Learn some Russian words and expressions that have different meanings
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 9. |
| Oksana: [Привет всем!] |
| Eddie: Welcome back to the doctor’s office. We’re trying to fight insomnia here. Please join us in this tough process. |
| Oksana: The doctor is trying to talk the patient into a healthier lifestyle and the patient is looking for excuses not to follow it, explaining and justifying his weaknesses, asking for pills. |
| Eddie: Sounds rather harsh. Aren’t we always looking for the easiest ways to get what we want? What I'm saying is the doctor’s tactics are right, but the patient’s reaction is totally natural. |
| Oksana: Ok, let’s listen to the next conversation and find out who wins this battle, the doctor’s reasoning or the patient’s persistence. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Здравствуйте, доктор. |
| Oksana: Ну как, Вам помогли таблетки? |
| Eddie: Помогли в некотором роде… |
| Oksana: Что-то не так? |
| Eddie: Ну, теперь я быстро засыпаю, но совсем не могу проснуться утром… |
| Oksana: А сколько часов Вы спите? |
| Eddie: Около пяти часов… |
| Oksana: Время действия этих таблеток – 6 часов, значит Вы должны спать минимум 7. |
| Eddie: Но я не могу спать 7 часов, у меня просто нет столько времени на сон! |
| Oksana: Вы отказываетесь следовать всем моим советам, как я могу Вам помочь? |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Здравствуйте, доктор. |
| Oksana: Ну как, Вам помогли таблетки? |
| Eddie: Помогли в некотором роде… |
| Oksana: Что-то не так? |
| Eddie: Ну, теперь я быстро засыпаю, но совсем не могу проснуться утром… |
| Oksana: А сколько часов Вы спите? |
| Eddie: Около пяти часов… |
| Oksana: Время действия этих таблеток – 6 часов, значит Вы должны спать минимум 7. |
| Eddie: Но я не могу спать 7 часов, у меня просто нет столько времени на сон! |
| Oksana: Вы отказываетесь следовать всем моим советам, как я могу Вам помочь? |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Здравствуйте, доктор. |
| Eddie: Hello, doctor. |
| Oksana: Ну как, Вам помогли таблетки? |
| Eddie: So, did the pills help you? |
| Oksana: Помогли в некотором роде… |
| Eddie: They did, in a way… |
| Oksana: Что-то не так? |
| Eddie: Is there anything wrong? |
| Oksana: Ну, теперь я быстро засыпаю, но совсем не могу проснуться утром… |
| Eddie: Well, now I fall asleep fast, but can't wake up in the morning at all… |
| Oksana: А сколько часов Вы спите? |
| Eddie: How many hours do you sleep? |
| Oksana: Около пяти часов… |
| Eddie: Around five hours… |
| Oksana: Время действия этих таблеток – 6 часов, значит Вы должны спать минимум 7. |
| Eddie: These pills hold the effect for six hours; therefore, you should sleep a minimum of seven. |
| Oksana: Но я не могу спать 7 часов, у меня просто нет столько времени на сон! |
| Eddie: But I can't sleep for seven hours, I simply don't have so much time for sleep! |
| Oksana: Вы отказываетесь следовать всем моим советам, как я могу Вам помочь? |
| Eddie: You refuse to follow all my advice, how can I help you? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Oksana: The guy got what he wanted and now he’s suffering from the consequences. |
| Eddie: I guess the pills are not the remedy. They also have certain requirements. Anyway, the problem’s still open. Let’s listen to the vocabulary that’s used in this dialogue. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: The first phrase we’ll look at is… |
| Oksana: [В некотором роде] |
| Eddie: In a way, kind of, to some extent. |
| Oksana: [В некотором роде] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Засыпать] |
| Eddie: To fall asleep. |
| Oksana: [Засыпать] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Проснуться] |
| Eddie: To wake up. |
| Oksana: [Проснуться] |
| Eddie: And next. |
| Oksana: [Теперь] |
| Eddie: Now, currently, presently. |
| Oksana: [Теперь] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Действие] |
| Eddie: Functioning, acting, act, effect. |
