Learn how to use adjectives and pronouns to describe everything around you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oxana: [Привет всем, с вами Оксана!] |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Gengo Russian Season 1, Lesson 18. The beauty of Eastern Europe - pretty girls and handsome guys. Well, what story would be complete without a love interest? |
| Oxana:Yes, today some guy talk, huh? |
| Eddie: Yes. Eating, drinking and being merry is all fine and dandy. |
| Oxana:But we want some juicy stuff. |
| Eddie: Ok, Oxanna, I know you like cute guys and all but first we should do a little review of last week’s [inaudible 00:00:42]. |
| Oxana: Yes. Well, remember back to when the colleagues were all meeting up at the train station and they couldn’t see John at the appointed meeting place? |
| Eddie: Yes, we learned all about [Мы вас не видем.]. |
| Oxana: Yes, literally it’s translated as “we don’t see you” and it means “we can’t see you”. |
| Eddie: Right. We also learned how to conjugate all the verbs in the previous lesson, so now you can talk about anyone and in any tense. |
| Oxana: Right, like [Я не вижу. Ты не видел.] and so on. |
| Eddie: And some polite commands like… |
| Oxana: [Стойте. Подойдите.] |
| Eddie: Stay. Come up. |
| Oxana: Now let’s see what kind of opportunities open up for John now. |
| Eddie: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Джон: [Ух ты! Какая красивая девушка за тем столиком.] |
| John: Uh ty! Kakaya krasivaya devushka za tem stolikom. |
| Виктор: [Да, действительно. Хотите познакомиться?] |
| Victor: Da, dejstvitel’no. Hotite poznakomit’sya? |
| Джон: [Нет, ну что вы.] |
| John: Net, nu chro vy? |
| Виктор: [Да ладно Джон, не стесняйся. Или у тебя есть подруга?] |
| Victor: Da ladno John, ne stesnyaisya. Ili u teby est’ podruga? |
| Джон: [Нет, но я не привык знакомиться в кафе.] |
| John: Net, no ya ne privyk znakomit’sya v kafe. |
| Игорь Иванович: [Перестаньте Джон. Вы такой видный мужчина, холостой, еще и иностранец. Вы обязательно ей понравитесь.] |
| Igor Ivanovich: Perestan’te John. Vy takoi vidnyi muzhchina, holostoi, eshcho i inostranets. Vy obyazatel’no ei ponravites’. |
| Джон: Вы думаете? Ну, пойду попробую. |
| John: Vy dumaete? Nu, poidu poprobuyu. |
| Eddie: Once again, a little more slowly. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз. медленнее. |
| Джон: [Ух ты! Какая красивая девушка за тем столиком.] |
| John: Uh ty! Kakaya krasivaya devushka za tem stolikom. |
| Виктор: [Да, действительно. Хотите познакомиться?] |
| Victor: Da, dejstvitel’no. Hotite poznakomit’sya? |
| Джон: [Нет, ну что вы.] |
| John: Net, nu chro vy? |
| Виктор: [Да ладно Джон, не стесняйся. Или у тебя есть подруга?] |
| Victor: Da ladno John, ne stesnyaisya. Ili u teby est’ podruga? |
| Джон: [Нет, но я не привык знакомиться в кафе.] |
| John: Net, no ya ne privyk znakomit’sya v kafe. |
| Игорь Иванович: [Перестаньте Джон. Вы такой видный мужчина, холостой, еще и иностранец. Вы обязательно ей понравитесь.] |
| Igor Ivanovich:Perestan’te John. Vy takoi vidnyi muzhchina, holostoi, eshcho i inostranets. Vy obyazatel’no ei ponravites’. |
| Джон: Вы думаете? Ну, пойду попробую. |
| John: Vy dumaete? Nu, poidu poprobuyu. |
| Eddie: Once again, with the translation. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, с переводом. |
| Oxana: [Ух ты! Какая красивая девушка за тем столиком.] |
| Eddie: Wow, what a beautiful girl. Over there, at that table. |
| Oxana: [Да, действительно. Хотите познакомиться?] |
| Eddie: Yeah, true. Would you like to get to know her. |
| Oxana: [Нет, ну что вы.] |
| Eddie: No, of course not. |
| Oxana:[Да ладно Джон, не стесняйся. Или у тебя есть подруга?] |
| Eddie: Come on, John, don’t be shy. Or maybe you have a girlfriend. |
| Oxana: [Нет, но я не привык знакомиться в кафе.] |
