Learn about simple and compound comparisons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 2, lesson 12 - What Do You Think of Your New Russian Coworker? I’m Yuriy. |
| Elena: С вами Елена. Всем привет. |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn about simple and compound comparisons. |
| Elena: The conversation takes place in the office. |
| Yuriy: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll be using informal Russian. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Наталья: Как тебе наш новый начальник отдела продаж? |
| Бен: Мне кажется, что он умнейший человек. Не смотря на то, что он моложе предыдущего начальника, опыт работы в серьезных проектах у него больше и он намного лучше разбирается в финансовых и маркетинговых вопросах. |
| Наталья: Да, я тоже это слышала. О нём говорят, что он просто схватывает все на лету. |
| Бен: А ещё я слышал, что он строже относится к подчиненным и не любит, когда те валяют дурака на работе. |
| Наталья: Ну это понятно... У него есть чему поучится. |
| Yuriy: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Наталья: Как тебе наш новый начальник отдела продаж? |
| Yuriy: What do you think about our new head of the sales department? |
| Бен: Мне кажется, что он умнейший человек. Не смотря на то, что он моложе предыдущего начальника, опыт работы в серьезных проектах у него больше и он намного лучше разбирается в финансовых и маркетинговых вопросах. |
| Yuriy: I think that he's the cleverest man. Despite the fact that he's younger than the previous head, he has more experience with serious projects and he's well-versed in financial and marketing issues. |
| Наталья: Да, я тоже это слышала. О нём говорят, что он просто схватывает все на лету. |
| Yuriy: Yes, I’ve heard that too. He's said to be a quick learner. |
| Бен: А ещё я слышал, что он строже относится к подчиненным и не любит, когда те валяют дурака на работе. |
| Yuriy: I also heard that he treats his subordinates more strictly and doesn't like when they’re idle. |
| Наталья: Ну это понятно... У него есть чему поучится. |
| Yuriy: Well, I understand it... There are many things to learn from him. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yuriy: I’ve heard that attitudes towards work are important for Russians. |
| Elena: Yes, Russian people have a deep respect for those who work hard and are professionals at what they are doing. |
| Yuriy: But I've never seen any hard-working characters in Russian fairy tales. For example “Иванушка-дурачок”, Ivan the Fool, became wealthy and successful because of some miracle or random luck that came to him due to the Little Humpbacked Horse or Grey Wolf, who turned Ivan the Fool from a loser into a prince. |
| Elena: Well, not exactly. Basically, before becoming a prince, Ivan the Fool had to work a lot. It's just that his job was more complicated—he had to use his ingenuity, a creative approach, not just mechanical actions. For Russians the ability to act with creativity is very important. |
| Yuriy: I see, now I understand. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yuriy: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Elena: Опыт [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: experience |
| Elena: Опыт [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: Опыт [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: отдел продаж [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: sales department |
| Elena: отдел продаж [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: отдел продаж [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: проект [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: project |
| Elena: проект [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: проект [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: схватывать всё на лету [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: to be quick to grasp, to be a quick learner |
| Elena: схватывать всё на лету [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: схватывать всё на лету [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: разбираться [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: to sort out, to know, to be good at, to be versed in |
| Elena: разбираться [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: разбираться [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: говорят [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: they say |
| Elena: говорят [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: говорят [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: серьезный [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: serious |
| Elena: серьезный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: серьезный [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: валять дурака [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: to idle |
| Elena: валять дурака [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: валять дурака [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Elena: несмотря на то, что [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: despite the fact that, although |
| Elena: несмотря на то, что [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: несмотря на то, что [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| Elena: предыдущий [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy: previous |
| Elena: предыдущий [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena: предыдущий [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yuriy: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase in this lesson is… |
