Learn how to ask someone to repeat their name in a business situation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Business Russian for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 2 - Asking Someone to Repeat Their Name in Russian. John Here. |
| Karina: Привет, I'm Karina. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone to repeat their name when you didn’t catch it. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Karina: It's between Linda and Elena. |
| John: The speakers are acquaintances, therefore, they will use formal Russian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Линда: Извините, Вы могли бы повторить Ваше имя медленнее? |
| Елена: Е-ле-на И-ва-но-ва. |
| Линда: Елена Иванова. Понятно. Спасибо. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Линда: Извините, Вы могли бы повторить Ваше имя медленнее? |
| Елена: Е-ле-на И-ва-но-ва. |
| Линда: Елена Иванова. Понятно. Спасибо. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Excuse me, can you repeat your name more slowly? |
| Elena: E-le-na I-va-no-va. |
| Linda: Elena Ivanova. Noted. Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: What kind of communication is used in Russian offices? |
| Karina: The type of communication, either formal or informal, used at the office may vary depending on the company. |
| John: In which way? |
| Karina: There are many big conservative companies with a long history, where you can see a very strict hierarchy. |
| John: This means that the boss has absolute power. |
| Karina: Right, while junior workers are expected to respond immediately and use very formal language even between co-workers. On the other hand, there are also lots of new progressive companies with extremely loose rules and a "family" atmosphere. |
| John: What about the communication outside the office? |
| Karina: When it comes to business meetings with partners, especially foreign partners, only formal language will be used. |
| John: How do you refer to formal and informal speech in Russian? |
| Karina: “formal speech” is формальная речь and “informal speech” is неформальная речь. |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Karina: извините [natural native speed] |
| John: excuse me, I am sorry, pardon |
| Karina: извините[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: извините [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: вы [natural native speed] |
| John: you |
| Karina: вы[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: вы [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: могли [natural native speed] |
| John: could |
| Karina: могли[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: могли [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: повторить [natural native speed] |
| John: to repeat |
| Karina: повторить[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: повторить [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: ваш [natural native speed] |
| John: your |
| Karina: ваш[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: ваш [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: имя [natural native speed] |
| John: name |
| Karina: имя[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: имя [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have |
| Karina: медленнее [natural native speed] |
| John: slower |
| Karina: медленнее[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: медленнее [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Karina: спасибо [natural native speed] |
| John: thank you |
| Karina: спасибо[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: спасибо [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of one of the words from this lesson. The word is.. |
| Karina: повторить |
| John: meaning "to repeat" |
| Karina: The verb повторить is widely used in Russian. It may be used with some object, as in повторить имя |
| John: meaning "to repeat a name," |
| Karina: Or you can use it with some adverbs, as in повторить медленнее/быстрее |
| John: meaning "to repeat more slowly/faster." Can you give us a sample sentence using this verb? |
| Karina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Повторяйте эти слова за мной. |
| John: ..which means "Repeat these words after me." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask someone to repeat their name when you didn’t catch it. |
| Karina: When you didn’t hear your client’s name, you can ask him or her to repeat it again politely by starting the request with Извините or Простите |
| John: both meaning “Excuse me” |
| Karina: Извините is more widely used, but they are both formal forms |
| John: What about informal speech? |
| Karina: For informal speech, you can use Извини or Прости. |
| John: In most dictionaries they appear in these forms, but if you are struggling to find them, have a look at the verbs. |
| Karina: Right, the verbs are извинять meaning “to excuse,” and прощять “to forgive.” |
| John: Ok, after we say “excuse me,” how can we complete the request? |
| Karina: You can say Вы, meaning “You”, followed by могли бы, meaning “can,” plus an infinitive. |
| John: Let’s hear the complete sentence from the dialogue. |
| Karina: Извините, Вы могли бы повторить Ваше имя медленнее? |
| John: meaning "Excuse me, can you repeat your name more slowly?" If you don’t know the other person, using formal Russian is a good option. |
| Karina: In this sentence, we use the verb мочь meaning “can” |
| John: When do you usually use this verb? |
| Karina: As we just saw, you can use it to ask someone to do something. If you want to make the request more polite, you should use не meaning “not,” followed by the verb мочь in the past and бы, meaning “if.” |
| John: Can you give us an example? |
| Karina: Вы не могли бы мне помочь? |
| John: Which means “Could you help me, please?” |
| Karina: You can use also мочь to say if someone is able or not able to do something, for example Мы не можем пойти туда. |
| John: meaning “We can't go there.” |
| Karina: or Она не может ходить |
| John: meaning “She can't walk.” Listeners, you can review the present and the past conjugation of this verb by checking the Lesson Notes. Now let’s see the next topic, comparative adverbs. |
| Karina: In the dialogue we found the comparative adverb медленнее |
| John: meaning “more slowly.” Let’s review how to form the comparative adverbs in Russian. |
| Karina: The simple comparative form of adverbs consists of one word. It is formed by dropping the ending, for example -о, and adding the ending -ee to the resulting stem. |
| John: Listeners, keep in mind that the simple comparative form does not decline. Let’s give an example. |
| Karina: красиво meaning "pretty” changes into красивее meaning "prettier." |
| John: Are there exceptions to this rule? |
| Karina: If the stem of the adverb ends in г, к, х, or д, т, ст, this stem consonant should be changed to a single -е, not a double -e, to form the comparative. Also if the stem ends in -г, -к, -х, the final consonant is replaced by -ж, -ч, -ш, respectively. |
| John: Can you give us some examples? |
| Karina: дорого meaning “expensive” changes to дороже. Громко meaning “loud” changes into громче. |
| John: Are there any other useful rules to remember about this? |
| Karina: If the stem ends in the cluster -ст, this cluster is replaced by -щ. For example, просто meaning “simple” changes to проще. |
| John: There are some other exceptions here that you should memorize. |
| Karina: Right, for example, поздно meaning "late" changes to позже |
| John: To wrap up this lesson, please give us a sample sentence with a comparative adverb that will be useful for asking someone to repeat their name. |
| Karina: Sure thing. Простите, Вы не могли бы повторить Ваше имя медленнее? |
| John: "Sorry, could you repeat your name more slowly?" |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Karina: Пока! |
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