Learn Russian words to ask someone's opinion, share your skills, and the Russian verb meaning, "to eat"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Здравствуйте, с Вами Natalia. |
| Eura: I’m Eura, Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 10, “Russian Dinner Gone Awry.” |
| Natalia: Eura, what are we going to study in this lesson? |
| Eura: In this lesson, you will learn how to ask someone’s opinion. |
| Natalia: The conversation still takes place in the restaurant. |
| Eura: And the conversation is between our favorite people, Ben and Nica. |
| Natalia: The speakers are close friends therefore; they will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Eura: Let’s enjoy the meal and listen to the next conversation our characters are having. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Natalia: Ну, как тебе пельмени? |
| Eura: Очень вкусно! А почему ты не ешь? |
| Natalia: Потому что я вегетарианка, я не ем мясо. Но я заказала суп и салат. |
| Eura: Понятно. Жаль, что ты не ешь мясо. Я умею готовить классный стейк! |
| Natalia: Ну... О, вот мой суп! Приятного аппетита. |
| Eura: Спасибо, тебе тоже. |
| Eura: One time slowly. |
| Natalia: Ну, как тебе пельмени? |
| Eura: Очень вкусно! А почему ты не ешь? |
| Natalia: Потому что я вегетарианка, я не ем мясо. Но я заказала суп и салат. |
| Eura: Понятно. Жаль, что ты не ешь мясо. Я умею готовить классный стейк! |
| Natalia: Ну... О, вот мой суп! Приятного аппетита. |
| Eura: Спасибо, тебе тоже. |
| Eura: One time natural native speed with the translation. |
| Natalia: Ну, как тебе пельмени? |
| Eura: So what do you think of pelmeni? |
| Natalia: Очень вкусно! А почему ты не ешь? |
| Eura: Very tasty, why aren’t you eating? |
| Natalia: Потому что я вегетарианка, я не ем мясо. Но я заказала суп и салат. |
| Eura: Because I am a vegetarian, I don’t eat meat, but I ordered soup and salad. |
| Natalia: Понятно. Жаль, что ты не ешь мясо. Я умею готовить классный стейк! |
| Eura: I see. Too bad you don’t eat meat. I can cook an awesome steak. |
| Natalia: Ну... О, вот мой суп! Приятного аппетита. |
| Eura: Well, oh, here’s my soup, bon appétit. |
| Natalia: Спасибо, тебе тоже. |
| Eura: Thanks. You too. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eura: I guess we should get used to saying “bon appétit” in Russia. We can’t start a meal without it. |
| Natalia: Yes, you’re right. Almost everyone says it before meals wishing everyone a good appetite. |
| Eura: Right. By the way, are there many vegetarians in Russia? |
| Natalia: Vegetarians wasn’t that popular during the USSR times. For the past 20 years, it’s popularity has grown probably because of the Western influence. |
| Eura: I heard it’s not easy to be a vegetarian in Russia. There’s still not many restaurants that catered to this segment of the population. |
| Natalia: True. Nica, mustn’t be dining out often. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eura: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we have is. |
| Natalia: как тебе |
| Eura: How do you find, what do you think of? |
| Natalia: как тебе |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: вкусно |
| Eura: Delicious, tasty. |
| Natalia: вкусно |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: почему |
| Eura: Why? |
| Natalia: почему |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: есть |
| Eura: To eat. |
| Natalia: есть |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: потому что |
| Eura: Because. |
| Natalia: потому что |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: вегетарианка |
| Eura: Vegetarian, Natalia form. |
| Natalia: вегетарианка |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: мясо |
| Eura: Meat. |
| Natalia: мясо |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: суп |
| Eura: Soup. |
| Natalia: суп |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: салат |
| Eura: A salad. |
| Natalia: салат |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: понятно |
| Eura: Got it, I see, it’s understood, it’s clear. |
| Natalia: понятно |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: жаль |
