Learn how to form the various cases and plurals of Russian nouns and adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oxana: [Привет всем! Я Оксана.] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Gengo Russian Season 1, Lesson 9. Your one stop shop for all your Russian needs. In today’s lesson we have a quintessential Russian experience. |
| Oxana: The convenience stores in Russia. Well, John is lucky to get to Moscow first. There he can definitely find something to his liking. |
| Eddie: Yes, smaller cities offer a much smaller variety of convenience stores and things in them. Very often it’s just a small chaos with cookies, candies, water and other not very healthy snacks. But don’t worry, there are plenty of stores in Russia with many things that will keep you full and happy. |
| Oxana: Well, let’s start by seeing what john finds to buy. |
| Eddie: But first let’s review the last lesson where John successfully located and bought a bus ticket to the city from the airport. |
| Oxana: Yes, and we learned how to ask the time using [во сколько?]. |
| Eddie: Which means “at what time”. And how do we ask the actual time now? |
| Oxana: [который час?] |
| Eddie: Right. And a couple of other essential questions we learned last time? |
| Oxana: [как доехать до] |
| Eddie: Which means “how to get to” and… |
| Oxana: [сколько стоит] |
| Eddie: “How much” which you use to inquire about the price. And now, being equipped with all the questions you’ll want to bother people with, all you need to learn is how to understand their answers. Let’s keep practicing. We have another 21 lessons to go. |
| Eddie: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Джон: [Дайте пожалуйста две бутылки воды,пачку печенья, пакет молока и четыре батарейки.] |
| John: Daite pozhaluista dve butylki vody, pachku pechen’ya, paket moloka i chetyre batareiki. |
| Женщина: [Это всё?] |
| Woman: Eto vsyo? |
| Джон: [А что это там на полке?] |
| John: A chto eto tam na polke? |
| Женщина: [Это свежие булочки, очень вкусные, попробуйте.] |
| Woman: Eto svezhiye bulochki, ochen’ vkusnyye, poprobuite. |
| Джон: [Хорошо, дайте две штуки, пожалуйста.] |
| John: Horosho, davaite dve shtuki, pozhaluista. |
| Женщина: [Пожалуйста, 318 рублей.] |
| Woman: Pozhaluista, trista vosemnadtsat’ rublei. |
| Eddie: Once again, slowly. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, медленнее. |
| Джон: [Дайте пожалуйста две бутылки воды,пачку печенья, пакет молока и четыре батарейки.] |
| John: Daite pozhaluista dve butylki vody, pachku pechen’ya, paket moloka i chetyre batareiki. |
| Женщина: [Это всё?] |
| Woman: Eto vsyo? |
| Джон: [А что это там на полке?] |
| John: A chto eto tam na polke? |
| Женщина: [Это свежие булочки, очень вкусные, попробуйте.] |
| Woman: Eto svezhiye bulochki, ochen’ vkusnyye, poprobuite. |
| Джон: [Хорошо, дайте две штуки, пожалуйста.] |
| John: Horosho, davaite dve shtuki, pozhaluista. |
| Женщина: [Пожалуйста, 318 рублей.] |
| Woman: Pozhaluista, trista vosemnadtsat’ rublei. |
| Eddie: Once again, at natural speed, with the translation. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, с переводом. |
| Oxana:[Дайте пожалуйста две бутылки воды,пачку печенья, пакет молока и четыре батарейки.] |
| Eddie: Give me, please, two bottles of water, a pack of cookies, a carton of milk and four batteries. |
| Oxana: [Это всё?] |
| Eddie: Is that all? |
| Oxana:А что это там на полке?] |
| Eddie: What’s that over there, on the shelf? |
| Oxana:[Это свежие булочки, очень вкусные, попробуйте.] |
| Eddie: Those are fresh buns. Very tasty. Try one. |
| Oxana: [Хорошо, дайте две штуки, пожалуйста.] |
| Eddie: Ok. Give me two, please. |
| Oxana: [Пожалуйста, 318 рублей.] |
| Eddie: “Here you are. 318 rubles.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: In this dialogue, we assume that John came in some local shop where the clerks usually stand behind the counters and the groceries are placed on the shelves behind the clerks. In such shops, what you do is point at the thing you want to buy and the clerk takes it from the shelf for you. Before, all the shops used to be like this. Obviously, people were given very little trust having not been allowed even to touch the groceries before paying for them. |
