Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Yuriy: Hello and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner season 1, lesson 9 - Getting Around Russia. I’m Yuriy.
Elena: А я Елена. Привет. Hello, I’m Elena.
Yuriy: In this lesson, you'll learn how to form the past tense of verbs in Russian.
Elena: The conversation takes place in a cafe.
Yuriy: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Russian. Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Алекс: Лера, ты случайно не знаешь сколько стоит билет на самолет до Киева?
Лера: Когда я покупала, он стоил около 300 долларов туда-обратно.
Алекс: А билет на поезд?
Лера: Тебя интересует купе или плацкарт?
Алекс: А есть существенная разница?
Лера: Конечно, купе намного дороже. Я думаю, что купе стоит примерно 200 долларов, а плацкарт – 150.
Алекс: Эх, тогда мой выбор - автобус.
Aleks: Lera, ty sluchayno ne znayesh' skol'ko stoit bilet na samolet do Kiyeva?
Lera: Kogda ya pokupala, on stoil okolo 300 dollarov tuda-obratno.
Aleks: A bilet na poyezd?
Lera: Tebya interesuyet kupe ili platskart?
Aleks: A yest' sushchestvennaya raznitsa?
Lera: Konechno, kupe namnogo dorozhe. Ya dumayu, chto kupe stoit primerno 200 dollarov, a platskart – 150.
Aleks: Ekh, togda moy vybor - avtobus.
Алекс: Лера, ты случайно не знаешь сколько стоит билет на самолет до Киева?
Yuriy: Lera, do you by any chance know how much a plane ticket to Kiev costs?
Лера: Когда я покупала, он стоил около 300 долларов туда-обратно.
Yuriy: When I bought it, it cost around three hundred dollars for a round trip.
Алекс: А билет на поезд?
Yuriy: And a train ticket?
Лера: Тебя интересует купе или плацкарт?
Yuriy: Are you interested in a coupe or in a reserved seat?
Алекс: А есть существенная разница?
Yuriy: Is there a significant difference?
Лера: Конечно, купе намного дороже. Я думаю, что купе стоит примерно 200 долларов, а плацкарт – 150.
Yuriy: Of course, a coupe is much more expensive. I think that the coupe costs around two hundred dollars, and a reserved seat is one hundred and fifty.
Алекс: Эх, тогда мой выбор - автобус.
Yuriy: Ah, then my choice is the bus.
VOCAB LIST
Elena билет [natural native speed]
Yuriy ticket
Elena билет [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena билет [natural native speed]
Elena случайно [natural native speed]
Yuriy by accident, accidentally
Elena случайно [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena случайно [natural native speed]
Elena Ты случайно не знаешь? [natural native speed]
Yuriy Do you by any chance know?
Elena Ты случайно не знаешь? [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena Ты случайно не знаешь? [natural native speed]
Elena самолёт [natural native speed]
Yuriy plane
Elena самолёт [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena самолёт [natural native speed]
Elena около [natural native speed]
Yuriy about, around, near
Elena около [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena около [natural native speed]
Elena думать [natural native speed]
Yuriy to think
Elena думать [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena думать [natural native speed]
Elena существенная [natural native speed]
Yuriy significant
Elena существенная [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena существенная [natural native speed]
Elena разница [natural native speed]
Yuriy difference
Elena разница [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena разница [natural native speed]
Elena выбор [natural native speed]
Yuriy choice
Elena выбор [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena выбор [natural native speed]
Elena интересовать [natural native speed]
Yuriy to interest
Elena интересовать [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Elena интересовать [natural native speed]
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Yuriy: Elena, how do people in Moscow get around the city?
Elena: The main way is by metro. It runs every day from 6 a.m. till 1 a.m. During rush hour the metro is pretty much the only way you can get around.
Yuriy: Is it expensive?
Elena: Yes, for example, a ticket for five rides costs 150 rubles, which is approximately 5 dollars.
