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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