Learn ways to distinguish between Russian adverbs and adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oksana: [Здравствуйте. Я Оксана] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 22. We’re in the middle of a family drama where a husband has had a little late night fun and now has to face as consequences. |
| Oksana: It doesn’t sound as little to me. All evidence shows that… |
| Eddie: Let’s not jump to conclusions until we know the whole story. Yes, the guy came home late, drunk and had some hair on his jacket which could easily be the hair of a random woman he stood too close to in the subway. |
| Oksana: Subways are not that crowded at 1 AM, even in Russia. He stood too closely to a woman in the office, I think. |
| Eddie: Anyway, last time we eavesdropped on that couple witnessed an ugly fight between the two. |
| Oksana: Too bad the guy didn’t have anything comforting to say but just kept explaining himself in a lame way. |
| Eddie: He must feel a little guilty now. Everything would have been better if he had called his wife at least. Let’s listen to their next conversation and find out whether her husband has a chance to fix the situation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eddie: Милая, не сердись, всё хорошо, я дома, я тебя люблю… |
| Oksana: Да, всё просто прекрасно. Я безумно рада, что ты весело провёл время. |
| Eddie: Ну что ты... Ну... хочешь, я тебе сделаю массаж? Или бутерброд с чаем? |
| Oksana: Не выводи меня из себя, ложись спать! |
| Eddie: А ты меня простила? Ты же у меня самая дорогая, самая красивая, самая любимая… |
| Oksana: И что я такая хорошая делаю с тобой… |
| Eddie: Once again, more slowly. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eddie: Милая, не сердись, всё хорошо, я дома, я тебя люблю… |
| Oksana: Да, всё просто прекрасно. Я безумно рада, что ты весело провёл время. |
| Eddie: Ну что ты... Ну... хочешь, я тебе сделаю массаж? Или бутерброд с чаем? |
| Oksana: Не выводи меня из себя, ложись спать! |
| Eddie: А ты меня простила? Ты же у меня самая дорогая, самая красивая, самая любимая.. |
| Oksana: И что я такая хорошая делаю с тобой… |
| Eddie: Once again, with a translation. |
| Oksana: Еще раз, с переводом. Милая, не сердись, всё хорошо, я дома, я тебя люблю… |
| Eddie: Honey, don't be mad, everything's good, I'm at home, I love you… |
| Oksana: Да, всё просто прекрасно. Я безумно рада, что ты весело провёл время. |
| Eddie: Yes, everything is just wonderful. I'm deliriously happy that you had fun. |
| Oksana: Ну что ты... Ну... хочешь, я тебе сделаю массаж? Или бутерброд с чаем? |
| Eddie: Please...Well...Do you want me to give you a massage? Or would you like a sandwich with tea? |
| Oksana: Не выводи меня из себя, ложись спать! |
| Eddie: Don't get on my nerves, just go to bed! |
| Oksana: А ты меня простила? Ты же у меня самая дорогая, самая красивая, самая любимая.. |
| Eddie: Did you forgive me? You are my dearest, most beautiful, most loved one… |
| Oksana: И что я такая хорошая делаю с тобой… |
| Eddie: And being so good as you say, what am I doing here with you… |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Oksana: He definitely feels guilty. |
| Eddie: Well, he’s trying his best to make up for his late fun. His wife doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about his words though. |
| Oksana: Yeah, she doesn’t even want to listen to him. I can understand that. What’s the point of talking to a drunk man? It’s much more effective to get back at him when he’s sober and guilty. |
| Eddie: You sound like you know what you’re talking about. |
| Oksana: I do actually. It’s the most ungrateful thing talking to a drunk man. His brain is numb, his behavior is unpredictable, he can agree to anything or get angry with anything now, and tomorrow he won’t even remember that. |
| Eddie: Ok, I believe you. Let’s listen to the vocabulary the girl is trying to put an end to that senseless dialogue with. The first word is… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Oksana: [Милый] |
| Eddie: Nice, sweet, cute, sweetie, honey. |
| Oksana: [Милый] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Сердиться] |
| Eddie: To be angry. |
| Oksana: [Сердиться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Прекрасный] |
| Eddie: Beautiful, wonderful, excellent. |
| Oksana: [Прекрасный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Безумный] |
| Eddie: Mad, insane, wild. |
| Oksana: [Безумный] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Веселый] |
| Eddie: Fun, cheerful, joyful. |
| Oksana: [Веселый] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Мне все равно] |
| Eddie: I don’t care, I don’t mind. |
| Oksana: [Мне все равно] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Сделать массаж] |
