Learn how to find an apartment for rent, grammatically and literally
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Svetlana: Привет всем! |
| Yura: Yura here! Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 7 - Looking for the Perfect Russian Apartment. |
| Svetlana: Hi, this is Svetlana, thanks for joining us! |
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn how to rent an apartment. The conversation is between 2 friends. |
| Svetlana: The speakers are friends, therefore the speakers will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Ok, so let's get to it! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Бен Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Бен Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Yura: Hi, do you by chance know how I can rent an apartment in Moscow? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Yura: Get a newspaper with ads, there are millions of them there. What kind of apartment are you looking for? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Yura: I want to rent a one-bedroom apartment, |
| remodeled, not far from downtown, and close to the subway. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Yura: And how much are you willing to pay for it? |
| Бен: Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Yura: Well... About four hundred dollars per month. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: In Moscow? Remodeled, close to downtown, and the subway? All you can afford for this money is a corner of a room at some grandma's, with no telephone or toilet, but with cockroaches and a lot of problems! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: Renting, let alone buying an apartment in Moscow is probably more expensive than in most countries nowadays. |
| Svetlana: Yes, Moscow has become one of the most expensive capitals in the world. |
| Yura: Luckily, you can always rent a room if you can't afford an apartment. A lot of old people rent out their spare rooms. |
| Svetlana: The disadvantage of those rooms would be a quite old interior and utilities, as well as cranky old people who live next to you. |
| Yura: True. Sometimes they also offer you breakfasts for minimal pay, but I wouldn't take them. I've heard a lot of foreigners complain the food was not of the best quality and often made their stomach upset. |
| Svetlana: I see. Well... it was probably the cheapest and not the healthiest food, all that old people can afford now. |
| Yura: Ok, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: The first word we shall see is... |
| Svetlana: снять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to rent |
| Svetlana: снять [slowly - broken down by syllable] снять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: двухкомнатная [natural native speed] |
| Yura: two room apartment |
| Svetlana: двухкомнатная [slowly - broken down by syllable] двухкомнатная [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Газета [natural native speed] |
| Yura: newspaper, magazine |
| Svetlana: Газета [slowly - broken down by syllable] Газета [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana:Искать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: look for |
| Svetlana: Искать [slowly - broken down by syllable] Искать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от... [natural native speed] |
| Yura: not far from |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от... [slowly - broken down by syllable] Недалеко от... [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Ремонт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: remodeling |
| Svetlana: Ремонт [slowly - broken down by syllable] Ремонт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Готов [natural native speed] |
| Yura: willing to, ready |
| Svetlana Готов [slowly - broken down by syllable] Готов [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Угол [natural native speed] |
| Yura: corner |
| Svetlana: Угол [slowly - broken down by syllable] Угол [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Зато [natural native speed] |
| Yura: but, but then again |
| Svetlana Зато [slowly - broken down by syllable] Зато [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: таракан [natural native speed] |
| Yura: cockroach |
| Svetlana: таракан [slowly - broken down by syllable] таракан [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 we’ll look at is снять. |
| Yura: It has multiple meanings; one of the most common is “to take off,” as in to take off a coat. |
| Svetlana: But in today’s context it means “to rent.” Now remember, you can use this word only for apartments, houses, or hotel rooms. If you were talking about renting a car or a cell phone, you would use another word. |
| Yura: Right. So we have |
| нять квартиру – “to rent an apartment” |
| снять номер в отеле – “to rent a hotel room” |
| снять комнату – “to rent a room” |
| And it works for other living spaces. |
| Svetlana: The next word is двухкомнатная, an adjective that means “two-room.” A studio is однокомнатная. And an apartment with two bedrooms but three rooms in total would be трёхкомнатная. |
| Yura: Right, so it’s the number of rooms plus комната, put into one word and turned into an adjective. Svetlana, какая у тебя квартира? |
| Svetlana: What kind of apartment do I have? Четырёхкомнатная! |
| Yura: What an example. OK, the next word is угол. |
| Svetlana: Literally it means “a corner.” Some time ago, people who couldn’t afford to rent even a room in an apartment would rent only a bed with a nightstand in the corner, separated from the rest of the room by a curtain. |
