Learn not only about words to express your friendship but also about six Russian conjunctions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oksana: [Привет всем! С вами Оксана!] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 24. In the previous lesson, we left our characters at a crucial point of their conflict. The girl got revenge on her husband in the same way he had hurt her before. But did it solve the issue? Does she feel better now? Does he feel guilty? |
| Oksana: Or maybe he got mad at her for pulling a stunt like that and she doesn’t feel like she achieved anything. |
| Eddie: I don’t this party the day before could possibly balance and cancel out the problems. It only puts a new layer of unpleasant emotions on the couple. |
| Oksana: Well, let’s not guess but just listen to the conversation and find out how these two handled the situation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Нам нужно поговорить. |
| Oksana: Да, я знаю… |
| Eddie: Я понимаю, что ты пыталась мне отомстить вчера. Тебе это удалось. |
| Oksana: Я рада. |
| Eddie: Давай договоримся не делать друг другу больно. Я буду всегда звонить, если буду задерживаться на работе, и говорить с кем я. А ты не делай мне ничего назло, хорошо? |
| Oksana: Хорошо. Я просто хотела, чтобы ты почувствовал, как мне было плохо вчера, извини… |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Нам нужно поговорить. |
| Oksana: Да, я знаю… |
| Eddie: Я понимаю, что ты пыталась мне отомстить вчера. Тебе это удалось. |
| Oksana: Я рада. |
| Eddie: Давай договоримся не делать друг другу больно. Я буду всегда звонить, если буду задерживаться на работе, и говорить с кем я. А ты не делай мне ничего назло, хорошо? |
| Oksana: Хорошо. Я просто хотела, чтобы ты почувствовал, как мне было плохо вчера, извини… |
| Eddie: Once again with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Нам нужно поговорить. |
| Eddie: We need to talk. |
| Oksana: Да, я знаю… |
| Eddie: Yes, I know… |
| Oksana: Я понимаю, что ты пыталась мне отомстить вчера. Тебе это удалось. |
| Eddie: I understand that you were trying to take a revenge on me yesterday. You did a good job. |
| Oksana: Я рада. |
| Eddie: I`m glad. |
| Oksana: Давай договоримся не делать друг другу больно. Я буду всегда звонить, если буду задерживаться на работе, и говорить с кем я. А ты не делай мне ничего назло, хорошо? |
| Eddie: Let`s make an agreement not to hurt each other. I will always call if I`m late at work and tell you who I`m with. And you don`t do anything to hurt me on purpose, ok? |
| Oksana: Хорошо. Я просто хотела, чтобы ты почувствовал, как мне было плохо вчера, извини… |
| Eddie: Ok. I just wanted you to feel how badly I felt yesterday, I`m sorry… |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: The guy handled the situation pretty well, I think. |
| Oksana: Well, it was obvious that she didn’t just do it to drive him mad. It’s not like he caught her doing something wrong. |
| Eddie: Right, so now he’s just trying to set some rules of behavior in the family and he himself promises to follow those rules. |
| Oksana: He’s doing it in a very dignifying manner, I would say. Anyway, let’s listen a little bit closer to the vocabulary they’re using to communicate to each other. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Oksana: [Нужно] |
| Eddie: Necessary, need, should. |
| Oksana: [Нужно] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Пытаться] |
| Eddie: To try, make an attempt. |
| Oksana: [Пытаться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Мстить] |
| Eddie: To take revenge. |
| Oksana: [Мстить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Удаваться] |
| Eddie: To be successful, to work out, to turn out well. |
| Oksana: [Удаваться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Договориться] |
| Eddie: To agree to, to arrange, to find a consensus. |
| Oksana: [Договориться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Делать больно] |
| Eddie: To hurt (usually talking about feelings). |
| Oksana: [Делать больно] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Друг друга] |
| Eddie: Each other. |
| Oksana: [Друг друга] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Задерживаться] |
| Eddie: To be delayed. |
| Oksana: [Задерживаться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Назло] |
| Eddie: Out of spite, on purpose. |
| Oksana: [Назло] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Чувствовать] |
