Learn several Russian phrases that pertain to your health
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 6. In case good fortune smiles on you in Russia. |
| Oksana: [Всем привет!] |
| Eddie: Hello everyone and welcome to the second mini-set of Lower Intermediate Series. In the next five lessons we’ll move from the summer camp and the difficult, yet typical, brother-sister relationship to a hospital with its typical doctor-patient situations. |
| Oksana: Our main character in this mini-series will be a young guy working as a programmer in the company, who encounters a common problem of nowadays - insomnia. |
| Eddie: In this lesson, we’ll follow the guy to his first visit to a doctor, a psychotherapist I assume. |
| Oksana: Yeah, those are the ones that deal with insomnia usually. |
| Eddie: So, let’s listen to the conversation and find out what seems to be the problem here. Have you ever had to deal with insomnia, Oksana? |
| DIALOGUE |
| Oksana: Добрый день, проходите. На что жалуетесь? |
| Eddie: Я очень плохо сплю в последнее время… |
| Oksana: Бессонница? Расскажите мне о режиме Вашего дня. |
| Eddie: Я работаю программистом. Прихожу домой обычно около десяти вечера, ужинаю, смотрю телевизор, часа в 2 иду спать… |
| Oksana: Типичный случай… |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. Добрый день, проходите. На что жалуетесь? |
| Eddie: Я очень плохо сплю в последнее время… |
| Oksana: Бессоница? Расскажите мне о режиме Вашего дня. |
| Eddie: Я работаю программистом. Прихожу домой обычно около десяти вечера, ужинаю, смотрю телевизор, часа в 2 иду спать… |
| Oksana: Типичный случай… |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Добрый день, проходите. На что жалуетесь? |
| Eddie: Hello, come in. What seems to be the problem? |
| Oksana: Я очень плохо сплю в последнее время… |
| Eddie: I have big troubles sleeping lately… |
| Oksana: Бессонница? Расскажите мне о режиме Вашего дня. |
| Eddie: Insomnia? Tell me what your day routine looks like. |
| Oksana: Я работаю программистом. Прихожу домой обычно около десяти вечера, ужинаю, смотрю телевизор, часа в 2 иду спать… |
| Eddie: I work as a programmer. I come home around ten p.m., have dinner, watch TV, and go to bed around two a.m.... |
| Oksana: Типичный случай… |
| Eddie: Typical case… |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Have you ever suffered from insomnia, Oksana? |
| Oksana: All the time. It’s difficult for me to fall asleep before 3 AM. |
| Eddie: Have you ever asked for professional help. |
| Oksana: Yes, and I was prescribed pills right away. The doctor never even asked me about my lifestyle or the reasons of my insomnia. |
| Eddie: Well, our doctor tries to reach to the roots of the problem. Let’s go through the vocabulary that’s used in our doctor-patient dialogue today. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we’ll see is… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Oksana: [Проходить] |
| Eddie: To come through, to come in. |
| Oksana: [Проходить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Жаловаться] |
| Eddie: To complain |
| Oksana: [Жаловаться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Cпать] |
| Eddie: To sleep. |
| Oksana: [Спать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [В последнее время] |
| Eddie: Lately. |
| Oksana: [В последнее время] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Бессонница] |
| Eddie: Insomnia. |
| Oksana: [Бессонница] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Режим дня] |
| Eddie: Daily routine, daily schedule. |
| Oksana: [Режим дня] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Программист] |
| Eddie: A programmer. |
| Oksana: [Программист] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Приходить] |
| Eddie: To come. |
| Oksana: [Приходить] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Около] |
| Eddie: Nearly, nearby, approximately. |
| Oksana: [Около] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Часа в.. ] |
| Eddie: At about… o’clock. |
| Oksana: [Часа в..] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Типичный] |
| Eddie: Typical. |
| Oksana: [Типичный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Случай] |
| Eddie: Occasion, chance, case. |
| Oksana: [Случай] |
| Eddie: Ok, now let’s take a closer look into the vocabulary. The first word is… |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Oksana: [Проходить]. Remember, in the previous lessons we learned the verbs of motion, [идти, ходить] and so on. We also learned the prefixes we can use to alter the meanings of those words. Now, in today’s lesson, we hear two words with the same stem, [проходить] and [приходить]. |
| Eddie: “To come through” and “to come”. Yes, so the prefixes just add the directions to the verbs of motion. But let’s talk about the word [проходить]. |
| Oksana: [Проходить] literally means “to come through” when you are talking about a crowd of people or some difficulties you go through. |
