Let's look at the dialogue. |
When I read, I want you to pay attention to the words showing the languages. |
Find what these words are and see how they’re used in the dialogue. |
Здравствуйте, вы говорите по-английски? |
(Zdravstvuyte, vy govorite po-angliyski?) |
Hello, do you speak English? |
Да, я говорю по-английски. |
(Da, ya govoryu po-angliyski.) |
Yes, I speak English. |
First is a formal greeting |
Здравствуйте. |
(Zdravstvuyte). |
Hello |
Then the question. |
Вы говорите по-английски? |
(Vy govorite po-angliyski?) |
Do you speak English? |
Then the answer. |
Да, я говорю по-английски. |
(Da, ya govoryu po-angliyski.) |
Yes, I speak English. |
Or |
Нет, я не говорю по-английски. |
(Net, ya ne govoryu po-angliyski). |
No, I don’t speak English. |
Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
First, you're asked the question |
Вы говорите по-русски. |
vy govorite po-russki? |
Do you speak Russian? |
And you would answer. |
Да, я говорю по-русски. |
(Da, ya govoryu po-russki.) |
Yes, I speak Russian. |
And, if you ask about Japanese. You can answer. |
Да, я говорю по-японски. |
(Da, ya govoryu po-yaponski.) |
Yes, I speak Japanese. |
Now let's look at the sentence pattern. |
This pattern will be the structure that all of our dialogues will follow. |
Да, я говорю по-[language]. |
(Da, ya govoryu po-[language].) |
Yes, I speak [language]. |
You may have noticed here that the word for English |
по-английски (po-angliyski) is a little different from the vocabulary section. |
The words in the vocabulary section are all adjectives referring to the language. |
Some example phrases are |
“английский актёр” (angliyskiy aktyor) - English actor |
“русский язык” (russkiy yazyk) - Russian language; |
“немецкий паспорт” (nemetskiy pasport) - German passport. |
When referring to the ability to speak a language |
the prefix “по” (po) is added with a hyphen, and the ending “й” (y) is removed. |
This is done for every language. |
Examples are |
по-русски |
(po-russki); |
по-японски |
(po-yaponski). |
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