Hello and welcome to Russian Survival Phrases. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Russia. So join us for Russian Survival phrases. You will be surprised at how far a little Russian will go. |
This lesson covers a phrase for all of you shoppers out there, as we'll look at the phrase ”How much?”. Depending on your shopping habits, this just may be the most useful phrase we cover! |
In Russian "How much is it?" is "Skol’ka stoit?". |
Let`s break it down by syllable: Skol’-ka sto-it?. Now, let`s hear it once again: Skol’ka stoit? |
Shopping, at the market, at an eatery, depending on your spending habits this may be an extremely high frequency phrase! |
The most rudimentary way of using "How much?” is pointing at something while saying “Skol’ka stoit?”, but let's try and build this up a bit, shall we? Let's start with the expression "How much is this?", which in Russian is "Skol’ka eta stoit?". The first word "skol’ka" means "how much". Let`s break down this word and hear it one more time: skol’-ka and skol’ka. This is is followed by "eta", which in English is "this", e-ta and eta. “Stoit” means “cost”. Let`s break down this word and hear it one more time: sto-it and stoit. So, altogether in English it would be: “How much does it cost?”. |
Looking at the word for “this”, warrants a look at the word for “that”. So the phrase “How much is that?” in Russian would be "A eta skol’ka stoit?". Now, let`s hear it once again: A eta skol’ka stoit? |
Ok, to close out today`s lesson we'd like for you to practice what we`d just learnt. I will provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for saying it aloud. You'll have a few seconds before I`ll give you the answer. Udachi! That means “good luck”! Ok, here we go! |
How much?…….Skol’ka stoit? |
How much is this?……..Skol’ka eta stoit? |
How much is that?..........A eta skol’ka stoit? |
Alright, that's going to do for today. See you tomorrow, which in Russian is da zaftra! |
5 Comments
HideHave you ever bought anything in Russia? In Russian?
Hi Catherine Bouveyron,
Thank you for your feedback.
We'll keep that in mind when developing new lessons.
Thank you very much,
Ofelia
Team RussianPod101.com
A suggestion:
In lesson notes and lesson transcripts, whatever the level of the students, before or after word/expression's romanisation, systematically add (in brackets) Russian spelling. Our eyes should progressively get used to seeing the Russian version of all words or expressions.
This applies to all courses, all levels, whenever notes or transcripts make use of romanisation.?
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your question.
Good news is that the Cardinal numbers like two (два), four (четыре), ten (десять), hundred (Сто) only change by cases and do not have gender (except один, полтора, два)and number. Ordinal numbers, however, change according to case, number and gender the same ways as adjectives do.
Demonstrative pronoun "Eta" is a feminine pronoun in singular form. So "yes", Russian pronouns will change the same way as nouns do according to gender, number and case.
Hope our lessons will help you to make it out)))
Please feel free to ask if there any other questions.
Thank you for staying with us.
Svetlana/RussianPod101.com
Never been to Russia, but I have another question. Do the words 'sto' and 'eta' get declined [change endings] in Russian based on number or gender?