Learn about past tense verb conjugation and getting married in Russia
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yura: Привет всем, с Вами – RussianPod101.com, я – Yura. |
| Svetlana: А я – Svetlana, здравствуйте, welcome to lesson 21 of our Intermediate series, Registering Your Life in Russia. |
| Yura: in this lesson we will learn how to conjugate verbs in the Past tense to describe major events in people’s lives |
| Svetlana: The conversation takes place on a street across from the registration office |
| Yura: And it is between Masha and Jeff |
| Svetlana: The speakers will use informal Russian because they are close friends. |
| Yura: All right, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Джеф: Какая красивая свадьба, и прямо на улице! |
| Маша: Это здание ЗАГСа, а эта пара просто ждёт своей очереди на регистрацию. |
| Джеф: Аа, значит, место, где люди женятся в России называется ЗАГС. |
| Маша: Да, но там не только женятся. Там ещё и разводятся, регистрируют рождение, смерть, усыновление и так далее. |
| Джеф: Хмм... Смотри, мне кажется, вон те двое только что развелись. |
| Маша: Да, как-то они не очень весело выглядят... |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Джеф: Какая красивая свадьба, и прямо на улице! |
| Маша: Это здание ЗАГСа, а эта пара просто ждёт своей очереди на регистрацию. |
| Джеф: Аа, значит, место, где люди женятся в России называется ЗАГС. |
| Маша: Да, но там не только женятся. Там ещё и разводятся, регистрируют рождение, смерть, усыновление и так далее. |
| Джеф: Хмм... Смотри, мне кажется, вон те двое только что развелись. |
| Маша: Да, как-то они не очень весело выглядят... |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Джеф: Какая красивая свадьба, и прямо на улице! |
| Jeff: What a beautiful wedding, and it's right on the street! |
| Маша: Это здание ЗАГСа, а эта пара просто ждёт своей очереди на регистрацию. |
| Masha: This building is the registry office “ZAGS”, and this couple is just waiting for their turn to register. |
| Джеф: Аа, значит, место, где люди женятся в России называется ЗАГС. |
| Jeff: Oh, so the place where people get married in Russia is called ZAGS. |
| Маша: Да, но там не только женятся. Там ещё и разводятся, регистрируют рождение, |
| смерть, усыновление и так далее. |
| Masha: Yes, but it's not only for marriages. People there also get divorced, register births, deaths, adoptions, and so on. |
| Джеф: Хмм... Смотри, мне кажется, вон те двое только что развелись. |
| Jeff: Hmm ... Look, I think those two have just gotten divorced. |
| Маша: Да, как-то они не очень весело выглядят... |
| Masha: Yes, they don't look fun at all ... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: So Jeff and Masha are near the registry office and are looking at some couple |
| Svetlana: Yes, and they don’t look so happy and are not wearing any wedding outfits like one would expect. |
| Yura: So they suggest that maybe they are getting divorced. |
| Svetlana: Yes, ZAGS is a very important place in one’s life because they register all the changes in your personal life-marriage, birth of children, adoption, divorce. |
| Yura: I see, I thought it would be done in court or police. |
| Svetlana: Yes, in case of some complicated matter, all the procedures are done in the court, then police and finally in the registry office. |
| Yura: I see. Is there just one registry office in the city usually? |
| Svetlana: No, there are several, but there is always a central one with the nicest facilities so many people want to get married there. There is always a waiting list, especially in summer. |
| Yura: I see, well, let’s go to the vocabulary to take a closer look at the words and the expressions. |
| Svetlana: Sounds good to me! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson |
| 1 The first word is |
| свадьба (natural) |
| wedding |
| свадьба (slow) |
| свадьба (natural) |
| 2 Next is |
| Прямо на (natural) |
| right in the |
| Прямо на (slow) |
| Прямо на (natural) |
| 3 Next is |
| ЗАГС (natural) |
| Registry office |
| ЗАГС (slow) |
| ЗАГС (natural) |
| 4 Next is |
| Очередь (natural) |
| line, queue |
| Очередь (slow) |
| Очередь (natural) |
| 5 Next is |
| регистрация (natural) |
| a registration |
| регистрация (slow) |
| регистрация (natural) |
| 6 Next is |
| жениться (natural) |
| to get married (for a man or when speaking about a couple) |
| жениться (slow) |
| жениться (natural) |
| 7 Next is |
| Разводиться (natural) |
| to divorce |
| Разводиться (slow) |
| Разводиться (natural) |
| 8 Next is |
| Рождение (natural) |
| birth |
| Рождение (slow) |
| Рождение (natural) |
| 9 Next is |
| Усыновление (natural) |
| adoption |
| Усыновление (slow) |
| Усыновление (natural) |
| 10 Last is |
| выглядеть (natural) |
| to look |
| выглядеть (slow) |
| выглядеть (natural) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Yura: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we will take a look at is свадьба which means ‘wedding’. |
| Svetlana: what a wonderful word. |
| Yura: Oh yeah? |
| Svetlana: Yes, I love to go to weddings! Я люблю ходить на свадьбы! |
| Yura: The next word is Прямо наThis couple of prepositions can be translated as “right in” or “right on”. |
| Svetlana: For example, |
| Yura: ‘The bus was coming right at me.’ |
| Svetlana: Автобус ехал прямо на меня. What is the next word? |
| Yura: The next one is an abbreviation ЗАГС-what is this? |
| Svetlana: Отделы за́писей а́ктов гражда́нского состоя́ния- and it means ‘city hall’ or ‘registry office.’ This is where people go to register their marriage, divorce and so on. |
