Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Jo: Hello everyone and welcome to RussianPod101.com. This is the Upper Beginner Series, season 1, lesson 10 - Which Russian Brands Suit you Best? I’m Jo.
Svetlana: And I am Svetlana. Privet.
Jo: In this lesson we're going to learn comparative and superlative forms of Russian adjectives, and we will also listen to Elena shopping for some new gym clothes.
Svetlana: The conversation is between Elena and a sales person and it takes place at a sportswear shop.
Jo: The speakers are strangers, so they’ll be speaking formal Russian.
DIALOGUE
Elena:Здравствуйте, я бы хотела купить спортивный костюм и обувь для спортзала. Не могли бы вы посоветовать что-нибудь.
Shop assistant: Конечно, к нам как раз пришла новая коллекция. какой у вас размер?
Elena: 38
Shop assistant: Вот. Я вам советую присмотреться к этому варианту. Это один из самых известных брэндов спортивной одежды в этом сезоне.
Elena: Отлично. Популярные брэнды мне всегда к лицу.
Elena:Zdravstvuytye, ya by hotela kupit ' sportivnyi kostyum i obuv ' dlya sportzala. Ne mogli by vy posovetovat ' chto-nibud '.
Shop assistant: Konechno, k nam kak raz prishla novaya kollektsiya. kakoy u vas razmer?
Elena: 38
Shop assistant: Vot. Ya vam sovetuyu prismotret 'sya k etomu variantu. Eto odin iz samyh izvestnyh brendov sportivnoy odezhdy v etom sezone.
Elena: Otlichno. Populyarniye brendy mne vsegda k litsu.
Elena: Hello, I would like to buy some sportswear and shoes for the gym. Could you recommend something?
Shop assistant: Certainly, we have just received a new collection of apparel. What size are you?
Elena: 38
Shop assistant: Here you are. I recommend you look at this line. It is one of the most popular brands of sportswear this season.
Elena: Great. Popular brands always suit me.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Jo: Hmm, Elena seems more concerned about the brand than the functionality of the sportswear.
Svetlana: Russian women always want to look good, even at the gym. They even get dressed up for grocery shopping!
Jo: Well, looking good is one thing, but do they really care about the brands?
Svetlana: Definitely. Statistics say that Russia is the most brand-aware country compared to the other BRIC countries of Brazil, India and China.
Jo: Well, being close to Europe has probably also influenced the Russian market.
Svetlana: That’s right. However, local designers like Vyacheslav Zaitsev and Valentin Yudashkin are also quite popular.
Jo: So if I go to Russia I’ll have to wear my best outfits.
Svetlana: (laughs) You might want to. We have a proverb- “По одежке встречают, по уму провожают” which means, “A good dress is an invitation, a good mind is a letter of recommendation.”
Jo: Okay, I guess I’ll have to look my best since “Nice clothing opens all doors”, as you say in Russian!
VOCAB LIST
Jo: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is...
Svetlana: что-нибудь [natural native speed]
Jo: something, anything
Svetlana: что-нибудь [slowly - broken down by syllable] что-нибудь [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: как раз [natural native speed]
Jo: just
Svetlana: как раз [slowly - broken down by syllable] как раз [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: коллекция [natural native speed]
Jo: collection
Svetlana: коллекция [slowly - broken down by syllable] коллекция [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: размер [natural native speed]
Jo: size
Svetlana: размер [slowly - broken down by syllable] размер [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: присмотреться [natural native speed]
Jo: to take a look
Svetlana: присмотреться [slowly - broken down by syllable] присмотреться [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: извеcтный [natural native speed]
Jo: popular
Svetlana: извеcтный [slowly - broken down by syllable] извеcтный [natural native speed]
Jo: Next
Svetlana: брэнд [natural native speed]
Jo: brand
Svetlana: брэнд [slowly - broken down by syllable] брэнд [natural native speed]
Jo: And last...
Svetlana: сезон [natural native speed]
Jo: season
Svetlana: сезон [slowly - broken down by syllable] сезон [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Jo: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Svetlana: The first phrase of this lesson is как раз.
Jo: It is roughly translated as “just”. But if we break this phrase down it will have a completely different meaning.
Svetlana: The word как means “how” and the word раз means “time”. Let’s see the most common translations and uses of this phrase.
