Learn several word explanations, reflexive verb indicators, and some exceptions of Russian reflexive verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eddie: Eddie here. And welcome to the next miniseries of the first season of Lower Intermediate Lessons. Today is lesson 11, Russian time passes too quickly. What’s it going to be about, Oksana? Do we need any introduction? |
| Oksana: Well, we just got over with the hospital and nerdy, sleepless patient. I think it’s time to move on to something lighter. I suggest we practice an informal way of speech today, the way young guys and girls use to communicate in Russian nowadays. |
| Eddie: So I guess we’re talking about guys and girls today, huh? |
| Oksana: Just a couple. |
| Eddie: Ok, so in this scene we have two characters, a guy named Vlad and a girl named Irina or just Ira, as Vlad calls her. |
| Oksana: Let’s listen to the conversation and find out what the story is about. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Ира! Эй! Обернись! Привет, это я, Влад, узнала меня? |
| Oksana: О, привет! Сто лет не виделись. Ты каким ветром здесь? |
| Eddie: Там за углом моё общежитие, а сейчас я просто вышел пройтись. |
| Oksana: Общежитие? А, ты ещё учишься. |
| Eddie: Мда... Слушай, извини, что я тебе тогда соврал… |
| Oksana: Да ничего, “банкир”, забыли! |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Ира! Эй! Обернись! Привет, это я, Влад, узнала меня? |
| Oksana: О, привет! Сто лет не виделись. Ты каким ветром здесь? |
| Eddie: Там за углом моё общежитие, а сейчас я просто вышел пройтись. |
| Oksana: Общежитие? А, ты ещё учишься. |
| Eddie : Мда... Слушай, извини, что я тебе тогда соврал… |
| Oksana: Да ничего, “банкир”, забыли! |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Ира! Эй! Обернись! Привет, это я, Влад, узнала меня? |
| Eddie: Ira! Hey! Turn around! Hi, it's me, Vlad, do you recognize me? |
| Oksana: О, привет! Сто лет не виделись. Ты каким ветром здесь? |
| Eddie: Oh, hi! It's been ages. What brings you here? |
| Oksana: Там за углом моё общежитие, а сейчас я просто вышел пройтись. |
| Eddie: There's my dormitory around the corner, and now I'm just taking a walk. |
| Oksana: Общежитие? А, ты ещё учишься. |
| Eddie: Dormitory? Oh, you are still in school. |
| Oksana: Мда... Слушай, извини, что я тебе тогда соврал… |
| Eddie: Yeah... Look, I'm sorry I lied back then… |
| Oksana: Да ничего, “банкир”, забыли! |
| Eddie: It's okay, "banker," forget it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Oksana: Ok, so apparently these two kids know each other from before, although they’re not even nearly friends, just weird acquaintances. |
| Eddie: Yeah, there’s obviously a story behind their acquaintance. Seems like the guy was not fair game with the girl, trying to play a power card, introducing himself as a banker. Now he’s got nothing but a sorry look and a girl’s sarcasm. |
| Oksana: Yeah, well, she’s not being mean to him or anything. In fact, she seems to be pretty open for communication and treats him with - how should I put it - superior leniency. |
| Eddie: I can imagine her walking down the street now, not even slowing down and talking over her shoulder. |
| Oksana: Well, what else could anyone expect in this situation? |
| Eddie: Anyway, we’ll know what happens to those two in our next lessons. Obviously the story has just started, but for now our task is to learn the vocabulary they used to communicate. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we’ll see is… |
| Oksana: [Обернуться] |
| Eddie: To turn around, to turn into, take someone else’s [guys? 00:01:45]. |
| Oksana: [Обернуться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Узнать] |
| Eddie: To recognize. |
| Oksana: [Узнать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Ветер] |
| Eddie: Wind. |
| Oksana: [Ветер] |
| Eddie: And the next one. |
| Oksana: [За углом] |
| Eddie: Around the corner. |
| Oksana: [За углом] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Общежитие] |
| Eddie: Dormitory. |
| Oksana: [Общежитие] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Пройтись] |
