Learn how to find an apartment for rent, grammatically and literally
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Svetlana: Привет всем! |
| Yura: Yura here! Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 7 - Looking for the Perfect Russian Apartment. |
| Svetlana: Hi, this is Svetlana, thanks for joining us! |
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn how to rent an apartment. The conversation is between 2 friends. |
| Svetlana: The speakers are friends, therefore the speakers will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Ok, so let's get to it! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Бен Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Бен Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Бен: Привет, ты не знаешь, как мне снять квартиру в Москве? |
| Yura: Hi, do you by chance know how I can rent an apartment in Moscow? |
| Катя: Купи газету с объявлениями, там их миллионы. А какую квартиру ты ищешь? |
| Yura: Get a newspaper with ads, there are millions of them there. What kind of apartment are you looking for? |
| Бен: Я хочу снять двухкомнатную, с хорошим ремонтом, недалеко от центра и возле метро. |
| Yura: I want to rent a one-bedroom apartment, |
| remodeled, not far from downtown, and close to the subway. |
| Катя: А сколько ты за неё готов платить? |
| Yura: And how much are you willing to pay for it? |
| Бен: Ну... долларов 400 в месяц. |
| Yura: Well... About four hundred dollars per month. |
| Катя: В Москве? С ремонтом, в центре и у метро? Тогда только угол комнаты у какой-нибудь бабушки, без туалета и телефона, зато с тараканами и большими проблемами! |
| Yura: In Moscow? Remodeled, close to downtown, and the subway? All you can afford for this money is a corner of a room at some grandma's, with no telephone or toilet, but with cockroaches and a lot of problems! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura: Renting, let alone buying an apartment in Moscow is probably more expensive than in most countries nowadays. |
| Svetlana: Yes, Moscow has become one of the most expensive capitals in the world. |
| Yura: Luckily, you can always rent a room if you can't afford an apartment. A lot of old people rent out their spare rooms. |
| Svetlana: The disadvantage of those rooms would be a quite old interior and utilities, as well as cranky old people who live next to you. |
| Yura: True. Sometimes they also offer you breakfasts for minimal pay, but I wouldn't take them. I've heard a lot of foreigners complain the food was not of the best quality and often made their stomach upset. |
| Svetlana: I see. Well... it was probably the cheapest and not the healthiest food, all that old people can afford now. |
| Yura: Ok, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: The first word we shall see is... |
| Svetlana: снять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to rent |
| Svetlana: снять [slowly - broken down by syllable] снять [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: двухкомнатная [natural native speed] |
| Yura: two room apartment |
| Svetlana: двухкомнатная [slowly - broken down by syllable] двухкомнатная [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Газета [natural native speed] |
| Yura: newspaper, magazine |
| Svetlana: Газета [slowly - broken down by syllable] Газета [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana:Искать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: look for |
| Svetlana: Искать [slowly - broken down by syllable] Искать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от... [natural native speed] |
| Yura: not far from |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от... [slowly - broken down by syllable] Недалеко от... [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Ремонт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: remodeling |
| Svetlana: Ремонт [slowly - broken down by syllable] Ремонт [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Готов [natural native speed] |
| Yura: willing to, ready |
| Svetlana Готов [slowly - broken down by syllable] Готов [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Угол [natural native speed] |
| Yura: corner |
| Svetlana: Угол [slowly - broken down by syllable] Угол [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Зато [natural native speed] |
| Yura: but, but then again |
| Svetlana Зато [slowly - broken down by syllable] Зато [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: таракан [natural native speed] |
| Yura: cockroach |
| Svetlana: таракан [slowly - broken down by syllable] таракан [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 we’ll look at is снять. |
| Yura: It has multiple meanings; one of the most common is “to take off,” as in to take off a coat. |