Jo: The first one is “just” or “exactly what I need/ mean”, or “want right now”. Use this phrase to share what’s on your mind.
Svetlana: For example, Хорошо, что ты поднял эту тему. Я как раз хотела об этом поговорить.
Jo: “I’m glad you brought it up. It is exactly what I wanted to talk about.”
Svetlana: The second meaning is “being suitable”, used when we are talking about clothing or objects that suit you or the environment.
Это пальто село как раз по фигуре.
Jo: “This coat suits me perfectly.” Okay, what’s the next phrase?
Svetlana: присмотреться
Jo: “to take a closer look”. This verb is derived from the verb “to look at” or “to watch”. How do you say that in Russian?
Svetlana: “смотреть.” But this verb has a specific meaning: “to carefully examine something” or “to look at something very attentively”. For example,
Присмотревшись, он увидел своего друга в толпе.
Jo: “After looking carefully he saw his friend in the crowd”.
Svetlana: This verb is always used with the preposition К and a noun in the dative case. Finally, the last key word for this lesson is к лицу. It’s an adverb which consists of the preposition K and the noun Лицо.
Jo: They mean “to” or “for” and “face”, respectively. So the most precise translation would be “to be suitable”, “to be a good fit”, or “to look good on somebody”. For example,
Svetlana: Ей очень к лицу новая прическа.
Jo: “Her new haircut looks good on her.”
Okay. Let’s move on to the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Jo: The grammar focus for this lesson is comparative forms of Russian adjectives.
Svetlana: Remember how we used it in our dialogue? самый известный брэнд
Jo: Yes, of course. “the most popular brand”. How do we make other comparative forms of Russian adjectives?
Svetlana: It’s very simple. You just need to change the ending -ый, -ая, or -ое to the ending -ee.
For example, красивый - красивее
Jo: 'pretty - prettier'
Svetlana: If the stem ends in -г, -к, -х, they should be replaced by -ж, -ч, -ш. For example, дорогой - дороже
Jo: “expensive - more expensive”
Svetlana: The consonant -г in the word дорогой is changed to -ж, дороже. Another example is громкий - громче
Jo: “loud - louder”
Svetlana: тихий - тише
Jo: “quiet - quieter”
Svetlana: If the stem ends with -ст, we replace it with -щ. For example, простой - проще
Jo: “simple - simpler”
Svetlana: толстый - толще
Jo: “thick - thicker”
Svetlana: Great! But of course Russian grammar has a lot of exceptions. For example, близкий - ближе
Jo: Close -closer
Svetlana: высокий - выше
Jo: “Tall - taller.” For a more complete list check the lesson notes. You will also find more detailed explanations and examples.
Svetlana: If you get confused with all those endings, you can simply use the word более, which means “more”, and leave the adjective as it is. For example,
Этот фильм более популярный чем тот.
Jo: “This movie is more popular than that one.”
Svetlana: It is the same thing as Этот фильм популярнее чем тот. In the first case we used the word более and the adjective in dictionary form - более популярный
Jo: Right, and in the second case we changed the ending.
Svetlana: Right, популярный to популярнее. The opposite of более is менее or “less”. For example, Японская кухня менее калорийная чем индийская.
Jo: “Japanese food is less calorie-heavy” or “has less calories, than Indian food”. Okay, great! But what if we don't want to compare anything, and just want to say that something is the most or the best?
Svetlana: Good question. In this case we need the adjective самый and the adjective we want to emphasize. For example, У него самая высокая зарплата.
Jo: “He has the highest salary.”
Svetlana: The other way to make superlative adjectives is to add -ейший /-айший to the stem.
For example, главн-ый → главн-ейший
Jo: important - the most important’
Svetlana: Let me give you an example sentence.
Величайшие открытия приходятся на 20 век.
Jo: “The greatest discoveries happened in the 20th century.”
Svetlana: And finally let’s give a few exceptions - adjectives that change their stems completely. For example, хороший - лучше
Jo: good-better
Svetlana: плохой - хуже
Jo: bad- worse
MARKETING PIECE
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Jo: Create your own personalized profile and download ALL the lessons with a click of a button.
Svetlana: This is a great way to customize your language learning experience.
Jo: And to focus on mastering Russian!
Svetlana: Go to RussianPod101.com to setup your customized My Feed today!

Outro

Jo: Okay. That’s it for this lesson. See you next time.
Svetlana: Poka poka.

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