Learn how to form the accusative case for direct objects
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 12 - What Do Your Russian Relatives Do? I’m Yuriy. |
| Elena: А я Елена. Привет. And I’m Elena. |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn how to form the accusative case in Russian. |
| Elena: The conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Yuriy: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Russian. Okay! Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Лера: Алекс, где работает твой старший брат? |
| Алекс: Он работает в университете и преподает японский язык. |
| Лера: Ну тогда он, наверное, хорошо знает японские традиции. |
| Алекс: Конечно, он каждый день читает различные книги про историю и культуру Японии. |
| Lera: Aleks, gde rabotayet tvoy starshiy brat? |
| Aleks: On rabotayet v universitete i prepodayet yaponskiy yazyk. |
| Lera: Nu togda on, navernoye, khorosho znayet yaponskiye traditsii. |
| Aleks: Konechno, on kazhdyy den' chitayet razlichnyye knigi pro istoriyu i kul'tury Yaponii. |
| Лера: Алекс, где работает твой старший брат? |
| Yuriy: Alex, where does your elder brother work? |
| Алекс: Он работает в университете и преподает японский язык. |
| Yuriy: He works at the university and teaches the Japanese language. |
| Лера: Ну тогда он, наверное, хорошо знает японские традиции. |
| Yuriy: Well, then he probably knows Japanese traditions well. |
| Алекс: Конечно, он каждый день читает различные книги про историю и культуру Японии. |
| Yuriy: Of course; every day, he reads a variety of books on the history and culture of Japan. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yuriy: I think Alex misses his family. |
| Elena: I’m not surprised - family is very important in Russia! That said, statistics show that there are more and more divorces in Russia these days. |
| Yuriy: I’ve heard that more than half of marriages end in divorce now...Why do you think this is happening? |
| Elena: Probably dissatisfaction, financial difficulties, or even alcoholism in the family. |
| Yuriy: This can lead to relationships breaking down. If the couple is really young, they sometimes might not be able to rebuild their relationships in a strong or mature way. |
| Elena: That’s right, and adultery is another cause of serious marital problems in Russia. |
| Yuriy: I suppose it’s true in the rest of the world as well. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Elena японский [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy Japanese |
| Elena японский [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena японский [natural native speed] |
| Elena знать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to know |
| Elena знать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena знать [natural native speed] |
| Elena культура [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy culture |
| Elena культура [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena культура [natural native speed] |
| Elena различный [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy various |
| Elena различный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena различный [natural native speed] |
| Elena история [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy history |
| Elena история [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena история [natural native speed] |
| Elena каждый [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy each, every |
| Elena каждый [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena каждый [natural native speed] |
| Elena день [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy day |
| Elena день [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena день [natural native speed] |
| Elena язык [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy tongue, language |
| Elena язык [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena язык [natural native speed] |
| Elena традиция [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy tradition |
| Elena традиция [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena традиция [natural native speed] |
| Elena работать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to work |
| Elena работать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena работать [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yuriy: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First up is... |
| Elena: ...история... |
| Yuriy: ...which can be translated as “history”. |
| Elena: But it actually has several meanings. |
| Yuriy: The first meaning is “history”, a chronological record of past events, times or developments. Let’s hear it in a Russian sentence! |
| Elena: Я читаю книгу об истории Киевской Руси. |
| Yuriy: “I am reading a book about the history of Kievskaya Rus.” Another meaning is “history” but referring to a school subject. For example... |
| Elena: Иван сейчас на уроке истории. |
| Yuriy: “Ivan is in history class now.” The third meaning of this word is “story” or “narrative”, and it’s often used in the expression... |
| Elena: рассказать историю |
| Yuriy: “to tell a story”. For example... |
| Elena: Дети любят рассказывать страшные истории. |
| Yuriy: “Children like to tell scary stories.” I see how it works. What’s the next word? |
| Elena: The next key word for this lesson is the masculine noun язык which can be translated as “language”. |
| Yuriy: But again, it has more than one meaning. The two main meanings which are widely used in Russian are “language”, a method of communication between people such as Russian, French, body language, sign language, and “tongue”, which is simply the part of one’s body. |
| Elena: For example, Я учу японский язык. |
| Yuriy: “I’m studying the Japanese language.” |
| Elena: Доктор говорит: ‘Покажите пожалуйста ваш язык.’ |
| Yuriy: “The doctor says: ‘Please show me your tongue.’” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the accusative case. |
| Elena: It’s one of the most simple cases in the Russian language, because you don't need to remember a lot of new noun endings. |
| Yuriy: In Russian, the accusative case is used when you want to show the object of an action, or a direct object. It answers the questions: Кого? “Whom?” Что? “What?” |
| Elena: What is the direct object? |
| Yuriy: For example in the sentence ‘I am reading a book’, the book is the object acted on by me. It answers the question “What?” I read what? A book. In this case, the noun “book” should be put into the accusative case. |
| Elena: When we want to show the object of an action, we don't need to use any prepositions. |
| Yuriy: Now let’s see how to make the accusative case forms of nouns. The accusative forms of masculine nouns depend on whether this noun is inanimate or animate. The endings of all inanimate nouns are similar to the nominative case. |
| Elena: The endings of all masculine animate nouns will be а, я, or ия. |
| Yuriy: For example? |
| Elena: герой, which is “hero” in the accusative case will be героя. And врач, which is “doctor”, will be врача. |
| Yuriy: Let’s show some example sentences. |
| Elena: Иван читает журнал. |
| Yuriy: “Ivan is reading a magazine.” The noun журнал, meaning “magazine”, is an inanimate noun, which is why it won’t change its ending. |
| Elena: Я вижу учителя. |
| Yuriy: “I see a teacher.” The noun учитель, “teacher”, is animate, which is why we changed the ending from ь to я. |
| Elena: учитель - учителя. |
| Yuriy: Neuter nouns don't change their endings at all, they are the same as in the nominative case. For example... |
| Elena: Он пишет письмо. |
| Yuriy: “He’s writing a letter.” The endings of feminine nouns don’t depend on whether this noun is animate or inanimate. |
| Elena: a will change to у, я to ю, and ия to ию. Feminine nouns ending in ь don't change their ending. |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: книга |
| Yuriy: “book”; книгу |
| Elena: семья |
| Yuriy: “family”; семью |
| Elena: But ночь, “night”, will be the same; ночь. |
| Yuriy: Now let’s show the difference between the three cases: nominative, prepositional, and accusative. |
| Elena: Это книга. |
| Yuriy: “This is a book.” The word “book” is in the nominative case. |
| Elena: Я читаю книгу. |
| Yuriy: “I am reading a book.” This is in the accusative case, showing that the book is an object of my action. I read what? A book. |
| Elena: На книге яблоко. |
| Yuriy: “There is an apple on the book.” This is the prepositional case, denoting the location of the apple. |
| Elena: And you can see, the word “book” changes forms because of the cases: книга, книгу, книге, nominative, accusative and prepositional case respectively. |
| Yuriy: For more information about this, please read the lesson notes. |
Outro |
| Elena: Okay, and that’s all for this lesson! |
| Yuriy: Thanks for listening everyone! We’ll see you next time. |
| Elena: Спасибо вам большое и до скорой встречи! |
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