Learn how to conjugate Russian verbs in the present tense
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner season 1, lesson 8 - How Do You Study Russian? I’m Yuriy. |
| Elena: А я Елена, привет. Hello, I’m Elena! |
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn how to conjugate Russian verbs in the present tense. |
| Elena: The conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Yuriy: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Russian. Okay! Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Лера: Алекс, это твоя книга на столе? |
| Алекс: Да, моя. Я сейчас читаю про мировой кризис 2008 года. |
| Лера: Ты читаешь по-русски? И ты все понимаешь? |
| Алекс: Нет конечно, но я все время использую русско-английский словарь, и много перевожу. Это очень улучшает мой русский. |
| Лера: Вот это да! Молодец! |
| Lera: Aleks, eto tvoya kniga na stole? |
| Aleks: Da, moya. Yа seychas chitayu pro mirovoy krizis 2008 goda. |
| Lera: Ty chitayesh' po-russki? I ty vse ponimayesh'? |
| Aleks: Net konechno, no ya vse vremya ispol'zuyu russko-angliyskiy slovar', i mnogo perevozhu. Eto ochen' uluchshayet moy russkiy. |
| Lera: Vot eto da! Molodets! |
| Лера: Алекс, это твоя книга на столе? |
| Yuriy: Aleks, Is this your book on the table? |
| Алекс: Да, моя. Я сейчас читаю про мировой кризис 2008 года. |
| Yuriy: Yeah, it's mine. I'm now reading about the global crisis of 2008. |
| Лера: Ты читаешь по-русски? И ты все понимаешь? |
| Yuriy: Are you reading it in Russian? And you understand everything? |
| Алекс: Нет конечно, но я все время использую русско-английский словарь, и много перевожу. Это очень улучшает мой русский. |
| Yuriy: Of course not, but I'm using a Russian-English dictionary all the time and translating a lot. It really improves my Russian. |
| Лера: Вот это да! Молодец! |
| Yuriy: Wow! Well done! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yuriy: Elena, what are the most popular majors at Russian universities? |
| Elena: I’d say IT, law, economics, and marketing. Many people pay a lot of money for education in these faculties. |
| Yuriy: Is it because those majors get them a high-paying job? |
| Elena: Well, that was the case about ten years ago. But now the situation is different. Almost every university or institute has a lot of new graduates coming out of these departments every year. At the same time, there aren’t many people graduating from technical departments. |
| Yuriy: You said before that people have to spend a lot of money to enter, but does the government contribute to some of these programs? |
| Elena: Sure, the government provides state-subsidized education. But to be eligible for this, prospective students need to pass entrance exams with really high scores. |
| Yuriy: Everyone has a chance, though. |
| Elena: Yes, but it’s extremely competitive! |
| Yuriy: Yikes. Those poor students! Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Elena читать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to read |
| Elena читать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena читать [natural native speed] |
| Elena понимать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to understand |
| Elena понимать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena понимать [natural native speed] |
| Elena использовать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to use |
| Elena использовать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena использовать [natural native speed] |
| Elena переводить [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to translate |
| Elena переводить [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena переводить [natural native speed] |
| Elena кризис [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy crisis |
| Elena кризис [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena кризис [natural native speed] |
| Elena улучшать [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy to improve |
| Elena улучшать [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena улучшать [natural native speed] |
| Elena молодец [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy Well done!, Good job! |
| Elena молодец [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena молодец [natural native speed] |
| Elena мировой [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy world, global |
| Elena мировой [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena мировой [natural native speed] |
| Elena про [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy about |