| Eddie: To give a massage, to get a massage. |
| Oksana: [Сделать массаж] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Выводить из себя] |
| Eddie: To drive someone mad. |
| Oksana: [Выводить из себя] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Ложиться] |
| Eddie: To lay down. |
| Oksana: [Ложиться] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oksana: [Любимый] |
| Eddie: Favorite, my love. |
| Oksana: [Любимый] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. So the guy starts with talking sweet to the girl, calling her [милая]. |
| Oksana: It’s a popular word for calling your darling. I like it. Actually, you can also translate it as “cute” and say that a dress, for example, [платье] is [милое]. If you say that about a thing, it doesn’t sounds like you’re super excited about its looks, but just saying that the thing is nice, not bad, looking cute. |
| Eddie: But it does sound affectionate if you call your partner that, right? |
| Oksana: Yes, it does. Oh, and for a man it would sound as [милый]. Next the guy tells his wife not to be angry with him. [Не сердись] Before we learned the word [злиться] when a little boy was asking his big sister not to be mad with him but [злиться] is a stronger word than [сердиться]. |
| Eddie: Apparently the guy thinks that his wife is just a little angry with him and asks her to let go of it. |
| Oksana: Yeah, I don’t know what he’s thinking. [Все хорошо, я дома] Is the fact that he’s finally at home supposed to make her happy? |
| Eddie: He adds [Я тебя люблю]. |
| Oksana: And even his “I love you” sounds more like a mean joke now. Anyway, she’s figured out already that he’s too drunk to waste time on him so she’s just saying [Да. Все просто прекрасно]. |
| Eddie: “Everything’s just wonderful.” [Просто] is the word for “simply” and it’s used both in its direct meaning in the sentence like ours. |
| Oksana: Yes, if you say [Это просто] it would just mean “it’s simple”, and [прекрасно] means “wonderful”. Obviously she’s saying this with sarcasm. |
| Eddie: There’s even more sarcasm there. She’s saying she’s madly happy for him. |
| Oksana: [Я безумно рада, что ты весело провел время] |
| Eddie: “I'm deliriously happy that you had fun.” [Безумно] literally means “madly” and the phrase for “to have fun” is [Весело провести время] in Russian. Literally “to spend time in a fun way”. |
| Oksana: He picked on her sarcasm and said [ну что ты!]. Literally we can translate it as “what are you?” but it means something like “come on” here. |
| Eddie: Right. So the guy tried nice words, they didn’t work out. Time to do something. What does he want to do for her? |
| Oksana: [Сделать массаж] |
| Eddie: “To give a massage.” In Russian it sounds like “to do a massage”. Unlike in English, this expression can mean both “to give a massage” and “to get a massage” depending on context. Can you give us a couple of examples, Oksana? |
| Oksana: Yeah, the phrase like [Давай я тебе сделаю массаж] means “Let me give you a massage”. And [Я хочу сделать массаж] would be “I want to get a massage”. |
| Eddie: Obviously, if you indicate a person in the dative case, the phrase will mean “to give a massage”. If there are no words indicating a receive in the dative case, then it’s obviously “to get a massage”. |
| Oksana: That’s right. He also offers her a sandwich, but she just yells [Не выводи меня из себя!]. |
| Eddie: “Don’t get on my nerves” or “Don’t drive me mad”. |
| Oksana: Yes, [выводить] means “to drive somebody mad”. There’s also an expression for “to lose one’s temper”. [Выйти из себя] Here are some examples. [Сын меня вывел из себя своим поведением сегодня] |
| Eddie: My son drove me crazy with his behavior today. |
| Oksana: [Я вышел из себя, как услышал что он сделал] |
| Eddie: “I lost my temper when I heard what he’d done.” So [жена] is asking him not to get on her nerves and just go to bed. By the way, to go to bed in Russian is usually said as “to lie down to sleep”. |
| Oksana: Right, [Ложиться спать]. Eddie, [во сколько ты ложишься спать]? |
| Eddie: What time do I go to bed? [Обычно в час ночи] |
| Oksana: “Usually at 1 AM.” Well, I'm sure your wife will be happy with that. |
| Eddie: Yeah, I don’t stay at work till 1 AM. I'm a teacher. That would just be weird. |
| Oksana: And illegal. Ok, so for some reason, after he offered to give her a massage he thought she was supposed to forgive him. [Ты меня простила?] |
| Eddie: We know the word [простить] which is “to forgive”. Next there comes a fountain of sweet flattery. |
| Oksana: Right, [Ты же у меня самая дорогая, самая красивая, самая любимая]. |
