Learn a Russian "must": its time zones
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Здравствуйте, с вами Natalia. |
| Yura: I’m Yura and you’re listening to Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 22; Can You Tell me the Time in Russian? |
| Natalia: Yura, what is this lesson about? |
| Yura: In this lesson, you’ll learn about genitive case and how to tell time in Russian. |
| Natalia: The conversation takes place in a bowling center. |
| Yura: The conversation is between Ben and Nika. |
| Natalia: The speakers are close friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Yura: Ника, который час? |
| Natalia: Десять сорок. Тебе уже нужно идти? |
| Yura: Да, к сожалению. Мне нужно завтра встать в шесть утра. Я должен попасть на открытие выставки. |
| Natalia: Может, останешься ещё на полчаса? |
| Yura: Нет-нет, извини, у меня нет времени. |
| Yura: Okay, let’s do that one more time slowly. |
| Natalia: Сейчас, ещё раз, медленно. |
| Natalia: Ника, который час? |
| Yura: Десять сорок. Тебе уже нужно идти? |
| Natalia: Да, к сожалению. Мне нужно завтра встать в шесть утра. Я должен попасть на открытие выставки. |
| Yura: Может, останешься ещё на полчаса? |
| Natalia: Нет-нет, извини, у меня нет времени. |
| Yura: Okay, one more time with natural native speed with the translation. |
| Natalia: Ещё раз с естественной скоростью носителя языка с переводом. |
| Natalia: Ника, который час? |
| Yura: Nika, what time is it now? |
| Natalia: Десять сорок. Тебе уже нужно идти? |
| Yura: It’s 10:40. Do you have to go already? |
| Natalia: Да, к сожалению. Мне нужно завтра встать в шесть утра. Я должен попасть на открытие выставки. |
| Yura: Yes, unfortunately. I have to get up at 6AM tomorrow. I must make it to the opening of the exhibition. |
| Natalia: Может, останешься ещё на полчаса? |
| Yura: Maybe you could stay for another half an hour? |
| Natalia: Нет-нет, извини, у меня нет времени. |
| Yura: No, no. Sorry, I don’t have time. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: It’s 10:40, isn’t it a little too early to leave? |
| Natalia: It depends. People who have cars are not really limited in time. So they hang out in bars and clubs ‘til morning. And those who commute by subway, I guess they can stay till the morning too but I don’t think parties in Russia end earlier than midnight usually. |
| Yura: It’s nice that bars and clubs are open so late, at least people don’t have to go home in the middle of their fun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we have is? |
| Natalia: Который час? |
| Yura: What time is it? |
| Natalia: Который час? |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: десять |
| Yura: 10 |
| Natalia: десять |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: сорок |
| Yura: 40 |
| Natalia: сорок |
| Yura: And the next word ? |
| Natalia: завтра |
| Yura: tomorrow |
| Natalia: завтра |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: встать |
| Yura: to get up |
| Natalia: встать |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: шесть |
| Yura: 6 |
| Natalia: шесть |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: должен |
| Yura: must, should |
| Natalia: должен |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: попасть |
| Yura: to make it to |
| Natalia: попасть |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: открытие |
| Yura: opening |
| Natalia: открытие |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: может |
| Yura: maybe |
| Natalia: может |
| Yura: And the next word ? |
| Natalia: остаться |
| Yura: to stay, not to leave |
| Natalia: остаться |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: полчаса |
| Yura: half an hour |
| Natalia: полчаса |
| Yura: And the last word on our list? |
| Natalia: время |
| Yura: time |
| Natalia: время |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yura: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First, we’ll talk about time. There’s a set phrase for asking time, what is it? |
| Natalia: Который час? Literally, it means, “which hour” and is translated as, “what time is it?”. |
| Yura: You can add the word “now” to the phrase which is "сейчас", but it sounds fine without it too. Simply, what time is it, "Который час"? |
| Natalia: Right, and to tell the time, all you need is read the numbers like you do on the electronic watch. In our case it was, "десять-сорок", which is “10:40”. |
| Yura: If you don’t know or forgot how to tell Russian numbers, go to boot camp series, Lesson 4 and 5. Next, Nika asked whether Ben has to go already. How did it sound? |
| Natalia: “Тебе уже нужно идти?”, literally, it can be translated as, “you already have to go?” where "тебе" is a pronoun "ты" in the dative case. "Уже" stands for “already” and "нужно идти" means “have to go” or “necessary to go”. |
| Yura: In the previous lessons, we learned the word, "нужно", which is “need, should, or necessary to”. We also learned all the pronouns in the dative case that go with this word. |
| Natalia: Right, like “мне нужно”. |
| Yura: I need. |
| Natalia: тебе нужно |
| Yura: You need. So the word "нужно" never changes for any person or gender. Only nouns and pronouns do. |
| Natalia: We have this word used in another sentence. “Мне нужно встать”, “I have to wake up.” "Встать", literally means, “to stand up” or “to get up”. |
| Yura: So he has to get up at 6 AM tomorrow. As I understand, AM and PM is expressed so the words like, “of the morning” or “of the evening” in Russian right? |
| Natalia: Yes. As you can remember, we learned the time expressions like, in the morning, in the afternoon, and so on. Today, we’ll learn them in a different context. |
| Yura: Which means a different grammar case as well. This time, they will sound as following. |
| Natalia: “утра” - “of the morning”, “дня” - “of the day” or “of the afternoon”, “вечера” - “of the evening” and “ночи” - “of the night”. For example: “семь утра” - “seven of the morning”. |
| Yura: It said, “of the morning” in Russian, but we can translate it as “in the morning”. |
| Natalia: Right, here is another example. “Девять вечера” - “nine in the evening” or simply, “9PM”. |
| Yura: This time, these words are put into the genitive case which we will talk about in our grammar part. What’s next? |
| Natalia: Next is the phrase - "должен попасть", which means “must make it”. |