| Eddie: No, but I'm not used to meeting people in a café. |
| Oxana:[Перестаньте Джон. Вы такой видный мужчина, холостой, еще и иностранец. Вы обязательно ей понравитесь.] |
| Eddie: Stop it, John. You’re such a handsome single man. Moreover, you’re a foreigner, she’ll definitely like you. |
| Oxana:Вы думаете? Ну, пойду попробую. |
| Eddie: You think so? Ok, I’ll go try my luck. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Is it normal in Russia to meet girls in restaurants and cafes? |
| Oxana: Well, it was before when there weren’t many cafes and restaurants in general, people went there with this very purpose, to meet people. So basically there were two girls sitting in a restaurant, it was a clear signal for guys that they were available. Now girls look rather skeptically at the guys who are trying to talk to them in public places, but still it’s not a taboo. Girls don’t freak out talking to strangers, and if a guy is nice and does everything right there’s a good chance for them to become friends at least. |
| Eddie: So do you think John has a chance? |
| Oxana: Oh, I'm sure of that. I mean he’s obviously handsome, educated, sort of exotic in his ethnicity. I'm sure no one would turn him down. |
| Eddie: Let’s hope. I'm on John’s side. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: Ok, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Oxana: [Ух ты!] |
| Eddie: Wow. |
| Oxana:[Ух ты!] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Красивый] |
| Eddie: Beautiful, pretty. |
| Oxana: [Красивый] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Вон там.] |
| Eddie: Over there. |
| Oxana: [Вон там.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [За] |
| Eddie: Behind, at. |
| Oxana:[За] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Стол.] |
| Eddie: Table. |
| Oxana: [Стол.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Действительно.] |
| Eddie: Really, indeed, truly. |
| Oxana: [Действительно.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Познакомиться.] |
| Eddie: Meet, get to know. |
| Oxana: [Познакомиться.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Ни что вы.] |
| Eddie: What are you talking about? Of course not. |
| Oxana: [Ну что вы.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Да ладно.] |
| Eddie: Oh, come on. |
| Oxana: [Да ладно.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Стесняться.] |
| Eddie: To be shy. |
| Oxana: [Стесняться.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Или.] |
| Eddie: Or. |
| Oxana: [Или.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Подруга.] |
| Eddie: Friend (female). |
| Oxana: [Подруга.] |
| Eddie: Next, |
| Oxana:[Привыкнуть.] |
| Eddie: Get used to. |
| Oxana:[Привыкнуть.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Перестать.] |
| Eddie: Stop, cease. |
| Oxana: [Перестать.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Видный.] |
| Eddie: Good looking, handsome. |
| Oxana: [Видный.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Мужчина.] |
| Eddie: Man. |
| Oxana:[Мужчина.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Холостой.] |
| Eddie: Single. |
| Oxana:[Холостой.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Ещё и.] |
| Eddie: Moreover, besides (informal). |
| Oxana: [Ещё и.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Иностранец.] |
| Eddie: Foreigner. |
| Oxana: [Иностранец.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Обязательно.] |
| Eddie: Definitely, certainly, surely. |
| Oxana: [Обязательно.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Понравиться.] |
| Eddie: To like. |
| Oxana:[Понравиться.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Думать.] |
| Eddie: To think. |
| Oxana: [Думать.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana:[Пойти.] |
| Eddie: To go. |
| Oxana: [Пойти.] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [Попробовать.] |
