Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Oksana: [Привет всем! Я Оксана]
Eddie: Eddie here. Lower Intermediate Series Season 1, Lesson 13. Next time maybe you will know what to say in Russia. Ok, so in this lesson we’re in the dormitory where Vlad is throwing a party to celebrate the end of his finals.
Oksana: Of course it was also an excuse to get Ira over to his place.
Eddie: Well, yeah, but I'm sure he didn’t mean anything bad by that. He just wants to hang out with a girl. Besides, I think it’s pretty brave of him to try to make up for his mess.
Oksana: True. A lot of people would try to avoid that person afterwards.
Eddie: So let’s listen to the conversation and find out what happens in the dormitory today.
DIALOGUE
Eddie : [Оо! Ирочка! Заходи. Это моя комната, а это мои друзья, Николай, Александр и Валерий. Ещё должны прийти Оля и Аня.]
Oksana: [Очень приятно, Ира. Влад мне много рассказывал о Вас в прошлый раз…]
Eddie: [Ира! Давай не будем об этом!]
Oksana: [Но почему? По-моему, твои друзья ещё многого не знают о себе! Например то, что Александр – совладелец банка "Альфа" в Москве…]
Eddie: [Саша, я тебе потом объясню… ] Once again, more slowly.
Oksana: Еще раз, медленнее.
Eddie : [Оо! Ирочка! Заходи. Это моя комната, а это мои друзья, Николай, Александр и Валерий. Ещё должны прийти Оля и Аня.]
Oksana: [Очень приятно, Ира. Влад мне много рассказывал о Вас в прошлый раз…]
Eddie: [Ира! Давай не будем об этом!]
Oksana: [Но почему? По-моему, твои друзья ещё многого не знают о себе! Например то, что Александр – совладелец банка "Альфа" в Москве…]
Eddie: [Саша, я тебе потом объясню… ] Once again with a translation.
Oksana: [Еще раз, с переводом. Оо! Ирочка! Заходи. Это моя комната, а это мои друзья, Николай, Александр и Валерий. Ещё должны прийти Оля и Аня.]
Eddie: Oo! Irochka! Come in. This is my room, and these are my friends, Nicolai, Alexander, and Valerij. Also, Olya and Anya should be coming .
Oksana: [Очень приятно, Ира. Влад мне много рассказывал о вас в прошлый раз…]
Eddie: Nice to meet you, I'm Ira. Vlad told me a lot about you last time…
Oksana: [Ира! Давай не будем об этом!]
Eddie: Ira! Let's drop it!
Oksana: [Но почему? По-моему, твои друзья ещё многого не знают о себе! Например то, что Александр – совладелец банка "Альфа" в Москве…]
Eddie: Why? I'm guessing your friends still have a lot to know about themselves! For example, the fact that Alexander is a co-owner of the "Alpha" bank in Moscow…
Oksana: [Саша, я тебе потом объясню… ]
Eddie: Sasha, I'll explain it to you later…
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eddie: She won’t let go of this thing. Come on, girl, this joke is old already.
Oksana: For you maybe, but Vlad’s friends have no idea about what’s going on. What could be better revenge than mocking him in front of his friends?
Eddie: Women… so cruel. As cruel as men are concerned about their egos and the whole coolness thing. Anyway, you might think she’s giving him a hard time. I think she’s too gentle with him.
Eddie: We’ll have to ask our listeners on the forum about that. But now let’s get to the educational part of this lesson instead of questioning Vlad’s morals.
VOCAB LIST
Eddie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is…
Oksana: [Заходить]
Eddie: To drop by, to come in.
Oksana: [Заходить]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [Комната]
Eddie: Room.
Oksana: [Комната]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [Должен]
Eddie: Must, should.
Oksana: [Должен]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [По-моему]
Eddie: I think, to my mind.
Oksana: [По-моему]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [Например]
Eddie: For example.
Oksana: [Например]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [В прошлый раз]
Eddie: Last time.
Oksana: [В прошлый раз]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [Совладелец]
Eddie: Co-owner.
Oksana: [Совладелец]
Eddie: Next.
Oksana: [Объяснить]
Eddie: To explain.
Oksana: [Объяснить]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eddie: So today we’ll be hearing very little about grammar because our focus will be almost entirely on vocabulary.
Oksana: Sounds good to me. Let’s start. The first word to look at is [Заходить].
Eddie: I'm sure you’ve come across this word hundreds of times by now, but I just wanted to remind you briefly of its main meanings. So the primary meaning of [заходить] is “to drop in” or “to drop by”. Why? Because we have the word “to go”, [ходить], and the prefix [за], which means “dropping by” basically.
Oksana: Besides, we can use it both when talking about places and people. [Заходить к другу] or [заходить в магазин].
