Learn how to use the Russian possible and impossible correctly
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oksana: [Всем привет! С вами Оксана] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 23. I hope you’re following our story about a married couple who are going through some rough times due to unacceptable behavior for a married mad. |
| Oksana: Basically a woman got mad at her husband because he came home late, drunk and had traces of another woman on him. |
| Eddie: In the first lesson we witnessed an ugly scene of this poor woman yelling at her husband in a helpless attempt to reach out to him, but she quickly realized that he was too drunk for any sort of serious talk. |
| Oksana: And that she’s just wasting her breath. So she tries to put him to bed and save a serious talk for the next day. |
| Eddie: Or maybe not a talk, maybe she’ll decide to get back at him in some way. |
| Oksana: Who knows what’s on her mind. I’d say what’s point of talking and hearing the promises of a better attitude again and again? |
| Eddie: So I'm guessing it’s going to be revenge. Let’s listen to the conversation and find out what solution the woman has come up with. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Родная, ты дома? О Боже, что это такое?! |
| Oksana: Это мои друзья, познакомься! Алик и Вадим! |
| Eddie: Сделай тише музыку! Что происходит? Ты пьяная?! |
| Oksana: Не пьянее, чем ты был вчера. Я отдыхаю! Тебе можно, а мне нельзя? |
| Eddie: И кто эти "друзья"? Я впервые их вижу! |
| Oksana: Ну, я твоих секретарш тоже не знаю, но это не мешает тебе с ними развлекаться до ночи! |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Родная, ты дома? О Боже, что это такое?! |
| Oksana: Это мои друзья, познакомься! Алик и Вадим! |
| Eddie: Сделай тише музыку! Что происходит? Ты пьяная?! |
| Oksana: Не пьянее, чем ты был вчера. Я отдыхаю! Тебе можно, а мне нельзя? |
| Eddie: И кто эти "друзья"? Я впервые их вижу! |
| Oksana: Ну, я твоих секретарш тоже не знаю, но это не мешает тебе с ними развлекаться до ночи! |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Родная, ты дома? О Боже, что это такое?! |
| Eddie: Darling, are you at home? Oh my God, what is this?! |
| Oksana: Это мои друзья, познакомься! Алик и Вадим! |
| Eddie: Meet my friends! Alik and Vadim! |
| Oksana: Сделай тише музыку! Что происходит? Ты пьяная?! |
| Eddie: Turn down the music! What's going on? Are you drunk?! |
| Oksana: Не пьянее, чем ты был вчера. Я отдыхаю! Тебе можно, а мне нельзя? |
| Eddie: Not any drunker than you were yesterday. I'm having fun! You can and I can't? |
| Oksana: И кто эти "друзья"? Я впервые их вижу! |
| Eddie: And who are these "friends"? I've never seen them before! |
| Oksana: Ну, я твоих секретарш тоже не знаю, но это не мешает тебе с ними развлекаться до ночи! |
| Eddie: Well, I haven't met your secretaries either, but it doesn't stand in the way of you having fun with them until the night! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Do you think this sort of revenge will balance out his guilt and her hurt feelings and bring peace to their family again? |
| Oksana: I think she did for self-satisfaction just to hurt him back, and it will only widen the crack in their relationship. |
| Eddie: Or he can bring his secretary to her party and everyone will have fun. |
| Oksana: That’s terrible, Eddie. I’ll have to stop you there. Better let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: Ok, the first word we’ll look at is… |
| Oksana: [Родной] |
| Eddie: Natural, native, home. |
| Oksana: [Родной] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [О, Боже] |
| Eddie: Oh my god. |
| Oksana: [О, Боже] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Тихий] |
| Eddie: Quiet. |
| Oksana: [Тихий] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Происходить] |
| Eddie: To happen, occur, go on. |
| Oksana: [Происходить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Пьяный] |
| Eddie: Drunk. |
| Oksana: [Пьяный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Отдыхать] |
| Eddie: To rest. |
| Oksana: [Отдыхать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Можно] |
| Eddie: It’s allowed to, can, may, it’s possible to. |
| Oksana: [Можно] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Нельзя] |
| Eddie: You can’t, you mustn’t, it’s forbidden, it’s impossible. |
| Oksana: [Нельзя] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Впервые] |
| Eddie: For the first time. |
| Oksana: [Впервые] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Мешать] |
| Eddie: To bother, interrupt, be in the way. |
| Oksana: [Мешать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Развлекаться] |
| Eddie: To have fun. |
| Oksana: [Развлекаться] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we have is another sweet, pet word the guys is calling his wife when he comes home. |
| Oksana: [Родная] It means “dear” in this case. For a man it would sounds as [родной]. |
| Eddie: This word can be used in a couple of other situations, can’t it? |
| Oksana: Yes, and the expressions like [родной брат], “natural brother”, or [родная сестра], “natural sister”, [родная мать], “birthmother”. |