| Elena: the idiomatic expression “схватывать на лету”, which can be translated into English as “to be quick to grasp” or “to be a quick learner”. |
| Yuriy: Elena, let’s break this down. |
| Elena: Ok. The word “схватывать” means “to grasp” or “to catch”, and the phrase “на лету” means “on the fly”. So literally this phrase means “catching something on the fly” |
| Yuriy: This phrase means "to understand, to learn new information very quickly, almost immediately." You use it to emphasize the ability of a person to learn something easily and quickly. |
| Elena: For example. Ваш сын очень способный мальчик. Он всё схватывает на лету. |
| Yuriy: "Your son is a very smart boy. He's a quick learner." |
| Elena: Наш новый сотрудник очень быстро учится, схватывает всё на лету. |
| Yuriy: "Our new employee learns very quickly, he's a quick-learner." Ok, what's the next phrase for this lesson? |
| Elena: “валять дурака” which can be translated into English as “to idle”, “to do nothing instead of working”. It's widely used in Russian colloquial speech. |
| Yuriy: The phrase has a negative meaning with connotations of blaming. You use it in conversations with relatives or people that you know well. For example... |
| Elena: Я работаю как проклятый, а Сашка весь день дурака валяет! |
| Yuriy: "I'm working like crazy and Sasha is idling all day!" For more examples and explanations, please check the lesson notes. Okay, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to form simple and compound comparisons in Russian. |
| Elena: Listeners, first of all, let's remember what the qualitative adjectives are. |
| Yuriy: Qualitative adjectives include the adjectives that express color, size and form, taste and odor, weight and sound, features of character, temperature, and other various qualities of people and things, and our evaluation of people and things. |
| Elena: In other words, the qualitative adjectives point out features of a subject or object, which may occur to a greater or lesser extent. |
| Yuriy: Thus, only the qualitative adjectives which refer to qualities of a subject that we can perceive with our five senses, or which express evaluation, or features of a character may undergo comparison. |
| Elena: There are two ways of forming the comparison - “simple” and “compound”. Let's have a closer look at each of them. |
| Yuriy: To form a simple comparative degree of adjective, just add the suffix [-ee] to the stem of an adjective. |
| Elena: Listeners, it's really simple, just remove the ending of an adjective and add the suffix [-ee] to the stem. |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: новый |
| Yuriy: "new" |
| Elena: новее |
| Yuriy: "newer." Easy, right? |
| Elena: But Yuriy, there are some exceptions. |
| Yuriy: Of course! In Russian, in simple comparative, some stems end in consonants that need to be replaced by other consonants. |
| Elena: For example, [г], [д] and the combination of letters [зк] will change to [ж]. In this case, the suffix will be [е] instead of [-ee]. |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: строгий |
| Yuriy: "strict". The stem of this word is... |
| Elena: строг |
| Yuriy: As you can see, the stem ends in [г]. Therefore, [г] will change to [ж]. |
| Elena: Right. строг will become строж plus the suffix - e. Строг -строж- строже. |
| Yuriy: Another example please. |
| Elena: молодой meaning "young," моложе meaning "younger." |
| Yuriy: The stem ends in [д]. Therefore, [д] will change to [ж]. |
| Elena: Once again, молод will become молож plus the suffix - e. Молод-молож- моложе. |
| Yuriy: Listeners, there are other cases of consonant exchanges, but please check the lesson notes for information about those. |
| Elena: Next is… |
| Yuriy: The simple superlative degree. |
| Elena: Right! |
| Yuriy: The simple superlative degree is formed by adding [-ейший] |
| Elena: or, if after [ж], [ч], [ш], or [щ] then [-айший]. [-ейший] and [-айший] consist of the ending - ий plus suffixes [айш] and [ейш] |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: опасный - опаснейший. So, we took the adjective опасный. Dropping the ending ый, we got опасн. Now, we'll have to add [-ейший]. Опасный - опасн -опаснейший. |
| Yuriy: Some more examples please? |
| Elena: вкусный |
| Yuriy: "tasty" |
| Elena: вкуснейший |
| Yuriy: You form the compound comparative by adding to the long adjective the following... |
| Elena: более meaning "more" or менее meaning "less" |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: более красивый |
| Yuriy: "more beautiful" |
| Elena: менее дорогой |
| Yuriy: "less expensive." Formation of the compound superlative is made by adding to the long adjective... |
| Elena: самый meaning "the most," masculine |
| самая meaning "the most," feminine |
| самое meaning "the most," neuter |
| самые meaning "the most," plural |
| Yuriy: For example... |
| Elena: самый богатый |
| Yuriy: "the most rich," masculine |
| Elena: самая умная |
| Yuriy: "the cleverest," feminine |
Outro |
| Elena: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. As always, for more examples and |
| information, please check the lesson notes. |
| Yuriy: And leave us a comment at RussianPod101.com. Thanks for listening everyone. |
| Elena: See you in our next lesson. |
| Yuriy: Пока-пока |
| Elena: До скорой встречи! |
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