| Eddie: Although you might hear this very often in the context of “come in” in such places as restaurants, offices or someone’s home. An invitation to come in usually sounds as [проходите]. |
| Oksana: The next word is [жаловаться]. |
| Eddie: Literally it means “to complain”. It’s usually used with the preposition [на], “on”. |
| Oksana: For example, [Жаловаться на боль в животе]. “To complain about a stomach ache.” Or [Жаловаться на жизнь]. “To complain about life.” |
| Eddie: It also has a meaning of “to tell on somebody.” For example… |
| Oksana: [Он пожаловался на брата.] |
| Eddie: He told on his brother. |
| Oksana: And the question [На что жалуетесь?], literally “What are you complaining about?” is a standard question a doctor asks a patient. |
| Eddie: It can be translated into English as “What seems to be the problem?” |
| Oksana: Right. The next word is [спать]. |
| Eddie: A simple verb meaning “to sleep”. The conjugation of it might be a bit confusing, though. How would you say “I sleep” or “I'm sleeping”, Oksana? |
| Oksana: [Я сплю] And the question “Are you asleep?” would sound as [Ты спишь?]. |
| Eddie: I hate it when somebody asks that. I always wake up from this question. Anyway, the next word is… |
| Oksana: It’s a phrase. [В последнее время]. |
| Eddie: It’s a set expression which is translated with just one word in English, “lately”. But if you break this phrase down, you’ll get [в] , “in”, [последнее], “last” and [время], “time. Next we have the word for “insomnia”. |
| Oksana: [Бессонница] If you want to say that you have insomnia, you simply say [У меня бессонница]. And if you want to sound more sophisticated, you can say [Я страдаю бессонницей] which means “I suffer from insomnia.” |
| Eddie: Next we have a phrase… |
| Oksana: [Режим дня] |
| Eddie: It’s often translated as “daily schedule”. Actually, it mostly indicates things you do during the day which are related to your health - food, nutrition, working hours, sleep hours, etc. There are some set expressions with the word [режим]. |
| Oksana: Yes, for example [Правильный режим]. |
| Eddie: Literally “the right, proper, healthy, daily routine” which usually means eating healthily and going to bed at the same time every day. Give us another phrase. |
| Oksana: [Соблюдать режим] |
| Eddie: “To keep or maintain the proper life routine or lifestyle,” which means eating healthily and, at the same time, and getting enough sleep. |
| Oksana: [Эдди, ты соблюдаешь режим?] |
| Eddie: Yes, I think I do keep my daily routine healthy. |
| Oksana: Apart from the fact that you are still online at 2 AM, I saw you. |
| Eddie: Which obviously means your lifestyle isn’t that healthy either. Ok, fine, there’s space for improvement. Anyway, next we have… |
| Oksana: [Программист] |
| Eddie: “A computer programmer.” I imagine a skinny guy in thick glasses and a plaid wrinkled shirt. |
| Oksana: Not all the computer guys are nerds. My friend, who’s a [программист] during the day, works as an MC in the club at night. |
| Eddie: Well, our guy seems to be different, which means a typical company worker with ordinary lifestyle which brought him to a doctor. What’s the next word? |
| Oksana: [Проходить] The word with the stem [ходить], “to go on foot”, and a prefix [при], which indicates arrival. |
| Eddie: And together they mean “to come in”. The next word, [около], has two main meaning, depending of the context. If you’re talking about time, it indicates “approximately”, “about”, “around”. |
| Oksana: [Около десяти часов] “Around 10 o’clock.” |
| Eddie: If you’re talking about a place, it has the meaning of “near”, “nearby” or “next to”. |
| Oksana: [Он стоит около аптеки]. “He’s standing near the pharmacy.” |
| Eddie: The next word or, better said, word structure is quite an interesting one. In the dialogue, we hear the phrase… |
| Oksana: [Часа в два ] “At about 2 o’clock.” |
| Eddie: We’re going to talk about this [часа в..] part. |
| Oksana: The main thing to pay attention on is that [часа в два] is not the same as [в два часа]. [Часа в два] means “at about 2 o’clock” and [в два часа] means “at 2 o’clock”. |
| Eddie: We know that word order is flexible in Russian, but not in this case. So to express the exact number, time length, weight and any other measurement, we put the noun after the number. |
| Oksana: Here are some examples. [Сто метров] |
| Eddie: 100 meters. |
| Oksana: [Десять лет] |
| Eddie: 10 years. |
| Oksana: [Три колограмма] |
| Eddie: Three kilograms. |
| Oksana: [Два часа] |
| Eddie: Two hours. |
| Oksana: [В два часа] |
| Eddie: “At two o’clock.” If we switch the number and the noun around, we get an approximate value. |
| Oksana: [Метров сто] |
| Eddie: About 100 meters. |
| Oksana: [Лет десять] |
| Eddie: About 10 years. |
| Oksana: [Килограмма три] |
| Eddie: About three kilograms. |
| Oksana: [Часа два] |
| Eddie: About two hours. |
| Oksana: [Часа в два] |
| Eddie: “At about two o’clock.” It’s a very useful, very conversational way to express approximation. The next word we have is… |
| Oksana: [Типичный] |
