Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Oksana: [Привет, Киев!]. Welcome to RussianPod101.com. [Меня зовут Оксана]. My name is Oksana, and I'm filling in for Anna, today, who’s in Moscow.
Eric: Thanks, Oksana. And I'm Eric. And this is Beginner Series Season 2, Lesson 9 - Are you sure?
Oksana: With us, you’ll learn to speak Russian with fun and effective lessons.
Eric: We also provide you with cultural insights.
Oksana: And tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Eric: In this lesson, you’ll be learning about reflexive verbs.
Oksana: This conversation takes place in the airport.
Eric: And the conversation is between unlucky Kevin and a helpdesk assistant.
Oksana: The speakers don’t know each other, therefore they will be speaking formal Russian.
Eric: I’ll be playing unlucky Kevin.
Oksana: And I’ll be playing a helpdesk assistant.
Eric: Ok, here we go.
DIALOGUE
Eric: [Мой багаж потерялся! Его нет на ленте!]
Oksana: [Вы уверены? Вы хорошо посмотрели?]
Eric: [Я стоял там час! Конечно, я уверен!]
--
Eric: Once again, slowly.
Anna: Еще раз, медленнее.
Oksana: [Мой багаж потерялся! Его нет на ленте!]
Eric: [Вы уверены? Вы хорошо посмотрели?]
Eric: [Я стоял там час! Конечно, я уверен!]
--
Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation.
Anna: Еще раз, с переводом.
Oksana: Мой багаж потерялся! Его нет на ленте!
Eric: My baggage is lost. It isn’t on the carrousel.
Oksana: Вы уверены? Вы хорошо посмотрели?
Eric: Are you sure? Have you looked properly?
Oksana: Я стоял там час! Конечно, я уверен!
Eric: I was there for an hour, of course I’m sure.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: So Oksana, have you ever lost your luggage?
Oksana: Yes, it happened once when I was traveling to Japan.
Eric: Really? What happened?
Oksana: Actually, the whole suitcase with my shoes went to America instead of Japan. That’s true.
Eric: Did you ever get your luggage back?
Oksana: They sent it back to me to America in a month. Yes, I got it back.
Eric: You had to wait a month.
Oksana: Yes.
Eric: [Ммм...не повезло]. It didn’t work out, right?
Oksana: [Да уж, не повезло].
Eric: What did you end up doing for that month? Did you wear the same thing every day?
Oksana: Luckily, it was just one month in Autumn so I just bought a couple of pairs of shoes. It wasn’t a big problem, really.
Eric: Your whole piece of luggage was filled with shoes?
Oksana: Yes, I brought everything I had from Ukraine because I was moving to Japan for four years.
Eric: Still, that’s a lot of shoes. You like shoes. Ok.
Oksana: It was a small baggage.
Eric: I'm not sure I believe that. Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Our first word is..
Oksana: [багаж]
Eric: Baggage, luggage.
Oksana: [багаж]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [потеряться]
Eric: To be lost, to get lost.
Oksana: [потеряться]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [уверен]
Eric: Sure.
Oksana: [уверен]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [лента]
Eric: A tape, a ribbon, an airport convert belt.
Oksana: [лента]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [посмотреть]
Eric: To look.
Oksana: [посмотреть]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [стоять]
Eric: To stand.
Oksana: [стоять]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [там]
Eric: There.
Oksana: [там]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [час]
Eric: An hour, a clock.
Oksana: [час]
Eric: Next.
Oksana: [конечно]
Eric: Of course, certainly.
Oksana: [конечно]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eric: Ok, now let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is…
Oksana: [Лента]. [Лента] can be used for any long, narrow piece of material. It can refer to a ribbon, cello tape, magnetic tape or other things of the same shape. It’s also the word for the place where you collect your bags at the airport.
Eric: The next word we’ll look at is…
Oksana: [Посмотреть]. [Посмотреть] means “to look”. It’s a perfective verb which means it can’t be used for actions in progress, only for completed actions. It isn’t used in the present, only in the past, in the future or in the imperative form. In the present, we use the verb [смотреть].
Eric: Oksana, could we have an example with [смотреть]
Oksana: [Я смотрю телевизор.]
Eric: So, Oksana, this means “currently”, “right now”?
Oksana: It can either mean “right now” or “in general”. In English, it would be both present and present continuous tense.
Eric: So this indicates a habitual action then. “I watch TV all the time”, right?
Oksana: Right. “I watch TV all the time” or “I’m watching TV”. In Russian it sounds the same.
Eric: Ok, good. Now let’s look at the word [посмотреть]. Could you give an example in the past and in the command form?
Oksana: [Он посмотрел на меня.]
Eric: Which means “He looked at me”. So you need the [по-] for past tense, right?
Oksana: Yes, it indicates perfective form.
Eric: Ok. And how about in the command form, [посмотреть]?
Oksana: [Посмотри на него.]
Eric: “Look at him!” So you also need the [по-] for the imperative form, is that right?
Oksana: Yes, and that will mean “Take a look at him!”, “Look at him!” If you don’t say [по-] and just say [смотри на него], it will mean “Stare at him”.
Eric: Ok, thanks for explaining the difference between the two, Oksana.
Oksana: No problem.
Eric: Let’s move on to [уверен].
Oksana: [Вы уверены?] means “Are you sure?”. [Уверен] changes depending on the grammatical subject.
Eric: So, for example, Oksana, how would you say “He is sure”?
Oksana: [Он уверен]
Eric: She is sure.
Oksana: [Она уверена]
Eric: They are sure.
Oksana: [Они уверены]
Eric: How about formal you, “Are you sure?” Like in our dialogue?
Oksana: [Вы уверены?]
Eric: And how would you say informal [ты]?
Oksana: [Ты уверен?]
Eric: If you’re speaking to a man. And if you’re speaking to a woman?
Oksana: [Ты уверена?]
Eric: “Are you sure?” Ok, Oksana, the last word we’re going to look at is…
Oksana: [час]
Eric: Which means…
Oksana: “An hour”, but also “a clock”. We use it to talk about periods of time. For example, [Мы здесь уже час.]
Eric: “We’ve been here already for an hour.” Please note that you don’t need a preposition in this case. [for] isn’t translated.
Oksana: We also use it to tell the time. [Сейчас шесть часов.]
Eric: “It’s 6 o’clock right now.” One interesting thing, the [ч] in [час] isn’t pronounced [ч] in the word [конечно] even though it’s the same letter, right?
Oksana: Yeah, that’s right. You say it just like [ш, конешно]. And also the letters O, the same as in English, you pronounce them more like A, [канешна].
Eric: Ok, good to know, Oksana.