| Eura: It’s a pity, too bad. |
| Natalia: жаль |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: готовить |
| Eura: To cook. |
| Natalia: готовить |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: классный |
| Eura: Cool, awesome. |
| Natalia: классный |
| Eura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: вот |
| Eura: Here. |
| Natalia: вот |
| Eura: And the last word on our list? |
| Natalia: Приятного аппетита! |
| Eura: Bon appétit, enjoy your meal. |
| Natalia: Приятного аппетита! |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eura: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natalia: And the first phrase we’ll look at is. |
| Eura: "как тебе". |
| Natalia: "Как тебе" is a conversational way to ask “how do you find” or “what do you think of?” For example Eura, как тебе моя причёска? |
| Eura: Your hairstyle? Нормально I guess. |
| Natalia: Okay. I can live with "нормально" and как тебе Москва? |
| Eura: What I think of Moscow? Well, I like your hairstyle better. |
| Natalia: Thank you. And pelmeni for Ben are очень вкусно “very tasty.” |
| Eura: Apparently, he thought they would share this dish as Nica was the one who offered it, but. |
| Natalia: But she’s not eating. So Ben asks, "почему ты не ешь?". Let’s take a look at the word "почему" first. "Почему" is a question word which means “why.” And I think it will be easy for you if you remember it in a pair with "потому что" “because.” So once again, почему? “why” потому что “because.” |
| Eura: Then we have "не ешь" which means “don’t eat” or “not eating.” They key word here is "ешь". It comes from the word "есть", “to eat.” The infinitive form of it sounds like "есть" in "у меня есть". |
| Natalia: But you’ll never confuse them. Then context will always tell you which "есть" it is. |
| Eura: Right. Natalia, I don’t want to leave it unconjugated though. Could you please tell us how to use this word at least with the first and second person? |
| Natalia: Sure. So “I eat” will be "я ем",“you eat” "ты ешь", “you eat” in a polite form "Вы едите". So to ask “do you eat meat?” for example, you should ask "Вы едите мясо?". And she says "я не ем мясо" “I don’t eat meat.” |
| Eura: почему? |
| Natalia: потому что я вегетарианка, “because I’m a vegetarian.” |
| Eura: So vegetarian is "вегетарианка". |
| Natalia: Yes. But only for women, for men, it would sound as "вегетарианец", the same endings as in the nationalities – я американка, он американец. Я вегетарианка, он вегетарианец. |
| Eura: Okay. But will Nica eat anything at all? |
| Natalia: Oh, yes, она заказала суп и салат. |
| Eura: Oh, she ordered soup and salad. How do you say “to order” in a dictionary form? |
| Natalia: заказать |
| Eura: Can it be used in the meaning of “to book” like “to book a hotel room?” |
| Natalia: Sure. It will be "заказать отель". |
| Eura: I see. And суп и салат don’t need much explanation. Next we have the word "понятно". What is that Natalia? |
| Natalia: "Понятно" comes from the word "понимать",“to understand.” It’s a short answer kind of like “I see” or “got it,” very conversational and very common. |
| Eura: Понятно |
| Natalia: Yes, you got it. And next we have the word "жаль", it means “it’s a pity” or “too bad.” Usually it comes with "что" – "жаль, что…", “it’s a pity of that.” |
| Eura: Жаль, что Ника не ест мясо. |
| Natalia: Eura, it’s pity Nica doesn’t eat meat Почему? |
| Eura: Потому что Я умею готовить классный стейк! |
| Natalia: Well, not you, but Ben can cook an awesome stake. Let’s break down this phrase. First, the word "умею", it comes from the infinity of "уметь" which means “can.” |
| Eura: In the previous lesson, we learned the word "moch"which can also be translated as “to be able to” or “can.” But unlike "moch", the word "umet'" is used to describe skills, not the ability to perform some specific action. |
| Natalia: Right. So "я могу" means “I’m able, I can” like in “I can come.” But "Я умею" is used in the meaning of “can” but only when talking about skills. For example, Я умею готовить “I can cook.” |
