Learn about the traffic in Russia and about a phrase that will help you ask for a favor
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yura: Привет всем, с Вами – RussianPod101.com, я Yura. |
| Svetlana: А я Svetlana, здравствуйте, welcome to Intermediate Russian lesson 17 - Never-ending Russian Excuses. |
| Yura: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make polite requests. |
| Svetlana: and continue talking about perfective verbs. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Yura: And it’s between a boss and his employee. |
| The speakers will use formal Russian because the setting is formal. |
| Alright, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Работник: Алло? Иван Петрович? Я немного опаздываю на совещание. |
| Начальник: На сколько Вы опаздываете? |
| Работник: Минут на 20. Я стою в пробке на Кутузовском. |
| Начальник: Вы мне это говорите каждое утро. Вы не могли бы или выходить из дома на 20 минут раньше, или пользоваться общественным транспортом? |
| Работник: Да, я постараюсь, извините... |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Работник: Алло? Иван Петрович? Я немного опаздываю на совещание. |
| Начальник: На сколько Вы опаздываете? |
| Работник: Минут на 20. Я стою в пробке на Кутузовском. |
| Начальник: Вы мне это говорите каждое утро. Вы не могли бы или выходить из дома на 20 минут раньше, или пользоваться общественным транспортом? |
| Работник: Да, я постараюсь, извините... |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Работник: Алло? Иван Петрович? Я немного опаздываю на совещание. |
| Yura: Hello? Ivan Petrovich? I'm a little late for the meeting. |
| Начальник: На сколько Вы опаздываете? |
| Yura: How much longer will you be? |
| Работник: Минут на 20. Я стою в пробке на Кутузовском. |
| Yura: About twenty minutes. I'm in a traffic jam on Kutuzov. |
| Начальник: Вы мне это говорите каждое утро. Вы не могли бы или выходить из дома на 20 минут раньше, или пользоваться общественным транспортом? |
| Yura: You tell me this every morning. Could you please either leave the house twenty minutes earlier, or use public transportation? |
| Работник: Да, я постараюсь, извините... |
| Yura: Yes, I will try to, I am sorry... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: Ok, so she is calling because she is late, she is stuck in the traffic jam. |
| Svetlana: yes, and apparently it is not the first time. |
| Yura: I see, where is the jam? |
| Svetlana: it is on Kutuzovskiy prospekt, in Moscow... |
| Yura: I see...is it very central? |
| Svetlana: Yes, and you need to cross this street to get to many places so it is really hard to avoid it. Traffic jams in Moscow are notorious, it could last for hours. |
| Yura: Ok, and what can people do to avoid those jams? |
| Svetlana: The best choice is to use public transportation - buses, trolley buses, or microbuses with 6 people or so sitting in one. |
| Yura: I see. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: The first word is, |
| Svetlana: опаздывать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to be late, to be behind schedule |
| Svetlana: опаздывать [slowly - broken down by syllable] опаздывать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: Стоять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: stand, be stuck |
| Svetlana: Стоять [slowly - broken down by syllable] Стоять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: пробка [natural native speed] |
| Yura: traffic jam |
| Svetlana: пробка [slowly - broken down by syllable] пробка [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: каждый [natural native speed] |
| Yura: every |
| Svetlana: каждый [slowly - broken down by syllable] каждый [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: выходить [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to go out, to come out, to get off |
| Svetlana: выходить [slowly - broken down by syllable] выходить [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: или [natural native speed] Yura or или [slowly - broken down by syllable] или [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: На... раньше [natural native speed] |
| Yura: earlier |
| Svetlana На... раньше [slowly - broken down by syllable] На... раньше [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: пользоваться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to use |
| Svetlana: пользоваться [slowly - broken down by syllable] пользоваться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: Общественный транспорт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: public transportation |
| Svetlana: Общественный транспорт [slowly - broken down by syllable] Общественный транспорт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is, |
| Svetlana: постараться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to try |
| Svetlana: постараться [slowly - broken down by syllable] постараться [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Yura: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Svetlana: The first word is Опаздывать. This verb can be translated as “be late “and is often used with the preposition на which means “for”. |