| Oksana: [Действие] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Значить] |
| Eddie: To mean. |
| Oksana: [Значить] |
| Eddie: And next. |
| Oksana: [Отказываться] |
| Eddie: To refuse. |
| Oksana: [Отказываться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Следовать] |
| Eddie: To follow. |
| Oksana: [Следовать] |
| Eddie: And finally… |
| Oksana: [Совет] |
| Eddie: Advice. |
| Oksana: [Совет] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Ok, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First we had the phrase… |
| Oksana: [В некотором роде] |
| Eddie: It’s an idiomatic expression. It means “in a way”, “to some extent”, “kind of”, “somewhat”. The key word here is [род], which has a meaning of “kind” or “sort”. [Некоторый] could be translated as “some” or “certain”. |
| Oksana: Let’s make a short dialogue and try to use this expression. |
| Eddie: Oksana, [Вы писатель]? “Oksana, are you a writer?” |
| Oksana: [В некотором роде. Я пишу детские пьесы]. “In a way, I write children’s plays.” Next we have two verbs that you better remember in pair. [Засыпать] and [Просыпаться]. |
| Eddie: “To fall asleep” and “to wake up”. In the dialogue though, the word [просыпаться] was used in the perfective aspect, [проснуться]. |
| Oksana: Yes, let’s make sentences with these words in both aspects so the listeners can hear the grammatical difference. So the first one is [Я засыпаю в 12 каждый день]. |
| Eddie: I fall asleep at 12 every day. |
| Oksana: [Я заснул в 12 вчера] |
| Eddie: I fell asleep at 12 yesterday. |
| Oksana: [Я просыпаюсь в 9 каждый день] |
| Eddie: I wake up at nine every day. |
| Oksana: [Я проснулся в 9 вчера] |
| Eddie: “I woke up at nine yesterday.” So, as you can see, we used the imperfective form for habitual actions and the perfective form for just one time completed actions. The next word is… |
| Oksana: [Теперь] It just means “currently”, “at the present”. When we say [сейчас], “now”, it indicated more specific time like “I'm eating now”, but [теперь] implies a bigger range of time, it’s more general and on-going period of time in the present. The next word is [действие]. |
| Eddie: It’s a noun which has different meanings and is used in many set expressions. As a single words, it’s most often used in the following meanings. First, “scene” as in a play, “first scene”, “second scene”. And secondly as “an act”, “action”, usually in the plural. For example… |
| Oksana: [Его действия непредсказуемы] |
| Eddie: “His actions are unpredictable.” It can also mean “effect” or “function”. For example… |
| Oksana: [Действие этого лекарства наступает через 10 минут] |
| Eddie: “This medicine comes into effect in ten minutes.” And here are some set expressions with this word. |
| Oksana: [Время действия] |
| Eddie: The time of effect. |
| Oksana: [Привести в действие] |
| Eddie: To activate, to carry out, to implement. |
| Oksana: [Под действием] |
| Eddie: “Under the influence of”, “under the effect of.” Next we heard the word for “to mean”. |
| Oksana: [Значить]. This verb is pretty easy. For example, [Что это значит?]. What does it mean? [Это значит] it means… |
| Eddie: “Quite a useful word.” The next word is… |
| Oksana: [Отказываться]. It’s a reflexive verb which means “to deny oneself something”, “to give up on something”. We’ve learned this word before with the only difference that in lesson seven we learned it in the perfective form. Now you have the imperfective form of it. The next word is [следовать]. |
| Eddie: “To follow”. This word is equally frequently used in two main contexts: “to follow somebody or something” in the direct meaning of it and “to follow something more abstract”, like advice or a rule. |
| Oksana: In the first case, the word [следовать] goes together with a preposition [за] and requires the instrumental case of the noun. The formula of this structure looks like this: [следовать] plus the preposition [за] plus a noun in the instrumental case. For example [Следовать за человеком]. |