| Eddie: Which means “typical”, not only the usage but also the pronunciation of the word is similar to the English “typical”. And the last word from the dialogue. |
| Oksana: [Случай] |
| Eddie: This word has different meanings, positive and negative. Some of them are “chance”, “opportunity”, “occasion”, “case”, “incident”, depending on the context. What this word is famous for is that it’s the key word in many popular set expressions. Here are some of them. |
| Oksana: [Счастливый случай] |
| Eddie: Good fortune. A happy thing happened. |
| Oksana: [Несчастный случай] |
| Eddie: An accident. |
| Oksana: [В случае] |
| Eddie: In case of. |
| Oksana: [На всякий случай] |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: “Just in case”. Ok, we’re done with the vocabulary. Now let’s take a look into the grammar for this lesson. By now, you should be familiar with the Russian system of cases. I know, I know, not the most fun topic for conversation. But the things is, the more we talk about it, the easier it will become. |
| Oksana: Yes, avoiding the issue only makes it worse. So it’s time to start reviewing the Russian case system as well as deepen our knowledge in this fear. So what are the Russian cases, Eddie? |
| Eddie: Basically they’re just different cases of the nouns according to their roles in the sentence. When you speak English, you just put the words in the right order and get a correct sentence. In Russian, word order is not that important because cases tell you what role nouns play in a sentence. As long as nouns take proper cases, you can arrange words in almost any order and still be speaking perfect Russian. |
| Oksana: Right. Another thing to remember is that the noun is the main part of speech in Russian. When you build your sentences, nouns should be your foundation. After you figured out the gender, number and the case of a noun, you can take a look at the rest of the words. |
| Eddie: But let’s get back to the cases. There are six grammar cases in Russian. Today we’ll only go through two of them. |
| Oksana: The first one is the nominative case which is used to indicate the subject of the sentence. |
| Eddie: The nominative case is the easiest of all because it’s basically the dictionary form of all nouns. Do we have many nouns in the nominative case in our dialogue, Oksana? |
| Oksana: Yes, I can recall these two, [*бессонница], “insomnia”, and [случай], “case”. Here’s another example, [Мама пьет кофе]. |
| Eddie: “Mom is drinking coffee.” [Мама] is the noun in the nominative case. And because this case is so easy, we shouldn’t waste time and jump right to the next case we have to deal with in this lesson, the prepositional case. |
| Oksana: It is so called because it’s the only case which is used exclusively with preposition and it is used with only three prepositions: [в], “in”, “at, [на], “on”, at”, and [о], “about”. |
| Eddie: In our lesson, the noun in the prepositional case is [режим]. |
| Oksana: [О режиме] “About a daily routine.” |
| Eddie: Here’s another example. |
| Oksana: [Собака на полу]. “The dog is on the floor.” We have the preposition [на] here. It’s a call for us to use the prepositional case. |
| Eddie: Which word should we put into this case? Of course, the one that is related to the preposition, “on”, the word [Floor]. |
| Oksana: The word [floor] is [пол] and putting it into the prepositional case, we get [полу]. |
| Eddie: And [собака] remains in the nominative case because it’s the main subject of the sentence. Another example. |
| Oksana: [Собака в комнате] “The dog is in the room.”| |
| Eddie: Again, we hear one of the three prepositions that require the prepositional case, [в], which means “in”. The preposition is related to the word “room”, [комната], therefore we put this word into the prepositional case and get [комнате]. And [собака] remains in the nominative case. Oksana, how do we change the word from the nominative case to the prepositional? |
| Oksana: There are certain rules according to which all nouns can change their endings and form the prepositional case. If the nouns are masculine, you should just add the word [е] in the end. For example, [На столе], “on the table”. The original form of the word “table” is [стол], so we add the letter [е] to the end and get [столе]. |
| Eddie: Yes, but sometimes this last letter can be [у], right? Like in our previous example - [На полу], “on the floor”. |
| Oksana: Right, but not as often as [е]. |
| Eddie: For feminine nouns you just replace the last letter with [е] or [и] like in the example when [комната], “room”, changed into [комнате]. |
| Oksana: And neutral nouns either remain unchanged or end in [е]. |
| Eddie: And plurals usually end in [ах] or [ях]. I hope you’re looking at the PDF file now because it’s all written there in a very systematic way. |
Outro |
| Oksana: Yes, PDFs should definitely sort everything out in your head. And, believe me, it only gets easier with time. |
| Eddie: That just about does it for today. [Пока] |
| Oksana: [Счастливо!] |
Comments
Hide