Learn about Russian conjunctions of cause
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Beginner Series Season 2, Lesson 21 - This fish tastes strange? So we’re back together with Kevin. |
| Oksana: He found a place to eat finally and I think he ordered salmon. |
| Eddie: Yeah, but it’s Kevin, right? So we shouldn’t be too optimistic about his dinner. Anything can happen to this guy and even the salmon can turn into a piece of something else in his hands. |
| Oksana: Yes, let’s stop our blind guesses and just listen to the conversation he’s having with the waitress. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: [По-моему, эта рыба не очень свежая, потому что у нее странный вкус. И запах тоже странный.] |
| Oksana: [Это из-за специй. В ней много специй, поэтому такой запах.] |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: [Еще раз, медленнее.] |
| Eddie: [По-моему, эта рыба не очень свежая, потому что у нее странный вкус. И запах тоже странный.] |
| Oksana: [Это из-за специй. В ней много специй, поэтому такой запах.] |
| Eddie: Once again, with the translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. По-моему, эта рыба не очень свежая, потому что у нее странный вкус. И запах тоже странный. |
| Eddie: I think this fish isn’t very fresh because it tastes strange. And it also smells strange. |
| Oksana: Это из-за специй. В ней много специй, поэтому такой запах. |
| Eddie: It's because of the spices. There are a lot of spices in it, that's why it smells like this. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: “It’s because of the spices. There are a lot of spices in it, that’s why it smells like this.” Would you believe that waitress? Russians don’t even use that many spices, salt and pepper at best. And if a waitress is working on commissions, she’s definitely just trying to sell that fish. |
| Oksana: Well, they could’ve tried cooking something exotic and just messed it up. Let’s see what happens to Kevin next and judge from that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Oksana: [По-моему] |
| Eddie: I think, to my mind. |
| Oksana: [По-моему] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Рыба] |
| Eddie: Fish. |
| Oksana: [Рыба] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Свежий] |
| Eddie: Fresh. |
| Oksana: [Свежий] |
| Eddie: Next one. |
| Oksana: [Странный] |
| Eddie: Strange. |
| Oksana: [Странный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Вкус] |
| Eddie: A taste. |
| Oksana: [Вкус] |
| Eddie: And next. |
| Oksana: [Запах] |
| Eddie: A smell. |
| Oksana: [Запах] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Специя] |
| Eddie: A spice. |
| Oksana: [Специя] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Такой] |
| Eddie: Such, so. |
| Oksana: [Такой] |
| 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 phrase we’ll look at is [по-моему]. |
| Eddie: It’s a very common conversational phrase for “I think”. You can use it just like you would the English “I think”. The next word is a simple noun, a word for “fish. |
| Oksana: [Рыба]. And just like in English, this word is not often used in the plural. |
| Eddie: The next word is… |
| Oksana: [Свежий] The dictionary form of this adjective has masculine gender, but [рыба], “fish”, is feminine therefore we should change [свежий] into [свежая. Свежая рыба]. |
| Eddie: The next word is used in masculine too but we don’t change it because the following noun is also masculine. |
| Oksana: [Странный вкус] |
| Eddie: “Strange taste”. But not only the taste of that is strange, but the smell too. What’s the word for “smell”,Oksana? |
| Oksana: [Запах] |
| Eddie: And then the waitress comes up with some explanation that only a foreigner could buy - it's because of the spices. Of course, how is Kevin supposed to know what Russians put into their food and what’s supposed to taste normal there. So what’s the word for “spices”,Oksana? |
| Oksana: [Специи] She said because of the spices, which is [из-за специй]. |
| Eddie: We’ll come back to this word a bit later after we finish with the vocabulary. We have just the last word left. |
| Oksana: [Такой] which means “like this”. We heard it in the waitress’ explanation. That’s why the smell is like this. [Такой запах] can also be used in the meaning “so” or “such” when you want to emphasize something. [Он такой высокий.] “He’s so tall.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Now let’s get to the grammar point and learn something scary sounding, but in fact very easy - the conjunctions of cause. Conjunctions of cause are used to link two parts of a sentence, one of which gives the cause for the other. Here are some examples of conjunctions of cause in Russian. |
| Oksana: [Потому что] |
| Eddie: Because. |
| Oksana: [Поэтому] |
| Eddie: That’s why, so. |
| Oksana: [Из-за] |
| Eddie: “Because of”. Let’s take a look at the first two words. The difference between [потому что] and [поэтому] is exactly the same as between “because” and “that’s why” in English. Here are some examples. |
| Oksana: [Я люблю Москву потому, что это красивый город.] |
| Eddie: “I live Moscow because it’s a beautiful city.” [Я люблю Москву] is the result and [это красивый город] is the cause. |
| Oksana: You can also say [Москва -красивый город, поэтому я люблю ее]. |
| Eddie: “Moscow is a beautiful city, so I like it.” [Москва-красивый город] is the cause and [я люблю ее] is the result. |
| Oksana: [Потому что] and [поэтому] are both used in the middle of the sentence, not at the beginning. The next word is [из-за]. |
| Eddie: Which means “because of” and is usually followed by a noun or a pronoun in the genitive case. Listen to the examples. |
| Oksana: [Матч отменили из-за плохой погоды.] |
| Eddie: The match was canceled because of the bad weather. |
| Oksana: [Мы проиграли из-за тебя.] |
| Eddie: “We lost because of you.” That just about does it for today. Ok, some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on RussianPod101.com. |
Outro |
| Oksana: Line by line audio. |
| Eddie: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Oksana: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Eddie: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialogue into comprehensible, bite-sized sentences. |
| Oksana: You can try the line by line audio in the Premium Learning Center at RussianPod101.com. |
| Eddie: So thanks for being with us today. See you soon. |
| Oksana: [Пока!] |
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