Yuriy: I’ve also heard that there are stations with unique decorations.
Elena: Yeah, some stations are decorated with artwork in bas-relief, marble and bronze statues, and glass mosaics. Going through those stations is like a trip to the museum!
Yuriy: That’s so cool! Check those out if you go there, listeners!
Elena: I think you’ll like it!
Yuriy: Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Yuriy: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First up is...
Elena: ...the phrase Ты случайно не знаешь? which can mean “Do you by any chance know?” or “Do you happen to know?” Yuriy, let's break this phrase down.
Yuriy: Ok. The pronoun ты means “you”, and the adverb случайно can be translated as “accidentally” or “by chance”, which in this phrase, serves as a parenthetical word expressing the assumption. Next, the verb знаешь means “know”, and the particle не can be translated as “don't”. So literally this phrase means “Don't you know by chance”.
Elena: You use this phrase when you want to request some information from someone.
Yuriy: Let’s use it in some example sentences.
Elena: Ты случайно не знаешь, Анна сейчас дома?
Yuriy: “Do you happen to know if Anna is at home now?”
Elena: Вы случайно не знаете, где останавливается автобус до ‘Шереметьево’?
Yuriy: “Do you by any chance know where the bus to the ‘Sheremetyevo’ stops?” I Ok I think this is pretty clear now. What’s the next word in this lesson?
Elena: The next key word is the adverb около, which can be translated as “about”, “around”, or “near”. This adverb can be used in two ways.
Yuriy: The first way is to indicate that something or someone is situated very close by. For example...
Elena: Около моего дома красивый парк.
Yuriy: “There is a beautiful park near my house.” The second way is to approximate the amount or number of something or somebody. For example...
Elena: Билет стоит около тысячи долларов.
Yuriy: The ticket costs about one thousand dollars. Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Yuriy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to form past tense verbs in Russian. In Russian, the past tense corresponds to the past simple, past continuous, present perfect, and past perfect tenses of English.
Elena: Verbs in the past tense should agree in gender and number with their subjects.
Yuriy: To form the past tense, you need to drop the infinitive ending -ть, and add the endings -л, -ла, -ло, or -ли.
Elena: You should add the ending -л if it’s masculine, -ла if it’s feminine, -ло if it’s neuter, and -ли if it’s plural.
Yuriy: Let’s give some examples.
Elena: он читал
Yuriy: “He was reading”
Elena: она читала
Yuriy: “She was reading”
Elena: оно читало
Yuriy: “It was reading”
Elena: мы читали
Yuriy: “We were reading”
Elena: As you can see, we took the verb читать, “to read” and removed the ending -ть, and were left with чита. Then we just added -л, -ла, -ло, and -ли: Чита [pause] л, Чита [pause] ла, Чита [pause] ло, Чита [pause] ли.
Yuriy: How about some more examples?
Elena: Good idea! Я читал журнал
Yuriy: “I was reading a magazine.”
Elena: Он писал письмо.
Yuriy: “He was writing a letter.” To form past tense from reflexive verbs ending in -ться, you need to remove the ending -ть, and add the ending -ся after -л, and -сь after -ла, -ло, and -ли. For example...
Elena: Я учился
Yuriy: “I was studying”
Elena: Она училась
Yuriy: “She was studying”
Elena: Они учились
Yuriy: “They were studying” As you can see, we took the verb учиться, “to study”, and removed the endings -ть and -ся.
Elena: After that, we were left with учи. Then we just added -л and -ся for masculine cases and -ла, -ло, or -ли plus -сь for feminine, neuter and plural cases: Учи [pause] л [pause] ся, Учи [pause] ла [pause] сь, Учи [pause] ло [pause] сь, Учи [pause] ли [pause] сь.
Yuriy: For example?
Elena: Она училась в университете.
Yuriy: “She was studying at university”
Elena: Они уже вернулись домой?
Yuriy: “Have they returned home?”

Outro

Yuriy: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone! We’ll see you next time.
Elena: Спасибо вам большое и до скорой встречи!

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