Learn gender affects numbers in Russian and how to decline nouns after a number
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Anna: [Здравствуй Сеул! Меня зовут Анна] | |
| Eric: Eric here. Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 25 – “How many are allowed through Russian customs?” Hi, my name is Eric and I'm joined here by… | |
| Anna: Anna. | |
| Eric: [Привет Анна] | |
| Anna: [Привет Эрик!] | |
| Eric: [Как дела?] | |
| Anna: [Отлично! Как у тебя?] | |
| Eric: [Очень хорошо], Anna. | |
| Anna: Hello everyone and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. | |
| Eric: With us you’ll learn to speak Russian like a native. | |
| Anna: We also provide you with cultural insights and tips you won’t find in a textbook. In our previous lesson, we talked about the time and transportation. | |
| Eric: The focus of this lesson is how to say you’re not allowed to do something and asking why. | |
| Anna: This conversation takes place at the airport customs. | |
| Eric: And the conversation is between James and a customs officer. | |
| Anna: The speakers are meeting each other for the first time, so they will be speaking formally. | |
| Eric: Ok, let’s listen to the Beginner Series final conversation. I’ll be playing James. | |
| Anna: And I will be playing the customs officer. | |
| Eric: Ok, here we go. | |
| DIALOGUE | |
| Anna: [Нельзя везти две бутылки водки.] | |
| Eric: [Почему?] | |
| Anna: [Потому что можно только одну.] | |
| Eric: [Извините, я не знал.] | |
| -- | |
| Eric: Once again, slowly. | |
| Anna: Еще раз, медленнее. | |
| Anna: [Нельзя везти две бутылки водки.] | |
| Eric: [Почему?] | |
| Anna: [Потому что можно только одну.] | |
| Eric: [Извините, я не знал.] | |
| -- | |
| Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation. | |
| Anna: Еще раз, с переводом. | |
| Anna: [Нельзя везти две бутылки водки.] | |
| Eric: You can’t transport two bottles of vodka. | |
| Anna: [Почему?] | |
| Eric: Why? | |
| Anna: [Потому что можно только одну.] | |
| Eric: Because you can only transport one. | |
| Anna: [Извините, я не знал.] | |
| Eric: I’m sorry. I didn’t know. | |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER | |
| Eric: So Anna, this lesson is kind of focusing on a stereotype of Russians, which is that all Russians like vodka. Is this true? | |
| Anna: You know, Eric, it’s kind of a cultural icon, but still a lot of young people now drink beer instead of vodka. | |
| Eric: So do you think the older generations still drink vodka? | |
| Anna: Yes, I think so. | |
| Eric: Some of the older people. And maybe not every day, just like for special occasions, right? | |
| Anna: Of course, of course. | |
| Eric: Like a birthday or New Year’s. And yeah, like most countries, Russians probably enjoy a variety of drinks. | |
| Anna: Yes, of course. We have wine and we have [самогон]. We mentioned this in our previous lessons here, remember? It’s some kind of home-made vodka. And also beer. | |
| Eric: You’re steering the stereotype back, Anna. You’re not helping the cause. | |
| Anna: This is… | |
| Eric: Breaking this… | |
| Anna: I’m not trying to break because it’s true. It’s half-true, right? | |
| Eric: Partially true. | |
| Anna: Partially true. | |
| Eric: And of course, not all Russians drink. | |
| Anna: That’s true, Eric. | |
| Eric: Anna, do you drink vodka? | |
| Anna: I don’t drink vodka at all. | |
| Eric: Ok. Well, there you go. Ok, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. | |
| VOCAB LIST | |
| Eric: Our first expression is… | |
| Anna: [нельзя] | |
| Eric: You can’t, you mustn’t, it’s forbidden. | |
| Anna: [нельзя] | |
| Eric: Next. | |
| Anna: [можно] | |
| Eric: As a question, “Can I”, or a statement, “it’s allowed”. | |
| Anna: [можно] | |
| Eric: Next. | |
| Anna: [потому что] | |
| Eric: Because. | |
| Anna: [потому что] | |
| Eric: Next. | |
| Anna: [бутылка] | |
| Eric: A bottle. | |
| Anna: [бутылка] | |
| Eric: Next. | |
| Anna: [везти] | |
| Eric: To transport. | |
| Anna: [везти] | |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE | |
| Eric: Ok, Anna. A common word I heard from Russians was [нельзя]. | |
| Anna: Really? | |
| Eric: Yes. | |
| Anna: Did you hear that quite often? | |
| Eric: It wasn’t being directed at me. I don’t think. | |
| Anna: Ok. | |
| Eric: But probably because I worked at a school that [нельзя] or “you can’t, you shouldn’t, you mustn’t”. It should be the opposite, “you can” [можно], but sometimes I would hear [нельзя] “You can’t do that”, right? And it’s a great word because it expresses… | |
| Anna: Restriction. | |
| Eric: Yeah, expresses restriction in one word. Like “You can’t do that, you’re not supposed to do that, please don’t do that”. Just one word. | |
| Anna: [нельзя] | |
| Eric: [нельзя] And you can kind of say it in a tone if you really want to be like “No, no, no, no, no…” | |
| Anna: Yeah. | |
| Eric: Like [нельзя]. | |
| Anna: Or [нельзя]. | |
| Eric: So how do you say “you’re allowed to do something”, the opposite of [нельзя]. | |
| Anna: You should use the phrase [можно]. | |
| Eric: Which is very common. I think one of the most common words I heard. [можно] | |
| Anna: Because you can use it in different context. | |
| Eric: Right. “Sure, you can.” “Can I sit here?” “Yes, [Можно].” | |
| Anna: Or for example, if I want to ask something, for example, [Можно спросить?] “Can I ask?” | |
| Eric: [Можно] “Yes, you can.” | |
| Anna: Yeah. | |
| Eric: So you can use [можно] as an answer to [можно]. | |
