Learn several grammar features that deal with traveling
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Здравствуйте, с вами Natalia. |
| Yura: I’m Yura. And this is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 18; Russian for World Travelers. |
| Natalia: Yura, what is this lesson about? |
| Yura: In this lesson, you’ll learn about prepositional and accusative cases in Russian. |
| Natalia: The conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Yura: The conversation is between Ben and Nika. |
| Natalia: The speakers are close friends, so they will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the dialogue and find out more about our guys Nika and Ben. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Natalia: Ben, где ты был, кроме России? |
| Yura: Я много где был, в Европе и Азии... Я люблю путешествовать. А ты где была? |
| Natalia: Я почти нигде не была. Но я очень хочу поехать в Латинскую Америку. |
| Yura: Понятно. Кстати, тебе нравится мексиканская кухня? |
| Natalia: Очень. Я была в мексиканском ресторане на прошлой неделе. |
| Yura: One time slowly. |
| Natalia: Ещё раз медленно. |
| Natalia: Ben, где ты был, кроме России? |
| Yura: Я много где был, в Европе и Азии... Я люблю путешествовать. А ты где была? |
| Natalia: Я почти нигде не была. Но я очень хочу поехать в Латинскую Америку. |
| Yura: Понятно. Кстати, тебе нравится мексиканская кухня? |
| Natalia: Очень. Я была в мексиканском ресторане на прошлой неделе. |
| Yura: One time natural native speed with the translation. |
| Natalia: Ещё раз с естественной скоростью и переводом. |
| Natalia: Ben, где ты был, кроме России? |
| Yura: Ben, where have you been besides Russia? |
| Natalia: Я много где был, в Европе и Азии... Я люблю путешествовать. А ты где была? |
| Yura: I’ve been to lots of places in Europe and Asia. I like traveling. Where have you been? |
| Natalia: Я почти нигде не была. Но я очень хочу поехать в Латинскую Америку. |
| Yura: I’ve hardly been anywhere. But I really want to go to South America. |
| Natalia: Понятно. Кстати, тебе нравится мексиканская кухня? |
| Yura: I see. By the way, do you like Mexican food? |
| Natalia: Очень. Я была в мексиканском ресторане на прошлой неделе. |
| Yura: Very much. I went to a Mexican restaurant last week. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: Apparently, Ben is well-traveled and Nika is still dreaming about it. |
| Natalia: Well, yes. Traveling is not very affordable for young Russian people, definitely not for those who don’t have rich parents. |
| Yura: But going to Europe must be pretty easy and cheap, no? |
| Natalia: Since most of Europe turned into European union, the prices there jumped up. Plus, it’s not always easy to get a visa to the EU countries. |
| Yura: Right. Well, I hope Nika will have a chance to see the world. And maybe, Ben will help her with it. Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary from the dialogue. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: The first word we have is... |
| Natalia: кроме |
| Yura: except, besides |
| Natalia: кроме |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: много где |
| Yura: in a lot of places |
| Natalia: много где |
| Yura: Next word? |
| Natalia: Европа |
| Yura: Europe |
| Natalia: Европа |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: Азия |
| Yura: Asia |
| Natalia: Азия |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: почти |
| Yura: almost |
| Natalia: почти |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: нигде |
| Yura: nowhere |
| Natalia: нигде |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: поехать |
| Yura: to go |
| Natalia: поехать |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: Латинская Америка |
| Yura: Latin America |
| Natalia: Латинская Америка |
| Yura: Okay. And the next word? |
| Natalia: нравиться |
| Yura: to like |
| Natalia: нравиться |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: мексиканский |
| Yura: mexican |
| Natalia: мексиканский |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: кухня |
| Yura: kitchen, cuisine |
| Natalia: кухня |
| Yura: And the next word? |
| Natalia: ресторан |
| Yura: restaurant |
| Natalia: ресторан |
| Yura: And the last word on our list? |
| Natalia: на прошлой неделе |
| Yura: last week |
| Natalia: на прошлой неделе |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yura: Okay. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Let’s start with the first question Nika asks Ben. |
| Natalia: “Где ты был?” which can be translated “Where were you?” or “Where have you been?” depending on the context. |
| Yura: Right. Unlike in English, there’s only one form of the past tense in Russian. Therefore, the phrase “Where were you?” in some particular time and “Where have you been?” in general, sounds the same. |
| Natalia: For example, “Я была в Германии” “I’ve been to Germany.” “Вчера я был у друга” “Yesterday I was at my friends." |
| Yura: So “где ты был, кроме”… this "кроме" would mean “except for” or “besides” and the noun following it should be put into the genitive case. In our cases "кроме России", where the ending "я" in "Россия" changes into "и", and what was Ben’s answer to that question? |
| Natalia: “Я много где был” –“I’ve been to a lot of places.” The word "много" itself means “a lot” or “much,” like "много кофе", “a lot of coffee.” And the word "где" means “where?” Together, this phrase can be translated as “a lot of where” which is a conversational way to say “in a lot of places.” |
| Yura: I see. He likes to travel, he said it himself. How did he say it? |
| Natalia: “Я люблю путешествовать”. Nika probably likes to travel too but she "почти нигде не была", “hardly has been anywhere.” "Почти" means “almost.” For example, "я почти закончила", “I almost finished” “I’m almost done.” And "нигде" is easy to guess, it’s just the word "где", “where” with a negative prefix "ни", which makes it sound as "нигде" and it means “nowhere.” |