| Elena про [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena про [natural native speed] |
| Elena Вот это да! [natural native speed] |
| Yuriy Wow!, I can't believe it! |
| Elena Вот это да! [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elena Вот это да! [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yuriy: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word in this lesson is… |
| Elena: ...the phrase Bот это да which can be translated as “Wow!” or “I can't believe it!” |
| Yuriy: This is a conversational phrase that is used in informal situations. As a rule, speakers know each other. |
| Elena: This phrase is an exclamation that expresses surprise, joy, or delight. |
| Yuriy: It’s also used when you want to express your amazement or surprise about some information you’ve heard. For example... |
| Elena: Вот это да! Посмотри как он играет в футбол! Просто профессионал! |
| Yuriy: “Wow! Look how he plays football! Like a professional!” In this example, the speaker is surprised at someone’s performance in the game, because he probably didn't expect him to be so skilled. What’s the next word? |
| Elena: It’s Переводить, which means “to translate”. |
| Yuriy: Let’s hear an example. |
| Elena: Он переводит текст с английского языка на русский. |
| Yuriy: “He is translating text from English into Russian.” But this verb also has many meanings. In this lesson, we’ll cover two more meanings. |
| Elena: The second meaning of this verb is “to transfer to another position”. |
| Yuriy: We use this word when a person changes their job within a company from, say, the sales department to the marketing department. For instance... |
| Elena: Его перевели в другой отдел. |
| Yuriy: “He was transferred to another department.” The third meaning of this word is “to transfer money”. Can you give us an example, Elena? |
| Elena: Ты знаешь как перевести деньги заграницу? |
| Yuriy: “Do you know how to transfer money abroad?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. |
| Elena: In Russian, the present tense corresponds to both the simple present and present continuous in English. |
| Yuriy: This means that Russians use the present tense to describe things that are happening right now, as well as well-known facts, daily events, and habits. |
| Elena: Depending on the person and number, all verbs in Russian change their endings in the present tense. In other words, verb conjugation. |
| Yuriy: In English, we just need to add the ending “-s” to a verb to indicate that the verb’s subject is in the third person, whereas in Russian, there are six endings that indicate the person and number. |
| Elena: All Russian regular verbs are divided into two fundamental groups, known as first conjugation and second conjugation. |
| Yuriy: To determine whether a verb belongs to the first or second conjugation, you just need to look at its ending in the infinitive form. |
| Elena: Verbs in the category of the first conjugation usually end in -ать , - ять , -оть -еть and -уть. |
| Yuriy: Verbs ending in -ить fall into the second conjugation category. |
| Elena: For example, the verb читать, “to read”, falls into the first conjugation because it ends in -ать: чит -ать. |
| Yuriy: And the verb купить, “to buy”, is in the second conjugation category because it ends in -ить: куп - ить . |
| Elena: Verbs in the first conjugation have the endings -ю, -у, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ют, or - ут in the present tense. |
| Yuriy: For example, let’s take the verb читать, which means “to read”. |
| Elena: Я читаю |
| Yuriy: “I read” |
| Elena: ты читаешь |
| Yuriy: “you read” |
| Elena: он, она, оно читает |
| Yuriy: “he”, “she”, “it reads” |
| Elena: мы читаем |
| Yuriy: “we read” |
| Elena: они читают |
| Yuriy: “they read”. Great! What about verbs that have the second conjugation? |
| Elena: The verbs of second conjugation have the endings -ю, -у, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, and -ят or -ат in the present tense. |
| Yuriy: For example, let’s take the verb учить, meaning “to teach”, “to learn”, or “to study”, and conjugate it. |
| Elena: Я учу |
| Yuriy: “I study” |
| Elena: ты учишь |
| Yuriy: “you study” |
| Elena: он, она, оно учит |
| Yuriy: “he”, “she”, “it studies” |
| Elena: мы учим |
| Yuriy: “we study” |
| Elena: они учат |
| Yuriy: “they study” |
Outro |
| Yuriy: Okay and that’s it for this lesson! For more examples and information, please check the lesson notes. |
| Elena: Thanks for listening everyone. |
| Yuriy: See you in our next lesson. Bye! |
| Elena: До скорого встречи! |
Comments
Hide