Learn about the Russian character and adjectives, which makes perfect sense since you use adjectives to describe peoples' character
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yura: Привет всем, с Вами – RussianPod101.com, я – Yura. |
| Svetlana: А я – Svetlana, здравствуйте, welcome to Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 12 - A Bit of Juicy Russian Gossip. |
| Yura: In this lesson, we will learn about adjectives and some prefixes to form the adjectives with the opposite meanings. |
| Svetlana: the conversation takes place in a cafe… |
| Yura: and it is between Anya and her friend Vitya...they are discussing some juicy news.. |
| Svetlana: The speakers are friends so they will use informal Russian. |
| Yura: all right, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Витя Почему Ваня и Таня расстались? |
| Аня Таня говорит, что у Вани невыносимый характер. |
| Витя Правда? Мне казалось, он такой спокойный, домашний, добрый и безотказный... |
| Аня Да, но Кате он кажется скучным, ленивым и безвольным. |
| Витя Это потому, что она сама слишком энергичная и даже немного сумасшедшая! |
| Аня Да, я сама иногда от неё устаю. |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Витя Почему Ваня и Таня расстались? |
| Аня Таня говорит, что у Вани невыносимый характер. |
| Витя Правда? Мне казалось, он такой спокойный, домашний, добрый и безотказный... |
| Аня Да, но Кате он кажется скучным, ленивым и безвольным. |
| Витя Это потому, что она сама слишком энергичная и даже немного сумасшедшая! |
| Аня Да, я сама иногда от неё устаю. |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Витя Почему Ваня и Таня расстались? |
| Yura: Why did Vanya and Tanya break up? |
| Аня Таня говорит, что у Вани невыносимый характер. |
| Yura: Tanya says Vanya has an unbearable character. |
| Витя Правда? Мне казалось, он такой спокойный, домашний, добрый и безотказный... |
| Yura: Really? I thought he was so calm, a homebody, kind and compliant (ready to help)... |
| Аня Да, но Кате он кажется скучным, ленивым и безвольным. |
| Yura: Yes, but to Katya he seems boring, lazy and weak-willed. |
| Витя Это потому, что она сама слишком энергичная и даже немного сумасшедшая! |
| Yura: It's because she herself is too energetic and even a bit crazy! |
| Аня Да, я сама иногда от неё устаю. |
| Yura: Yeah, I myself get tired of her sometimes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: All right, that was interesting, so some couples broke up … and all I got is that the poor guy Vanya was trashed… boring, lazy and weak-willed…what’s the deal? |
| Svetlana: Well, we know that Tanya is apparently very energetic so maybe even a normal guy would seem too boring to her. |
| Yura: and weak-willed? what does it even mean? |
| Svetlana: calm down, calm down. We don’t even know them and it is not like all girls think about the guys this way… |
| Yura: But why would you say such a thing anyway? |
| Svetlana: well, Russian women are famous for their ambitions, nowadays women want it all: family, career, wealth and of course they want a guy who would keep up with them. |
| Yura: I see. And I heard Russian guys are lazy drunks. |
| Svetlana: well, most foreigners seem to think so but Russian men like to think about themselves as industrious, hospitable and funny. |
| Yura: Well, I guess I need more experience with the Russians then. |
| Svetlana: yes, you will definitely see those sides of Russian mentality. |
| Yura: Ok, then let's get to the vocabulary for this lesson! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: The first word is... |
| Svetlana: расстаться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to part, separate; to break up |
| Svetlana: расстаться [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: расстаться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Невыносимый [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Unbearable |
| Svetlana: Невыносимый [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Невыносимый [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Характер [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Character |
| Svetlana: Характер [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Характер [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Спокойный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Calm |
| Svetlana: Спокойный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Спокойный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Безотказный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Compliant, ready to help |
| Svetlana: Безотказный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Безотказный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Скучный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Boring |
| Svetlana: Скучный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Скучный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Безвольный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Weak-willed |
| Svetlana: Безвольный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Безвольный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Энергичный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Energetic |
| Svetlana: Энергичный [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Энергичный [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next is |
| Svetlana: Сумасшедший [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Crazy |
| Svetlana: Сумасшедший [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Сумасшедший [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Last is |
| Svetlana: Устать от [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Be tired of |
| Svetlana: Устать от [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Svetlana: Устать от [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Yura: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Svetlana: The first word is расстаться, which means ‘to break up,’ ‘to say good-bye’ and like in a phrase “I broke up with my boyfriend on his birthday” - Я рассталась с моим парнем на его день рождения. The verb is used with the preposition c and a noun in instrumental case. |