| Eddie: To take a walk. |
| Oksana: [Пройтись] |
| Eddie: And next. |
| Oksana: [Слушай] |
| Eddie: Listen, look. (command form) |
| Oksana: [Слушать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Врать] |
| Eddie: To lie. |
| Oksana: [Врать] |
| Eddie: And finally. |
| Oksana: [Забыть] |
| Eddie: To forget. |
| Oksana: [Забыть] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First we have a word for “turn around” in a command form because this is what Vlad orders Ira to do on the street. |
| Oksana: Yes, [Обернись]. It comes from the word [обернуться]. |
| Eddie: It’s clearly a reflexive verb because it has the ending [ся], but the tricky thing about this word is, if you drop this ending, you’ll get a verb with a totally different meaning. The word [обернуть] means “to wrap around”. |
| Oksana: Right. You can say [обернуть подарок], for example, which will mean “to wrap a present”. But [обернуться] means “to turn around”. |
| Eddie: Next we have a word for “recognize”. |
| Oksana: Yeah, in the phrase [Узнала меня?]. Literally “Did you recognize me?” The dictionary form of the verb “to recognize” is [узнать]. |
| Eddie: Ok, so how would you say “I'm sorry, I didn’t recognize you”? |
| Oksana: [Извини. Я тебя не узнала]. I often hear it on the phone when I call people. Apparently my voice is one of those that you hear 1,000 times but it never leaves a trace in your mind. |
| Eddie: What can I say? Maybe after 1,000 lessons people will start recognizing you on RussianPod. |
| Oksana: You’re very supportive and tactful. Ok, the next word we had was… Oh, it was actually a phrase. [Сто лет не виделись.] |
| Eddie: Literally “100 years haven’t seen each other”. It’s a very popular expression to say “a long time”. The word [видеться] means “to see each other”, “to meet”. |
| Oksana: The next phrase is also an idiomatic expression - [Каким ветром?]. |
| Eddie: Literally “by what wind” and means “What brought you here?” in a very informal way which is used among good friend. |
| Oksana: Right. And just in case, the word for “wind” is [ветер] but because we’re talking about it as kind of means by which Vlad was brought here, we put it into the instrumental case, remember? Whenever you have the English prepositions “by” or “with” in the translation, you put the noun into the instrumental case. |
| Eddie: Right. Like here we had “by what wind” where “by” was a clear signal for us to put “wind” into the instrumental case. |
| Oksana: Next we have a phrase - [За углом]. |
| Eddie: Which literally means “behind the corner” and is translated as “around the corner”. The dictionary form of “corner” is [угол], but in the phrase “around the corner” it’s put into the instrumental case again. |
| Oksana: The similar examples could be [За домом] “around the house”, [За спиной] “behind someone’s back”, [За столом] “at the table”. |
| Eddie: So the nouns after the preposition [за] in the meaning of “behind” or “around” should be put into the instrumental case. Ok, what’s the next word? |
| Oksana: [Общежитие] |
| Eddie: “Dormitory”. It actually has two words in it: [обще], which means “common”, and [жить], which is “live”. Together they make the word [общежитие]. Next is… |
| Oksana: [Пройтись] “To take a walk”. It’s commonly used to make a suggestion “let’s take a walk”, [Давай пройдемся]. Next we have a short and funny [мда..]. |
| Eddie: Basically it’s the same [да] but it has some connotation with it. |
| Oksana: Yeah, Russians usually kind of sing this word like [мда...] in situations like they’re unpleasantly but quietly surprised, disappointed or skeptical about something, or… Well, in our case, a guy was just admitting that he’d messed up. |
| Eddie: [Мда...] Poor guy, he feels pretty bad about the whole situation. And we have another word… |
| Oksana: [Слушай] which is “listen” in a command form. It comes from the word [слушать], “to listen”. |
| Eddie: It’s the equivalent of the English “look”, used to get someone’s attention or point something out. |
| Oksana: Right. Next word is [соврать]. |
| Eddie: It comes from the word [врать], “to lie”. The prefix [со] only changes its form from imperfective to perfective. |