Eddie: But today it was used in the meaning of “come in”, right?
Oksana: Yes, it’s a very conversational, but not slangy or anything, form of saying “to come in”. The proper word for it would be [входить] because [в] is the prefix that means “in”.
Eddie: Yes, it means more like “Ok, drop in” or “Get yourself here”, right?
Oksana: Well, no. It’s conversational but not impolite. In fact, if you say [заходите] with [те] in the end, you’ll sound very decent. So just remember [заходить] is a colloquial form of [входить].
Eddie: Ok, I think we got it. What’s next?
Oksana: Let’s talk about the word [должен]. It’s an important one.
Eddie: I agree. So, this word has two main meanings. The first one is “must”, “have to”, “should”, “suppose to”. The word that goes after it should always be a verb. Give us an example, Oksana.
Oksana: Here. [Он должен идти.]
Eddie: He has to go.
Oksana: [Она должна была мне позвонить сегодня.]
Eddie: She was supposed to call me today.
Oksana: [Это должно быть уничтожено.]
Eddie: This must be destroyed.
Oksana: [Они не должны знать.]
Eddie: “They shouldn’t know.” Good. And another meaning of this word is “to owe”. In this meaning, [должен] requires a noun or pronoun in the dative case to go after it. Any examples?
Oksana: Sure. [Он должен мне 200 рублей.]
Eddie: He owes me 200 rubles.
Oksana: [Я ему должна.]
Eddie: “I owe him.” Note that in both meanings the word changes according to gender.
Oksana: That’s right. So it will be [должен] for masculine, [должна] for feminine, [должно] for neutral and [должны] for plural.
Eddie: Good. I think we covered it. Next we have a phrase, what was it?
Oksana: [Он много рассказывал о вас.]
Eddie: “He’s told me so much about you.” This phrase is very common in Russia. If you’re meeting your friend with his new girlfriend, friends or parents, you’d better show your politeness and a little flattery by saying it, even if you don’t know the person it’s referring to very well.
Oksana: Right, everyone likes to be known and spoken about, especially jealous girlfriends. They melt when they’re boyfriend’s friends say that to them.
Eddie: Are you speaking from your own experience?
Oksana: I'm living in a foreign country, it’s not that popular here but I guess I wouldn’t mind. I’d like my boyfriend talking about me with other people in a good way. But you know what? There is another phrase I think we should mention. It means pretty much the same as [Он много рассказывал о вас] but reversed. [Я много слышал о вас] “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Eddie: I guess it’s best to remember them as a pair, right?
Oksana: I guess so. Next we have [В прошлый раз].
Eddie: “Last time.” [Прошлый] literally means “past”. Here are some more phrases with this word.
Oksana: [Мое прошлое]
Eddie: My past.
Oksana: [Это в прошлом]
Eddie: “It’s in the past.” And [раз] literally means “time” like in “one time”, “two times”. I think to complete the set of these phrases, you should also learn how to say “this time” and “next time”. Oksana, how would you say those phrases in Russian?
Oksana: [В этот раз]
Eddie: This time.
Oksana: [В следующий раз]
Eddie: “Next time.” Great, thank you. So Irina says that she had heard a lot about Vlad’s friends. In any other case, it would have sounded polite and flattering, but in our situation…
Oksana: It sounds intimidating. The ugly truth is about to come out and Vlad so doesn’t want to let it happen.
Eddie: Ugly truth? I call it innocent joke. But yes, I agree, Vlad feels a little uncomfortable with discussing it in front of his friends. And so he says…
Oksana: [Давай не будем об этом.]
Eddie: This is a set phrase which literally means “let’s won’t about it” if we translate it word for word and can be translated as “let’s drop it”, “let’s not talk about it. There’s no need to say the verb [говорить], “to talk”, because it’s implied.
Oksana: But if the situation is not a dialogue or a discussion but you just don’t want the person to talk about something or reveal something to others. If you want a person to shut his mouth basically but want to tell him this in a subtle way, you can say [Не надо] or [Не нужно об этом].
Eddie: Please don’t, please drop it, please stop talking about it.
Oksana: Ok, let’s finish with the vocabulary and jump to the grammar part which is also all about the vocabulary. So the last word for the vocab part is [Объяснить].
Eddie: “To explain”. Nothing difficult about it. Remember, you can play with endings now and change the word from [объяснить] to [объясниться], for example, which will mean “to explain yourself”.