Lesson focus

Eric: Ok, Oksana, now let’s look at the grammar for this lesson.
Oksana: The focus of this lesson is reflexive verbs. [Мой багаж потерялся], the literal translation in this sentence would be “My baggage lost itself”. Verbs like [мыться], “to wash oneself”, [удариться], “to hurt oneself”, [одеваться], “to get dressed”, [просыпаться], “to wake up”, are called reflexive verbs. We mainly use reflexive verbs to show that the subject performs an action on oneself and not one someone else. Please know that reflexive verbs are more common in Russian than in English, so you won’t always have “self” in the English translation.
Eric: Thanks, Oksana, that really helps to clear up the meaning of reflexive verbs. One more question, Oksana, is there any other time you would use reflexive verbs?
Oksana: There is. You also use reflexive verbs when you don’t know who did the action or it isn’t important. For example, [багаж потерялся], “The baggage is lost”.
Eric: So here we don’t know who performed the action.
Oksana: That’s right.
Eric: Is there another example?
Oksana: [Стакан разбился] “The glass is broken.”
Eric: So let’s break that down.
Oksana: [стакан]
Eric: The glass.
Oksana: [разбился]
Eric: Broke itself or…
Oksana: Literally it can be translated as “broke itself”.
Eric: And in English we would just say “The glass is broken”.
Oksana: You can never put a direct object after a reflexive verb. For example, to say “I hurt my hand” you’ll use [ударить] rather than [удариться]. [Я ударил руку] but not [я ударился руку].
Eric: So, Oksana, let’s go over that phrase a little more slower one more time.
Oksana: [Я ударил руку]
Eric: So that means “I broke hand” literally, right?
Oksana: Right.
Eric: And not [я ударился руку] “I broke my hand”.
Oksana: [Я ударился руку] doesn’t mean “I broke my hand”, it means literally… Actually it doesn’t make any sense, but if you translate it literally, it’s [я] “broke myself, hand”.
Eric: Ok, so that’s why you can’t use a direct object after a reflexive verb. It doesn’t make sense in Russian.
Oksana: Not at all.
Eric: Ok. So reflexive verbs always end in [ся] in the infinitive form, is that right?
Oksana: In an infinitive form, yes.
Eric: So even though reflexive verbs look like they’re really difficult to conjugate, they’re really not. They are just normal verbs with…
Oksana: The ending [ся].
Eric: To conjugate a reflexive verb, you need to drop…
Oksana: [ся]
Eric: Then conjugate it according to usual rules. Let’s imagine that you need to say “She usually wakes up at seven”. You take the verb…
Oksana: [просыпаться]
Eric: To wake up, and you drop…
Oksana: [ся]
Eric: And you get…
Oksana: [просыпать]
Eric: Then you conjugate it with [она] or she, in the present.
Oksana: [она просыпает]
Eric: And finally you can add…
Oksana: [ся]
Eric: Back onto the verb and you’ll end up with…
Oksana: [она просыпается]

Outro

Eric: Excellent, easy. For other examples, please check the PDF file. Ok, Oksana, I think that does it for this lesson.
Oksana: Please leave your comment on RussianPod101.com. [Желаю удачи]. Wish you good luck.
Eric: Bye-bye.

Grammar

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