Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Beginner Series Season 2, Lesson 6 – Russian comparatives. I'm much better than you are.
Anna: Hello, everyone. I'm Anna and welcome back to RussianPod101.com.
Eric: [Привет] Anna.
Anna: [Привет] Eric.
Eric: With us you’ll learn to speak Russian with fun and effective lessons.
Anna: We also provide you with cultural insights.
Eric: And tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Anna: In this lesson, you will learn how to make excuses.
Eric: The conversation is between unlucky Kevin and another passenger on a train.
Anna: The speakers don’t know each other, therefore they will be speaking formal Russian.
Eric: So I’ll be playing unlucky Kevin.
Anna: And I am just a passenger.
Eric: Ok. Here we go.
DIALOGUE
Anna: [Мужчина! Вы пролили мне пиво на колени!]
Eric: [Ой, извините, пожалуйста. Я нечаянно]
Anna: [Надо быть внимательнее! Посмотрите на мою юбку!]
--
Eric: Once again, slowly.
Anna: Еще раз, медленнее.
Anna: [Мужчина! Вы пролили мне пиво на колени!]
Eric: [Ой, извините, пожалуйста. Я нечаянно]
Anna: [Надо быть внимательнее! Посмотрите на мою юбку!]
--
Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation.
Anna: Еще раз, с переводом.
Anna: [Мужчина! Вы пролили мне пиво на колени!]
Eric: Hey, man, you spilled your beer on my lap.
Anna: [Ой, извините, пожалуйста. Я нечаянно]
Eric: Oh, I'm sorry, it was an accident.
Anna: [Надо быть внимательнее! Посмотрите на мою юбку!]
Eric: You should be more careful. Look at my skirt!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: Ok, Anna, so now we see why Kevin is called unlucky.
Anna: Yeah.
Eric: He’s not having luck last few lessons here. Do you think this was an accident? Did Levin do this [нечаянно], not on purpose?
Anna: Eric, what do you mean? Are you asking me whether Kevin has spilled his beer on girl’s lap on purpose?
Eric: Well, I was just asking. Maybe he was trying to attract that girl’s attention. It’s not a great way to attract a girl’s attention is to pour beer on them.
Anna: I don’t think this works actually. I'm sure you would never use this technique, Eric, would you?
Eric: Anna, this is not my preferred technique. I’ve never used this before. Anna, what techniques do you use?
Anna: You know, Eric, I use subtle techniques.
Eric: So you’ve been flirting with me this whole time then.
Anna: Ok, tell me about my techniques then.
Eric: Ok, well, maybe another lesson, eh?
Anna: What’s your technique, Eric?
Eric: I think it’s vocabulary time is what I think.
Anna: Ok.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Our first word is…
Anna: [мужчина]
Eric: Man.
Anna: [мужчина]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [пролить]
Eric: To spill.
Anna: [пролить]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [пиво]
Eric: Beer.
Anna: [пиво]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [колени]
Eric: Knees, lap.
Anna: [колени]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [нечаянно]
Eric: By accident, unintentionally.
Anna: [нечаянно]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [внимательный]
Eric: Careful, attentive.
Anna: [внимательный]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [посмотреть]
Eric: To look.
Anna: [посмотреть]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [юбка]
Eric: A skirt.
Anna: [юбка]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eric: Ok, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Anna: The first word we’ll look at is [мужчина].
Eric: Which means “man”, not to be confused, which I did, with [машина].
Anna: Oh, that’s right, Eric.
Eric: Which is car. [Мужчина] and [машина].
Anna: Yeah.
Eric: So [будьте внимательны], be careful. So, Anna, let’s give a sentence with both. “The man is driving a car.”
Anna: [Мужчина ведет машину.]
Eric: This is fun.
Anna: Yeah?
Eric: Ok. So, Anna, it ends in an A so is this a feminine noun?
Anna: No, Eric, it’s a masculine noun.
Eric: So how would you say “a nice man”?
Anna: [хороший мужчина]
Eric: [хороший]. So we use masculine ending of the adjective.
Anna: Yes, of course.
Eric: Not [хорошая мужчина].
Anna: No, Eric.
Eric: Ok. Just wanted to make that clear for our listeners. So, in our dialogue, the woman uses the word [мужчина] to address Kevin, is that rude?
Anna: No, it’s not rude. In Russian, we often use words like [мужчина, женщина] woman or [девушка] and girl to address someone we don’t know.
Eric: So I remember when I was in Russia, sometimes they would say [молодой человек].
Anna: Right.
Eric: Young person, young man.
Anna: Young man.
Eric: And it wasn’t rude.
Anna: No, it’s just a common way to address people.
Eric: So if I said [ девушка, извините!] from our newbie series, we used this as “waitress”, [девушка]. Ok, right. I’ve also heard someone address an old lady by saying [бабушка], which is “grandmother”, right?
Anna: Yes, but we can also use [бабушка] and [дедушка], which means grandfather, to talk about an elderly person you don’t know.
Eric: So you can say [бабушка] if you’re talking to an older lady and they won’t hit you with their handbag?
Anna: No, no, but if they’re really old, maybe above 70…
Eric: Really old… If you call someone [бабушка] and they’re not [бабушка].
Anna: Yeah. It’s not polite to address not really old women by saying [бабушка].
Eric: So be careful with that one. You might want to just use [извините].
Anna: Or [женщина].
Eric: Ok, our next word is…
Anna: [пролить], which means “to spill”.
Eric: Can I say [я пролил соль]?
Anna: I’m afraid not. [Пролить] is only used for liquids, therefore if you need to say “I’ve spilled the salt”, you’ll say [Я просыпал соль].
Eric: [я просыпал]
Anna: [соль]
Eric: [соль]. Ok. But I can say [Я пролил кофе].
Anna: Yes, “I spilled the coffee”. Coffee is a liquid so we can use [пролить].
Eric: Got it. Alright, our next word is [колени]. I thought [колени] was the word for “knees”. Can [колени] also be used for “lap”?
Anna: Yes, [колени] can also mean “lap”.