| Yura: But she wants to go to Latin America where the word “to go” sounded nothing like what we’ve learned before. What was it? |
| Natalia: It was "поехать". |
| Yura: Right. It’s another verb of motion which means “to go” but implies “to go by transport.” In the previous lessons, we learned the verbs "идти" and "пойти", which both mean “to go by foot” even though they are used in different situations. The word "поехать" also has its pair, "ехать" with the same meaning “to go by transport.” |
| Natalia: So here we have two pairs, first "идти" “to go by foot” and "ехать" –“to go by transport,” and second, "пойти" – “to go by foot” and "поехать" –“to go by transport.” |
| Yura: The first pair of “to go” expresses continuous unfinished action. |
| Natalia: For example: “Я иду в школу.” |
| Yura: I am going to school. |
| Natalia: Я еду в Москву. |
| Yura: I am going to Moscow. The second pair of “to go’s” indicates completed action or the action which implies the result. |
| Natalia: Я пойду в школу. |
| Yura: I will go to school. |
| Natalia: Я поеду в Москву. |
| Yura: I will go to Moscow. So the prefix "по" in both “to go on foot” and “to go by a transport” implies that the action is/was or will be completed. Next, we have the verb for “to like.” |
| Natalia: Нравиться. This is an interesting verb because in the direct translation it means “to be liked” and the phrase like "мне нравится" is literally translated as “to my liking.” |
| Yura: That’s why the pronoun should first be turned into the dative case. To get a meaning for “to me” or “to my” "Ты" “you” will become "тебе", and "я" “I” will turn into "мне". |
| Natalia: Right. And the question was about Mexican food where Mexican will be a simple feminine adjective “мексиканская”. |
| Yura: “Кухня” can have two meanings. First, it can be “a kitchen” just like one you have in your house. And second meaning "cuisine", or simply “food” when talking about food or some specific region cuisine. |
| Natalia: Right. So Nika likes "мексиканская кухня" and she’s been to "мексиканский ресторан". Note how the adjective “Mexican” modifies according to the gender of the noun. |
| Yura: And lastly, we have a phrase for “last week” which in Russian, sounds like “оn last week”, right? |
| Natalia: Yes, “на прошлой неделе”. When you talk about a year or a month, you should use the preposition “в” instead of “на”. “в прошлом году” -“last year,” “в прошлом месяце” - “last month”. |
| Yura: Great. I think we covered all necessary vocabulary for this lesson. Let’s take a look at the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Yura: In the dialogue, we heard the following phrases... |
| Natalia: “...был в Европе и Азии”, “have been to Europe and Asia”, and “хочу поехать в Америку” “want to go to America”. We’ll focus on the phrases "в Европе" and "в Америку". |
| Yura: As you can hear, two feminine nouns “Европа” and “Америка” have different endings, although they are used with the same preposition "в". The thing is, Russian preposition "в" can mean both “in” and “to,” so how do you know whether we are asking about the location or about the direction, whether we mean “in Europe” or “to Europe,” “in America” or “to America”. |
| Natalia: We know it by the grammar case you put the noun into, I mean by the ending the noun has. |
| Yura: Right. When you are talking about location, you put the noun, the place you are talking about into the prepositional case. And when you are talking about a direction or your destination, you put the noun into the accusative case. Let’s take a look at how to form these cases and give several examples for better understanding. |
| Natalia: Forming these cases is actually pretty easy. For the prepositional case which is used to express location, you simply add "e" to the masculine nouns and change the last letter into "e" or "и" in the feminine nouns. |
| Yura: Sure. So all of them end in "e" or "и". Give us some examples, please. |
| Natalia: Let’s make two simple dialogues. -Где ты живёшь? Where do you live? |
| Yura: В Мичигане. In Michigan. |
| Natalia: -Где он сейчас? –Where is he now? |
| Yura: -В Австралии. – In Australia. |
| Natalia: In the accusative case which is used to indicate direction, only feminine nouns change their endings into "у" or "ю", and masculine nouns remain unchanged. -Куда он едет? Where is he going? |
| Yura: -В Россию. – To Russia. |
| Natalia: -Куда ты идёшь? Where are you going? |
| Yura: -Я иду в магазин. –I am going to the store. |
| Natalia: Remember that the question word for “where” are also different in Russian. |
| Yura: When you ask about the location, use "где?" “where,” when you mean the direction, you use "куда?" “where to?” That about does it for this lesson. |
| Natalia: Listeners, can you understand Russian tv shows, movies or songs? |
| Yura: How about your friends or loved ones, conversation in Russian? |
| Natalia: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Yura: Line by line audio. |
| Natalia: Listen to the lesson conversations line by line and learn to understand natural Russian fast. |
| Yura: It’s simple, really. |
| Natalia: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Yura: Listen again and again and tune your ears to natural Russian. |
| Natalia: Rapidly understand natural Russian with this powerful tool. |
| Yura: Find this feature on the Lesson page under Premium Member Resources at RussianPod101.com. Have a great day. |
Outro |
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| Yura: Have a great day! |
| Natalia: Всем пока-пока. |
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