| Eddie: We can see the word [же] again. And again it’s used to emphasize the main thing he’s talking about. So in English it would sound like “You’re supposed to forgive me because I'm calling you all these sweet names”. |
| Oksana: Yeah, something like this. By the way, we could hear a lot of sweet words you can use in a more favorable situation. [Дорогая] “dear”, [красивая] “beautiful”, [любимая] “loved one”. The word [любимая] can be used also as a pet word, as a way to address a person. For example [Любимый, сделай мне кофе] which is “My love, make me some coffee”. |
| Eddie: And the word [самый] before each of those sweet adjectives means “the most”. |
| Oksana: Yes, we have just one phrase left. [И что я такая хорошая делаю с тобой...] |
| Eddie: “And what am I even doing with you if I'm so good?” It’s obviously a rhetorical question a girl grumbled to herself. |
| Oksana: Yeah, probably. Again, we have the word [такая] which means “so”, “such”. We had this word in the previous lesson. Here we have [такая хорошая]. |
| Eddie: “So good”. Ok, no difficult words this time. Should we get to the grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Oksana: Today we’ll talk about Russian adverbs. Eddie, tell us what an adverb is. |
| Eddie: An adverb is a part of speech that describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It answers the questions “how”, “when”, “where”, “why”, “in what way”, “how much”, “how often”, “under what condition”, “to what degree”. |
| Oksana: Right. In English, the easiest adverbs to recognize are those that end in -ly, like “warmly”, “quickly”. |
| Eddie: For example, “They greeted me warmly”. “Warmly” will be an adverb here because it answers the question “how” and described the verb “greeted”. |
| Oksana: Right, but they might as well be identical to the adjectives in English. Like in the sentence “I jump high”. In Russian the word “high” would be an obvious adverb, but in English it sounds just like an adjective, like in a phrase “high jump”. |
| Eddie: Yes, in Russian it’s much easier to recognize the adverbs as most of them end in [о]. Let’s take a look at the adverbs from today’s lesson. |
| Oksana: [Хорошо] |
| Eddie: Good. |
| Oksana: [Просто] |
| Eddie: Simply. |
| Oksana: [Прекрасно] |
| Eddie: Beautiful, excellent. |
| Oksana: [Безумно] |
| Eddie: Madly. |
| Oksana: [Весело] |
| Eddie: “Fun”. So again, the adverbs in English translation are not always obvious, not all of them end in -ly but look like normal adjectives. In Russian, however, all of them end in [о]. |
| Oksana: Most Russian adverbs are formed from the adjectives. It is done very easily as all you have to do is change the ending of an adjective into [о]. [Хороший-хорошо, простой-просто, прекрасный-прекрасно] |
| Eddie: We should probably make a couple of sample sentences to make the difference between adjectives and adverbs more clear. Can you give us some? |
| Oksana: Sure. Listen. [Он хороший человек] |
| Eddie: “He’s a good person.” In this example, the Russian word for “good” is an adjective because first it describes a noun, not a verb or another adjective, and second it has the ending of an adjective what makes us realize that it’s an adjective right away. Give us another example. The same word but make it an adverb this time. |
| Oksana: [Он хорошо одет] |
| Eddie: “He’s dressed well.” Here the word “well” is an adverb because it answers the question “how” and describes a verb. Let’s have another couple of examples with the word “simple”. |
| Oksana: [Это простой текст] |
| Eddie: “This is a simple text.” Here [простой] is an adjective. |
| Oksana: [Я просто проспал] |
| Eddie: “I simply overslept.” Here [просто] is an adverb. Ok, that’s clear. By the way, besides describing the verbs and adjectives, adverbs are widely used to describe conditions. |
| Oksana: Yes, both personal and objective. For example, [мне] “I'm”, [холодно] “cold”, [жарко] “hot”, [весело] “having fun”, [грустно] “sad”. |
| Eddie: These were personal. How about the general conditions like “Today is cold” or “It’s cold today”? |
| Oksana: That’s very easy. I’ll give you some weather conditions. [Сегодня пасмурно] |
| Eddie: It’s cloudy today. |
| Oksana: [Тепло] |
| Eddie: Warm. |
| Oksana: [Солнечно] |
| Eddie: Sunny. |
| Oksana: [Ветренно] |
| Eddie: “Windy”. We hope you picked up a lot of useful vocab today and learned what to do and what to say to make your darling feel good. It didn’t work out in our dialogue because of some unpleasant history in the relationship of the couple. |
Outro |
| Oksana: Yeah, but if you use our examples in peaceful times, your partner will melt. |
| Eddie: Ok, we wish you peaceful times until next time. Thanks for being with us. |
| Oksana: [Всем спасибо! Пока!] |
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