Learn how to talk about where you're from by putting place names into genitive case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oxana: Привет всем! Я Оксана. |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Gengo Russian Season 1, Lesson 3. Do people understand where you’re coming from? |
| Oxana: Hello, everyone. My name is Oxanna. |
| Eddie: With us you’ll learn to speak Russian with fun and effective lessons. |
| Oxana: We also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Eddie: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. Last lesson, we learned how to excuse ourselves. |
| Oxana: [Разрешите?] |
| Eddie: Let someone sit down next to you. |
| Oxana: [Пожалуйста, садитесь.] |
| Eddie: We also learned how to introduce ourselves. |
| Oxana: [Меня зовут Оксана] or [Я Оксана]. |
| Eddie: And to tell someone we’re glad to meet them. |
| Oxana: [Очень приятно.] So, Eddie, speaking of get to know people, where are you from? |
| Eddie: I am from England. And you? |
| Oxana: I am from Ukraine. |
| Eddie: So everyone’s already learned where we’re from but now you’re going to find out how to get that information in Russian. |
| Oxana: By the end of this lesson, you’ll learn a little more small talk in Russian. |
| Eddie: Yes, and where better to learn than to return to our friends on the plane? Last dialogue we left them chit chatting on a plane to Russia. Today, we’ll see how things develop. |
| Oxana: Their conversation left off with them learning each other’s names. |
| Eddie: And I'm pretty sure one of them at least is from a Russian-speaking region, but we’re going to find out exactly where. |
| Oxana: The other one, let’s see if you can figure out where they’re from. |
| Eddie: Yes, let’s. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Джон: [Вы русская?] |
| John: Vy russkaya? |
| Елена: [Нет, я украинка. А вы?] |
| Elena: Net, ya ukrainka. A vy? |
| Джон: [Я американец. Вы из Киева?] |
| John: Ya amerikanets. Vy iz kieva? |
| Елена: [Да, я из Киева. А вы из какого штата?] |
| Elena: Da, ya iz Kieva. A vy iz kakogo shtata? |
| Джон: [Я из Мичигана.] |
| John: Ya iz Michigana. |
| Eddie: One more time, slowly. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, медленнее. |
| Джон: [Вы русская?] |
| John: Vy russkaya? |
| Елена: [Нет, я украинка. А вы?] |
| Elena: Net, ya ukrainka. A vy? |
| Джон: [Я американец. Вы из Киева?] |
| John: Ya amerikanets. Vy iz kieva? |
| Елена: [Да, я из Киева. А вы из какого штата?] |
| Elena: Da, ya iz Kieva. A vy iz kakogo shtata? |
| Джон: [Я из Мичигана.] |
| John: Ya iz Michigana. |
| Eddie: One more time, natural speed with the translation. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, с переводом. |
| Oxana: [Вы русская?] |
| Eddie: Are you Russian? |
| Oxana: [Нет, я украинка. А вы?] |
| Eddie: No, I'm Ukrainian. What about you? |
| Oxana: [Я американец. Вы из Киева?] |
| Eddie: I'm American. Are you from Kiev. |
| Oxana: [Да, я из Киева. А вы из какого штата?] |
| Eddie: Yes, I am from Kiev. And what state are you from? |
| Oxana: [Я из Мичигана.] |
| Eddie: “I am from Michigan.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: The first word is… |
| Oxana: [вы] |
| Eddie: You. |
| Oxana: [вы] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [русская] |
| Eddie:“Russian”, nationality, feminine. |
| Oxana:[русская] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [нет] |
| Eddie: No. |
| Oxana: [нет] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [украинка] |
| Eddie: “Ukrainian”, nationality, feminine. |
| Oxana: [украинка] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[американец] |
| Eddie:“American”, nationality, masculine. |
| Oxana: [американец] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [из] |
| Eddie: From. |
| Oxana: [из] |
| Eddie:Next. |
| Oxana: [Киев] |
| Eddie: Kiev. |
| Oxana: [Киев] |
| Eddie:Next. |
| Oxana:[Какой, какая, какое, какие] |
| Eddie:“What kind? Which?” - masculine, feminine, neutral and plural. |
| Oxana:[Какой, какая, какое, какие] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [штат] |
| Eddie: State. |
| OXANA: [штат] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Мичеган] |
| Eddie: Michigan. |
| Oxana:[Мичеган] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words from this lesson. Ok, Oxanna, so let me ask you, [Вы русская?]? |
| Oxana: [Нет Эдди, я украинка.] |
| Eddie: Ok, so this must sound familiar to you because saying nationalities was the second topic in basic boot camp. |
| Oxana: We also gave you some examples of the modifications of nationality words according to gender, such as [русский/русская, американец/американка]. |
| Eddie: Yes, and today we’ll learn how to get more detailed information about someone’s origin such as the city or state someone’s from. |
| Oxana: Ok, let’s suppose you are from America, Eddie. So where in America would you like to be from? |
| Eddie:I’ll be from Florida, and in Russian it will sound like… |
| Oxana: [Флорида] |
| Eddie: And you? Which city are you from? |
| Oxana: I'm from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, but even not being from Russia I can easily communicate with Russians. There is a large population of Ukrainians that either considers Russian to be their native language or speaks both. There are thousands of bilingual people on the territory of the post U.S.S.R. |
| Eddie: Which is another point in favor of Russian. Is it still one of the official languages in those 15 post U.S.S.R countries? |
| Oxana:No, only some countries left it as a second official language after their local languages. Countries like Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldavia or Moldova, and a couple of others. |