| Eddie: To have a try. |
| Oxana:[Попробовать.] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eddie: We have lots of new words today. Let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrase from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Oxana:[Ух ты!] It’s just an exclamation of excitement. Something like “wow”. |
| Eddie: That was obviously about a girl in a café. What does John say next? |
| Oxana: [Какая красивая девушка.] |
| Eddie: Literally “What a beautiful girl!” [какая] stands for “what a” in English, and all you should do to make your sentence exclamatory is put this [какая] at the beginning. |
| Oxana: But that’s just in case of a feminine noun following it. If I were admiring a guy, for example, I’d say [Какой парень] means “What a guy!” |
| Eddie: What if you were admiring a bunch of guys and girls at the same time? |
| Oxana: It’s hard to imagine such a situation. Maybe just in a soccer field where women would play against men. Well, I would say [Какие] there. |
| Eddie: Ok, so some girl caught John’s eye. Now he has to point out which girl by saying [Вон там] which means “over there”. And where exactly? |
| Oxana: [За тем столиком.] |
| Eddie: “At that table.” Actually, the preposition [за] means “behind” but you should use it when talking about when sitting at the table. |
| Oxana: [Тем] comes from the word [тот] meaning “that”, but here it’s put into the instrumental case along with the word [столик]. |
| Eddie: Take a look at the PDF of the 8th lesson to refresh your knowledge about the formation of the instrumental case. |
| Oxana: Also, I’d like to talk about the word [столик]. The word “table in Russian is actually [стол] and the suffix [ик] in the end turns it into “a little table”. Restaurants and cafes don’t use the word [стол] usually as it sounds too formal and a bit rough. It gives them the atmosphere of some cheap canteen. [столик] sounds much softer and cozier. So, again, “at the table” will be [За столиком.]. |
| Eddie: Next we have Victor speaking. He takes a look at the girl and says… |
| Oxana: [Да, действительно.] |
| Eddie: “Yes, that’s true.” [действительно.] means “indeed” or “really”. It’s a bit more formal than the word [правда.] we’ve learned before. It’s used in a context of agreement with someone, for example… |
| Oxana:[Сегодня действительно холодно.] |
| Eddie: Which means “Yes, it’s cold today. You are right.” Not “It’s really cold today.” So Victor agrees that the girl is a beauty and then he asks whether John wanted to get to know her a little better. |
| Oxana:[Хотите познакомиться?] |
| Eddie: “Would you like to meet her?” Both words are familiar to us. |
| Oxana: Yes. [хотите] comes from the infinitive [хотеть] meaning “to want” and when used in a second person plural becomes [Вы хотите?]. |
| Eddie: Remember that a question in Russian is only formed by the intonation. |
| Oxana: Right. [вы хотите] and [познакомиться], you remember from a dialogue about first acquaintances. [приятно познакомиться] meaning “nice to meet you”, remember? |
| Eddie: Right. That’s one of the first words we learned. So what does John answer? |
| Oxana: [Нет, ну что вы.] |
| Eddie: “No, of course not.” Literally it means “No, what are you?” You should add “talking about” to get a smooth translation. Yes, so it’s a refusal or denial phrase. And what does Igor Ivanovich say to all that? We haven’t heard from this guy for a while. |
| Oxana: [Да ладно] which has several meanings depending on the intonation. For example, [Да ладно] is an exclamation of doubt and disbelief. It means something like “no way”. Two others are [Да ладно] and [Да ладно тебе] which mean “come on, let go of it. It doesn’t matter, don’t worry about it” or “it’s not worth it” and so on. And the last one for today, [Да ладно], like in today’s case, just means “come on, do it”. |