| Oxana:Well, I won’t argue whether this is a very justified measure, but now there are plenty of supermarkets and big stores where you can shop in the way you’re used to. Just pick what you need from the shelves and pay for that, not even saying a word to the clerk. You can also find plenty of fresh, ready-to-eat things in a section called [кулинария], which means “cookery” or “astronomy”. So don’t worry, if you find the restaurants too pricy in Russia, supermarkets won’t let you starve. But we’re going back to our little shop where John finds a way to practice his Russian again. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Oxana: [дайте] |
| Eddie: “Give” - polite command form. |
| Oxana: [дайте] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [бутылка] |
| Eddie: Bottle. |
| Oxana: [бутылка] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [вода] |
| Eddie: Water. |
| Oxana: [вода] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [пачка] |
| Eddie:Pack. |
| Oxana: [пачка] |
| Eddie:Next. |
| Oxana: [печенье] |
| Eddie: Cookies. |
| Oxana: [печенье] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [пакет] |
| Eddie: Bag, plastic bag, paper bag. |
| Oxana: [пакет] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [молоко] |
| Eddie: Milk. |
| Oxana: [молоко] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [батарейка] |
| Eddie:Battery. |
| Oxana: [батарейка] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [это] |
| Eddie: This, it. |
| Oxana: [это] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [всё] |
| Eddie:All, everything. |
| Oxana: [всё] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [там] |
| Eddie: There. |
| Oxana: [там] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [на] |
| Eddie: On. |
| Oxana: [на] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [полка] |
| Eddie: Shelf |
| Oxana: [полка] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [свежий] |
| Eddie:Fresh. |
| Oxana: [свежий] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [булочка] |
| Eddie:Bun, muffin. |
| Oxana: [булочка] |
| Eddie:Next. |
| Oxana: [очень] |
| Eddie: Very. |
| Oxana: [очень] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [вкусный] |
| Eddie: Tasty, delicious. |
| Oxana: [вкусный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [пробовать] |
| Eddie:Try. |
| Oxana: [пробовать] |
| Eddie:Next. |
| Oxana: [штука] |
| Eddie: “Thing, item” - used as a measuring word for things which aren’t very big. |
| Oxana: [штука] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: So we’ve learned how to say “tell me, please”. Now we have to learn how to say “give me, please”. |
| Oxana: [дайте пожалуйста] |
| Eddie:As you can remember from the previous lessons, the ending [те] indicated the polite form of your request. You can drop it if you’re talking to a friend. |
| Oxana: [дай] |
| Eddie:Which will sound rather rude if you don’t add “please”. You can drop the ending when talking informally, but dropping “please” is not recommended in any case. Next. |
| Oxana: [две бутылки] |
| Eddie: “Two bottles”. A “bottle” has feminine gender, therefore the number “two” is also put in a feminine gender. In the masculine gender it would sound like [два]. So he wants two bottles of what? |
| Oxana: [воды] |
| Eddie:We should note from the beginning that all the items that John is naming here are put into genitive case, our “of” case, remember? So the word “water” itself sounds like… |
| Oxana: [вода] |
| Eddie: But in the case of “two bottles of water” we change it into… |
| Oxana: [воды] |
| Eddie: Great. Next we have… |
| Oxana: [пачку печенья] |
| Eddie:“A pack of cookies”. The dictionary forms of these words are… |
| Oxana: [пачка] and [печенье]. |
| Eddie: Which will be put into the genitive case according to their genders, feminine and neutral. We drop the number here, same as in English where you can change “one” into “a”. “A pack” but not “one pack”. Next we heard… |
| Oxana: [пакет молока] |
| Eddie: “A carton of milk”. Actually, [пакет ] itself means “a bag” so if you need a plastic bag in a store, you can ask like this. |
| Oxana: [дайте пакет, пожалуйста.] |
| Eddie:Before, milk in Russia used to be sold in bottles but now it’s all in cartons, which Russians call “bags” for some reasons. So [пакет] of what? |
| Oxana: [молока] which comes from the dictionary form [молоко] but changes its ending according to the genitive case. |
| Eddie:Ok, what else does John want? |
| Oxana: [четыре батарейки] |
