Learn about parts of speech, gender, and case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oksana: [Здравствуйте! Я Оксана] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 25. So are you ready for the final scene in our soap opera-like story? |
| Oksana: I think it’s nothing like a soap opera. No one lost memory or a child, no one turned out to be a sole heir of some Russian oil magnate. The story is very true to life, I think. |
| Eddie: So you’re saying it’s a pretty common situation in Russia? |
| Oksana: I'm not saying that. I just think there is nothing shocking or tragic about it. Nothing that would make it look like a soap opera. |
| Eddie: True. And even though nothing big really happened there, I feel involved in the situation of this couple. |
| Oksana: So airing somebody’s dirty laundry can be enjoyable after all, huh? |
| Eddie: Not enjoyable, I just feel like I started caring about these guys. I want everything to work out for them. They’re not hopeless. |
| Oksana: In this case, let’s listen to the last dialogue we’re going to eavesdrop on in these guys’ house. Let’s hope for the best. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Малыш, ты дома? |
| Oksana: Да, любимый, я на кухне! Я приготовила ужин, мой руки и садись за стол. |
| Eddie: Оо, квартира просто блестит! Ты сделала уборку? |
| Oksana: Я хотела тебя порадовать. Я помыла полы, пропылесосила, поменяла постель, погладила бельё и приготовила твою любимую курицу с мандаринами! |
| Eddie: Ты у меня такая замечательная! Вот, это тебе. |
| Oksana: Цветы! И духи! Дорогой, ты просто золото! |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Малыш, ты дома? |
| Oksana: Да, любимый, я на кухне! Я приготовила ужин, мой руки и садись за стол. |
| Eddie: Оо, квартира просто блестит! Ты сделала уборку? |
| Oksana: Я хотела тебя порадовать. Я помыла полы, пропылесосила, поменяла постель, погладила бельё и приготовила твою любимую курицу с мандаринами! |
| Eddie: Ты у меня такая замечательная! Вот, это тебе. |
| Oksana: Цветы! И духи! Дорогой, ты просто золото! |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Малыш, ты дома? |
| Eddie: Baby, are you home? |
| Oksana: Да, любимый, я на кухне! Я приготовила ужин, мой руки и садись за стол. |
| Eddie: Yes, my love, I'm in the kitchen! I made dinner, wash your hands and sit down at the table. |
| Oksana: Оо, квартира просто блестит! Ты сделала уборку? |
| Eddie: Oh! The apartment is sparkling! Did you clean it? |
| Oksana: Я хотела тебя порадовать. Я помыла полы, пропылесосила, поменяла постель, погладила бельё и приготовила твою любимую курицу с мандаринами! |
| Eddie: I wanted to do something good for you. I washed the floor, vacuumed, changed the bed sheets, did ironing, and cooked your favorite chicken with mandarins! |
| Oksana: Ты у меня такая замечательная! Вот, это тебе. |
| Eddie: You are so wonderful! Here, this is for you. |
| Oksana: Цветы! И духи! Дорогой, ты просто золото! |
| Eddie: Flowers! And perfumes! Darling, you are a gem! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Oksana: Oh, how sweet is that. |
| Eddie: And how stereotypical for a makeup. A woman cleans and cooks romantic dinner and a man buys presents. |
| Oksana: Well, has this method ever failed? Proved by generations. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: I guess. Ok, let’s listen to all those sweet words this couple is pouring on each other in this dialogue. The first word we’ll look at si… |
| Oksana: [Малыш] |
| Eddie: Baby. |
| Oksana: [Малыш] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Кухня] |
| Eddie: Kitchen, cuisine. |
| Oksana: [Кухня] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Готовить] |
| Eddie: To cook. |
| Oksana: [Готовить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Мыть] |
| Eddie: To wash. |
| Oksana: [Мыть] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Квартира] |
| Eddie: Apartment. |
| Oksana: [Квартира] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Блестеть] |
| Eddie: To shine, sparkle. |
| Oksana: [Блестеть] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Делать уборку] |
| Eddie: To clean a place. |
| Oksana: [Делать уборку] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Радовать] |
| Eddie: To make somebody happy, to do something good for somebody. |
| Oksana: [Радовать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Пол] |
| Eddie: Floor. |
| Oksana: [Пол] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Пылесосить] |
| Eddie: To vacuum. |
| Oksana: [Пылесосить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Менять] |
| Eddie: To change. |
| Oksana: [Менять] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Постель] |
| Eddie: Bed linen, bed sheets. |
| Oksana: [Постель] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Гладить] |
| Eddie: To iron. |
| Oksana: [Гладить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Белье] |
| Eddie: Bed clothes, underwear, laundry. |
| Oksana: [Белье] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Замечательный] |
| Eddie: Great, wonderful. |