| Eddie: So it depends on the intonation in the following context, right? |
| Oxana: Yes, in our case it’s cheering up. [Да ладно Джон, не стесняйся. Не стесняйся.] “Don’t be shy” comes from the word [Стесняться] meaning “to be shy”. |
| Eddie: And how would you say “I’m shy” or “I feel embarrassed to do something”? |
| Oxana: [Я стесняюсь.] |
| Eddie: Don’t be shy, Oxanna. |
| Oxana: Oh, I am not. I am shameless, unlike John. Well, Victor is trying to find out whether John is really shy or maybe there’s another reason he asks… |
| Oxana: [Или у тебя есть подруга?] |
| Eddie: Yes, with a note of suspicion in his voice he asks John “Or do you have a girlfriend?” |
| Oxana: [Подруга] literally means “a female friend” and it’s a more subtle way to ask about a girlfriend. In case of people over 30 you shouldn’t really ask like “Do you have a girlfriend?” Most likely a person would already be married, but in order not to put the person in an awkward situation, you should ask it in a more neutral way. [Подруг] or [Друг] would be more appropriate. |
| Eddie: For young people it’s ok to ask about a girlfriend or boyfriend though. |
| Oxana: Yes, [У тебя есть девушка?] or [У тебя есть парень?]. |
| Eddie: So does John have a girlfriend? |
| Oxana: [Нет] |
| Eddie: So why doesn’t he want to meet a girl he likes? |
| Oxana:[Я не привык знакомиться в кафе.] |
| Eddie: He says “I'm not used to meeting people in a café.” It’s time to learn. |
| Oxana: The word [привык] means “used to”. For a female it would sound like [привыкла]. Eddie, [я привыкла к тебе]. |
| Eddie: I'm used to you too, I don’t even notice you when I change. |
| Oxana: Yeah, very nice, Eddie. You could learn from John, he’s actually afraid to insult a girl. Or another girl I should mention is [знакомиться]. It’s almost the same as [познакомиться]. |
| Eddie: The difference is that the first word, the one with the prefix [по] is perfective, meaning “to meet a person”, and the action is completed. And without the prefix it just means to meet people in general or to meet them regularly. |
| Oxana:Right. Victor seems to be supportive of Igor Ivanovici. [Перестаньте Джон.] |
| Eddie: Literally, “Stop it, John!” It comes from the word [перестать] meaning “to stop”. You can’t say that about a car, for example. Just remember it in the meaning of “come on, stop it” here. |
| Oxana: Yeah, and Victor keeps convincing John. [Вы такой видный мужчина, холостой, ещё и иностранец.] |
| Eddie: [такой] means “such” or “so” in this case. Remember the pairs [какой] and [такой], and [какая] and [такая], which are “what kind” or “which”, and “such, like this” or “so”, respectively. |
| Oxana: Yes, so Victor is giving his compliments [такой видный мужчина] meaning “so handsome”. |
| Eddie: [Видный] is one of the words for “good looking” or “handsome” for a man. |
| Oxana:He’s also [холостой], which means “single”. |
| Eddie: But this word is also just for a man. “A single woman” would sound like… |
| Oxana: [незамужняя женщина] |
| Eddie: John is also a foreigner. |
| Oxana: [Ещё и иностранец] |
| Eddie: [Ещё и] is a very colloquial expression for “moreover” and [иностранец] means “a foreigner”. But for a woman, this word will sound different, right? |
| Oxana:It’ll be [иностранка]. |
| Eddie: Victor, hasn’t finished yet. |
| Oxana: [Вы обязательно ей понравитесь.] |
| Eddie: “She’ll definitely like you.” We know the word for “like” too, don’t we? |
| Oxana:We do, but we also have to explain the perfective and imperfective forms here. In the dialogue about Russian food Victor used [Нравиться] which is the imperfective form of “to like”. “To like “ in general. The process of it is ongoing and in today’s dialogue it’s a perfective form - [Понравиться]. Because we were talking about one specific situation and one particular girl who will - how should I put it - complete the action of liking John. Will have liked him. |
