Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Let's take a closer look at the conversation.
Do you remember how Sasha asks,
"Excuse me, do you have salt?"
Извините, у вас есть соль? (Izvinite, u vas yest' sol'?)
First is извините (izvinite) meaning, “Excuse me.” Извините. Извините.
Извините (izvinite) from the verb извинять (izvinyat’), “to excuse”. Извинять.
Note: You may be familiar with the informal form извини (izvini), “Excuse me.” In this conversation, Sasha is speaking with someone she doesn’t know, so she uses the formal form, Извините (izvinite).
Next is у вас есть (u vas yest’), meaning "[do] you have…" У вас есть. У вас есть.
Note: у вас есть is formal.
Last is соль (sol’), “salt.” Cоль. Cоль.
In Russian, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Cоль (sol’) is singular and feminine.
All together, Извините, у вас есть соль? (Izvinite, u vas yest' sol'?) "Excuse me, do you have salt?"
Извините, у вас есть соль? (Izvinite, u vas yest' sol'?)
Let's take a closer look at the response.
Do you remember how the shop clerk says,
“Yes, it’s here.”
Да, она здесь. (Da, ona zdes'.)
This starts with the expression, Да (Da), “yes.” Да. Да.
It answers Sasha's question,
Извините, у вас есть соль? (Izvinite, u vas yest' sol'?)
“Excuse me, do you have salt?”
Next is она (ona), literally “she,” but it translates as “It," as in”It’s here.” Она. Она.
Note: The feminine singular pronoun Она (Ona), "she" is used to refer to the feminine singular noun соль (sol') in the response:
"Да, она здесь" (Yes, she here) is equal to
"Да, соль здесь" (Yes, salt here).
Last is the word здесь (zdes’), "[is] here." Здесь. Здесь.
Note: the corresponding Russian word for [is] is omitted as it is understood from context.
All together, it's Да, она здесь. (Da, ona zdes'.), literally “Yes, she here,” but it translates as “Yes, it’s here.”
Да, она здесь. (Da, ona zdes'.)
The pattern is
У вас есть ITEM?
Do you have ITEM?
U vas yest’ ITEM?
To use this pattern, simply replace the {ITEM} placeholder with the thing you’re looking for.
Note: This pattern requires a noun.
Imagine you’re looking for milk.
Молоко (Moloko). “Milk.” Молоко. Молоко.
Say, “Do you have milk?”
Ready?
У вас есть молоко? (U vas yest’ moloko?)
"Do you have milk?"
У вас есть молоко? (U vas yest’ moloko?)
The pattern У вас есть… (Y vas est’...) is for formal situations.
However, when asking for something in an informal setting, the pattern changes slightly.
Imagine that you are planning to cook pancakes, but you are out of salt, and all nearby shops are closed.
In Russia, it's common to ask your neighbors if they could help you out with a little bit of salt.
In this case, you can ask,
У тебя есть соль? (U tebya yest’ sol’?), “Do you have salt?”
To create this pattern,
Simply replace вас (vas) with тебя, the informal way to say "you." Тебя. Тебя.
У тебя есть соль? (U tebya yest’ sol’?)

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