| Eddie: To feel. |
| Oksana: [Чувствовать] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: We don’t have too many words in this lesson, but let’s take a closer look at the usage for the words and phrases we do have. Let’s start with the first phrase of the dialogue. |
| Oksana: [Нам нужно поговорить] |
| Eddie: Right. “We need to talk.” |
| Oksana: The word [нужно] is not new to us. If you use it with the verbs like in our case, “to talk”, you don’t have to change it in any way but the pronoun should be used in the dative case. For example [Мне нужно идти], “I need to go” or [Ему нужно позвонить] “He has to call”. |
| Eddie: But if you use this word with nouns like “I need a phone”, for example, you should change [нужно] according to gender, in this case according to the “phone”. |
| Oksana: Right, so it would sound as [Мне нужен телефон]. And with feminine nouns, like [книга], “a book”, we should change it into [нужна]. [Мне нужна книга] |
| Eddie: Yes, that was a quick reminder to you. So they obviously need to talk and the girl agrees on that by saying… |
| Oksana: [Да, я знаю] |
| Eddie: “Yes, I know.” Well, that’s a good start. They’re both open for communication. What does the guy say? |
| Oksana: [Я понимаю. что ты пыталась мне отомстить вчера] |
| Eddie: “I understand that you wanted to take revenge on me yesterday.” That’s a long sentence. Let’s break it down. |
| Oksana: [Ты пыталась] means “you tried”. The word “to try” itself sounds as [пытаться] but you can’t use it the context of “trying some food” or “trying something on” for example. It’s more like trying to do something, most of the time not something easy to achieve like [Я пыталась его уговорить, но...]. |
| Eddie: Yeah, “I tried to convince him but…” So does it mean that driving him mad was a challenge? |
| Oksana: Well, it kind of was because he didn’t buy it. He figured out that she was just putting on a show. [Она пыталась отомстить] |
| Eddie: She tried to take revenge on him. [Отомстить] is a perfective verb which indicates a onetime action. How do we say it if she was taking revenge on him constantly? |
| Oksana: We would call it a divorce, I think. But you probably mean [мстить], the imperfective aspect of the verb “to take revenge on somebody”. |
| Eddie: And the guy figured out her true motifs very quickly. He said that she succeeded in her attempt to get back at him. |
| Oksana: [Тебе это удалось] Literally “You succeeded in it.” |
| Eddie: [Удаваться] means “to be successful”, “to work out”. The usage of this word can be confusing for Russian learners. To say that something worked out for you or any other specific person, you should put the pronoun, noun or name, into the dative case and put the word [удаваться] in the tense you need, which would always take only three forms. Give them to us, Oksana. |
| Oksana: I’ll give you three sample sentences. It will be easier for you to hear the difference. [Мне не удается это починить] |
| Eddie: “I can’t fix it.” - at present. |
| Oksana: [Как ты думаешь, Мише удастся это сделать?] |
| Eddie: “Do you think Misha will manage to do?” - it in future. |
| Oksana: [Мне не удалось его уговорить] |
| Eddie: “I couldn’t convince him. I didn’t succeed in convincing him. “ - in the past. This word is also commonly used to say that something turned out good or bad. For example, “The soup turned out tasty” which sounds very simple in Russian. |
| Oksana: [Суп удался] |
| Eddie: Right, so the word [удаваться] already has the meaning of success in it. And when we’re talking about soup, we obviously mean its taste. |
| Oksana: Right. And if we want to say that something didn’t work out or it turned out bad, we just say [не удался]. For example, [Поездка не удалась], “The trip didn’t work out” or “turned out bad”. |
| Eddie: Then we have an interesting phrase for “Let’s make an agreement” or “Let’s agree on”. |
| Oksana: [Давай договоримся] The infinitive would sound as [договориться]. You can [Договориться с...] with someone or you can just say [Мы договорились], which would mean “We agreed on” or “We made an agreement”. |
| Eddie: The guy offers to make an agreement on them not hurting each other. |
| Oksana: Yes, [Не делать друг другу больно]. [Делать больно] literally means “to hurt” and used both in physical and emotional senses, but mostly it’s used when talking about feelings. |
