Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Gina: Hello everyone and welcome to RussianPod101.com. This is the Upper Beginner Series, Season 1, Lesson 25, Experiencing Some Big Changes in Russia. I’m Gina.
Svetlana: And I’m Svetlana. In this last lesson of the series, you’ll learn about the numeral Оба/Обе in Russian.
Gina: And we’ll also listen to Elena announce some big news.
Svetlana: The conversation is between Elena and her trainer, and it takes place in the gym.
Gina: The speakers aren’t close, so they’ll be speaking formal Russian.
DIALOGUE
Trainer: Ооо, я вижу большие перемены. Вы, оба, превзошли мои ожидания.
Elena: Да, спасибо вам большое за все советы и наставления. Думаю, с нами было не просто работать.
Trainer: Продолжайте в том же духе. Полпути пройдено, но еще есть над чем работать.
Elena: Да, впереди большие перемены. Надеюсь они не помешают моим тренировкам.
Trainer: О каких переменах вы говорите?
Elena: О больших.... Мой муж скоро станет папой.
Trainer: Ooo, ya vizhu bol'shiye peremeny. Vy, oba, prevzoshli moi ozhidaniya.
Elena: Da, spasibo vam bol'shoye za vse sovety i nastavleniya. Dumayu, s nami bylo ne prosto rabotat'.
Trainer: Prodolzhayte v tom zhe dukhe. Polputi proydeno, no yeshche yest' nad chem rabotat'.
Elena: Da, vperedi bol'shiye peremeny. Nadeyus' oni ne pomeshayut moim trenirovkam.
Trainer: O kakih peremenakh vy govorite?
Elena: O bol'shikh.... Moy muzh skoro stanet papoy.
Trainer: Ooh, I can see some really big changes. You both exceeded my expectations.
Elena: Yes, thank you very much for all your advice and suggestions. I think we were difficult to work with.
Trainer: Keep up the good work. You're halfway done, but there is still room to improve.
Elena: Yes, there are going to be a lot of changes in my life. I hope they won't disturb my training.
Trainer: And what changes are you talking about?
Elena: About big ones. My husband will become a father soon.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gina: Wow! That’s a big change?! How exciting!
Svetlana: Yeah, both of them have been through a lot of transformations and it seems like they’re not over.
Gina: Yeah, having a baby is very costly and time consuming!
Svetlana: Exactly. Because of this and other factors, the childbirth rate in Russia is very low.
Gina: Russia has been through difficult times but it’s true, the population of Russia is almost the same as the population of Japan; a bit more than 125 million people.
Svetlana: It has been improving recently. The government is providing financial support to big families, single mothers, and young families.
Gina: I've heard that mothers in Russia receive some money for having a second child.
Svetlana: Yeah, that’s true. They receive 250,000 rubles, which is about eight thousand US dollars.
Gina: Wow. Maybe Elena and her husband should have another baby soon.
Svetlana: Maybe they will.
VOCAB LIST
Gina: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is...
Svetlana: перемена [natural native speed]
Gina: change
Svetlana: перемена [slowly - broken down by syllable] перемена [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: превзойти [natural native speed]
Gina: to exceed
Svetlana: превзойти [slowly - broken down by syllable] превзойти [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: ожидание [natural native speed]
Gina: expectation, anticipation
Svetlana: ожидание [slowly - broken down by syllable] ожидание [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: наставление [natural native speed]
Gina: direction, instruction
Svetlana: наставление [slowly - broken down by syllable] наставление [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: продолжать [natural native speed]
Gina: to continue
Svetlana: продолжать [slowly - broken down by syllable] продолжать [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: впередиa [natural native speed]
Gina: head
Svetlana: впередиa [slowly - broken down by syllable] впередиa [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Svetlana: муж [natural native speed]
Gina: husband
Svetlana: муж [slowly - broken down by syllable] муж [natural native speed]
Gina: And last...
Svetlana: скоро [natural native speed]
Gina: soon
Svetlana: скоро [slowly - broken down by syllable] скоро [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gina: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Svetlana: The first keyword is the noun перемена.
Gina: “a change”
Svetlana: This noun consists of the prefix пере - and the stem мен-. Both stem and prefix mean “change”. Let me give you an example with the prefix пере. одеть - переодеть
Gina: “to put on” or “to change”, usually clothes.
And, Svetlana, can you give us an example with our keyword?
Svetlana: Yes. После того как появятся дети, в жизне будут большие перемены.
Gina: “There’ll be a lot of changes in your life when kids are born.” Okay, let's move on to our next word.
Svetlana: The next key word for this lesson is the verb превзойти.