| Oksana: [Замечательный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Цветы] |
| Eddie: Flowers. |
| Oksana: [Цветы] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Духи] |
| Eddie: Perfume. |
| Oksana: [Духи] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Золото] |
| Eddie: Gold. |
| Oksana: [Золото] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Not all of these words are sweet, but at least they’re useful to make the atmosphere sweet. |
| Oksana: The first word is definitely sweet - [малыш], it means “baby”, and just like in English, it’s used as a pet name. Although I don’t think there are too many guys that are particularly fond of being called “baby”. Usually this word is for girls. |
| Eddie: Does this word hurt their masculinity? |
| Oksana: I guess so. Well, someone like Demi Moore could call her husband [малыш], but even in that case it would sound ridiculous, I think. |
| Eddie: So girls should only call their real babies this, I guess. |
| Oksana: Right. A girl can call her guy [любимый], which means “my love”. |
| Eddie: This is exactly what our girl shouted from the kitchen to her husband. |
| Oksana: By the way, the word “kitchen” is [кухня], which also means “cuisine” if you say [русская кухня], for example. |
| Eddie: We’ll know what she cooked for him a bit later. Now she’s just saying “I cooked dinner”. |
| Oksana: [Я приготовила ужин. Приготовить] is a verb for “to cook” in the perfective aspect, so you should use it when talking about one specific time when you cooked something. |
| Eddie: And how could I turn it into the imperfective? What do I say if I want to say that I cook every day? |
| Oksana: You should just drop the prefix [при] and get [готовить]. [Я готовлю каждый день] “I cook every day.” |
| Eddie: Got it. Ok, next we have the girl telling him to wash his hands and sit at the table. |
| Oksana: [Мой руки и садись за стол. Мой] doesn’t mean “my” here. It’s just a command form of the word [мыть], “to wash”, and [садись] is a command form of [садиться], “to sit down”. |
| Eddie: Right. And then the guy notices what his wife has been doing with the whole day. |
| Oksana: [Квартира просто блестит] |
| Eddie: “The apartment is just sparkling .” So [квартира] would be “an apartment” or “a flat”. And how would you say “to sparkle”, “to shine” in the dictionary form? |
| Oksana: [Блестеть] as in all their place, all sparkling. He’s asking an obvious question - [Ты сделала уборку]? |
| Eddie: [Сделать уборку] is almost a set phrase, which literally means “to do a general cleaning”. So you say [Сделать уборку в доме] or [Сделать уборку в комнате], which would mean that you did pretty much everything that could be done in the house or a room to make it clean. |
| Oksana: Right, but to feel appreciated, the girl wants to specify what she did. Oh, but first she says [Я хотела тебя порадовать]. |
| Eddie: “I wanted to make something good for you.” It can also mean “to make somebody happy”, “to please someone”. So what exactly did she please her husband with? [Чем она порадовала мужа?] |
| Oksana: [Помыла полы, пропылесосила.] |
| Eddie: Wait a minute, slow down. So she “washed the floors and vacuumed”. These verbs are probably said in the perfective aspect because she’s talking about specific and completed actions, right? |
| Oksana: Exactly. She also [Поменяла постель и погладила белье]. |
| Eddie: “Changed the bed sheets and ironed the laundry.” [Постель] includes everything that’s on your bed, all the bed clothes and [белье] can mean “laundry”. And if you say [Постирать белье] it would mean “to do laundry”. It can also mean “underwear”. |
| Oksana: Right. But saying [Погладить белье] you mean to iron everything that you got out of the laundry, all the washed things. |
| Eddie: Right. But that wasn’t it. What is the first thing a man needs after a long day at work? |
| Oksana:Ааа... |
| Eddie: No. Dinner. Feed a man and then do whatever you want with him. |
| Oksana: Ok, then how about [курица с мандаринами]? |
| Eddie: Sounds good to me. And apparently it’s the guy’s favorite, [любимая]. |
| Oksana: Right, so she deserves a compliment. |
| Eddie: And he’s aware of that so he calls her “so wonderful”. |
| Oksana: [Такая замечательная] But apparently he also wanted [порадовать] her, “to do something good for her”, so he brought her a couple of things like [цветы], “flowers”, and [духи], “perfume”. |
| Eddie: “Perfume” in Russian is always in the plural, so the question “What kind of perfume?” would sound as [Какие духи?]. How does she react to that generosity? |
| Oksana: [Дорогой, ты просто золото] |
| Eddie: “Darling, you are just a gem.” Well, literally it sounds as “you are just gold” but that’s the way to say how precious the person is to you. |
| Oksana: Well, I'm happy everything is bright and promising in their family again. |
| Eddie: Yeah, I would say they’re really great at problem solving. No empty words, no silly acting up, very efficient approach. |