| Eddie: Right, and here they are talking about the feelings of each other. This phrase, “each other”, is quite interesting in Russian. It consists of two words that both mean “friend”. This phrase changes according to the cases. “I” it will sound different in the sentences “to each other” and “about each other”, for example. |
| Oksana: Let’s take a look at this phrase in different contexts. [Мы знаем друг друга] |
| Eddie: “We know each other .” - accusative case. |
| Oksana: [Мы доверяем друг другу] |
| Eddie: “We trust each other.” - dative case. |
| Oksana: [Мы многое сделали друг для друга] |
| Eddie: “We’ve done a lot for each other.” - genitive case. |
| Oksana: [Мы гордимся друг другом] |
| Eddie: “We are proud of each other.” - instrumental case. |
| Oksana: [Мы знаем о друг друге] |
| Eddie: “We know about each other.” - prepositional case. So, basically all you have to do is to change the ending of the second “friend” word according to the situation. The first word, [друг], remains constant in this phrase. |
| Oksana: Right, so what does our couple agree upon? |
| Eddie: The guy will always call if he’s late at work. |
| Oksana: [Я буду всегда звонить, если буду задерживаться на работе] . This word, [задерживаться], means “to be delayed”. There’s a saying in Russian, [Начальник никогда не опаздывает, он задерживается], “The boss is never late, he is delayed.” |
| Eddie: So if the boss comes to work two hours late with a hangover, [Он задержался], right? He had an important reason for being late. |
| Oksana: Yeah, basically it means that the boss is always right and no matter how much he messes up, it’s not his fault. That’s very Russian. |
| Eddie: I see. So our guy implies that whenever he’s late, he always have some big reasons that kept him at work. |
| Oksana: Yeah, I guess that’s what he’s trying to say. |
| Eddie: Next we have a condition that his wife has to follow in order to keep peace in the family. |
| Oksana: [Не делай мне ничего назло] |
| Eddie: The word [назло] means “out of spite”, “on purpose” and only bad purpose is implied here, right? |
| Oksana: Yeah, the word [зло] means “evil” and [назло] means “with the purpose to hurt” basically. Like [Он мне назло пригласил мою подругу в кино], “He invited my friend to the movies just to hurt me” or [мне назло] would be “to hurt me”. |
| Eddie: Right. And the last phrase the girl says is… |
| Oksana: [Я просто хотела, чтобы ты почувствовал, как мне было плохо вчера] |
| Eddie: Wow, that’s long. But not that complicated. Let’s break it down. |
| Oksana: [Я просто хотела] |
| Eddie: I simply wanted… |
| Oksana: [Чтобы ты почувствовал] |
| Eddie: “For you to feel…” [чтобы] is not translated into English here, but the meaning is “in order to”, “so that”. Next. |
| Oksana: [Как мне было плохо вчера] |
| Eddie: “How badly I felt yesterday.” Where “I felt bad” is [Мне было плохо]. Literally “to me it was bad”. Right. Grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Today we’ll talk about very small but significant parts of the language. |
| Oksana: Conjunctions. |
| Eddie: Right, they’re words like “and” or “but” in English. Their function is to join together nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases and clauses of compound sentences. |
| Oksana: There are different types of conjunctions, but you don’t need to remember their names as long as you remember the conjunctions themselves and their functions in the sentences. |
| Eddie: Let’s start from the ones in our lesson. Can you just list them to us first? |
| Oksana: Sure, but I’ll need you to translate them for me. |
| Eddie: Ok. |
| Oksana: [И] |
| Eddie: And. |
| Oksana: [А] |
| Eddie: And, but, whereas. |
| Oksana: [Что] |
| Eddie: That. |
| Oksana: [Чтобы] |
| Eddie: So that, in order to. |
| Oksana: [Если] |
| Eddie: If. |
| Oksana: [Как] |
| Eddie: “How”, “in what way”. Not all of these words are as simple in their meaning and usage as they might seem. For example, [а] and [и] can both be translated as “and” in English, but they’re very different in Russian. |
| Oksana: I’ll show you the difference through the examples. [Оля и Маша разговаривают по телефону]. “[Olga and Masha] are talking on the phone.” [Я прийду в пять, а он прийдет в шесть] “I’ll come at five and he’ll come at six.” |
| Eddie: Although the difference in the meanings is obvious, the first “and”, [и], expresses a simple connection and the second “and”, [а], shows the opposition, contrast. It can also be translated as “but” in English. |