| Eddie: I see. So it’s the way to refer to your blood relatives, but I was talking about [родной язык]. I think it means “native language”, “mother tongue”, doesn’t it? |
| Oksana: Right, you can say [Английский-мой родной язык], “English is my native language”, and calling your partner [родной] or [родная] means that you’re feeling so close to them like you have blood ties. |
| Eddie: I see. So obviously the guy is trying his best to sound all sweet and loving, but the second he steps inside his apartment he hears the music roaring and sees a bunch of guys entertaining his wife. What’s his reaction to that? |
| Oksana: [О, Боже!] |
| Eddie: “Oh my God!” Yes, Russians say the lord’s name as often as English speakers do. Well, in this situation God would probably be the only one to hear him because his voice was drowned out by a music blast. |
| Oksana: Right, so he’s asking her to turn the volume down. [Сделай тише музыку] which literally means “make quieter music”. [Тише] comes from the adjective [тихий], “quiet”. |
| Eddie: And after he made sure he was heard, he asked [Что происходит?], “What’s going on?” |
| Oksana: The word [происходить] literally means “to happen” but it’s also the word to use in the phrase like “What’s going on?” [Что происходит?]. |
| Eddie: How would you ask “What happened?” using this word? |
| Oksana: You just have to put it into the past tense. [Что произошло?] |
| Eddie: I see. So what’s going on there? |
| Oksana: Well, apparently the girl is [пьяная], “drunk”, just like he was [пьяный] the day before. |
| Eddie: But she puts it into some other words like “no more drunk that you were yesterday”. How did she say that? |
| Oksana: [Не пьянее, чем ты был вчера] A sarcastic remark which was supposed to put them on the same level of crime. |
| Eddie: We have a grammar structure here, [не, чем] which means “not them”. Can you give us another example with it? |
| Oksana: For example [Не позднее, чем в пять], “No later than five”. |
| Eddie: Ok, good. Next she says [Я отдыхаю], “I'm having fun”. |
| Oksana: The word [отдыхать] can mean both “to take a rest”, “relax” and “to have fun”, it depends on the context. For example [Я хочу отдохнуть дома], “I want to rest at home”, and [Я хорошо отдохнул на Гаваях], “I had fun in Hawaii”. |
| Eddie: In our case, the girl doesn’t seem to be just quietly taking a rest, she’s having great fun there. |
| Oksana: Right. Moreover she’s trying to emphasize that saying [Тебе можно, а мне нельзя?]. |
| Eddie: Let’s take a closer look at those words. [Можно] and [нельзя]. [Можно] means “allowed to”, “possible”, “ok to”. [Нельзя] means the opposite, “not allowed to”, “not possible”. When you talk about something being allowed or not allowed, or possible or impossible to a specific person, you should put this person into the dative case like [мне, тебе], “to me”, “to you”. |
| Oksana: I’ll give you a couple of more examples. [Ему уже можно голосовать] “He can vote already”. [Лиане можно войти] “Liana can come in.” |
| Eddie: So as you can see, we put “him” and “Liana” into the dative case because it’s them that are allowed to do things. |
| Oksana: And here are the examples with [нельзя]. [Мне нельзя пить] “I shouldn’t drink.” [Николаю нельзя этого знать] “Nikolai mustn’t know this.” |
| Eddie: So again, the guys who were not allowed to do something were [я] and “Nikolai”. After putting them into the dative case, we got [мне] and [Николаю]. Also, when you talk about something being allowed or forbidden in general you say “it” or “it’s not” in English, like “it’s forbidden to smoke here”. Whereas in Russian, all you need is just one of the words [можно] or [нельзя] to express the general ideas or rules. |
| Oksana: Like in the examples [В Париже можно купить этот сыр], “You can buy this cheese in Paris” or “It’s possible to buy this cheese in Paris”. [Здесь нельзя курить], “It’s not allowed to smoke here”. |
| Eddie: Right. Also, the word [можно] can be used when asking for permission. The usage in this case is very simple, first you say [можно] and then make a simple question in Russian, which is basically a simple statement with question intonation. |
| Oksana: Yeah, for example [Можно я сегодня тебе позвоню?], “Can I call you today?” [Можно я уйду с работы пораньше], “Can I leave work earlier?” |
| Eddie: Ok, I think that was enough for two words. Next we had the word [впервые], which means “for the first time”. Of course you can say [в первый раз], it would mean the same thing, but [впервые] is like saying “once” instead of “one time”. |
| Oksana: Yeah, you can say [Я это впервые вижу], “I see it for the first time”. [Я это впервые слышу] “I hear it for the first time” or “I’ve never heard it before”. [Я здесь впервые] “It’s my first time here”. |
| Eddie: In our case it was said about the guys the husband saw for the first time. Not the most fun thing to come home and find your wife drunk, surrounded by a bunch of random fellows. |
| Oksana: Yeah, I know what you mean but she was expecting such reaction from him and had an argument already. [Я твоих секретарш тоже не знаю] |
