Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

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.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Zdrastvuite, Ya Svetlana! Welcome to Russianpod101.com’s Алфавит Made Easy!
The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn the Russian Cyrillic alphabet: the Алфавит!
Just a little further! Today we will learn two of the remaining four letters! Last time we learned two more Strangers, “Ё” and “Ж”. Do you remember how to read and write them? I hope you're ready to move on!
In this lesson we’ll learn two more “Strangers” and some more sentences for your notebook!
Our first Stranger is “Ш”, and it looks vaguely like an English “W”. It makes a “sh” sound, like in “show”. The lowercase version is just smaller.
Here’s the uppercase.
Ш (print, upper)
And the lowercase.
Ш (print, lower)
The cursive version of uppercase “Ш” looks like this. It's very similar to the capital “И” but has an extra peak. The lowercase is the same as the uppercase but smaller. I don’t think you’ll have any problems writing this letter.
Now let’s write them.
Ш (cursive, upper)
And the lowercase.
Ш (cursive, lower)
The second letter we'll learn in this lesson is easy to read and write but a little difficult to say. “Щ” looks and sounds very similar to “Ш”, but with some minor but important distinctions. “Щ” has a sharper sound than “Ш”. It's similar to the sharp “sh” in “sheep.” Some people say it’s like a combination of “sh” and “ch”.
Here’s how to write the printed versions.
Щ (print, upper)
And the lowercase
Щ (print, lower)
Now let's see how to write “Щ” by hand. Uppercase “Щ” is very similar to “Ш” except it has a little extra tail that makes it different. It's written in one stroke, just like “Ш”, but with a small loop at the end. It connects easily to the next letter after the loop. The only difference between the upper and lowercase versions is the size.
Щ (cursive, upper)
And the lowercase.
Щ (cursive, lower)
Ok! Time to learn some new sentences!
First up is a useful phrase for those of you looking for a place to stay in Russia. Can you sound it out? [short pause]
We read this as “Я ищу хорошую квартиру” We already know some of these words. “Я” means “I”. “ищу” means “am looking for”. Next is “хорошую”. Can you guess what this means? It's a form of the adjective “хороший” that means “good,”. And finally, “квартиру” means “apartment”. So all together, this phrase means “I am looking for a good apartment”
Я ищу хорошую квартиру (cursive)
Nice job. Let's take a look at one more phrase that uses both of our new letters. [short pause]
Can you read it? It's pronounced “Щи да каша — пища наша”
The first part is “Щи да каша” “Schi” is a popular type of Russian soup and “Kasha” is a type of simple porridge. In the second part, “пища наша” means “our food” or “our diet.” So essentially, the phrase translates to “Schi soup and kasha porridge is our food.” It is an expression that means you are simple and plain. And can you hear the difference between “Щ” and “ш”?
Щи да каша — пища наша (cursive)
That’s it for this lesson. The next lesson will cover the final letters of the Russian alphabet, so you’ll be able to read and write anything at all! See you in the next Алфавит Made Easy lesson!
Пока Пока

Comments

Hide