| Yura: I see, what is the next word? |
| Svetlana: The next word is Жениться which means “to marry” but is used when the subject is male or we are referring to the couple. |
| Yura: For example, ‘He will marry her as soon as he finishes his military service.’ |
| Svetlana: Он жениться на ней, как только закончит службу в армии. If we are talking about a woman we must use the verb выходить замуж.For example, |
| Yura: She doesn’t want to marry a policeman. |
| Svetlana: Она не хочет выходит замуж за полицейского. |
| Yura: I see, well everyone has their own preferences. And what do people do when things don’t work out? |
| Svetlana: они разводятся. They divorce. |
| Yura: Are there different words for men and women as well? |
| Svetlana: no, the same verb-разводиться is used. The next word is усыновление- adoption. As you can see it has the root сын-’son’, so we use it only if the boy is adopted. If a girl is adopted the word-удочерение is used. |
| Yura: I see, fair enough. And what is the last word? |
| Svetlana: The last word is Выглядеть and it is translated as ‘look like’ and is usually used with adjectives or comparisons which start with ‘like’ (как) or ‘if’ (как будто) |
| Yura: For example, ‘She looks very tired with those dark circles under her eyes.’ |
| Svetlana: Она выглядит очень усталой с тёмными кругами под глазами. |
| Yura: Good job. Let’s see what we have in our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, we're going to learn about how to conjugate the verbs in the past tense. |
| Svetlana: As you may remember, Russian verbs change according to the tenses, to person, to gender, and to number. |
| Yura: In this lesson we are going to talk about the past tense. |
| Svetlana: Okay, the past tense is made up with the help of the suffix -л-. For example, Делать-делал ‘Do-did’ |
| Читать-читал ‘Read-read(past)’ |
| Говорить-говорил ‘speak –spoke’ |
| Yura: And here’s good news. Unlike English, there is just one past tense in Russia. |
| Svetlana: So the sentence in the past simple will be formed with perfective verbs. |
| Yura: And we already know them! So for example, “I did my homework yesterday.” would be |
| Svetlana: Я сделал мою домашнюю работу вчера. |
| Yura: ‘He drank all the milk in the house.’ |
| Svetlana: Он выпил всё молоко в доме. |
| Yura: The verbs in our lesson describe the main events in a human life that have happened in the past so we will use mostly perfective verbs. |
| Svetlana: right, for example, Жениться - get married |
| женился - got married |
| Родиться - be born |
| Родился - was born |
| Усыновить - adopt |
| Усыновил - adopted |
| Yura: How do you say, ‘I was born in 1985?’ |
| Svetlana: Я родился в 1985 году. |
| Yura: He got married at the age of 30. |
| Svetlana: Он женился в возрасте 30 лет. Ok. To translate a sentence in the Past Progressive we will use imperfective verbs in Russian. For example, |
| Делать- do |
| делал-was doing |
| Читать- read |
| читал-was reading |
| Ходить- walk |
| ходил-was walking |
| Yura: what kinds of verbs concern someone’s personal life? |
| Svetlana: well, for example, |
| Встречаться date |
| встречался was dating |
| Работать work |
| работал was working |
| Yura: Let’s make a couple of sentences! |
| Svetlana: All right, она встречались 3года. |
| Yura: They were dating 3 years. |
| Svetlana: Она рассталась со своим бывшим парнем и вышла замуж за другого. |
| Yura: She broke up with her ex-boyfriend and married another man. That’s sad. |
| Svetlana: ладно, они поженились и жили-поживалида добра наживали. God, this Disney generation, you just have to have a happy ending. |
| Yura: Great, they got married and lived happily ever after. Yes, I like happy endings! |
| Svetlana: Okay. And listeners, please check the Lesson Note. You can learn more about this grammar point. |
| Yura: I hope listeners enjoyed our lesson and we are looking forward to your small biographies in Russian! |
| Svetlana: Okay, that’s all for this lesson |
Outro |
| Yura: See you next time. |
| Svetlana: пока пока |
13 Comments
HideWhen were you born? Can you say it in Russian?
Здравствуйте robert groulx,
Спасибо for taking the time to leave us a comment. 😇
Let us know if you have any questions!
Всего наилучшего,
Левенте (Levente)
Team RussianPod101.com
thanks for the lesson
my favorite words are она встречались 3года.
robert
Hello Nancy Sharp,
Thank you for sharing 😄
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
я родилась в базе воздушных силах в калифорнии больше чем шестдесят лет тому назад.
Hello Сэм,
Good job! 👍
Just few mistakes - "Я родился в маленьком городе, около Лондона"
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Я родился в маленmкий город, около Лондоне :)
Hi Lynn,
Thank you for the feedback: you are right!
In this case we opted for a colloquial translation, though not totally correct.
Please feel free to let us know any other feedback or questions anytime.
Thank you for your understanding,
Regards,
Ofelia
Team RussianPod101.com
In the English translation of the divorced couple,
"they do not look happy at all" would be better.
People do not look "fun." They can look "funny,"
but that does not seem appropriate in this case.
Hello everyone!
Jeanine: you are correct, talking about woman we you should use "родилась". Your sentence is correct.
Ed: your sentence is great, just grammar should be fixed a little bit: "Я родился в тысяча девятьсот пятьдесят третьем году в Калифорнии. Какой я старый!"
Maryam: Your sentence is Ok.
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Я родилась в тысяча девятьсот шестьдесят седьмом году. ("Родилась"--правильно, за женщину?)