| Eddie: What about the accents? |
| Oxana: You know, it’s really interesting that so many people think of Moscow Russian as the most proper one. In Moscow alone you can have a bigger variety of accents and different ways of speaking than in all of Russian. While here I am exaggerating a bit, but if you really care about the purity of your Russian and want to get it right, you should go to St. Petersburg probably. |
| Eddie: Yeah, I hear many people in Moscow are migrant workers from other areas. |
| Oxana: You heard right. Until several years ago, people from the post U.S.S.R. countries didn’t need passports to travel around the whole post-soviet territory. And, of course, a lot of people came to Moscow in search of a better life. That’s where languages and accents got mixed up and formed new, non-official dialects which a lot of Russians joke about. |
| Eddie: Is there a mix of Russian in Ukrainian languages? |
| Oxana: Yes, it’s called [суржик]. A total mass of different words, sounds, even grammar. But don’t worry, I’ll speak beautiful, proper Russian to you. |
| Eddie: Yeah, we have to go back to our vocabulary. The first expression we’ll talk about is… |
| Oxana:[А вы?] |
| Eddie: “And you?” or “How about you?” We’ve learned [а] before. It means “and” or “but”, depending on the situation. In the meaning of “and” it’s used mostly in question when asking the person back or just to change the topic. And in the meaning of “but”, it’s used mostly in sentences to contrast one act with another. Here are two examples. |
| Oxana: [Я украинка. А вы?] |
| Eddie:Here, Oxanna states that she’s Ukrainian and asks me the same question back. “And you”, [вы], can be changed to a less formal form of “you”. [ты. Я американец. А ты?] Here’s another example. |
| Oxana:[Я устала. а она нет.] |
| Eddie: “I'm tired but she’s not.” See, two contrasting things linked together by [а], “but”. The next useful word is… |
| Oxana:[из] |
| Eddie: Yeah, sounds almost the same as English “is” but it means “from”. And logically “from” is followed by the name of the place. |
| Oxana: [Из России.] |
| Eddie: From Russia. |
| Oxana: [Из Украины.] |
| Eddie: From Ukraine. |
| Oxana: [Из Америки.] |
| Eddie: From America. |
| Oxana: [Из Мичигана.] |
| Eddie: From Michigan. |
| Oxana: [Из Нью-Йорка.] |
| Eddie: From New York. |
| Oxana: [Из Бостона.] |
| Eddie: “From Boston.” Next we have a question. |
| Oxana: [Вы из какого штата?] |
| Eddie: “What state are you from?” So first goes [вы] which is the polite form of “you”. Then [из], “from”, and then we have…. |
| Oxana: [какого] |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: This word is the modification of the word [какой] which means “what kind”, “which”. Why does it sound different here, Oxanna? Let’s explain this grammar. |
| Oxana: Do you remember the word [как] that we learned before? It means “how”. This [как] is kind of a stem of the words “what kind”, “which”. It always stays the same, but the endings are changing depending on gender, number and case. |
| Eddie: So if we talk about a noun of masculine gender such as… |
| Oxana: [штат] |
| Eddie: We say… |
| Oxana: [какой штат] |
| Eddie: “What state?” If we talk about a country, for example, which has feminine gender in Russian, we say… |
| Oxana:[страна - какая страна ] |
| Eddie: If it’s plural… |
| Oxana: [штаты] |
| Eddie: “States” we say… |
| Oxana: [какие штаты] |
| Eddie: In a word, gender and number of adjectives has to correspond to gender and number of nouns. |
| Oxana: But in our dialogue, they also have to correspond to each other by case. When you talk about the places and have from in the sentence, you should put the names of the places into genitive case, which means change their endings according to the certain rules. |
| Eddie: And the explanation of the rules can be found in the PDF file. But in short, the changes are. |
| Oxana: [Украина-Украины, Америка-Америки] |
| Eddie:Those were feminine nouns. Here are some masculine nouns. |
| Oxana: [Нью-Йорк - Нью-Йорка, Бостон - Бостона] |
| Eddie: Those were some masculine nouns. And neutral nouns that end with [е] or [о] don’t change. Next, the question adjective [какой] should also be put into genitive case. |
| Oxana:[из какого города?] |
| Eddie:From which town? |
| Oxana: [из какой страны?] |
| Eddie: From which country? |
| Oxana: [из каких штатов?] |
| Eddie: “From which states?” Let’s make a short dialogue taking into consideration gender and case. |
| Oxana: [Вы из Калифорнии?] |
| Eddie:[Нет, я из Мичигана. А вы из какого город?] |
| Oxana: [Я из Кикиева.] |
| Eddie: Ok, we’re done with the genitive. The last phrase we should learn is to simply ask “Where are you from?” |
| Oxana: [Вы откуда?] |
| Eddie: Yeah, without asking for specific cities or states. Just [Вы откуда?]. And the last grammar point I’d like you to pay attention to is the word order. If a Russian sentence doesn’t have any question words such as “where, when, who”, the word order in the questions will be the same. How to recognize if it’s a question? Listen to the intonation. |
| Oxana: [Он из Россиии - Он из России?] |
| [Она русская - Она русская?] |
Outro |
| Eddie:That simple. That just about does it for today. Till next time. [Пока!] |
| Oxana: [До новых встреч!] |
| Джон: [Вы русская?] |
| John: Vy russkaya? |
| Елена: [Нет, я украинка. А вы?] |
| Elena: Net, ya ukrainka. A vy? |
| Джон: [Я американец. Вы из Киева?] |
| John: Ya amerikanets. Vy iz kieva? |
| Елена: [Да, я из Киева. А вы из какого штата?] |
| Elena: Da, ya iz Kieva. A vy iz kakogo shtata? |
| Джон: [Я из Мичигана.] |
| John: Ya iz Michigana. |
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