| Yura: Right. We’ve just reviewed the word "нужно" a while ago. The word for “have to” or “should”. Today, we’ll introduce you to a stronger word of obligation, "должен". "Должен" can literally translate as, “must”. The good thing is, the pronouns that you use with "должен" are all nominative. So, you don’t have to modify them like with the word "нужно". All you have to do is modify "должен" according to the gender you need. |
| Natalia: So, it will be "должен" for masculine, "должна" for feminine, "должно" for neuter and "должны" for plural. Here are some examples. Я должна позвонить ему. |
| Yura: I must call him. |
| Natalia: Он должен это перевети. |
| Yura: He must translate it. |
| Natalia: Они должны уйти. |
| Yura: They must leave. Thank you for the examples. Now, let’s remember where exactly Ben has to make it to tomorrow. |
| Natalia: “на открытие выставки” - “to make it to the opening of the exhibition”, where "открытие" comes from the word "открыть", “to open” and "выставки" is “an exhibition” in the genitive case, original form of which is, "выставка". |
| Yura: And then Nika tries to talk Ben into staying just for another half an hour. |
| Natalia: Right, she starts with the word "может", which means “maybe” or “perhaps”. “Может, ты останешься?” - “maybe you will stay”. The word "остаться" means “to stay” but not like “to stay in a hotel” but more like “to stay but not to leave”. |
| Yura: So the phrase can be translated as “perhaps you can stay”. "Полчаса" literally means, “half an hour” and with the preposition "на", “on”, it means “for half an hour”. |
| Natalia: I hope you remembered the word for "ещё", which means, “more”. So, "ещё на полчаса" can be translated as “for half an hour more” or “for another half an hour”. |
| Yura: Right. So, can they stay for another “полчаса”? |
| Natalia: No, he’s very sorry but he says, "у меня нет времени", “I don’t have time” where "времени" comes from the word "время", “time”. |
| Yura: But for this phrase, we had to put it in a genitive case. We keep coming across the genitive case, I think it’s time for us to talk about it more specifically, so I guess, it’s grammar time. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In the dialogue, we came across two phrases that require us to learn the next case in the Russian grammar, here they are. |
| Natalia: шесть утра |
| Yura: six in the morning |
| Natalia: открытие выставки |
| Yura: the opening of the exhibition |
| Natalia: у меня нет времени |
| Yura: I don’t have time. The words that were actually put into the genitive case are "утро" - “morning”, “выставка” - “exhibition” and "время" - “time”. |
| Natalia: Now, let’s talk about the main function and use of the genitive case, why we need all these hassle with the endings again. |
| Yura: The primary use of the Russian genitive case is to show possession. In English, it’s often indicated with an apostrophe, mom’s book, a friend of my dad. The owner is the noun that is used in the genitive case. You should use the genitive in most cases where you would use the word “of” in English. |
| Natalia: Right. In the phrase "шесть утра", the word "утро" has to be put into the genitive case because in Russian, the whole phrase is translated as “six of the morning”, which means, morning is the possessor of six. |
| Yura: Well, makes sense. Morning has several hours in it, one of them is six. What about other phrases? |
| Natalia: In the phrase "открытие выставки", the possessor is "выставка", “exhibition”. Therefore, it is the one we should convert into the genitive case. According to the rules of how to form the genitive, we simply change the ending "-a" into "-и" and it get "выставки". |
| Yura: I see. So, to say, a friend’s dog or a dog of a friend, for example, I have to identify the possessor first which is obviously my friend, then put this friend into the genitive. A friend in the dictionary form is "друг", and to put it into the genitive, we simply add "a" in the end. |
| Natalia: Right, and we’ll get "собака друга", “a dog of a friend”. |
| Yura: Got it. And what about, “I don’t have time” phrase. There’s no possession there on the opposite actually. |
| Natalia: Yes, so the second major function of the genitive case is to express negation. Usually, it’s expressed through the phrase "У меня нет", “I don’t have”. For example, "у меня нет собаки", “I don’t have a dog.” |
| Yura: In this case, "собака", “a dog” goes into the genitive. So once again, genitive case is used first to indicate possession and in this case “собака”, “a dog”, goes into the genitive. So once again, genitive case is used first to indicate possession where the possessor takes the case. And second, it’s used in negations where the noun that goes after the phrase, “I don’t have” are put into the genitive. |
| Natalia: Right. About the negation again, the word "нет" in Russian has two meanings. In the case when it’s used in its second meaning a noun following it should always be put into the genitive case. |
| Yura: Yes. Now, let’s take a couple of words and put them into the genitive form. First of all, we have to take a noun in its dictionary form and identify its gender. |
| Natalia: Right, then if its masculine, like "друг" “a friend” you just add "a" to the end and get "друга". |
| Yura: If it’s feminine, like "женщина", “a woman”, you simply change the last letter into "ы" and get "женщины". |
| Natalia: In neuter nouns, change their last letters into "а" or "я". For example, "море" “sea”, "моря" “of the sea”. |
| Yura: Let’s cement our knowledge about the genitive case. First, the noun possessor changes its ending. Second modified ending is the equivalent of the English “of”. Third, genitive case is used after negations. In example, phrases like “I don’t have”. |
| Natalia: Right. All I can add is take a look at our PDF materials for this lesson. You will find more detailed explanation of the genitive case as well as numerous examples that always makes the grammar learner friendly |
| Yura: That just about does it for this lesson. |
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Outro |
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| Yura: Thanks for listening. Have a great day! |
| Natalia: Всем хорошего дня!. |
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