| Eura: Can you use the word "уметь" in a sentence with “you” and the polite “you” please? |
| Natalia: Sure. ты умеешь плавать? “can you swim?” Informal, singular. Вы умеете водить? “can you drive?” formal plural. |
| Eura: Okay. Thank you. What about the word "классный", is it something like “classy” in English? |
| Natalia: Oh, no, it’s not “classy,” it’s more like “cool, wow” in Russian. Something not traditional or conventional, but really fresh and cool, but you can use it in any situation even to talk about whether if you find it cool. |
| Eura: I see. So (Ben’s) stake must be really something original and cool. Too bad Nica, is a vegetarian. She doesn’t even know how to explain herself in this situation. So, she can assess, well. |
| Natalia: ну… and then the “help” comes in the face of her soup. |
| Eura: What Вот мой суп! |
| Natalia: мой суп is “clear.” It means “my soup” and "Вот" means “here.” You can use it just like you use the English “here” in the situation when you give something to someone and say, “what, here.” |
| Eura: Like “here you go” or just “here.” And lastly my favorite phrase. |
| Natalia: Приятного аппетита. |
| Eura: Literally, it means “have a good appetite,” but can be translated as “enjoy your meal” or “bon appétit.” Remember this phrase as there won’t be a single meal in Russia when you don’t have to say this. And the answer to this is usually, “thank you, you too.” |
| Natalia: Which is "спасибо, тебе тоже" or if you are dinning with the person you use polite language with, you should say "спасибо, Вам тоже". |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Eura: Today, we’ll get back to the Russian verbs again. |
| Natalia: A quick trip to the past. |
| Eura: Exactly. We’re going to talk about the past tense today. In the dialogue we came across, the verb “ordered” in the past tense, "zakazala". Let’s take a look at the rules of how to form the past tense in Russian in general. |
| Natalia: As you already know, 99% of Russian verbs end with "-ть", "ts". |
| Eura: You also know that Russian verbs conjugate according to a person in the present tense, just like in English. |
| Natalia: Right. я ем, ты ешь, Вы едите. |
| Eura: We’ve also mentioned before that the verbs in the past tense conjugate according to gender and number. |
| Natalia: Yes. But this is not as difficult as it sounds as there are only four possible forms the verbs can take into past, three according to genders, and one in plural number. |
| Eura: To make it even less difficult, today, we’ll take a look at the verbs in the past only for masculine and feminine genders. |
| Natalia: Okay. So what do we do with the verbs to form the past tense? |
| Eura: We make three simple steps. First, we take a verb in the infinitive form. Second, we drop the ending "ть". And third, we add the ending "-л" for masculine and "-ла" for feminine gender. |
| Natalia: Okay. So for example, we take the word "сказать", “to say.” First we drop the ending "ts", right? |
| Eura: Yes. And we get "сказа". |
| Natalia: Next, if we are talking about a female, we add the ending "ла" and get "сказала", “she said.” If we are talking about a male, we add "л" and get "сказал", “he said.” |
| Eura: Let’s practice on another verb to make sure we remember everything. |
| Natalia: For example, the word, "готовить". |
| Eura: To cook. First, we drop the "ts" and get "готови". |
| Natalia: Then we add either "ла" if it’s a female and get "готовила" or "л" if it’s a male and get "готовил". |
| Eura: That’s easy. Well, that’s just about does it for this lesson. |
| Natalia: Attention, iPhone, iPod or iPad users. |
| Eura: Listen, tap and swipe your way to fluency with our Russian language apps. |
| Natalia: Grow your vocabulary and practice on the go with our Russian language applications. |
| Eura: Fun and easy to use. Russian apps are available on iTunes. |
| Natalia: Visit our iPhone page on RussianPod101.com/iPhone now to learn more. |
Outro |
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| Yura: Bye. |
| Natalia: Bye. |
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