| Eddie: “I don’t know your secretaries either”. By the way, the word [тоже] means “to” in Russian, but unlike in English you can use it both in positive and negative sentences. So while in English you need the word “either” to translate this sentence, in Russian you can just leave [тоже]. |
| Oksana: Yes, you can say [тоже не знаю] which literally means “to don’t know” or “don’t know to”. While in English you’d have to say “don’t know either”. |
| Eddie: And what was the girl’s last argument which was supposed to justify her crazy party? |
| Oksana: [Но это не мешает тебе с ними развлекаться до ночи] |
| Eddie: But it doesn’t stand in the way of you having fun with them till the night. |
| Oksana: We have two words to look at here. [Мешать] and [развлекаться]. |
| Eddie: [Мешать] means “to stand in the way” in this case but it can also be used in situations like “don’t bother me” or “don’t distract me”, right? |
| Oksana: Yeah, it would sounds as [Не мешай мне]. It’s also commonly used in the questions like [Что тебе мешает] which is “what stands in your way to”. It can be translated as “why can’t you”. |
| Eddie: Then we had the word [развлекаться] which means “to have fun” or “to enjoy oneself” in a slightly crazy way, right? |
| Oksana: Yeah, it doesn’t mean just to have quiet, decent fun, it implies… Well, it definitely implies some alcohol. |
| Eddie: So if I say [Развлекаться с секретаршей] it means “to drink with a secretary”. |
| Oksana: It would mean more than drinking. I'm telling you, this word has a little bit of dirty implication in it but the word itself is very decent. |
| Eddie: Decent word but indecent implication. Ok, let’s get to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: In today’s grammar part, our focus will be on Russian comparative adjectives. In the previous lessons, we talked a lot about Russian adjectives, words that are used to describe things, but you may also wish to use adjectives to compare one thing to another. |
| Oksana: For example, “This house is bigger than that one”. For that we need comparative adjectives and the word “than”. |
| Eddie: There are two ways to compare things in Russian. First with the help of the words “more” and “less”. |
| Oksana: For example [Он более симпатичный, чем его брат], literally “He’s more cute than his brother” or “He’s cuter than his brother”. [Она менее аккуратная, чем ее мать] literally “She’s less need than her mother.” |
| Eddie: You can use this way, of course. It’s easy because you don’t have to modify the adjectives. You just say the word “more” or “less” and add any simple adjective you need, but actually Russians themselves are not very fond of this lazy way. |
| Oksana: Yeah, most of the time Russians would use the comparative adjectives, just like the English speakers would say cuter instead of “more cute”. |
| Eddie: Right. Let’s take a look at the comparative adjectives from today’s lesson. |
| Oksana: [Тише] “quieter” and [пьянее] “drunker”. |
| Eddie: As you can hear, both of them end in [е]. So do all the other comparative adjectives. |
| Oksana: That’s right. Well, of course there are several rules to form the comparatives but basically it’s just changing the ending of a normal adjective, [ый, ий] or [ой], into [е] or [ее]. For example, [Тихий]. |
| Eddie: Quiet. |
| Oksana: Becomes [Тише]. |
| Eddie: Quieter. |
| Oksana: [Пьяный] |
| Eddie: Drunk. |
| Oksana: Becomes [Пьянее]. |
| Eddie: Drunker. |
| Oksana: [Красивый] |
| Eddie: Beautiful. |
| Oksana: Becomes [Красивее]. |
| Eddie: More beautiful. |
| Oksana: [Красный] |
| Eddie: Red. |
| Oksana: Becomes [Краснее]. |
| Eddie: Redder. |
| Oksana: And [Высокий]. |
| Eddie: Tall. |
| Oksana: Becomes [Выше]. |
| Eddie: “Taller”. Now we need to know how to form the comparative adjectives. Is it the only thing we need to build a comparative phrase though? |
| Oksana: Almost. Another little thing you need is the word [чем], which means “than” like in “cuter than…”. For example [Этот дом выше, чем тот]. |
| Eddie: “This house is taller than that one.” So we have the comparative adjective [выше], “taller”, the word [чем], which means “than”, and then we put the object to which our house is compared to - another house. Give us one more example, please. |
| Oksana: [Твой район тише, чем мой] |
| Eddie: “Your arrear is quieter than mine.” Same system. Are there any exceptions in the comparative adjectives that we should know about? |
| Oksana: Just a couple. Just like in English, the words “good” and “bad” have irregular comparative forms. |
| Eddie: So if “good” is [хороший], how would you say “better”? |
| Oksana: [Лучший] |
| Eddie: Quite different. What about [плохой], “bad”? how would you say “worse”? |
| Oksana: [Хуже] They both end in [е], so grammatically they’re not exceptions, it’s just they have very little in common with the origins, [хороший] and [плохой]. |
Outro |
| Eddie: Ok, that just about does it for today. Thank you for being with us and please join us next time. |
| Oksana: [Всем спасибо! Пока!] |
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