Learn how to talk about your occupation
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Mark asks, |
| "Are you a student?" |
| Вы студент? (Vy student?) |
| First is вы (vy), “you,” when using formal Russian. Вы. Вы. |
| Note, Вы (Ya’), "you," refers to the plural, as in "you all," but t's also the formal way to address a single person, as is the case here, where Sergey is addressing Mark. |
| Вы (Ya’) is from Вы есть (Ya est’), "you are," plural, as in "you all are," but есть (est’) is omitted. |
| Есть is from the verb быть, meaning "to be." быть |
| Next is студент (student), "student." Студент. Студент. |
| In Russian, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. |
| Студент is masculine singular, as Mark is addressing Sergey. |
| All together, Вы студент? (Vy student?) literally, "You student,” but translates as, “Are you a student?" |
| Вы студент? |
| Let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Sergey says, |
| "No, I'm not a student. I'm an investor." |
| Нет, я не студент. Я инвестор. (Net, ya ne student. Ya investor.) |
| First is the expression, Нет (Net), meaning, "no." Нет. Нет. |
| It answers Mark's yes-or-no question, "Are you a student?" Вы студент? (Vy student?) |
| After this, Sergey specifies that he’s not a student. Я не студент (Ya ne student). "I'm not a student." Я не студент. |
| First is я (ya), "I [am]." Я. Я. |
| Note, Я is from Я есть (Ya est’) "I am," where есть (est’) "am" is omitted. |
| Есть is from the verb быть, meaning “to be.” быть |
| Next is не (ne). "not." Не. Не. |
| Together, it's я не (ya ne), literally "I not," but it translates as "I'm not." Я не. |
| Next is студент (student). "Student." Студент. |
| Студент is masculine singular, as Sergey is answering the question. |
| All together, Я не студент (Ya ne student). "I'm not a student." Я не студент. |
| Sergey then tells Mark his actual occupation. Я инвестор (Ya investor). "I'm an investor." Я инвестор. |
| First, я (ya) "I [am]." Я. |
| Next is инвестор (investor), "investor." Инвестор. Инвестор. |
| Инвестор (Investor) is masculine singular. |
| Together, Я инвестор (Ya investor). "I'm an investor." Я инвестор. |
| All together, Нет, я не студент. Я инвестор. (Net, ya ne student. Ya investor.) |
| "No, I'm not a student. I'm an investor." |
| Нет, я не студент. Я инвестор. (Net, ya ne student. Ya investor.) |
| The pattern is |
| Нет, я не OCCUPATION. Я ACTUAL OCCUPATION. (Net, ya ne {occupation}. Ya {actual occupation}.) |
| "No, I'm not OCCUPATION. I'm ACTUAL OCCUPATION." |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the OCCUPATION and ACTUAL OCCUPATION placeholders with the occupations that are appropriate to the conversation. |
| Note: This pattern requires nouns. Their gender will depend on the gender of the speaker. |
| Imagine you’re Emma Eliasheva a student. The word for a female student is студентка (studentka). Студентка. Студентка. |
| Sergey Svalov asks you if you’re a teacher, учитель (uchitel’). Учитель. Учитель. |
| Say |
| "No, I'm not a teacher. I'm a student." |
| Ready? |
| Нет, я не учитель. Я студентка. (Net, ya ne uchitel', Ya studentka.) |
| "No, I'm not a teacher. I'm a student." |
| Нет, я не учитель. Я студентка. (Net, ya ne uchitel', Ya studentka.) |
| In Russian, there are some rules of thumb for gender of nouns. |
| In general, nouns that end in -а (-a) tend to be feminine. |
| For example, |
| Студентка. Student (female) |
| Медсестра. Nurse (female) |
| Masculine nouns tend to end in a consonant or -й (-y) or ь (-ʼ). |
| For example, |
| Инвестор (Investor). "Investor." |
| Студент (Student). "Student." |
| Рабочий (Rabochiy). "Employee." |
| Some occupations have the same word for both genders. For example, учитель (uchitel’) in a formal setting. |
| учитель (uchitel’), |
| учитель (uchitel’). |
| Note, there is a word for a female teacher, учительница, in an informal setting. However, you will not need it for this lesson. |
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