Lesson focus

Eddie: Ok, the grammar part now. To explain the grammar for this lesson, we’ll need a word from it, which is?
Oksana: [Совладелец]
Eddie: Right, a co-owner. The point of special attention here is on the prefix [со]. This is the equivalent of the English [со], like in “cooperation” and indicates togetherness. If we drop this prefix, we’ll get a simple word for “owner”, which is [владелец]. Not all of the words can get rid of the prefix easily though. Right, without it a lot of them lose sense. For example [сотрудник], “co-worker”. The key part of this word is [труд], which is “labor”. The prefix [со] indicates togetherness, cooperation, but there is no such word as [трудник] and no, it wouldn’t just mean worker. There is another word in Russian for worker, which is [рабочий]. [Сотрудник] is one complete word with inseparable parts. Here are some more popular words with the prefix [со] - [соавтор].
Eddie: Coauthor.
Oksana: [Собеседник]
Eddie: Interlocutor, companion, the person you’re talking to.
Oksana: [Собутыльник]
Eddie: Drinking buddy.
Oksana: [Сочувствовать]
Eddie: “To sympathize”, literally “feel the same as what someone else is feeling”. Also, I’d like to talk about something that’s called diminutive or endearing form, something like when you say “doggie” instead of “dog” or “Bennie” instead of “Benjamin”. I think it’s an interesting topic. Besides, pretty much any noun or adjective can have a diminutive form in Russian.
Oksana: True, especially personal names. Actually, there are certain rules in Russian grammar that you can apply to any foreign word to make it sound diminutive. For example, if I wanted to talk to you with affection, I’d call you [Эддичка] instead of Eddie.
Eddie: Ok, it doesn’t sound very endearing to me but… Anyway, diminutives are often used for the purpose of expressing affection. Russian has a wide variety of diminutive forms for names, to the point that for non-Russian speakers it can be difficult to connect a nickname to the original.
Oksana: Right. For example, the name Irina. Here are the nicknames the girls with this name are usually called in Russiа [Ирочка, Иришка, Ирка]. Or the same with Alexander. In English you would just clip a word and use the first part of it, Alex. In Russian it’s different. Listen to how Alexander’s are called in Russiа [Саша, Саня, Сашка, Сашок, Шурик, Шура].
Eddie: Not even close to the original, but sometimes diminutives can have a derogative connotation, right?
Oksana: Right, for example [Ирка] doesn’t sound very good. A little bit rude even but [Ирочка] sounds very affectionate.
Eddie: So now we know Vlad’s intentions.
Oksana: Like they weren’t obvious.

Outro

Eddie: Ok, time to finish. Don’t forget to check out PDF materials to make your language sound affectionately proper. Ok, thanks for being with us. See you next time.
Oksana: [До встречи. Пока!]

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