Learn the rules governing the proper usage of the popular Russian verb смотреть
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Beginner Series Season 2, Lesson 2 - Russian tour guides may lead you to early retirement. |
| Anna: Hello. My name is Anna. And welcome back to beginner series season 2 at RussianPod101.com where we study modern Russian in a fun, educational format. |
| Eric: So brush up on the Russian that you started learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Anna: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. |
| Eric: Anna, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Anna: The focus of this lesson is expressing annoyance. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place at an airport check-in desk. |
| Anna: The conversation is between unlucky Kevin and the check-in assistant. |
| Eric: Again, the speakers do not know each other so they’ll be speaking formal Russian. |
| Anna: Let’s listen to today’s conversation. |
| Eric: Ok. I’ll be unlucky Kevin, again. |
| Anna: And I’ll be playing check-in assistant. |
| Eric: Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anna: Смотрите! На вашей сумке лопнула молния! Нельзя сдавать в багаж открытую сумку! |
| Eric: Черт! Что же мне теперь делать? |
| -- |
| Eric: Once again, slowly. |
| Anna: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Anna: Смотрите! На вашей сумке лопнула молния! Нельзя сдавать в багаж открытую сумку! |
| Eric: Черт! Что же мне теперь делать? |
| -- |
| Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation. |
| Anna: Еще раз, с переводом. |
| Anna: Смотрите! На вашей сумке лопнула молния! Нельзя сдавать в багаж открытую сумку! |
| Eric: Look, the zipper on your bag is broken. You can’t check in an open bag. |
| Anna: Черт! Что же мне теперь джелать? |
| Eric: Oh, no. What should I do now? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: So, Anna, I noticed in the conversation - of course I go right to it - the word [черт]. |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: Which means - and we’ll talk about this later but… |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: Just for our listeners, what does this mean in Russian? |
| Anna: Directly it means “devil”. |
| Eric: Devil. |
| Anna: Yeah, but you use it when you want to say “Oh, no”. |
| Eric: It’s pretty strong, right? |
| Anna: Right. It’s very strong. |
| Eric: So would this be a vulgar word or a swear word in Russian? |
| Anna: Yes, it’s a swear word. And maybe you noticed, Russians use a lot of swear words. It’s kind of part of Russian culture, I would say. |
| Eric: Can you - well, maybe we can leave that for another lesson. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: That could be a whole… We could even do a series on that. |
| Anna: That’s right. |
| Eric: So this word, [черт], is it rude to use in front of your family or friends? |
| Anna: It’s not really rude, but it implies that you’re really angry about something. |
| Eric: So how could you say this word a little bit nicer when you’re frustrated with something? |
| Anna: I guess it depends on your intonation. So if you say [черт] it means like you’re really frustrated. And if you say [ммм.. черт], it’s a light way to say it so… |
| Eric: So intonation is key. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: Is there another way you can say… |
| Anna: There are some different words but I want to talk about them later. |
| Eric: Ok. |
| Anne: In our vocabulary part. |
| Eric: Great. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Anna: Right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Our first word is… |
| Anna: [смотреть] |
| Eric: To look, to watch. |
| Anna: [смотреть] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [сумка] |
| Eric: A bag, handbag. |
| Anna: [сумка] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [лопнуть] |
| Eric: To burst, to break. |
| Anna: [лопнуть] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [молния] |
| Eric: Zipper. |
| Anna: [молния] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [нельзя] |
| Eric: You can’t, you mustn’t, it’s forbidden. |
| Anna: [нельзя] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [сдавать в багаж] |
| Eric: To check baggage in. |
| Anna: [сдавать в багаж] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [открытый] |
| Eric: Open, opened. |
| Anna: [открытый] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [черт] |
| Eric: Devil. |
| Anna: [черт] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [теперь] |
| Eric: Now. |
| Anna: [теперь] |
| 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. And the first phrase we’ll look at is… |
| Anna: [черт] |
| Eric: Oh, is something wrong, Anna? |
| Anna: No, I was just saying that we’ll look at the word [черт]. |
| Eric: Oh, I see. I thought you were, maybe, angry about something. From our previous lesson we had that angry other word. |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: It did so well. |
| Anna: Ok. Well, we do use [черт] when we are angry about something. For example, in the dialogue Kevin is very annoyed because the zipper on his bag is broken, so he says [черт]. |
| Eric: So we went over this in the beginning of the lesson. Just to recap, is this rude, Anna? |
| Anna: Not really. It’s informal, but it’s not rude. And literally, it means “devil”. |
| Eric: Are there any other expressions like this? |
| Anna: Yes, of course. For example, it is [блин] that literally means “pancake”. |
| Eric: Pancake? |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Eric: Oh, pancake! |
| Anna: [блин!] |
| Eric: [блин!] |
| Anna: [блин!] |
| Eric: Ok. So, Anna, this pancake word, anyone can use this, children? |
| Anna: Yeah, actually it’s the first one. It’s the first we learn, I guess. [блин!] |
| Eric: Ok. So our listeners can say this one for sure. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: Alright. And what else do we have? |
| Anna: Sometimes we can say [елки-палки]. |
| Eric: I thought [елка] was a Christmas tree. |
| Anna: It is a Christmas tree or a [fir] tree in general. And [палки] are “sticks”. |
| Eric: What a strange expression. Where does it come from, Anna? |
