Learn how to form the prepositional case of Russian nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner season 1, lesson 10 - Exchanging Money in Russia. I’m Yuriy. |
| Elena: Привет, меня зовут Елена. Hello, I’m Elena! |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn about the prepositional case in Russian. |
| Elena: The conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Yuriy: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Russian. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Алекс: Лера, ты не знаешь, где можно обменять доллары на рубли? |
| Лера: В любом банке или обменном пункте. Но я считаю, что самый лучший курс - в банке “Ситибанк”. |
| Алекс: А где находится этот банк? |
| Лера: Прямо в центре, на площади «Независимости». Вот его адрес. |
| Алекс: Пойдешь со мной? На обратном пути поужинаем вместе в ресторане. |
| Лера: Ладно, уговорил! |
| Aleks: Lera, ty ne znayesh', gde mozhno pomenyat' dollary na rubli? |
| Lera: V lyubom banke ili obmennom punkte. No ya schitayu, chto samyy luchshiy kurs - v banke “Sitibank”. |
| Aleks: A gde nakhoditsya etot bank? |
| Lera: Pryamo v tsentre, na ploshchadi «Nezavisimosti». Vot yego adres. |
| Aleks: Poydesh' so mnoy? Na obratnom puti pouzhinayem vmeste v restorane. |
| Lera: Ladno, ugovoril! |
| Алекс: Лера, ты не знаешь, где можно обменять доллары на рубли? |
| Yuriy: Lera, do you know where I can exchange dollars for rubles? |
| Лера: В любом банке или обменном пункте. Но я считаю, что самый лучший курс - в банке “Ситибанк”. |
| Yuriy: In any bank or exchange office. But I think that the best exchange rate is at Citibank. |
| Алекс: А где находится этот банк? |
| Yuriy: Where is this bank located? |
| Лера: Прямо в центре, на площади «Независимости». Вот его адрес. |
| Yuriy: Right in the center, in Independence Square. Here's the address. |
| Алекс: Пойдешь со мной? На обратном пути поужинаем вместе в ресторане. |
| Yuriy: Will you go with me? On our way back home, we can have dinner together at a restaurant. |
| Лера: Ладно, уговорил! |
| Yuriy: Okay, persuaded! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yuriy: Is this really how you exchange dollars for rubles in Moscow? |
| Elena: Yes! And it’s really very easy. Just go to a bank or exchange office. |
| Yuriy: Where can people find these offices? |
| Elena: You can find them almost anywhere - at railway stations, supermarkets, underground walkways, and on street corners. If you see a yellow board with a currency exchange sign, that would be it. |
| Yuriy: Do I need to show my passport? |
| Elena: Yeah, and depending on the exchange office, the currency exchange rate can differ. Just check a bunch of exchange offices and choose the best one. |
| Yuriy: Oh, ok. So pretty much like any other place. |
| Elena: By the way, in Moscow, you can also use ATMs for a currency exchange. It’s very convenient because they have English instructions. |
| Yuriy: That’s a handy tip! Спасибо! Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Elena обменять [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to exchange |
| Elena обменять [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena обменять [natural native speed] |
| Elena любой [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy any |
| Elena любой [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena любой [natural native speed] |
| Elena обменный пункт [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy exchange office |
| Elena обменный пункт [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena обменный пункт [natural native speed] |
| Elena считать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to consider, to count |
| Elena считать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena считать [natural native speed] |
| Elena курс [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy course; university year |
| Elena курс [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena курс [natural native speed] |
| Elena площадь [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy square |
| Elena площадь [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena площадь [natural native speed] |
| Elena центр [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy center |
| Elena центр [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena центр [natural native speed] |
| Elena уговаривать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to convince, to persuade |
| Elena уговаривать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena уговаривать [natural native speed] |
| Elena поужинать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to have dinner, supper |
| Elena поужинать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena поужинать [natural native speed] |
| Elena ладно [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy okay, well, fine |
| Elena ладно [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena ладно [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yuriy: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word in this lesson is... |
| Elena: считать, which can be translated as “to think” or “to consider”. |
