Learn about comparative degrees of Russia adjectives
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| 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 |
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Outro |
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| Jo: Okay. That’s it for this lesson. See you next time. |
| Svetlana: Poka poka. |
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