| Anna: I have absolutely no idea, I’m afraid. |
| Eric: Maybe one of our listeners knows where this comes from, and if you could leave a comment about the origin of this expression, it would be very helpful and very nice of you. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: And what does this mean? It’s just like “shoot”, “darn it”. |
| Anna: Something very close to [блин]. |
| Eric: It’s like when you’re frustrated, annoyed. |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: How would you say it? Like… |
| Anna: [елки-палки] |
| Eric: So what’s our next word, Anna? |
| Anna: It is [лопнуть]. |
| Eric: Which means “to burn” or “break”. So I can say [моя машина лопнула]. |
| Anna: No, that would mean that it burst like a balloon. You should say [моя машина сломалась]. |
| Eric: Anna, can we translate that for our listeners? |
| Anna: Yes. [моя] |
| Eric: My. |
| Anna: [машина] |
| Eric: Car. |
| Anna: [сломалась] |
| Eric: Broke down. |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: What’s our next word? |
| Anna: It is [молния]. |
| Eric: We’ve heard this before. Does it have anything to do with a storm? |
| Anna: It does. Actually, [молния] is “lightning” but we use the same word for zipper. |
| Eric: Any connection. |
| Anna: Lightning and a zipper do seem to have something in common. Don’t you think so? |
| Eric: We’ll leave it up to our listeners to fill in those missing pieces. Alright, and our next word is… |
| Anna: [теперь] which means “now”. |
| Eric: Is this the same as [сейчас], Anna? |
| Anna: Sometimes it’s the same, but it’s connected more to the past. For example, when I say [теперь, я понимаю], it means that “I didn’t understand before, but now I understand”. |
| Eric: Anna, let’s break down that sentence. |
| Anna: [теперь] |
| Eric: Now. |
| Anna: [я] |
| Eric: I. |
| Anna: [понимаю] |
| Eric: Understand. |
| Anna: So anyway, if you are not sure which one to use, it’s safer to use [сейчас]. |
| Eric: Or as the Russians would say [щас]. |
| Anna: [щас], right. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Ok, Anna, let’s move on to the grammar. The check-in assistant in the dialogue says [смотрите] or “look”. I’ve also heard [смотри], what’s the difference? |
| Anna: Alright. The check-in assistant doesn’t know Kevin, so she uses the formal [смотрите]. If you were talking to your friend, you would say [смотри]. |
| Eric: So, as you can see, you can use the word [смотреть] to attract someone’s attention. For example… |
| Anna: [смотри, птичка!] |
| Eric: “Look! A little bird.” Can I also use it in the sense as to look at something or somebody? |
| Anna: Yes, but in this case you need the preposition [на] plus the accusative case. For example, [почему ты смотришь на меня?]. |
| Eric: “Why are you looking at me?” Let’s break that down, Anna. |
| Anna: [почему] |
| Eric: Why. |
| Anna: [ты] |
| Eric: You. |
| Anna: [смотришь] |
| Eric: Look. |
| Anna: [на меня] |
| Eric: “At me”. Or “Why are you looking at me?” |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: I remember, actually, I was looking at a Russian girl and I thought I recognized her. I'm not just saying that, I really thought I recognized her. And she told me [Че смотришь, глаза испортишь!]. |
| Anna: Oh, no. |
| Eric: I do remember that. Can we break that down for our listeners? If you’re staring at someone, they may say this to you. In Russian. |
| Anna: [че] |
| Eric: The informal or impolite version of [что] or “what”. |
| Anna: [смотришь] |
| Eric: “Look” or “What you looking at?” |
| Anna: [глаза] |
| Eric: Eyes. |
| Anna: [испортишь] |
| Eric: Are ruined? |
| Anna: Will be ruined. |
| Eric: “Will be ruined?” “So you’re going to ruin your eyes, what are you looking at?” It was pretty rude. |
| Anna: It’s very rude, actually. |
| Eric: And I didn’t know how to respond. I was just [ниче]. |
| Anna: Like [блин]. Didn’t work. |
| Eric: [елки-палки] |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Eric: This, this could be the time to use our new words this lesson. I wish I had had this lesson before. I didn’t know what to say. I was like [извини] would be what in Russian? |
| Anna: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. |
| Eric: Yeah. I will never look your way again. Ok. So do you always use the preposition [на] after [смотреть]? |
| Anna: No, not always. For example, in the expression [to watch TV] you don’t need [на]. For example [я смотрю телевизор]. |
| Eric: “I’m watching TV.” So there’s no [на], [я смотрю на телевизор], no? It’s just [я смотрю телевизор]… |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Eric: [телевизор] Ok. So [смотреть] also means “to watch”. |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Eric: This is a versatile verb here. |
| Anna: “To look” and “to watch”. |
| Eric: Ok. |
| Anna: Theirs is another interesting thing about [смотреть]. Even though the verb ends in [еть] we conjugate it like the verb ends in [-ить]. |
| Eric: What do you mean? |
| Anna: Something like [говорить]. |
| Eric: Ok. So why don’t we conjugate this in the present tense? |
| Anna: Yeah, that’ll be great. [я смотрю] |
| Eric: I look. |
| Anna: [ты смотришь] |
| Eric: You look – informal. |
| Anna: [он,она смотрит] |
| Eric: He or she looks. |
| Anna: [мы смотрим] |
| Eric: We look. |
| Anna: [вы смотрите] |
| Eric: You look – formal or plural. And lastly… |
| Anna: [они смотрят] |
| Eric: “They look”. Ok, Anna, I think that will do it for today’s lesson. |
Outro |
| Anna: Ok, some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool at RussianPod101.com. |
| Eric: That would be me. |
| Anna: Listener. |
| Eric: I am a tool. No. Actually, we mean line by line audio. |
| Anna: This is the perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Eric: By listening to the lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Anna: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialogue into comprehensible, bite-sized sentences. |
| Eric: You can try the line by line audio in the Premium Learning Center at RussianPod101.com. |
| Anna: Thanks for listening. |
| Eric: And please leave us a comment. |
| Anna: [до встречи!] |
| Eric: [пока-пока!] |
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