Review some basic facts about the Russian language
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| Oksana: Привет всем. Я - Оксана. |
| Eddie: Eddie here. All about. Lesson 7- How much Russian can you remember? Hello, and welcome back to the RussianPOD101.com , the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Russian! I'm joined in the studio by... |
| Oksana: Hello everyone. Oksana here. In this lesson we’re going to do to something different. |
| Eddie: You’re not going to ask me to sing are you? |
| Oksana: No unless you really want to! We’re going to do a quiz! |
| Eddie: Great! Quizzes are a great way to recap on everything you learn. Doing regular reviews help instill new concepts and in the form of a quiz it gets you thinking too. Can I answer the questions? |
| Oksana: Absolutely! |
| Eddie: Excellent, let’s get started. |
| Oksana: Which language did many Russian nobles speak in the 18th and 19th centuries? |
| Eddie: I know this one, they spoke French. |
| Oksana: Correct! The nobles not only spoke French fluently but they even wrote their letters in French. Some people even spoke it better than Russian! |
| Eddie: And you can see this today in Tolstoy's books. Most of letters in the famous book "War and peace" are written in French. Are there any French words that are in Russian today? |
| Oksana: Yes, quite a few, for example: “балкон”, “balcony”. |
| Eddie: I think there are many French words in English too, so the French did well! What’s next? |
| Oksana: Ok, you remember “cases”? Well, what do they affect? |
| a. Only verbs |
| b. Only nouns |
| c. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns. |
| Eddie: English doesn’t have cases so that can be difficult. Is it ‘b’ nouns? |
| Oksana: The answer is c: nouns, adjectives and pronouns. |
| Eddie: Yes, I remember now. What is the best way to describe a case? |
| Oksana: Well, a case is a grammatical term used to indicate a change in the ending of a noun, adjective or pronoun. The choice of the case depends on the grammatical function of the words in the sentence. |
| Eddie: All Russian nouns, pronouns and adjectives have different endings in different cases, so you have to memorize lots of endings as well as to learn when to use each case, right? |
| Oksana: It is right, however, if you learn the cases a little at a time it so much easier as you’re dealing with manageable chunks. |
| Eddie: And that’s exactly how we design learning on RussianPod101. What’s next? |
| Oksana: Questions! |
| Eddie: What about them? |
| Oksana: What do you need to change to form a question in Russian? |
| a. The word order |
| b. The intonation |
| c. The case |
| Eddie: Hmmm, well it isn’t the case I don’t think as we’ve just talked about that. Word order I seem to remember is flexible and related to formal and informal ways of expression so I am going to go for b – the intonation. |
| Oksana: Correct! |
| Eddie: So it really is that simple? |
| Oksana: It’s easy in the sense that once you know, and there’s hardly much to learn, then you can easily apply it to form a question. |
| Eddie: And nothing else changes? |
| Oksana: Nothing at all. |
| Eddie: Great. OK, question number four please! |
| Oksana: In Russian, there are no |
| a. Articles |
| b. Prepositions |
| c. Adverbs |
| Eddie: Oh I remember this as one of the first things I learnt with my fabulous Russian teacher, she used a great example that I’ll never forget. She used to say in Russian, literally translated one would say: “There is cat” rather than: “There is a cat”. Therefore, the answer must be “a.” Articles! |
| Oksana: Exactly right! The articles in the English language are: the, a, and an. In short, it is what you’re referring to; e.g. the cat. And as you’ve said, in Russian there are no articles! |
| Eddie: I’m on a roll here! |
| Oksana: Promise me you won’t start singing. |
| Eddie: Not yet! |
| Oksana: OK, let’s move on before you change your mind! What does “счастливо” mean |
| a. hello |
| b. goodbye |
| c. sorry |