| Yuriy: We often use this word when we want to express our thoughts or opinions about different topics. For example... |
| Elena: Я считаю, что Иван хороший человек. |
| Yuriy: “I consider Ivan to be a good person.” |
| Elena: Как ты считаешь, это кино интересное? |
| Yuriy: “What do you think, is this movie interesting?” |
| Elena: The second meaning of this verb is “to count” or “to calculate” things like money, calories, profit, etc. |
| Yuriy: For example? |
| Elena: Он любит считать чужие деньги. |
| Yuriy: “He likes to count other people's money.” |
| Elena: Компания считает свои убытки. |
| Yuriy: “The company is calculating its losses.” Ok, good! What’s the next word? |
| Elena: The next word for this lesson is the masculine noun курс, which means “rate”. |
| Yuriy: Here is the example from the dialogue. |
| Elena: Но я считаю, что самый лучший курс - в банке ‘Ситибанк’. |
| Yuriy: “But I think that the best exchange rate is at ‘Citibank’.” Speaking of currency exchange, the noun курс is translated as “rate” or “exchange rate”. For example... |
| Elena: Какой сегодня курс доллара? |
| Yuriy: “What is the dollar rate today? |
| Elena: Ты знаешь курс евро? |
| Yuriy: “Do you know the Euro exchange rate?” But this noun has one more meaning which is “course”, as in a subject you study at university or the term used for some kind of training program. Can you give an example, please Elena? |
| Elena: Я взял в университете курс экономики. |
| Yuriy: “I took a course in economics at the university.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use prepositional case. The prepositional case is used in two ways - when we talk about location, and when we talk about our thoughts or feelings. In this lesson, we’ll have a closer look at the first usage. |
| Elena: Here’s a rule: the prepositional case is used when you want to express where something or somebody is, or when you want to point out the place of a particular action.” |
| Yuriy: It’s very simple. The main question of the prepositional case is Где? or “Where?”, or its variants На чём?, meaning “On what?”, and В чём? meaning “In what?” There are several rules about how you can form the prepositional case. |
| Elena: In the case of masculine nouns, you just need to change their endings to е. |
| Yuriy: If it’s in singular form and the stem ends in a consonant, you need to add the ending е to that consonant. For example... |
| Elena: банк |
| Yuriy: “bank” |
| Elena: в банке |
| Yuriy: “in bank”. If it’s in singular form, the noun ends in й or ь you just need to change the ending to е. For example… |
| Elena: музей |
| Yuriy: “museum” |
| Elena: в музеe |
| Yuriy: “in the museum”. And the last rule for masculine nouns is that nouns ending in ий will change to the ending ии. Some examples please. |
| Elena: планетарий |
| Yuriy: “planetarium” |
| Elena: в пранетарии. |
| Yuriy: “in a planetarium”. Literally this would translate as “in planetarium”, that is, it lacks the article “a” or “the” because in Russian we don’t have articles, so bear this in mind. Are there any exceptions to these prepositional cases, Elena? |
| Elena: Of course, and we have included these in the lesson notes for you. |
| Yuriy: What about feminine nouns? |
| Elena: Feminine nouns ending in a and я will also change their endings to е. |
| Yuriy: How about some examples? |
| Elena: книга |
| Yuriy: “book” |
| Elena: в книге |
| Yuriy: “in the book” |
| Elena: семья |
| Yuriy: “family” |
| Elena: в семье |
| Yuriy: “in the family”. But feminine nouns ending in ь and ия will change their endings to и and ии, respectively. For example... |
| Elena: площадь |
| Yuriy: “square” |
| Elena: на площади |
| Yuriy: “on the square” |
| Elena: Италия |
| Yuriy: “Italy” |
| Elena: в Италии |
| Yuriy: “in Italy”. Neuter nouns will change their endings о and ие to е and иe, respectively. Neuter nouns ending in e do not change. For example... |
| Elena: окно |
| Yuriy: “window” |
| Elena: на окне |
| Yuriy: “on the window” |
| Elena: море |
| Yuriy: “sea” |
| Elena: в море |
| Yuriy: “in the sea”. By the way, why is the prepositional case called “prepositional”? |
| Elena: Lucky for you listeners, this is not a trick question. It’s simply because it’s used only with prepositions, such as в, meaning “in”, or на, meaning “on”. |
| Yuriy: The preposition в, or “in”, is used for actions taking place in an enclosed space. For example... |
| Elena: Деньги находятся в банке. |
| Yuriy: “The money is in the bank.” The preposition на, or “on”, is used when we talk about action taking place in an open space or the surface of a subject. For example... |
| Elena: Банк находится на улице Пушкина |
| Yuriy: “The bank is located on Pushkin street.” Obviously, the street is an open space, so the bank cannot be situated in the street. |
Outro |
| Yuriy: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Elena: For more examples and information, please check the lesson notes. |
| Yuriy: Thanks for listening everyone. See you in our next lesson. Bye! |
| Elena: До скорого встречи! |
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