| Oksana: Yeah, so basically we use [врать] when we talk about habitual or ongoing lying, we use [соврать] when we are talking about one particular lie. |
| Eddie: Vlad tries to point out that his lie was just a onetime thing, right? |
| Oksana: He does. See? Not even saying that directly, he’s already kind of lingua programming Ira for believing him that it was just a onetime mistake. |
| Eddie: Ok, that sounds a bit too complicated for a simple situation like this. But you’re probably right, although it’s just something the native speakers can catch on and we just have to learn and remember. The next word to look at was… |
| Oksana: [Ничего]. Literally it means “nothing”, but you can use it as a short reply in the following situations. [Как дела?] “How are you? |
| Eddie: [Ничего] “Not bad.” |
| Oksana: Or [Извини, пожалуйста] “I'm sorry.” |
| Eddie: [Ничего]. “Don’t mention it.” And the last word for today would be… |
| Oksana: [Забыли] |
| Eddie: Literally “forgot”. It’s a very colloquial way to say that you don’t hold a grudge on a person or that the question is not worth discussing. Can be translated as “forget it” or “let’s drop it”. |
| Oksana: Right. It’s used pretty often. It comes from the word [забыть], “to forget”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Right. Now let’s take a look at some grammar points that you might have been confused by in this lesson. There won’t be much grammar for you in this lesson because we wanted to give you some time to focus on the vocabulary. |
| Oksana: Besides, there won’t be anything particularly new for you in today’s grammar. We will talk about the reflexive verbs. |
| Eddie: It’s important that you fully understand all forms and meanings of the reflexive verbs because this small ending [ся] can really mess up the meaning of your speech, let alone the grammar. So we’ll take a look back and review the types of verbs which are called reflexive. |
| Oksana: As you might remember from the beginner lessons, reflexive verbs in Russian are used to indicate the concept of self. For example, “I washed myself.” |
| Eddie: The indicators of the reflexive verbs are the endings [ся] or [сь]. |
| Oksana: And the example of such word in our lesson can be [учиться], “to study”, or literally to teach yourself. If you drop the ending [ся], you will get a simple verb for “to teach”, [учить]. We also had another word, [видеться]. Let’s talk about it for a bit more. |
| Eddie: The word [видеться], “to meet”, “to see each other”, is also related to the group of the reflexive verbs but it’s called reciprocal because it expresses the concept of each other. If we drop the ending [ся], we’ll get the verb for “to see”, [видеть]. Oksana, could you give us some more reciprocal verbs? |
| Oksana: Sure, for example [обняться], “to hug each other”, or [обменяться], “to exchange” with each other. |
| Eddie: Thank you. I think we had a few more verbs with [ся] in the end, didn’t we? |
| Oksana: Oh, yeah, the verbs [пройтись] and [обернуться]. |
| Eddie: Yes, let’s talk about those a bit. So the words [пройтись] and [обернуться] are a little exceptional. Without the ending [ся], [пройтись] means “to walk though” like [Пройти через лес], “to walk through the forest”, but not “to walk someone”. But with the ending [ся] it’s a simple reflexive verb in the meaning of “walk yourself” or “to take a walk” in proper English. |
| Oksana: Yeah, and the verb [обернуться]… Oh, we’ve mentioned it already. Ok, I’ll repeat. [обернуться], “turn around”, also has a different meaning without the ending [ся]. [Обернуть] means “to wrap around” or just “to wrap” like “to wrap a present” for example. |
Outro |
| Eddie: We’ll keep talking about reflexive verbs in the next lesson because it’s not something we can cover in five minutes. It’s a significant part of Russian grammar. |
| Oksana: So we’ll give you a week to digest today’s information and get ready for another, probably a bigger portion. |
| Eddie: Ok, that’s your lot for today. [Пока] |
| Oksana: See you next time. Bye. |
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