simply leaves it out.

• Я студе́нт. — I am a student.
• Он до́ма. — He is at home.
• Э́то кни́га. — This is a book.

The dash you sometimes see — Москва́ — столи́ца — is written where the missing verb would go, and only between two nouns.

Past and future do have it: Я был студе́нтом (with the instrumental), Я бу́ду студе́нтом.

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