| Yura: Great, the next word is невыносимый, which means unbearable and in the dialogue we refer to a person we can’t stand. Невыносимый характер-unbearable personality. |
| Svetlana: this collocation includes our next word- характер, which means ‘personality,’ ‘character.’ |
| Yura: it is easy, it even sounds similar! |
| Svetlana: yes, you are right. Well, the next word sounds nothing like its English equivalent - спокойный- ‘calm.’ We can say спокойный человек - ‘calm person’ or спокойное море - ‘calm sea.’ |
| Yura: great, the next word is безотказный- and once again it is a feature of character - ‘compliant,’ ‘ready to help.’ For example, |
| Svetlana: безотказный работник - ‘compliant worker.’ It is easy, so let’s move on to the next word. |
| Yura All right the next word is скучный - ‘boring.’ For example, ‘a boring movie’ would be |
| Svetlana: скучный фильм, but we talk about people in this lesson so let’s have another example-скучный собеседник-’a boring converstaion partner.’ |
| Yura: ok, the next three words are usually used to describe people безвольный-’weak-willed,’ энергичный-’energetic,’ and сумасшедший - ‘crazy.’ |
| Svetlana: yes, безвольный literally means ‘no will,’ so obviously it is not a very flattering feature of character. Энергичный sound a little similar to an English word, and ‘crazy’ - сумасшедший literally means ‘gone from his mind,’ ‘lost his mind.’ The second s in the word is not pronounced. Let’s say again - сумасшедший. |
| Yura: сумасшедший, great. And the last word is ‘to be-’ or ‘get tired of…’ устать от… |
| Svetlana: This verb is used with the preposition от and a noun in accusative case. It is a perfective verb so usually it is used in the past tense. For example, |
| Yura: “I am tired of this useless talk.” |
| Svetlana: Я устал от этого бесполезного разговора. |
| Yura: (laughs) well hopefully our listeners are not tired of us. |
| Svetlana: Okay, now let's go to grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to use adjectives. As you know, adjectives are words denoting the characteristic of an object. |
| Svetlana: In Russian they match nouns and change according to gender, case and number. They may have full and short forms. |
| Yura: Just like nouns, adjectives can be changed in 6 cases. We have seen some of the cases in previous lessons, so in this lesson we are going to review and learn all of them in all genders in singular form. |
| Svetlana: We will take three expressions from the dialogue and go over all the forms in order. |
| Yura: first we will take an expression in masculine gender- ‘unbearable character’ - невыносимый характер. |
| Svetlana: right, so the declensions are |
| N. невыносимый характер |
| G.невыносимого характера |
| D.невыносимому характеру |
| A.невыносимый характер |
| I.невыносимым характером |
| P.невыносимом характере |
| Yura: why do we repeat невыносимый характер in the nominative and accusative case? Are they the same? |
| Svetlana: Характер is a inanimate noun so the accusative case is identical to the nominative case невыносимый характер |
| Yura: Ok, let’s go over some animate noun as well. |
| Svetlana: let’s take невыносимый человек ‘unbearable man’ to see if there is any difference. |
| Yura: sound perfect. |
| Svetlana: ok, here it goes. |
| N. невыносимый человек |
| G.невыносимого человека |
| D.невыносимому человеку |
| A.невыносимого человека |
| I.невыносимым человеком |
| P.невыносимом человеке |
| Yura: The accusative case is identical to the genitive case. невыносимого человека |
| Svetlana: Great, that’s correct. Animacy of the noun is important when we change the adjective according to the gender and case of the noun. But it matters only when the noun is masculine. |
| Yur: great, I thought we would have to remember two types of declensions for each gender. |
| Svetlana: yep, it is good news. For adjectives which go with the neuter nouns, animacy doesn’t matter either. |
| Yura: great, what are the declensions for the adjective that goes with a noun in the feminine gender? |
| Svetlana: let’s use the phrase энергичная женщина |
| N. энергичная женщина |
| G. энергичной жещины |
| D.энергичной женщине |
| A.энергичную женщину |
| I. энергичной женщиной |
| P знергичной женщине |
| Yura: Great, can I try the neuter? |
| Svetlana: sure, for example, скучное кино |
| Yura: N. скучное кино |
| G. скучного кино |
| D. скучному кино |
| A. скучное кино |
| I. скучным кино |
| P. скучном кино |
| Yura: that was easy! |
| Svetlana: you are right, and I am glad you remembered that the word кино doesn’t change its form. I have heard so many people saying кина, кину… |
| Yura: haha, I am a good learner. Is there anything else? |
| Svetlana: yes, we are going to learn about some prefixes in Russian. The most frequently used prefixes are без – and не- , they are like the prefixes un-, in-, dis, mis- in English and with their help we can create many adjectives with the opposite meaning. |
| Yura: for example? |
| Svetlana: first with the prefix не Красивый- некрасивый |
| Yura: pretty - not pretty |
| Svetlana: Приятный- неприятный |
| Yura: pleasant - unpleasant |
| Svetlana: Веселый- невеселый |
| Yura: happy-unhappy |
| Svetlana: and the same goes with the prefix Без- Безграмотный – грамотный |
| Yura: illiterate-literate |
| Svetlana: but sometimes with the prefix the adjective changes a little, although the stem is still the same. For example, Безвольный-волевой |
| Yura: weak-willed - strong willed. Is there any universal rule for that? |
| Svetlana: not that I am aware of. I guess this knowledge comes with experience in language so you’d better learn and read to expand your knowledge of adjectives. |
| Yura: I see, thanks for the tip. Well, that’s it for now, dear listeners. |
| Svetlana: пока пока! |
Outro |
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