Gina: “to exceed”. It’s a perfective verb that has many uses, but in all cases it’ll mean “to outdo something”, “to outpass something”, or “to beat somebody”. For example,
Svetlana: Экономика страны в этом году превзошла ожидаемые прогнозы.
Gina: “This country’s economy exceeded the forecasted expectations.”Okay and what’s our last key word for this lesson?
Svetlana: Lastly, we have the key phrase Продолжайте в том же духе.
Gina: “Keep up the good work.”
It’s an expression, and in most cases it’ll be used this way. Let’s break it down to understand the meaning of each word.
Svetlana: The verb продолжайте is a formal way to say “continue”. The preposition B means “in”. The demonstrative pronoun том is the modified pronoun то, which means “that”. We have already covered it in a previous lesson. The particle же adds “similarity” to the meaning. And finally, the noun духе, which literally means “soul” or “spirit”. The nominative form of this noun is дух. So literally, this phrase can be translated as “continue in the same spirit”.
Gina: Svetlana, you said that the verb was used in polite form? What if I want to use this phrase casually with my friends?
Svetlana: Very good question. You simply change the verb продолжайте to продолжай. Say, Продолжай в том же духе
Gina: “Keep up the good work.” Great! Thank you! Now let’s move onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Svetlana: In this lesson, we’re going to learn about the numeral Оба for masculine nouns and Обе for feminine nouns.
Gina: They’re translated into English as “both”. It’s used only with masculine or feminine nouns, both animate and inanimate, to indicate two objects.
Svetlana: First, let’s look an example of a masculine, inanimate noun. Оба варианта решения этой задачи оказались правильными.
Gina: “Both answers to this problem turned out to be correct.”
Svetlana: The noun вариант is the masculine, inanimate noun.
Gina: Now, here’s an example of a masculine, animate noun.
Svetlana: В этой семье два сына, и оба похожи на отца.
Gina: “There are two sons in this family and they both look like their father.” Okay, how about feminine, inanimate nouns?
Svetlana: Here we go-
Ей понравились обе картины в этой галерее.
Gina: “She liked both pictures in this gallery.”
And lastly, a feminine, animate noun-
Svetlana: Обе подруги были рады услышать, что я выхожу замуж.
Gina: “Both girlfriends were happy to hear that I was getting married.”
As you can see, our keywords change according to the nouns they are used with.
Svetlana: Right. Although the words Оба / Обе are numerals, they should be modified according to the grammatical case of the noun.
Gina: To see the modification, take a look at the table with grammar case modifications in the lesson notes.
Svetlana: Let me give you more examples.
Обоим участникам вручили серебрянную медаль.
Gina: “Both participants got silver medals.”
Svetlana: Do you see? The noun участникикам, or “participants”, is in plural form and in the dative case, so the numeral Обоим is also put in the dative case and plural form.
Gina: And here’s another thing to be aware of. When we use our collective numerals with masculine and feminine nouns at the same time, the numeral for the masculine nouns should be used. For example,
Svetlana: Муж и жена работают в одной компании, и они оба постоянно опаздывают.
Gina: “The husband and wife are working at the same company, and both of them are always late.” There are also nouns in Russian that have only a plural form.
Svetlana: Yes, for example ножницы
Gina: “scissors”
Svetlana: ворота
Gina: “gate”
Svetlana: брюки
Gina: “trousers”
Svetlana: часы
Gina: “clock”
Svetlana: Our collective numerals cannot be used with those nouns. So you can’t say
обе брюки
Gina: “both trousers”
Svetlana: Right. But in Russian you should say
обе пары брюк
Gina: “both pairs of trousers”. So you add another noun to make a phrase.
Svetlana: And the last thing I want to bring to your attention is that the collective numerals Оба/Обе can refer only to one noun. For example, Я хочу купить оба торта.
Gina: “I want to buy both cakes”. Here the collective numeral refers to the one noun, “cake”.
Svetlana: Right. But you cannot say, Я хочу купить оба торт и конфеты.
Gina: “I want to buy both cake and candies.”
Svetlana: Unlike in English, the numeral оба cannot refer to both “candies” and “cake”. Instead, you have to say Я хочу купить и торт и конфеты.
Gina: “I want to buy cake and candies.” Okay, I think I understand how it works. Listeners, we’ve come to the end of this lesson and the entire Upper Beginner Series, Season 1. Good work!
Svetlana: We really hope that it was interesting and informative for you.
Gina: Go ahead and check the lesson notes for this lesson for more examples and explanations.

Outro

Gina: Okay. Thanks for joining us, everyone, and we’ll see you in another series at RussianPod101.com!
Svetlana: Yes, thank you for listening to this series! Пока пока.
Gina: Bye!

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