Learn the Russian dative case to indicate the indirect object of an action
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Eric here. Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 20 – “How will you spend New Year’s in Russia?” Hi, my name is Eric and I'm joined here by… |
| Anna: Anna. |
| Eric: So Anna, what did we look at in the previous lesson? |
| Anna: In the previous lesson, we focused on how to ask someone to take your picture. |
| Eric: Yes, I remember. |
| Anna: I do too. |
| Eric: We didn’t take each other’s picture though, I guess. The focus of this lesson is on the Russian New Year and the dative case. |
| Anna: This conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Eric: And the conversation is between Serghei and James. |
| Anna: Again. The speakers are friends so they will be speaking informal Russian. Premium members, use the review track to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Eric: Available in the premium section of the website, the learning center and through iTunes via the Premium Feed, the review track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so you can repeat the words aloud. |
| Anna: One of the keys to fast fluency. |
| Eric: Alright, Anna. Your man voice is getting better each lesson. |
| Anna: Stop teasing me, please. |
| Eric: Let’s listen to today’s conversation. I’ll be playing James. |
| Anna: I’ll be playing Serghei. |
| Eric: [Давай] Let’s go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anna: [Я звонил Кате и Максу. Они приглашают тебя на новый год. И нас тоже.] |
| Eric: [Здорово, Я никогда ещё не встречал новый год в России.] |
| -- |
| Eric: Once again, slowly. |
| Anna: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Anna: [Я звонил Кате и Максу. Они приглашают тебя на новый год. И нас тоже.] |
| Eric: [Здорово, Я никогда ещё не встречал новый год в России.] |
| -- |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: So Anna, how important is the New Year’s celebration in Russia? |
| Anna: Oh, it’s one of the most important holidays in Russia and we have about 10-days vacations to celebrate New Year and Christmas on January 7th. Well, Anna, you sound so excited about this. Holiday. |
| Anna: I like it. I really like New Year. |
| Eric: Why do you like New Year’s? |
| Anna: You know, it reminds me of my childhood. I remember the smell of mandarins and smell of the Christmas tree. It’s something reminds me back about my childhood. |
| Eric: Yeah, New Year’s is kind of like Christmas, the 4th of July for Americans, cause there’s fireworks on New Year’s, right? |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Eric: And everything together. It’s a combination holiday, it’s a big one. |
| Anna: Yeah, it’s the biggest one in Russia. |
| Eric: Anna, I remember something about going over to my neighbor’s houses and giving money or food or something. What is this all about? |
| Anna: This is a big tradition to visit your relatives and friends to congratulate them on the New Year. |
| Eric: So can you tell me what you and your family usually do for your New Year’s? |
| Anna: Oh, Eric, you risk to have quite a long story here. But basically we are having fun. Usually, someone of all family members dresses like [Дед Мороз] or Santa Claus, Russian Santa Claus, and comes into the house with lots of presents. And then he makes everyone to perform something interesting like dancing or singing in order to get their presents. |
| Eric: So do you have a Christmas tree in your house for the New Year? |
| Anna: Yes, we call it [ёлка] and it’s also a big part of the New Year tradition. |
| Eric: Do you decorate it early like some Americans do? They start right after Thanksgiving in November or do you wait until late December? |
| Anna: I would say it’s always about 20th of December, December 20th. |
| Eric: Ok. Alright. Let’s have a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: The first word is… |
| Anna: [звонить] |
| Eric: To call, to phone, to ring. |
| Anna: [звонить] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [встречать] |
| Eric: To meet. |
| Anna: [встречать] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [здорово] |
| Eric: Cool, great – informal. |
| Anna: [здорово] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [тоже] |
| Eric: Also, too. |
| Anna: [тоже] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [Новый год] |
| Eric: New Year. |
| Anna: [Новый год] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [приглашать] |
| Eric: To invite. |
| Anna: [приглашать |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eric: Alright, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson. |
| Anna: Ok. The first word is [звонить] which means “to telephone”, “to phone” and it can also mean “to ring”. |