| Anna: Right. | |
| Eric: Right? You’re asking permission. [Можно?] “Can I?” And I can say back [Можно] “Yes, you can.” | |
| Anna: Or you can say [Нет, нельзя] “No, you cannot.” | |
| Eric: Ok. Great. | |
Lesson focus |
|
|---|---|
| Eric: Ok, Anna, let’s talk about the grammar from our lesson. What are we going to talk about today? | |
| Anna: Ok, let’s talk about numbers. So in our dialogue, we used this with word [бутылка] “bottle” and [бутылки] “bottles”. | |
| Eric: So Anna, how do you say “one bottle”? | |
| Anna: [одна бутылка] | |
| Eric: “Two bottles”? | |
| Anna: [две бутылки] | |
| Eric: So the ending changed on “bottle”, right? | |
| Anna: Yes, because we have the genitive case here. Ok, Eric, so let’s talk about the number [один ] which means “one” first. It changes according to the gender of the noun that follows it. For example, [один] is used with masculine nouns. [один дом] | |
| Eric: One house. | |
| Anna: [одна] is used with feminine nouns. [одна девушка] | |
| Eric: One girl. | |
| Anna: And [одно] is used with neutral nouns. [одно яблоко] | |
| Eric: “One apple”. Anna, does this rule apply for [два] or the number “two” in Russian? | |
| Anna: [два] is a little bit different. For [два] we have two forms. The first form [два] is used with masculine and neutral nouns, plural. For example, [два дома]. | |
| Eric: Two houses. | |
| Anna: [два яблока] | |
| Eric: Or “two apples”. | |
| Anna: Right. And we use [две] for feminine and plural. For example, [две девушки] “two girls”. | |
| Eric: So is there a different form for the word [три] or “three” in Russian? | |
| Anna: No, Eric, there is only one form. [три] | |
| Eric: What about [четыре] or “four”? | |
| Anna: Same, only one. [четыре] | |
| Eric: [пять]. | |
| Anna: That’s same. | |
| Eric: Ok, so 1 and 2 there are different forms. | |
| Anna: Right. | |
| Eric: So that’s all the listener needs to remember for this lesson is that 1 and 2 change according to the noun that follows it, and 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, they don’t change. | |
| Anna: Yes, but please be careful that noun that follows numbers can change depending on the case, as well. | |
| Eric: Well, that’s for a different lesson, a different series, right? | |
Outro |
|
| Anna: Right. But there are some examples in PDF file. Please check this out. | |
| Eric: Ok, great idea, Anna. Ok, that just about does it for today. | |
| Anna: On the website, you can find accompanying PDF for this lesson. | |
| Eric: It has the transcript of the conversation in Cyrillic, its Romanized form and the translation. | |
| Anna: It also has vocab, sample sentences, a grammar explanation and a cultural insight section. | |
| Eric: So please check it out at RussianPod101.com and thank you for listening. We hope you’ve enjoyed this Beginner Series and we hope to see you for the next one. | |
| Anna: [До встречи] | |
| Eric: Until next time. |
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20 Comments
HideHello everyone!
Have you ever been to Russia? What according to you is the best thing about Russia?
Regards,
Russianpod101.com
Hi, I have been to Russia and was lucky to visit 3 Russian cities- Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. I had an amazing holiday in Russia. The best thing about Russia is that it has such a rich, well preserved history and there are so many sightseeing things to see and do. I can't wait to back and visit some other Russian cities.
Hi Robert,
Thank you for posting. We are happy to have you here!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Levente
Team RussianPod101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
robert
Hello Christophe,
1. Right.
2. Because we have direct object here: "везти" what? - only one.
it is like:
"читать" what? - only one (book).
Please let us know if you have more questions. 😄
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Hello RussianPod101,
Quick questions for you.
1. When I say : ‘У меня есть один брат / одна сестра’ (I have one brother / one sister) брат and сестра are in the nominative case. But when I say ‘У меня два брата / две сестры’ then we use the genitive case (singular form). Is it right ?
2. I am confused by this sentence in the lesson : "Потому что можно везти только одну". I don’t understand why we use the accusative case for одну.. Based on the examples above I would have said ‘олько одна’ (nominative case).
Kind regards,
Christophe
Hello Rudy,
знал - is past tense, masculine
знала - is past tense, feminine
Wish you a good trip!
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Hi, planning to travel through Russia, Kazachstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan for 3 months this summer in an old volkswagen bus. Really looking forward for this road trip!
Your course is great for pikking up at least some basic russian!
In this dialogue you say : Извините, я не знал. for I did not know. I tought it shold have been зналa for the past tense?
Hello Bart,
Accusative case of "бутылка" is "бутылку".
According to grammar rules after 2, 3, 4 we should use Genitive Singular - бутылки.
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Why is it "бутылки" in the genitive singular, not "бутылки" in the accusative plural? It's kind of hard to spot the difference! That was a funny example. Is there a restriction on exporting, say, newspapers?
Hello Alain, thank you for your comment. :smile:
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com