| Yura: For example, ‘I am late for work.’ |
| Svetlana: Я опаздываю на работу. |
| Yura: Great. The next word is стоять which means ‘to stand.’ |
| Svetlana: in the dialogue we had “stand in the traffic jam”. Do you remember? |
| Yura: sure, стоять в пробке. It can also be translated as to wait in the traffic jam or get stuck in the traffic jam right? |
| Svetlana: that is correct. The next word is каждый-every, and we use it very often. |
| Svetlana: Каждый день |
| Yura: every day |
| Svetlana: Каждое утро |
| Yura: every morning |
| Svetlana: All right, the next word is выходить –to go out or to leave. |
| Yura: what collocations are the most important? |
| Svetlana: well, I guess ‘leave the house’ - выходить из дома and go out, I mean like go outside, in the street- выходить на улицу. |
| Yura: so if we want to say “leave some place” we use the preposition из and a noun in genitive case. |
| Svetlana: that’s correct, for example, ‘leave the store’ will be... |
| Yura: выходить из магазина. |
| Svetlana: ok, the next phrase is Нараньше. This phrase is translated as ”some minutes, hours, days, etc) earlier”. The noun after the preposition На is used in the accusative case. |
| Yura: For example, I came 5 minutes earlier. |
| Svetlana: Я пришла на 5 минут раньше. Ok, the next word is Пользоваться. |
| Yura: This verb can be translated as “use” and can be used with machines, appliances etc. The noun that follows this verb is used in the instrumental case. For example, I can’t use this rice cooker. |
| Svetlana: Я не умею пользоваться этой рисоваркой. |
| Yura: And we have one more word to go over - постараться - to try. Can you give an example? |
| Svetlana: sure, постарайся запомнить все слова из этого урока. ‘Try to remember all the words from this lesson.’ |
| Yura: Ok, I will try. Ладно, я постараюсь. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn about a set phrase which is used to ask a favor or to make a polite request. |
| Svetlana: Не могли бы вы? Could you please? After the phrase we usually use a perfective verb. |
| For example, Не могли бы вы показать мне это пальто? |
| Yura: Could you please show me this coat? |
| Svetlana: Не могли бы вы подать соль? |
| Svetlana: Could you please pass me the salt? |
| Yura: Не могли бы вы объяснить мне ещё раз? |
| Yura: Could you please explain one more time? |
| Svetlana: Sometimes this phrase is used in informal Russian, with the pronouns you, he , she - ты он, она. The verb мочь-могли slightly changes the form- into мог, могла. Не мог бы ты сделать это для меня? |
| Yura: Could you please do it for me? |
| Svetlana: Не могла бы она поехать с нами? |
| Yura: CouldN’T she go with us? |
| Svetlana: in any case it still sounds more polite than an imperative sentence, for example, сделай это для меня, пожалуйста. Please do it for me. |
| Yura: I see, and if we use this set phrase with perfective verbs, we need to know more of those. |
| Svetlana: right, in the previous lesson we had some of them, so in this lesson we are going to expand our knowledge of forming perfective verbs with prefixes. |
| Yura: but first, a little review, we have learnt that some perfective verbs can be formed with the prefix по- |
| Svetlana: right, for example, |
| Любить-полюбить (like) |
| Нравиться-понравиться (like) |
| Ехать-поехать (go) |
| Путешествовать-попутешествовать (travel) |
| Смотреть-посмотреть (look) |
| Завтракать-позавтракать (have breakfast) |
| Svetlana: Can you make a sentence? |
| Yura: I ate breakfast at 7 a.m. я позавтракал в семь утра. |
| Svetlana: good job, the next prefix we have is за- |
| Платить-заплатить (pay) |
| Учить-заучить (learn by heart). |
| Svetlana: For example, Я заплатил за еду в ресторане. |
| Yura: I paid for the food at the restaurant. Can it be ‘I have paid for the food at the restaurant?’ |
| Svetlana: sure, as you remember, the past tense and the present perfect tense are translated the same way in Russian. The next prefix is про- |
| Читать-прочитать (read) |
| Слушать-прослушать (listen) |
| Варить-проварить (boil, cook) |
| Yura: for example, Я прочитал книгу за день. I read the book in a day. |
| Svetlana: great, the next prefix is с- |
| Делать-сделать (do) |
| Есть-съесть (eat) |
| Yura: for example, Я съел три тарелки супа. “I ate three plates of soup.” |
| Svetlana: Wonderful. And that’s all for today. |
Outro |
| Svetlana: Listeners, have you ever dreamed of starring in one of our lessons? |
| Yura: If your answer is yes, use the voice-recording-tool on the lessons page! |
| Svetlana: Record your voice with a click of a button, |
| Yura: ...and then play it back just as easily. |
| Svetlana: Then, compare it to the native speakers in the lesson... |
| Yura: ...and adjust your pronunciation! |
| Svetlana: Go to RussianPod101.com, and rapidly improve your Russian pronunciation! |
| Yura: See you next time! |
| Svetlana: пока пока! |
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