Learn how to use dashes in Russian sentences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello everyone, and welcome to RussianPod101.com. This is the Upper Beginner Series, Season 1, Lesson 15, Changing Your Eating Habits in Russia. I’m Gina. |
| Svetlana: And I’m Svetlana. Privet. |
| Gina: In this lesson we're going to learn when and why we should use a dash in Russian sentences. |
| Svetlana: The conversation is between Elena and her, trainer and it takes place in the gym. |
| Gina: The speakers have a professional relationship so they’ll be using formal Russian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Elena: Ну всё, я на полпути к успеху. Осталось только отказаться от булочек и шоколада. |
| Trainer: Это ещё не всё. Алкоголь, колбасные изделия, солёное и жирное - тоже табу. Придётся ограничить употребление кофе и соков. |
| Elena:Ооо нет, только не говорите что нельзя есть бутерброды. Я только их умею готовить. |
| Trainer: Бутерброды можно, только без хлеба и масла. |
| Elena: Nu vsyo, ya na polputi k uspehu. Ostalos ' tol 'ko otkazat 'sya ot bulochek i shokolada. |
| Trainer: Eto yeschyo nye vsyo. Alkogol ', kolbasnyye izdeliya, solyonoye i zhirnoye - tozhe tabu. Pridyotsya ogranichit ' upotrebleniye kofe i sokov. |
| Elena: Ooo net, tol 'ko ne govorite chto nel 'zya yest ' buterbrody. Ya tol 'ko ih umeyu gotovit '. |
| Trainer: Buterbrody mozhno, tol 'ko bez hleba i masla. |
| Elena: Okay, I'm halfway to success. The only thing I have to do now is give up eating pastries and chocolate. |
| Trainer: Well, actually those are not the only things that you have to avoid. Alcohol, processed meats, and basically any salty or fatty foods are also not allowed. You also have to cut back on juice consumption. |
| Elena: Even juice? Please don't tell me that I also can't eat sandwiches. That's the only thing I can cook. |
| Trainer: Well, you can eat sandwiches as long as they're without butter and bread. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Poor Elena. She has to make so many sacrifices. |
| Svetlana: Yeah, giving up bread is a real challenge for Russians. |
| Gina: Right. I've heard that bread and potatoes are essential foods in the Russian diet. |
| Svetlana: Yeah, you’d be amazed at the variety of breads in Russia. |
| Gina: What’s that Russian food...it’s like a thin pancake? |
| Svetlana: Yeah, blini. It’s a traditional Russian dish. We also have a great variety of savory and sweet pies called either пироги, which are large pies, or пирожки which are small pies. Both are always on a Russian table. |
| Gina: Whoa! I would gain so much weight eating all that! But I guess food culture is influenced a lot by the climate. So, if it’s cold most of the time, people will eat a lot of carbohydrates to keep themselves warm and replenish their energy. |
| Svetlana: Well, yeah, it might be a reason, or an excuse haha. |
| Gina: That would be mine! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Svetlana: полпути [natural native speed] |
| Gina: halfway |
| Svetlana: полпути [slowly - broken down by syllable] полпути [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: отказаться [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to give up, to abandon |
| Svetlana: отказаться [slowly - broken down by syllable] отказаться [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: табу [natural native speed] |
| Gina: taboo |
| Svetlana: табу [slowly - broken down by syllable] табу [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: бутерброд [natural native speed] |
| Gina: sandwich |
| Svetlana: бутерброд [slowly - broken down by syllable] бутерброд [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: готовить [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to cook |
| Svetlana: готовить [slowly - broken down by syllable] готовить [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: оставаться [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to be left |
| Svetlana: оставаться [slowly - broken down by syllable] оставаться [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Svetlana: употребление [natural native speed] |
| Gina: consumption |
| Svetlana: употребление [slowly - broken down by syllable] употребление [natural native speed] |
| Gina: And last... |
| Svetlana: сок [natural native speed] |
| Gina: juice |
| Svetlana: сок [slowly - broken down by syllable] сок [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Svetlana: The first key phrase is a noun полпути. |
| Gina: “halfway” |
| Svetlana: It’s a short version of the phrase половина пути, |
| Gina: which is literally “half of the way”. |