| Oksana: [А] is the preposition that is used nearly the most in Russian. |
| Eddie: Besides the examples that we’ve just mentioned, [а] is often used at the beginning of a sentence to make the transition between two topics smoother. |
| Oksana: Right. For example, here’s a short dialogue. [Я сегодня так устала] |
| Eddie: I'm so tired today. |
| Oksana: [Да, тяжелый день. А я сегодня видела Пашу. Представляешь?] |
| Eddie: “Yeah, a tough day. Oh, I saw Pasha today. Can you believe it?” Here [а] is used as a transition word between the two topics, kind of like “by the way”. It’s also used in the counter questions. |
| Oksana: For example, [Я такая голодная! А ты как?]. |
| Eddie: “I'm so hungry, how about you?” So you use it here before the question on the same subject that you’ve just mentioned. First you say something about yourself then ask me the same thing. In between we put [а]. |
| Oksana: Yes. Next we have the conjunction [что]. |
| Eddie: In Russian it means both “what” as a question word and “that” as a conjunction, connecting two parts of a sentence like “He said that”. |
| Oksana: Yes. Besides, in written Russian, the conjunction [что] is always separated with a comma from the first part of a sentence. For example, [Он сказал, что прийдет в восемь]. “He said that he’d come at eight.” After [сказал] and before [что] you should put a comma. |
| Eddie: Next we have the word [чтобы] which means “so that”, “in order to”. Very often it’s not translated in English, like in the sentences where it expresses desire or an order. |
| Oksana: Like [Я хочу. чтобы ты извинился]. |
| Eddie: “I want you to apologize.” Literally “I want so that you would apologize.” |
| Oksana: [Скажи ей, чтобы она мне позвонила] |
| Eddie: “Tell her to call me.” Literally “Tell her so that she would call me.” As you can see, a lot of the time [чтобы] is not translated into English, especially in colloquial speech, but there are also cases when we should include [чтобы] in our English translation. Usually it happens when this word expresses the aim or a possibility. |
| Oksana: [Я должен идти, чтобы не опоздать на автобус] |
| Eddie: I should go so that I don’t miss my bus. |
| Oksana: Он сделает все, чтобы получить ее согласие] |
| Eddie: He’ll do anything to get her agreement. |
| Oksana: [Он говорил тихо, чтобы не разбудить ее] |
| Eddie: “He was speaking quietly in order not to wake her up.” It’ll all make much more sense for you if you accompany our audio with the PDF files. And we have another couple of joining words. What’s the next word, Oksana? |
| Oksana: [Если] “if”. |
| Eddie: Right, that’s an easy one. Just like in English, it can be put both to the beginning or to the middle of a sentence depending on the structure of the sentence. |
| Oksana: For example, [Если он меня пригласит, я прийду]. |
| Eddie: If he invites me, I’ll come. |
| Oksana: [Я прийду, если он меня пригласит] |
| Eddie: “I’ll come if he invites me.” You should note one difference in English and Russian usage of this word. In Russian, both parts of the sentence, condition and possible result, are said in the future tense. [Пригласить, прийду] “we’ll invite”, “we’ll come”, when in English you wouldn’t normally put a future tense after “if”. |
| Oksana: Right. And in Russian if we’re talking about the future, we put all the verbs into the future tense. We have only one conjunction left, [Как], “how”. |
| Eddie: Of course, it can be an adverb. But not in today’s case. Today it’s a conjunction. |
| Oksana: Most often it’s used to help us draw analogies and can be translated as an English “like” or “as”, “As if”. For example, [Он худой, как спичка]. |
| Eddie: He’s as thin as a match. |
| Oksana: [Дождь лил, как из ведра] |
| Eddie: “The rain was pouring as if from a bucket.” I don’t think we have such an analogy in English. It’s interesting. By the way, [как] is also used to express the way something is done and often translated as “what”, “like” in English. |
| Oksana: Yeah, for example [Я хочу, чтобы ты понял, как это неправильно]. |
| Eddie: I want you to understand how wrong it is. |
| Oksana: [Расскажи мне, как это было] |
Outro |
| Eddie: “Tell me what it was like.” We’re done for today. That was a long but useful lesson. Take care everyone and see you next time. |
| Oksana: [Всем спасибо за внимание! Пока!] |
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