Lesson focus

Eric: Ok, now let’s look at the grammar for this lesson.
Anna: Ok, in our dialogue, the woman says [надо быть внимательнее].
Eric: “You need to be careful”, right?
Anna: Almost. Actually “careful” is [внимательный] and [внимательнее] means “more careful”. It’s a comparative.
Eric: So do all comparatives end in [ее], Anna?
Anna: Yeah, yeah, most of them.
Eric: Most of them. But that’s a good way to remember actually, right?
Anna: Let’s take [быстрый] “fast” as an example. To make a comparison, “faster”, you just drop the ending [ый] and add [ее] instead. Eric, do you want to try.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Ok, we’ve lost the magic on [ее].
Anna: Yeah. So let’s try. I’ll give you an adjective and you make a comparative.
Eric: Okey dokey.
Anna: [длинный]
Eric: Which means “long”.
Anna: And comparative is…
Eric: [длиннее]
Anna: That’s right, Eric. See how easy it is?
Eric: Ok. “Longer”, so let’s try another one.
Anna: What about [опасный]?
Eric: “Dangerous”. More dangerous, ok. [опаснее]
Anna: So see? It’s an easy rule.
Eric: So where is the stress? Even though it’s [ее], it’s lost because the stress is on a different syllable, right?
Anna: Yes, so we pronounce as [апаснее].
Eric: [апаснее]
Anna: [апаснее]
Eric: Ok, so we still have the [ее] but the accent is one the A. Ok, so “more dangerous” is, one more time?
Anna: [опаснее]
Eric: [опаснее]. Ok, great. I suppose there are some exceptions, as usual.
Anna: You suppose right. I’ll just give you a few of them. [большой]
Eric: Big.
Anna: [больше]
Eric: Bigger.
Anna: [хороший]
Eric: Good.
Anna: [лучше]
Eric: Better.
Anna: [плохой]
Eric: Bad.
Anna: [хуже]
Eric: Worse.
Anna: [высокий]
Eric: Tall.
Anna: [выше]
Eric: “Taller” or “higher”. Ok, so how would you say “Serghei is taller than Ivan”?
Anna: [Сергей выше, чем Иван]
Eric: And [чем] means “than” in this case, right?
Anna: Yes.
Eric: Ok. One more time? Let’s break it down.
Anna: [Сергей]
Eric: Serghei.
Anna: [выше]
Eric: Taller.
Anna: [чем]
Eric: Than.
Anna: [Иван]
Eric: “Ivan”. “Serghei taller than Ivan” or “Serghei is taller than Ivan”. Pretty simple.
Anna: Yeah.

Outro

Eric: Ok, great. And that will do it for today’s lesson. Premium members, don’t forget to subscribe to the Premium Feed, it’s one of our most powerful web 2.0 features todays.
Anna: The Premium Feed gives you the power to easily and effortlessly get all of the content.
Eric: Audio files, PDFs, everything we have.
Anna: Everything with just the click of a button and get it through iTunes.
Eric: Not a Premium Member and want to test it out?
Anna: Get the Sample Feed at RussianPod101.com.
Eric: Ok, [спасибо], Anna.
Anna: [Спасибо], Eric. [Спасибо, что были с нами сегодня. До следующих встреч!]
Eric: And thanks for being with us this lesson. See you next time.

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