| Svetlana: For example, Полпути пройдено, осталось ещё немного. |
| Gina: “It’s halfway through, just a little bit left.” |
| This phrase is frequently used with verbs that mean “to stop doing something or to give up halfway”. For example, |
| Svetlana: Мой младший брат всё бросает на полпути. |
| Gina: “My younger brother gives up everything halfway.” Okay what’s the next key word? |
| Svetlana: The next key word is the noun употребление |
| Gina: It can be translated as “consumption” or “usage”. |
| Svetlana: Right, because it’s derived from the verb “употреблять” meaning “to use” or “to consume”. For example, Я не рекомендую употреблять в пищу слишком много перца чили. |
| Gina: “I recommend you not consume too much chili pepper.” |
| Svetlana: The noun that comes after употребление should be in the genitive case. For example, употребление алкоголя |
| Gina: “alcohol consumption” |
| Okay and what’s the last key word for this lesson? |
| Svetlana: It’s the verb готовить. |
| Gina: “to cook”. It’s one of the most commonly used verbs in Russian. And like many Russian verbs, it has different meanings. In our dialogue, we used it to mean “cooking something”. Svetlana, can you remind us which sentence it was used in? |
| Svetlana: Sure. That would be Я только их умею готовить. |
| Gina: “That’s the only thing I can cook.” which is from the dialogue when Elena was talking about sandwiches. Note that we use the verb meaning “to cook” or “to prepare” when talking about preparing sandwiches. |
| Svetlana: The noun that comes after the verb готовить should be in the accusative case. And there is another meaning for this verb. |
| Gina: “to prepare something” or “to prepare for something”. The noun after this verb should also be in the accusative case. For example, |
| Svetlana: Она готовила поздравительную речь всю неделю. |
| Gina: “She has been preparing a congratulatory speech all week.” |
| Okay, now it’s time to move onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, we’re going to take a look at punctuation in Russian sentences, and specifically at how to use the dash. |
| Svetlana: Right. It’s used a lot in Russian. And you might think that it’s not that necessary to know about it at this stage, but believe me, you’ll see that that dash plays a very important role in helping to build short and concise sentences. |
| Gina: Let’s first remind ourselves of how it was used in our dialogue. Svetlana, what was the sentence? |
| Svetlana: It was Алкоголь, колбасные изделия, соленое и жирное - тоже табу. |
| Gina: "Alcohol, processed meats, and basically any salty or fatty foods are also not allowed." Now let us give you more example sentences using the dash in the Russian. First of all, it’s used when the subject and the predicate are nouns in the nominative case. For example: |
| Svetlana: Моя сестра DASH — учительница. [say “dash” aloud here to make it clearer where it falls], then repeat with just a pause where the dash comes.] Моя сестра DASH — учительница |
| Gina: “My sister is a teacher.” Both the subject and predicate are nouns in the nominative case. |
| Svetlana: Yes. сестра “sister” and учительница “teacher” |
| Gina: In these sentences, we use a dash rather than the verb “to be”. |
| Svetlana: We also use the dash when we give something a definition. Very often, we’ll use the word это, which is another equivalent to the English verb “to be”. For example, Геология [pause] – это наука о строении, составе, истории земной коры. |
| Gina: “Geology is a science about the Earth, its structure, and the composition and formation of the Earth’s crust.” The dash should also be used when both the subject and predicate are infinitives. For example, |
| Svetlana: Уйти сейчас из института [pause]— это значит потерять всё. |
| Gina: “To leave university now means to lose everything!” The infinitives here are “to leave” and “to lose”. Okay, and the last case for dash usage in Russian we want to give you, is when either the subject or predicate is an expression or famous saying. For example, |
| Svetlana: Пирог [pause]— пальчики оближешь |
| Gina: “Pie is scrumptious.” |
| Svetlana: пальчики оближешь is a saying that means “yummy” or “delicious”. |
| Gina: “The pie is so delicious that you lick your fingers to get the last crumb.” Mmm...that makes me want some pie now. |
| Svetlana: Go ahead. because that’s it for this lesson. |
| Gina: Haha, okay! But let me remind you, listeners, to check the lesson notes for more information and examples. |
Outro |
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| Gina: See you next time, everyone. Bye! |
| Svetlana: Пока пока. |
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