| Yura: Very few people still do it; and it’s used more as a joke, like in today’s dialogue. |
| Svetlana: And the last word to mention is “cockroach,” which in Russian is... |
| Yura: таракан |
| Svetlana: And тараканы in the plural, which is useful to know since they usually come in large quantities in old apartments. |
| Yura: Eww… Let’s stop there and get to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to rent an apartment in Russia, and the Russian prepositions. |
| Svetlana: What's the expression you were talking about? |
| Yura: Remember in the dialog we had a phrase “как мне снять квартиру в Москве?” |
| Svetlana: This phrase is a colloquial version of "как я могу", or to be more exact "как мне можно" (how can I, how is it possible to me), where "можно" is simply dropped. |
| Yura: Let's compare 3 phrases - как я могу найти Николая? Как мне можно найти Николая? and как мне найти Николая? |
| Svetlana: All three of them mean "how can I find Nikolai"? |
| Yura: - the same thing with the only difference being "как мне" is much more common and colloquial way of saying "how can I". |
| Svetlana: Ok, that is clear I think, now let's talk about the prepositions. |
| Yura: The good thing about Russian prepositions is that they are always associated with a Grammar Case, which means if you learn what prepositions govern what Case, you won't have problems with modifying nouns. |
| Svetlana: Right, so let's take a good look into them. In the lesson we came across 6 prepositions which govern different Cases – could you name them for us please? |
| Yura: Sure. They were- |
| [Russian - Svetlana / English- Yura] |
| недалеко от – not far from |
| возле – close to |
| без – without |
| с – with Instr |
| в – in Prep |
| у – by, next to, close to |
| Svetlana: What we meant by a preposition "governing a Case" is that nouns/pronouns that come after these prepositions should come in the grammar case these nouns are associated with. |
| Yura: Basically, we can say that each preposition belongs to a certain Case. |
| Svetlana: The prepositions that "belong" to the Genitive Case make the biggest quantity among all. In our dialog we had four prepositions. |
| недалеко от – not far from |
| возле – close to |
| без – without |
| у – by, next to, close to |
| Svetlana: When it comes to the prepositions, Genitive is mainly associated with 2 meanings – Closeness and Negation. |
| Yura: Prepositions that represent closeness in the dialog are недалеко от, возле and у. |
| Svetlana: And Negation is represented by the preposition без. |
| Yura: Now that we know that we are dealing with Genitive prepositions, we can build sentences. Could you give us a few examples, please? |
| Svetlana: Sure. I'll give you a few sentences. |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от магазина |
| Yura: not far from the store (магазин – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: Возле стоянки |
| Yura: near parking lot (стоянка – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: У моря |
| Yura: by the sea (море – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: Great, I think we are done with the prepositions for today. Of course there are many more of them out there, but today was a good start! |
| Yura: Okay. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Yura: Attention perfectionists! You're about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Svetlana: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Yura: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Svetlana: Super simple to use. Listen to the Russian word or phrase... |
| Yura: then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Svetlana: You'll speak with confidence knowing that you're speaking Russian like the locals. |
| Yura: Go to RussianPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lesson page today. See you next time! |
| Svetlana: пока пока! |
Comments
HideHow would be the perfect apartment for you?
Здравствуйте robert groulx,
Спасибо for taking the time to leave us a comment. 😇
Let us know if you have any questions!
Всего наилучшего,
Левенте (Levente)
Team RussianPod101.com
thank for the lesson
my favorite words are недалеко от
robert
Hello Peter,
Russian two-room apartment consists of 1 bedroom and 1 living room. It is like one bedroom (one room) apartment in USA.
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
very good lesson, one smal mistake i would like to point out, while translating " Я хочу снять двухкомнатную....", Eurya mistakenly said its "one room apartment" however it should be "two" i guess ..
Rest is perfect, Love you all !
Peter (from China)
Hello Mike,
I don't think that in Moscow people receive 8000 USD per year. The average salary in Moscow is at least 1000 USD. Of course, it depends on profession, experience etc. - can be more or less. And you can find cheaper apartment than 1700 USD per month. 😄
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
A nice apartment in Moscow apparently costs about $1700 USD per month, yet the median Russian salary is only about $8,000 USD per YEAR and jobs that pay the equivalent of USD $100,000 and above are almost non-existent. How is it possible that apartments there are so expensive? Who is renting these places out?
Hello Paul,
There is no mistake.
When we say "two rooms" apartment" in Russian we mean that it will have 2 rooms: 1 living room and 1 bedroom. In USA such apartments are called "1 bedroom" apartments.
Best regards,
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
I think there is a mistake when translating the dialogue as he says one bedroom apartment but it should be two I think...