| Eddie:Let’s assume he needs them for his camera, but god knows what sort of devices he could have brought along with him. The dictionary form of the word “battery” is… |
| Oxana: [батарейка] |
| Eddie: Ok, and after he named all the things he wanted, the obvious question follows – “Is that all?” |
| Oxana: [Это всё?] |
| Eddie: [это] means “this” and [всё] means “all” or “everything”. Sometimes it’s used to indicate the end or finish. Kind of like “that’s it”. So John was just about to pay for what he’d ordered, but suddenly he saw something delicious-looking on the shelf. |
| Oxana: [что это там на полке.] |
| Eddie: Which literally means “And what it’s there on shelf” and in proper English “And what’s over there, on the shelf?” We’ve heard the words [что это] before, which means “what is it”. Now, the word [там] means “there”. We already know the word for “here” from the [inaudible 00:12:04] lesson, remember? |
| Oxana: [здесь] |
| Eddie: It’s useful to remember words in pairs. Then we heard… |
| Oxana: [на полке] |
| Eddie: “On the shelf”. [полка] put into the prepositional case because it has a preposition, [на], which means “on”. So what is on the shelf, Oxanna? |
| Oxana: : [Это свежие булочки.] |
| Eddie: Literally “these fresh muffins”. There’s no division into “there is” and “there are” in Russian, so even objects in the plural are identified with [Это], “this”. What is [свежие булочки], Oxanna? |
| Oxana: This is something I will always love about Russian stores. They’re always full of fresh-baked bread of different varieties and Russian pastries are something everyone should try in Russia. [булочки] are usually round, slightly sweet, crispy on the outside and steamy on the inside. They go perfectly with milk or just as snacks. I'm sure you’ll see people on the streets munching on hot, fresh [булочки]. And the smells that they spread around… |
| Eddie: Stop day dreaming. We’re talking about grammar here. |
| Oxana: Right. So [булочка] would be just “one muffin” in the feminine gender. And [булочки] is plural. The adjective [свежий] has to be in grammatical agreement with the noun, therefore we also put it into plural form. [свежие] |
| Eddie:Right. And the clerk is really advertising them here. |
| Oxana: [очень вкусные] |
| Eddie: “Very tasty,” she says. We know the word [очень ] already and [вкусные] is another adjective we’re giving you today. It also has to be put into the plural because we’re still talking about “the muffins” in plural, but the dictionary form of the word “tasty” is… |
| Oxana: [ вкусный] |
| Eddie: Yes, and the clerk doesn’t stop there. What do we hear next? |
| Oxana: [попробуйте] |
| Eddie:We’re familiar with the command forms already, right? What other command words have we learned? Let’s repeat them in the polite form with the endings [те]. |
| Oxana: [дайте] |
| Eddie: Give me. |
| Oxana: [разрешите] |
| Eddie: Allow me. |
| Oxana: [садитесь] |
| Eddie: Sit. |
| Oxana: [повторите] |
| Eddie: Repeat. |
| Oxana: [скажите] |
| Eddie: “Tell me.” We also learned the prefix [по], right? In our case, it turns “try” into “have a try” or “try a little”. How does the dictionary form of this word sound? |
| Oxana: [пробовать] |
| Eddie: Great. So John can’t say no after having asked about those tasty [булочки] and asks the clerk to give him a couple. |
| Oxana: [Хорошо, дайте две штуки, пожалуйста.] |
| Eddie: “Ok, give me two.” What? |
| Oxana:[штука] is commonly used as a measuring word, usually for objects that aren’t too big when a quantity of something is involved. It can be translated as “a thing” or “item” depending on the situation. It is also used to avoid the repetition of the words in the sentence. Here, the clerk was talking about the muffins and John was asking for those muffins. There would be too many muffins involved if we didn’t have a substitute for that word, so the word [штука] can indicate any object you are talking about as long as you and your companion both know what the thing you’re talking about actually is. |
| Eddie: Ok. And we’re close to the end. There’s nothing new to us here. |
| Oxana:[Пожалуйста, 318 рублей. ] |
