Learn the difference between the prepositional, the accusative, and the genitive cases
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner season 1, lesson 16 - What’s Wrong With Your Russian Hotel Room? I’m Yuriy. |
| Elena: А я Елена. Привет. And I’m Elena. |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn the difference between the Prepositional, the Accusative, and the Genitive cases. |
| Elena: This conversation takes place over the phone. |
| Yuriy: The speakers are Alex and a member of the hotel staff, so they’ll be using formal Russian. |
| Elena: Okay! Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Алекс: Добрый день! Это Алекс Бейкер из номера 205. Я хочу поменять номер. |
| Персонал: Здравствуйте, что случилось? |
| Алекс: Если в двух словах, то у меня в номере не работает душ и чистота номера оставляет желать лучшего. |
| Персонал: Прошу нас извинить, мы немедленно переведём вас в номер-люкс. Ещё раз извините, пожалуйста. |
| Aleks: Dobryy den'! Eto Aleks Beyker iz nomera 205. Yа khochu pomenyat' nomer. |
| Personal: Zdravstvuyte, chto sluchilos'? |
| Aleks: Esli v dvukh slovakh to menya v nomere ne rabotayet dush i chistota nomera ostavlyayet zhelat' luchshego. |
| Personal: Proshu nas izvinit', my nemedlenno perevedom vas v nomer-lyuks. Yeshcho raz izvinite, pozhaluysta. |
| Алекс: Добрый день! Это Алекс Бейкер из номера 205. Я хочу поменять номер. |
| Yuriy: Hello! This is Alex Baker from Room 205. I want to change rooms. |
| Персонал: Здравствуйте, что случилось? |
| Yuriy: Hello. What happened? |
| Алекс: Если в двух словах, то у меня в номере не работает душ и чистота номера оставляет желать лучшего. |
| Yuriy: To put it in a nutshell, in my room, the shower isn't working, and the cleanliness leaves much to be desired. |
| Персонал: Прошу нас извинить, мы немедленно переведём вас в номер-люкс. Ещё раз извините, пожалуйста. |
| Yuriy: We do apologize. We will immediately move you into a suite. Once again, please accept our apologies. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yuriy: Poor Alex, I guess the hotel was not so good. Elena, do you think this is a common situation in Russian hotels? |
| Elena: Oh...That's not an easy question. The range of hotels in Russia is greater than ever before. So prices are also considered to be higher than average. And of course, to be honest, sometimes the quality of services, especially in cheap hotels, is not great. |
| Yuriy: But every hotel provides Internet access, right? |
| Elena: Perhaps in big cities and towns - yes. Hotels in small villages could be different. |
| Yuriy: In any case, in Russian hotels, you will be given a карточка гостя. It's a kind of hotel pass that includes information about a guest. It's like an ID to use in the hotel. |
| Elena: That's right. |
| Yuriy: Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Elena поменять [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to change |
| Elena поменять [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena поменять [natural native speed] |
| Elena что случилось? [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy what happened? |
| Elena что случилось? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena что случилось? [natural native speed] |
| Elena не работает [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy does not work, out of service |
| Elena не работает [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena не работает [natural native speed] |
| Elena душ [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy shower |
| Elena душ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena душ [natural native speed] |
| Elena чистота [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy cleanliness |
| Elena чистота [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena чистота [natural native speed] |
| Elena оставляет желать лучшего [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy leaves much to be desired |
| Elena оставляет желать лучшего [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena оставляет желать лучшего [natural native speed] |
| Elena просить [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to ask |
| Elena просить [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena просить [natural native speed] |
| Elena немедленно [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy immediately |
| Elena немедленно [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena немедленно [natural native speed] |
| Elena в двух словах [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to put it in a nutshell |
| Elena в двух словах [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena в двух словах [natural native speed] |
| Elena ещё раз [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy once again, again |
| Elena ещё раз [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena ещё раз [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 phrase for this lesson is… |
| Elena: оставляет желать лучшего |
| Yuriy: ...which can be translated as “leaves much to be desired." |
| Elena: Let’s break it down. The verb оставляет means “leaves”, the verb желать means “to desire,” and the adjective лучшего means “better.” |
| Yuriy: So this phrase has almost the same meaning as the English saying “It leaves much to be desired”? |
| Elena: Exactly. |
| Yuriy: You use this phrase if you want to say that something or its quality is not good enough, or doesn't correspond to certain requirements. It can be about things, products, or even the weather. Let’s give our listeners some examples. |
| Elena: Погода сегодня оставляет желать лучшего. |
| Yuriy: "The weather today leaves much to be desired." Okay, I think I see the pattern! What’s the next phrase? |
| Elena: The second phrase is в двух словах, which can be translated as “to put it in a nutshell” or “in short”. |
| Yuriy: The phrase consists of three words - the preposition в which means “in”, the numeral двух which means “two,” and the noun словах, which means “words”. |
| Yuriy: So literally, this phrase means "in two words"? |
| Elena: Yes. It’s kind of like telling something in short, very quickly. |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: Расскажи, пожалуйста, в двух словах, что произошло. |
| Yuriy: "Tell us please, in a nutshell, what happened." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll continue to learn about the Genitive case. Just as a reminder, this case is used to indicate possession. |
| Elena: That’s right. |
| Yuriy: It’s also used in the grammar structure “I have...”, after negated forms of the verb “to be”, in making comparisons, and to indicate part of a whole. |
| Elena: Great! You have a perfect memory. Now we'll study one more usage. |
| Yuriy: The Genitive case is also used to indicate the origin or onset of an action. It answers the question Откуда?, which can be translated into English as “Where from?” |
| Elena: It's used when we want to indicate the starting point of motion. |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: Сэм приехал из Америки. |
| Yuriy: "Sam came from America." Another example please Elena! |
| Elena: Акира - студент из Японии. |
| Yuriy: "Akira is a student from Japan." How about one more. |
| Elena: Директор вышел из кабинета. |
| Yuriy: "The director stepped out of his office." Elena, I remember that the Prepositional and the Accusative cases are also connected to location and answer the question “where?” |
| Elena: Yes, you are totally right, but there is a big difference between them. |
| Yuriy: In previous lessons, we learned that the Prepositional case indicates the location of something or somebody, and the Accusative case denotes the direction toward which something or someone is moving. |
| Elena: So, if I want to say that I'm in the bank, I should use the Prepositional case. |
| Yuriy: But if I want to say that I'm moving toward the bank, then it should be the Accusative case. And if I want to say that I went out of the bank, then it's the Genitive case. Is that right? |
| Elena: Absolutely. |
| Yuriy: All right, now let’s see how it works in Russian. The first sentence is with the Prepositional case. |
| Elena: Дедушка сейчас в больнице. |
| Yuriy: "Grandfather is in the hospital now." The next sentence is with the Accusative case. |
| Elena: Дедушка пошёл в больницу. |
| Yuriy: "Grandpa went to the hospital." And the Genitive one? |
| Elena: Дедушка пришёл из больницы. |
| Yuriy: "Grandfather came from the hospital." Ok! great! Listeners, always remember you can check the lesson notes for more details and explanations. |
Outro |
| Elena: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Yuriy: Thanks for listening everyone! |
| Elena: Спасибо вам большое и до скорой встречи! |
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