Learn how to use Russian reflexive and possessive pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Beginner Series Season 2, Lesson 13 – Do it yourself. Hi, my name is Eddie, and I'm joined here by Oksana. |
| Oksana: Hi, everyone. Today we’re investigating our case of our unlucky friend, Kevin, and his lost wallet. |
| Eddie: Now the police are involved. That must’ve taken Kevin quite a lot of guts to try to solve his problem with the help of the Russian police. |
| Oksana: Let’s listen to the conversation and find out how helpful Russian officials were. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Oksana: [Где был ваш бумажник?] |
| Eddie: [В рюкзаке, у меня на спине.] |
| Oksana: [Он был открыт или закрыт?] |
| Eddie: [Я не помню.] |
| Oksana: [Может быть, вы сами его потеряли?] |
| Eddie: Once again, slowly. |
| Oksana: [Еще раз,медленнее. Где был ваш бумажник?] |
| Eddie: [В рюкзаке, у меня на спине.] |
| Oksana: [Он был открыт или закрыт?] |
| Eddie: [Я не помню.] |
| Oksana: [Может быть, вы сами его потеряли?] |
| Eddie: Once again, natural speed, with the translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз,с переводом. Где был ваш бумажник? |
| Eddie: Where was your wallet? |
| Oksana: В рюкзаке,у меня на спине. |
| Eddie: In the backpack, on my back. |
| Oksana: Он был открыт или закрыт? |
| Eddie: Was it open or closed? |
| Oksana: Я не помню. |
| Eddie: I don’t remember. |
| Oksana: Может быть,вы сами его потеряли? |
| Eddie: Maybe you lost it yourself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Well, the loss of a wallet is obviously not something the Russian police would mess with, but the policeman is trying to be polite with a foreigner and even asks him some questions to make it look like he’s actually trying to help. |
| Oksana: Well, in the end he makes it clear that Kevin was just wasting time bothering the police with such a trifle. They definitely have more important things to focus on in Moscow. |
| Eddie: Yeah, like catching a new mafia clan, for example. So the police officer just put into nice words something he would usually say like, “Man, get your head together. Watch your stuff and stop nagging me with your stupid…” |
| Oksana: Ok, we can talk about it a bit later. And now let’s listen to the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Oksana: [Бумажник] |
| Eddie: A wallet. |
| Oksana: [Бумажник] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Рюкзак] |
| Eddie: A backpack, a rucksack. |
| Oksana: [Рюкзак] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Спина] |
| Eddie: “A back” as in the body part. |
| Oksana: [Спина] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Или] |
| Eddie: Or. |
| Oksana: [Или] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Помнить] |
| Eddie: To remember. |
| Oksana: [Помнить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Может быть] |
| Eddie: Maybe, perhaps. |
| Oksana: [Может быть] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Сам, сама, само, сами] |
| Eddie: Myself, yourself, himself, etc. |
| Oksana: [Сам, сама, само, сами] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Потерять] |
| Eddie: To lose. |
| Oksana: [Потерять] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Открыт, открыта, открыто, открыты] |
| Eddie: Open. |
| Oksana: [Открыт] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Закрыт, закрыта, закрыто, закрыты] |
| Eddie: Closed. |
| Oksana: [Закрыт] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Oksana: The first word we’ll look at is [бумажник], which doesn’t need much introduction, I guess. We learned it in the previous lesson. [Бумажник] means “wallet” and is used mostly by man while [кошелек] is the word for woman’s wallet. |
| Eddie: The next word is [рюкзак] which, from the sound of it, you can guess that it’s not a Russian word. It means any kind of backpack from a school kid’s bag to a real big hiker’s backpack. Next we heard… |
| Oksana: [Спина] which means “back” and we use it only in reference to a person’s back and “on the back” will sound as [на спине], [рюкзак на спине]. |
| Eddie: The next word [или] doesn’t need any explanation as it has the exact same meaning and usage as in English. |
| Oksana: I’ll give you a short example: [это или то], “this or that”. |
| Eddie: But in our dialogue it was used in the context of “Open or closed”. |
| Oksana: Right. [Закрыт или открыт], [открыт] and [закрыт] are two short words in masculine gender. If we want to use them with the feminine noun, like “door” or “bag”, we should add the ending [а] to the adjectives. [Дверь открыта. Сумка закрыта.] “The door is open. The bag is closed.” |
| Eddie: So was Kevin’s backpack open or close? |
| Oksana: Well, he says [Я не помню.] “I don’t remember.” The dictionary form of [помню] is [помнить]. |
| Eddie: And now I can understand the policeman’s feelings, gathering all his patience, he asks… |
| Oksana: [Может быть, вы сами его потеряли?] |
| Eddie: [Может быть] is a very familiar word to us, it means “maybe”. The verb “lost”… |
| Oksana: [Потеряли] |
| Eddie: … comes from the infinitive [потерять], “to lose”. |
| Oksana: And the word [сами] means “yourself”. Let’s take a closer look at this word in our grammar explanations. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: The word [сам] is a reflexive pronoun and we can translate it into English as “yourself” or “ourselves” in the plural. Unlike in English, you don’t have a reflexive pronoun for each personal pronoun, like I – myself, she – herself. In Russian, reflexive pronouns change depending on the gender and number of the subject. |
| Oksana: Right, so if I'm speaking about myself or another girl I’d say [сама], which is “myself” in my case because I'm a female and “herself”. If I told Eddie to do something himself, I’d use [сам] which means “yourself” in this case, right? So no matter whether I'm talking to a person directly or talking about a third person, the only thing that matters here is gender. And if it’s masculine, it’s [сам] which can mean both “yourself “ and “himself”. |
| Eddie: And for a neutral noun it would sound as [само], “itself”. What about the plural,Oksana? |
| Oksana: Eddie, plural is something we had in the dialogue, [сами]. We use it with the pronouns “we”, “they” and plural or polite “you”. |
| Eddie: So, once again. |
| Oksana: [Cам] |
| Eddie: For masculine. |
| Oksana: [Сама] |
| Eddie: For feminine. |
| Oksana: [Само] |
| Eddie: For neutral. And… |
| Oksana: [Сами] |
| Eddie: For plural. |
| Oksana: You got it. |
| Eddie: That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Oksana: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Eddie: Make this lesson’s vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flash cards in the Learning Center. |
| Oksana: There is a reason everyone uses flash cards. |
| Eddie: They work. |
| Oksana: They really do help memorization. |
| Eddie: You can get the flash cards for this lesson at… |
| Oksana: RussianPod101.com |
| Eddie: Ok, bye and see you next time. |
| Oksana: [До встречи! Пока!] |
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