| Oksana: Well, there was a so-called revenge. I'm just glad they can be so forgiving. Not many people can do that. Ok, grammar time? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Sure. You know what I think, Oksana? As it’s our last lesson in this season, we should probably sum up all the grammar we learned in it. How can we do that? |
| Oksana: Why don’t we take a couple of sentences from our dialogue and try to analyze them in all possible ways? Try to tell everything we know about these sentences, as well as the separate words. Before we learned how to modify the words in order to express ourselves in a proper way. Today we can try a reverse approach. Analyzing and describing different forms and functions of the words. |
| Eddie: Sounds good to me. So, dear listeners, try to listen to our examples and understand why each word took one or another for, why it is said that the word possesses these or those characteristics. Understanding the grammar is necessary at this point. |
| Oksana: Absolutely true, so let’s take a sentence from our dialogue. For example, [Я приготовила ужин, мой руки и садись за стол]. |
| Eddie: “I made dinner. Wash your hands and sit at the table.” First, what can we say about the whole sentence? |
| Oksana: We can say that the first part of this sentence is a statement in the past tense. “I cooked dinner”. The second part of the sentence is a command - "wash your hands and sit down”. |
| Eddie: Right. Now let’s get to the words. The first one was [я], a simple pronoun, “I”, nothing special. Then we had a verb “cooked”. Tell us everything you think about this word, Oksana. |
| Oksana: [Приготовила] Let’s think. Well, first of all, it’s a verb. The dictionary form of it would be [приготовить]. 99 percent of infinitives end in [ть] in Russian. Moreover, it’s a verb in the past tense because it has the ending [ла]. |
| Eddie: So far, so good. I can add that because of this very ending we can also say that the speaker is a girl because it’s a feminine ending. If it was a guy speaking or if someone was speaking about a guy, the verb would sound as [приготовил]. |
| Oksana: Yes. We can also say that this verb is used in the perfective or complete aspect. That’s because of the prefix [при]. Without it the verb would have imperfective aspect and would sound as [Готовить] |
| Eddie: Right. Is that all about this verb? |
| Oksana: Oh, we can also say that it has a singular number because it was just one girl who cooked. [Приготовила] |
| Eddie: What would you say if she invited a bunch of guys from the night before to help her. |
| Oksana: I would say she’s either crazy or really wants a divorce or asking for it in a twisted way, but if you were talking about a verb, it would sound as [приготовили]. |
| Eddie: Great, we’re done with one word. Next we have the word for “dinner”. |
| Oksana: [Ужин] That’s going to be easy. First of all, it’s a noun. Second, it’s a masculine noun because it ends in a consonant, and most nouns that end in a consonant are masculine. Also, it’s singular - [ужин]. In plural it would sound as [ужины]. And lastly, it’s used in the accusative case. |
| Eddie: But we got lucky. This word sounds the same as it sounds in the nominative, dictionary form. Why? Because masculine, inanimate objects in the accusative case don’t change their endings. |
| Oksana: We should also mention why this word is used in the accusative case. |
| Eddie: Why? |
| Oksana: Because we use the accusative case for the object of a sentence when some action is performed on this object. So here [Я], “I”, would be a subject, and [ужин] would be an object which I cooked, on which I performed the cooking action. So we put [ужин] into the accusative. |
| Eddie: Ok, got it. |
| Oksana: Then we have the words [мой] and [садись], both used in a command form, both singular, both imperfective. |
| Eddie: Imperfective because command forms are usually used in the imperfective, even though they imply a one time, complete action. |
| Oksana: Right. Then we have the word [руки], “hands”. Eddie, your turn to analyze. |
| Eddie: Ok, so it’s a noun and it’s used in the plural. “One hand” would be [рука]. Oh, and it’s also used in the accusative case. |
| Oksana: Right because the action is performed on them. They’re the object of the sentence. And the last word, [стол]. |
| Eddie: “Table”. It’s a noun, of course, and it’s masculine. It’s also singular and in plural it would sound as [столы]. Could you please help me with the case here? |
| Oksana: It’s the accusative again because the accusative case it’s also used after the prepositions [в], “to”, “into”, [на], “on”, “to”, and [за], “behind”, “at”, when they indicate motion towards something. In our case it’s a motion towards the table. |
| Eddie: Right. Ok, I guess we’re done with the sentence. |
Outro |
| Oksana: We are, but one sentence can’t be enough for a good practice. Therefore, we gave you another two sentences analyzed in the PDF materials. You should definitely read them. |
| Eddie: And we hoped you enjoyed our lower intermediate series of lessons and found them useful. |
| Oksana: [Всем спасибо и до новых встреч!] |
| Eddie: Thanks very much and see you again soon. |
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