Learn how to ask for directions
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
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.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| 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. | |
| In this lesson we’ll introduce a phrase that is certain to come in handy for capturing you memories on film. Russia is full of beautiful scenery, and there are times when you’ll want to be in the picture or have everyone in your party in the picture. Therefore, there are times when the question “Can you take my picture?” will be invaluable! | |
| In Russian “Can you take my picture?” is “Ne magli by vy minya sfatagrafiravat’ ?”. Let`s break it down by syllable: Ne mag-li by vy mi-nya sfa-ta-gra-fi-ra-vat’ ? Let`s hear it one more time, slowly: Ne magli by vy minya sfatagrafiravat’ ? and Ne magli by vy minya sfatagrafiravat’ ? | |
| The first part of the sentence “ne magli by vy…” means “Couldn’t you…” . Let`s break this down by syllable: ne mag-li by vy…, ne magli by vy…This is followed by “minya sfatagrafiravat’ ”. Let`s break it down by syllable: mi-nya sfa-tag-ra-fi-ra-vat’, which in English is “take my picture” - “minya sfatagrafiravat’ ”. | |
| And if you want to have a group picture, you should ask: “Ne magli by vy nas sfatagrafiravat’ ?”. You should substitute “minya” with “nas”. | |
| It would be: “Ne magli by vy nas sfatagrafiravat’ ?”, which in English is “Can you make our picture, please?”. Ne magli by vy nas sfatagrafiravat’ ? - Can you take our picture, please? | |
| In English, before someone takes a picture, the person taking the picture may say, “1, 2, 3. Cheese.” In Russian before a picture is taken, the person taking the picture may say “Syr”, which means “Cheese” in English. Now, let`s hear it once again: syr. | |
| 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! | |
| Can you take my picture?……..Ne magli by vy minya sfatagrafiravat’ ? | |
| Can you take our picture?.......Ne magli by vy nas sfatagrafiravat’ ? | |
| Cheese…….syr | |
| Alright, that's going to do for today. See you tomorrow, which in Russian is da zaftra! |
7 Comments
HideHello Fernando,
Yes, you can. Your sentence is correct 👍
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
If I´m asking to a friend can I use the 2nd person singular - "ты"?rnrn"Не мог бы Ты меня сфотографировать?"
Hello Иосиф,
“фотографировать” and “сфотографировать” have the same meaning. “фотографировать” is imperfective verb, whereas “сфотографировать” is perfective.
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Hello -
Can you explain the difference between "фотографировать" and "сфотографировать" - the vocabulary only lists the former, while the conversation instead uses the latter, with no explanation of the discrepancy. Can you enlighten me?
What's somewhere Russian you've had a photo taken?
Hey Marion, you can always check out all 60 SurvivalPhrases lessons at http://survivalphrases.com/russian
It's a separate product from our RussianPod101.com series, but it does contain the entire 60 lesson series.
Enjoy!
I am sorry to see that there won't be any more Survival Phrases, I really enjoyed (trying to learn!) them and listening to Alex's adorable accent.
Thank you Russianpod101!