| Eddie: “Here you are, 318 rubles.” Which is about $10, right? A bit too much for a small shop. Those muffins have to be really good. Now let’s take a look at the grammar. When you listen to the dialogue, you should have noticed some grammar patterns there, especially when John was naming the groceries. He was naming them all in the genitive case. You’re quite familiar with this case already so we’ve decided to torture you a bit with the new things we’ve mentioned very superficially in our lessons, which are plurals and adjectives. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Oxana:Let’s start with plurals. As we know, the Russian language is based on the case system, therefore there will be different plurals in each case. |
| Eddie: By now we’ve learned almost all six cases, starting with the nominative, which is basically a dictionary form of all nouns, genitive - the “of” case, dative - so far we’ve learned it in the context of expressing conditions and emotions, accusative - which helped us to talk about the directions with the preposition [в], “to”, prepositional - which we used to indicate the location, and instrumental - which we used in the context of “by means of”. So we’ll start with plurals in the nominative case, the dictionary form of the nouns, and will slowly integrate them into the rest of the cases. |
| Oxana: Now we’ll explain the examples we heard in the dialogue and you’ll find a detailed explanation of how to form plurals in the PDF materials. So the words in plural we heard today were [бутылки, батарейки, булочки] and [штуки]. |
| Eddie:Fortunately or unfortunately, all four of those nouns happen to have feminine gender, therefore they will all be modified in the same way, which is changing the last letter [а] into [и]. |
| Oxana: [батарейка] becomes [батарейки]. [бутылка - бутылки; булочка - булочки] and [штука - штуки]. |
| Eddie: Can you give us some examples with masculine nouns? |
| Oxana: [Дом], “house”, becomes [дома]. [город], “city”, [города ]. [телефон - телефоны] and [компьютер - компьютеры]. |
| Eddie: Very good. Don’t forget to check our PDF materials. You’ll find them mega useful this time as you’ll need to do lots of systemizing and structuring in our head after this lesson. So what about the adjectives, Axanna? |
| Eddie: Another big topic. As we know, adjectives are used to describe people and objects. All the adjectives in the dictionary are the masculine, singular, nominative case. The important point to remember is that adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. This means their endings change to agree in gender, number and case with the noun. |
| Eddie: Let’s take a look at the examples from our dialogue. |
| Oxana: Ok, we had [свежие] and [вкусные]. |
| Eddie: First we look at the nouns that these adjectives describe. What were they? |
| Oxana: [булочки] |
| Eddie: It was all about the muffins. Ok, so what do we have? [булочки] nominative case, plural number. When we have plural, we don’t think about the genders. How do we say “one muffin”? |
| Oxana:[булочка] And if we describe just one muffin, we’ll say [свежая, вкусная булочка]. Can you hear the difference in the endings? In the plural it was [свежие, вкусние] and in the singular, feminine, it’s [свежая, вкусная]. |
| Eddie: And what about if we describe a cake with these adjectives? “Cake” in Russian is masculine, right? |
| Oxana: Right, so our adjectives will change their endings in the following way. [свежый, вкусный торт.] |
Outro |
| Eddie: I can smell it now. I'm too hungry to talk about such things. |
| Oxana: Yeah, and talking about Russian pastries could be a real torture if you can’t really have them, |
| Eddie: Ok, so the rest of the questions that you might have but we might not have answered you’ll find in our PDF materials. I'm sure they’ll make things clear for you. That just about does it for today. [Пока!] |
| Oxana: [До свидания.] |
| -- |
| Джон: [Дайте пожалуйста две бутылки воды,пачку печенья, пакет молока и четыре батарейки.] |
| John: Daite pozhaluista dve butylki vody, pachku pechen’ya, paket moloka i chetyre batareiki. |
| Женщина: [Это всё?] |
| Woman: Eto vsyo? |
| Джон: [А что это там на полке?] |
| John: A chto eto tam na polke? |
| Женщина: [Это свежие булочки, очень вкусные, попробуйте.] |
| Woman: Eto svezhiye bulochki, ochen’ vkusnyye, poprobuite. |
| Джон: [Хорошо, дайте две штуки, пожалуйста.] |
| John: Horosho, davaite dve shtuki, pozhaluista. |
| Женщина: [Пожалуйста, 318 рублей.] |
| Woman: Pozhaluista, trista vosemnadtsat’ rublei. |
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