| Eddie: To follow a person. |
| Oksana: [Человек] changes into [человеком]. [Следовать за машиной] |
| Eddie: To follow a car. |
| Oksana: [Машина] here changes into [машиной]. |
| Eddie: In the second case, when we’re talking about following more abstract things like advice, rules or patterns, we don’t need the preposition [за]. All we need is the formula below, [следовать] plus a noun in the dative case. For example… |
| Oksana: [Следовать совету] |
| Eddie: To follow the advice. |
| Oksana: [Следовать правилам] |
| Eddie: “To follow the rules.” And the last word for today, [совет], which is a countable noun in Russian. You can say [два совета], for example. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Now it’s time to take a look at the grammar for today’s lesson. So we continue to explore the Russian grammar system. Today we’re going to take a look at the grammar case which is used to represent the personal thing that receives the main object. |
| Oksana: Basically we’re talking about the “give in, take in” concept. The receiver is sued in the dative. |
| Eddie: The dative generally corresponds to the English word “to”, although this rule is only general as the word “to” has many meanings in English. |
| Oksana: In the sentence [Я дал маме телефон], “I gave the phone to mom”, “mom” is the receiver, therefore we put the word into the dative case. [Мама] becomes [маме]. |
| Eddie: There are a number of words that can be used with the dative case. Most of them involve giving something or communicating something. In English, the word “to” is sometimes used in these situations. Here are a couple of verbs that use the dative case. |
| Oksana: With the word [помогать], “to help”. [Я помогаю другу] |
| Eddie: I'm helping my friend. I help my friend. |
| Oksana: With the word [звонить], “to call”. [Я позвонил другу] |
| Eddie: I called a friend. |
| Oksana: And with the word [сказать], “to say”. [Я сказал это другу] |
| Eddie: “I said it to my friend.” The very important thing to learn about the dative case is the pronouns as they’re used more often than you would expect. |
| Oksana: In English you also have to change the pronouns in this case. For example “give me” or “tell him”. You should remember the modified pronouns in Russian too. I’ll tell you the pronouns in the dative case now, one by one, and Eddie will help me translate them to you. The first one, [Мне]. |
| Eddie: To me. |
| Oksana: [Тебе] |
| Eddie: To you (informal). |
| Oksana: [Ему] |
| Eddie: To him. |
| Oksana: [Ему] |
| Eddie: To it. |
| Oksana: [Ей] |
| Eddie: To her. |
| Oksana: [Нам] |
| Eddie: To us. |
| Oksana: [Вам] |
| Eddie: To you (formal or plural). |
| Oksana: [Им] |
| Eddie: “To them.” In today’s lesson we had a pronoun in the dative case, [Вам], which is “you” in the plural or polite form. Oksana, what were the sentences this pronoun was used in? |
| Oksana: [Вам помогли таблетки?] |
| Eddie: Did the pills help you? |
| Oksana: And [Как я могу Вам помочь?]. |
| Eddie: “How can I help you?” Great, now we just have to learn how to form the dative case. First we take a noun in the nominative case or, in other words, its dictionary form and then… |
| Oksana: And then if it’s a masculine noun, we either add [у] or replace an ending with [ю]. You can check all this in the PDF file. I’ll give you an example. [Друг] becomes [другу]. [Бой] becomes [бою]. |
| Eddie: Feminine nouns in the dative case usually change their endings into [е] or [и]. For example… |
| Oksana: [Подруга- подруге, Россия- России] |
| Eddie: Neutral nouns usually end with [у] or [ю], like masculine nouns. |
| Oksana: [Пиво- пиву, море- морю] |
| Eddie: And plurals end with [ам] or [ям]. |
| Oksana: [Дома- домам] |
Outro |
| Eddie: Don’t forget to take a look at the PDF file to get a clear idea of what we’ve talked about today. Ok, that’s all we have time for today. [Пока!] |
| Oksana: [До встречи!] |
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