Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

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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