| Svetlana: But in today’s context it means “to rent.” Now remember, you can use this word only for apartments, houses, or hotel rooms. If you were talking about renting a car or a cell phone, you would use another word. |
| Yura: Right. So we have |
| нять квартиру – “to rent an apartment” |
| снять номер в отеле – “to rent a hotel room” |
| снять комнату – “to rent a room” |
| And it works for other living spaces. |
| Svetlana: The next word is двухкомнатная, an adjective that means “two-room.” A studio is однокомнатная. And an apartment with two bedrooms but three rooms in total would be трёхкомнатная. |
| Yura: Right, so it’s the number of rooms plus комната, put into one word and turned into an adjective. Svetlana, какая у тебя квартира? |
| Svetlana: What kind of apartment do I have? Четырёхкомнатная! |
| Yura: What an example. OK, the next word is угол. |
| Svetlana: Literally it means “a corner.” Some time ago, people who couldn’t afford to rent even a room in an apartment would rent only a bed with a nightstand in the corner, separated from the rest of the room by a curtain. |
| Yura: Very few people still do it; and it’s used more as a joke, like in today’s dialogue. |
| Svetlana: And the last word to mention is “cockroach,” which in Russian is... |
| Yura: таракан |
| Svetlana: And тараканы in the plural, which is useful to know since they usually come in large quantities in old apartments. |
| Yura: Eww… Let’s stop there and get to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to rent an apartment in Russia, and the Russian prepositions. |
| Svetlana: What's the expression you were talking about? |
| Yura: Remember in the dialog we had a phrase “как мне снять квартиру в Москве?” |
| Svetlana: This phrase is a colloquial version of "как я могу", or to be more exact "как мне можно" (how can I, how is it possible to me), where "можно" is simply dropped. |
| Yura: Let's compare 3 phrases - как я могу найти Николая? Как мне можно найти Николая? and как мне найти Николая? |
| Svetlana: All three of them mean "how can I find Nikolai"? |
| Yura: - the same thing with the only difference being "как мне" is much more common and colloquial way of saying "how can I". |
| Svetlana: Ok, that is clear I think, now let's talk about the prepositions. |
| Yura: The good thing about Russian prepositions is that they are always associated with a Grammar Case, which means if you learn what prepositions govern what Case, you won't have problems with modifying nouns. |
| Svetlana: Right, so let's take a good look into them. In the lesson we came across 6 prepositions which govern different Cases – could you name them for us please? |
| Yura: Sure. They were- |
| [Russian - Svetlana / English- Yura] |
| недалеко от – not far from |
| возле – close to |
| без – without |
| с – with Instr |
| в – in Prep |
| у – by, next to, close to |
| Svetlana: What we meant by a preposition "governing a Case" is that nouns/pronouns that come after these prepositions should come in the grammar case these nouns are associated with. |
| Yura: Basically, we can say that each preposition belongs to a certain Case. |
| Svetlana: The prepositions that "belong" to the Genitive Case make the biggest quantity among all. In our dialog we had four prepositions. |
| недалеко от – not far from |
| возле – close to |
| без – without |
| у – by, next to, close to |
| Svetlana: When it comes to the prepositions, Genitive is mainly associated with 2 meanings – Closeness and Negation. |
| Yura: Prepositions that represent closeness in the dialog are недалеко от, возле and у. |
| Svetlana: And Negation is represented by the preposition без. |
| Yura: Now that we know that we are dealing with Genitive prepositions, we can build sentences. Could you give us a few examples, please? |
| Svetlana: Sure. I'll give you a few sentences. |
| Svetlana: Недалеко от магазина |
| Yura: not far from the store (магазин – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: Возле стоянки |
| Yura: near parking lot (стоянка – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: У моря |
| Yura: by the sea (море – in Genitive) |
| Svetlana: Great, I think we are done with the prepositions for today. Of course there are many more of them out there, but today was a good start! |
| Yura: Okay. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Yura: Attention perfectionists! You're about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Svetlana: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Yura: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Svetlana: Super simple to use. Listen to the Russian word or phrase... |
| Yura: then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Svetlana: You'll speak with confidence knowing that you're speaking Russian like the locals. |
| Yura: Go to RussianPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lesson page today. See you next time! |
| Svetlana: пока пока! |
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