| Eddie: Oh, I have no idea about this one at all. Well, I’m pretty sure it isn’t “a” - “hello”, but can’t say for certain whether it’s “b” or “c”. |
| Oksana: Have a guess. |
| Eddie: “c” - “sorry”. |
| Oksana: Good try, but the answer is “b” - “goodbye”. |
| Eddie: That’s really interesting, I know that “до свидания” is a formal way to say “goodbye” as well as “пока”, which is informal. |
| Oksana: Yes, you’re right. This is about informal spoken expressions. “До свидания” might sometimes sound a bit too formal though, and “пока” a bit too informal in certain situations. |
| Eddie: That’s true, you don’t want to sound all formal but don’t know a person well enough to feel comfortable being informal. |
| Oksana: That’s why “счастливо” is often a good option. It comes from the word “happy” which is “счастливый” and literally means a wish of happiness to the person you are saying goodbye to. |
| Eddie: So you’d perhaps usually use it with people you know rather than strangers? |
| Oksana:Yes, it sounds more polite than “пока”. |
| Eddie: I see, so if you were to address somebody as “вы” rather than “ты”, you wouldn't normally say “пока” but it's perfectly fine to say “счастливо”? |
| Oksana: That’s exactly it. And make a mental note that the first sound in ‘счастливо’ is pronounced like the sound “щ” and not “сч”. |
| Eddie: Got it. That’s a useful tip. What’s next? |
| Roxanna: When you say: “Мой сын ходит в школу”, you mean that your son… |
| a. goes to school regularly |
| b. is going to school now |
| Eddie: Hmm, this is obviously linked to an event in time. Is it “b - now”? |
| Oksana: The answer is,“a – goes to school regularly. |
| Eddie: Yes! It was on the tip of my tongue! It’s because “ходить” is used when the action is repeated and you go somewhere regularly like going to the movies. |
| Oksana:You got it! “Я часто хожу в кино.” – “I often go to the movies.” |
| Eddie: That’s it. And “идти”, on the other hand, is used for a singular action where you go somewhere once. |
| Oksana:“Сегодня я иду в кино.” – “Today I’m going to the movies.” |
| Eddie: I remember that lesson well. |
| Oksana: Yes, that was a really useful one. So, let’s go back to formal and informal for the last question. |
| Eddie: uh-oh! Is it going to be really difficult? |
| Roxanna: Which of the following verbs is the most informal? |
| a. есть |
| b. кушать |
| c. жрать |
| Eddie: Well, “есть” and “кушать”, both mean “to eat”. |
| Oksana: That’s right. “Кушать” might sound more formal than “есть” for some people. |
| Eddie: So does “жрать” also mean “to eat”? |
| Oksana: Excellent! Though this word conveys the idea of eating too quickly, too much or eating unsuitable things! For example: |
| - Он жрёт всё, что находит. - He wolfs down everything he finds. |
| - Хватит жрать! - Stop stuffing yourself! |
| Eddie: I’m definitely going to make a note of this one. It’s great! |
| Oksana:Remember that it can be used in a jovial way with people you know well, though bear in mind that some people might not like it if you use this word in front of them. |
| Eddie: True, good tip. |
| Oksana: Well, that brings us to the end of this quiz. |
| Eddie: It’s been fun and it was very useful to recap. |
| Oksana: Absolutely, as you said earlier, the best way to learn is to recap, revise, perhaps present things in a different way. |
| Eddie: And the more you do it the easier it will be. You won’t just remember it, you’ll know it and that’s the idea behind learning with RussianPod101.com. That just about does it for today. Testing yourself is one of the most effective ways to learn. |
| Oksana: That's why we have 3 types of quizzes. |
| Eddie: Vocabulary, grammar and content specific. |
| Oksana: Each quiz targets specific skill... |
| Eddie: And together these quizzes will help you master several fundamental skills. |
| Oksana:You can find them in the learning center at RussianPod101.com |
| Eddie: Ok, see you next time. Thanks for listening. |
| Oksana: Всем пока. |
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