| Eddie: Yeah, so the action we are talking about is supposed to be completed successfully, therefore we put the prefix [по] at the beginning of the word. Also, we put this verb into the future tense and the second person plural. |
| Oxana:Yes, [понрвитеся]. The pronoun [ей] comes from [она] meaning “she”, but here we had to put it into the dative case. So literally the translation of the phrase [Вы ей понравитесь] will sound like “you will be to her linking”. |
| Eddie: Does that convince John? |
| Oxana: He trusts the opinion of his Russian friends. [Вы думаете?] |
| Eddie: Literally meaning “You think?” |
| Oxana:[Ну, пойду попробую.] |
| Eddie: “Well, ok” or “I’ll go and try”. We have both verbs, “to go” and “to try” in the future tense and perfective aspect because, again, we’re talking about an action that is supposed to be completed successfully. |
| Oxana: Right. The dictionary forms of these verbs are [пойти] and [попробовать]. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: Ok, well, on that note, for our first grammar point we’re going to talk more about pretty girls, but mostly about the forms of adjectives. |
| Oxana: First of all, we’ll enrich you with descriptive vocabulary and teach you how to apply it both to ladies and gentlemen, and then all of them together. |
| Eddie: The sentence to describe a person can be built in two main ways. First a noun and then an adjective. “The girl is cute”. And then second way backwards, “Cute girl”. |
| Oxana: In Russian, all you have to do is change the word order, but in the first case, “the girl is cute” you have to specify which girl. |
| Eddie: You can do it with the help of the pronouns “this” and “that”. The thing you should pay attention to is gender. |
| Oxana: The pronouns for feminine gender are [эта] and [та], meaning “this” and “that”. For example, [Эта девушка красивая.]. |
| Eddie: This girl is pretty. |
| Oxana: [Та девушка очень стройная.] |
| Eddie: That woman is very slim. |
| Oxana: The ending of adjectives for girls is [ая]. |
| Eddie: The pronouns for the masculine gender are [этот] and [тот]. For example… |
| Oxana: [Этот парень очень симпатичный.] |
| Eddie: This guy is very cute. |
| Oxana: [Тот мужчина такой высокий.] |
| Eddie: “That man is so tall.” So the endings for masculine adjectives are [ый] and [ий]. What about the plural number? |
| Oxana: The pronouns will be [эти] and [те] meaning “these” and “those”, and the adjectives will end in [ий] and [ый]. For example, [Эти парни такие симпатичные]. |
| Eddie: “These guys are so cute.” Am I one of them? |
| Oxana: Who else would I be talking about? |
| Eddie: You’re just like Victor, you know how to flatter. |
| Oxana: Yeah. Ok, we’re done with guys and girls for today. |
Outro |
| Eddie: That just about does it for today. [До свидания.] |
| Oxana:[До новых встреч. Пока!] |
| Eddie: [Пока!] |
| -- |
| Джон: [Ух ты! Какая красивая девушка за тем столиком.] |
| John: Uh ty! Kakaya krasivaya devushka za tem stolikom. |
| Виктор: [Да, действительно. Хотите познакомиться?] |
| Victor: Da, dejstvitel’no. Hotite poznakomit’sya? |
| Джон: [Нет, ну что вы.] |
| John: Net, nu chro vy? |
| Виктор: [Да ладно Джон, не стесняйся. Или у тебя есть подруга?] |
| Victor: Da ladno John, ne stesnyaisya. Ili u teby est’ podruga? |
| Джон: [Нет, но я не привык знакомиться в кафе.] |
| John: Net, no ya ne privyk znakomit’sya v kafe. |
| Игорь Иванович: [Перестаньте Джон. Вы такой видный мужчина, холостой, еще и иностранец. Вы обязательно ей понравитесь.] |
| Igor Ivanovich: Perestan’te John. Vy takoi vidnyi muzhchina, holostoi, eshcho i inostranets. Vy obyazatel’no ei ponravites’. |
| Джон: Вы думаете? Ну, пойду попробую. |
| John: Vy dumaete? Nu, poidu poprobuyu. |
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