| Eric: For example, Anna? |
| Anna: [телефон звонит] |
| Eric: “The telephone’s ringing.” |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: Ok. Ok, Anna, let’s talk about one of my favorite words in Russian. |
| Anna: What’s that? |
| Eric: [здорово] It means “cool” or “great”. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: So when can you use this word? |
| Anna: [здорово] is used in spoken Russian. Alone, it’s used to express admiration or approval. When used before a verb, it can mean “very well”, “really” or “very”. |
| Eric: So Anna, how would you say that I cook really well? |
| Anna: Well, it’s… Ok. |
| Eric: If you had to. |
| Anna: Ok. [Здорово готовишь] |
| Eric: Ok, so here [здорово] means “very well”. |
| Anna: Well, I should say different. Eric, [ты здорово готовишь]? |
| Eric: You’re asking me? |
| Anna: Well… |
| Eric: [конечно] You still have to try my peanut butter and jelly. Alright, and then alone? If you think something is cool or you really like something, you can say? |
| Anna: [здорово] |
| Eric: [здорово] |
| Anna: Let’s say I tried your peanut sandwiches and I say [о, здорово, вкусно]. |
| Eric: [Вкусно] “Delicious”. Nice. Ok, the next word we’re going to look at is? |
| Anna: [встречать] |
| Eric: Which means “to meet”. In the expression [встречать Новый год] it can be translated as “to celebrate the new year”, literally “to meet the new year”. |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: How do we usually end the beginner lesson? |
| Anna: I say [до встречи]. |
| Eric: And what does that mean literally? |
| Anna: Literally it means “until the meeting”. |
| Eric: Or, in English, we could translate it as “see you next time” |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: Ok. Now it’s time for grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Alright, Anna, let’s talk about the dative case. |
| Anna: Ok. |
| Eric: So it’s kind of like being on a date, right? It’s that fun, yeah. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: It’s a really bad grammar date. Ok, here we go. When do we use the dative case, Anna? |
| Anna: Ok. In our example, Serghei says [Я звонил Кате и Максу].[Кате] and [Максу] are examples of nouns in the dative case. |
| Eric: Ok, and Katia’s normal name is? |
| Anna: [Катя] |
| Eric: [Катя] And [Максу]? What’s his name normally? |
| Anna: [Макс] |
| Eric: Max. So we change it [Кате] and [Максу]. |
| Anna: [Максу] |
| Eric: So the dative case is mainly used to indicate the indirect object of an action. For example, the person to whom we give something. Just like in our example, it’s the person who we called, right? |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: [Я звонил Кате и Максу]. Could we have another example, Anna? |
| Anna: Yes, of course. For example, [Скажи Сергею, что я звонил]. “Tell Serghei that I called.” |
| Eric: Ok, let’s break that down. |
| Anna: [скажи Сергею] |
| Eric: “Tell Serghei” and here Serghei is used in the dative case. |
| Anna: [что] |
| Eric: That. |
| Anna: [я] |
| Eric: I. |
| Anna: [звонил] |
| Eric: Called. |
| Anna: The dative case is often used with the following verbs. Can you help me, Eric? |
| Eric: Sure. |
| Anna: [дать] |
| Eric: To give. |
| Anna: [продать] |
| Eric: To sell. |
| Anna: [сказать] |
| Eric: “To say” or “to tell”. |
| Anna: [ответить] |
| Eric: To reply. |
| Anna: [помочь] |
| Eric: To help. |
| Anna: Please know that there are some other usages that we don’t have time to cover in today’s lesson. |
| Eric: So Anna, how do we change the endings of the nouns in the dative case? |
| Anna: Oh, it’s not that difficult. For masculine nouns in dative case we use [у] or [ю]. For example, Serghei [Сергею]. Neutral nouns are not often used in the dative case. Just remember that they usually have the same ending as the masculine nouns. And feminine nouns have ending [е] in dative case, for example, [мама-маме], to mom [Таня - Тане] |
| Eric: For more information about the dative case, please check out the PDF file for this lesson. We have several examples in there to help you with your studies. |
| Anna: Thank you, Eric. |
Outro |
| Eric: [Спасибо, Анна] Ok, that just about does it for today. |
| Anna: Drastically improve your pronunciation with the voice recording tool in the premium learning center. |
| Eric: Record your voice with the click of a button and play back what you record just as easily. This tool is the perfect complement to the line by line audio. |
| Anna: [До встречи] |
| Eric: Anna, aren’t you forgetting your favorite line? |
| Anna: Oh, right. Don’t forget to leave us a comment. |
| Eric: Exactly, we want to hear from you, so we’ll be waiting. See you next time. |
| Anna: [До встречи] |
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