March 04, 2019

Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 4

36 minutes

Full Episode Audio

Exercises Only Audio

Download Full Episode (right click save-as)

Download Exercises

NOTE *

All

phrases intended for translating/listening practice have been

deleted.

Welcome

to Episode #4 of Understanding Spoken Russian. Let’s jump right to

our new word for today. мой

We’ve

heard versions of it in prior episodes, but today we’ll officially

add it to our core vocabulary. Let’s look at it in context. If Sophia

is eating popcorn, and you try to take it away from her, she’ll

scream…

William is playing with his toy cars, just try taking one away from

him!

And

if Andrei, our five yr old, is drinking milk…well, don’t take it

from him, either. Or else…

the words мой

моя моё…they’re

all forms of the same word…and

they all translate as My.

Imagine

Sophia has lost two of her toys. Her… динозаврик

which is a “little dinosaur,” and her игрушка

which is a toy. As she

wanders the apartment looking for them, what do you think she’s

saying?

–

– –

maybe she’s lost some clothing. Her wool свитер

and her short-sleeved футболка.

Listen

to those again. What are the genders?

Okay,

so… what’s Sophia saying here?

–

– –

Russian, the words for “my” and “your”—like,

this is my salad, and that’s your salad—they’re

adjectives. And because they’re adjectives, they, too, have to rhyme

or “agree” with the noun.

Granted,

the masculine МОЙ doesn’t really rhyme

with the nouns динозаврик свитер

грейпфрут,

but

the other forms rhyme. Even

the plural.

So,

we got МОЙ…Let’s

see if we can guess what this

word means: ТВОЙ

Imagine

William is sitting in front of a mound of toys and is sorting them

into two piles as Sophia watches. Let’s stand in the doorway and

listen…

–

– –

So,

what do you think твой and твоя

mean? They’re forms of “your.” And notice how мой

rhymes with твой…just as моя

rhymes with твоя and моё

with твоё

Anyway,

now Sophia will go through the two piles and confirm whose toy is

whose. This time, try to translate what she says. And if you’re not

sure what the toy is, just say something like:

“And

this is your…masculine noun.” Ready?

–

– –

Although

they have a lot of forms, these adjectives for my and

your are so

common, you won’t need to actively study them. They’ll sink in

naturally with lots of exposure.

So,

how would you translate the following two phrases…

–

– –

Easy

enough, right? Now brace yourself. Here comes a massive grammar

point. Listen to this…

(monster

movie scream) Now wait a second! I was positive that the word for

guitar was гитара.

Alexei,

can you please say: This is my guitar.

Это

моя гитара.

And

I’m positive the word for car is just машина.

Alex, how do you say: Is this your car?

Это

твоя машина?

what’s going on here? Well, as we already know, the ends of Russian

words change depending on how they’re used. We know that from the

very first lesson. Take the word парк (a

park).

you’re headed towards it, it keeps its basic form. Я

иду в парк. But if you’re located in the park, it has

to change its ending: Я сейчас в парке.

Well,

in Russian, whenever you do something to a feminine noun, its “ah”

ending changes to an “u” sound. I don’t normally request

this, but would you mind repeating that point with me?

Russian, whenever you do something to a feminine noun, its ‘a’ ending

changes to an ‘u’ sound.

Listen

as the speaker says: Anton bought a car.

Buying

something counts as ‘doing something’ to the car, and so it had to

change its ending. Or this..

Galina

bought a guitar.

Again,

гитар has to change to гитару.

And if you add “my” in there—Anton bought my car—the

word моя has to change to rhyme with

машину. Listen…Anton bought my

car.

this: Galina bought my guitar.

fact, all the adjectives that describe the object would

change. And they’d all rhyme.

Here.

Listen….A “biblioteka” (библиотека)

is a library. Think of the word bibliography, right?

she’ll say: This is our new, big, beautiful library.

And

now she’ll say: In the center I saw a new, big,

beautiful library.

Did

you hear all those feminine adjectives rhyming with библиотеку?

новую,

большую, красивую

what else counts as “doing something” to a word? Taking

it, putting it, seeing it, eating it, opening or closing it, throwing

or catching it…the list goes on.

Hey

Alex, did you see the library? Listen to his response…

says Библиотека at first, because

he’s just naming the place. But when he says that he saw

it, “seeing something” counts as doing something to it. And

so it changes to “biblioteku” (Библиотеку)

This

happens even to a person’s name. “Hey Alex, did you see Galina?”

Listen to his response…

in our next exercise, all I want you to say is whether there’s a

feminine noun that’s being acted upon in the phrase. You can tell by

hearing the “u” sounding adjectives. Ready?

–

– –

today’s tip, I’d like to talk about an interesting parallel between

learning to play a musical instrument, and learning to speak a

foreign language. I have a lot of experience there, because—

before I developed this passion for the Russian language—I taught

guitar professionally for years.

And

from time to time I’d get a new student who wanted to learn to play a

style of music that they’d barely listened to. “My Dad says I

should learn classic rock,” the student would say.

“Ok…”

I pick up my guitar. “So, what are some of your favorite classic

rock groups? Led Zeppelin? (Whole Lotta Love) AC/DC? (Highway to

Hell) Boston? (Peace of Mind)

And

the guy shrugs. “I never really listened to classic rock.”

Hmm.

Ok. So, I’d give him homework: “Take some time—just for a

little while—to listen to the style. Put your guitar away. Dont try

to play any of it. Just listen and get a feel for the phrasing, the

chord progressions, the keys and time signatures.”

the next lesson, we’d sit and I’d point out those things. “This

is a pentatonic scale, which is the backbone of classic rock riffs.

And this is call and response (demo) which is a fundamental part of

how solos were constructed.” And so on. Those stylistic elements

of rock music—of any style of music—are analogous to the

vocabulary, the grammar and syntax of a language. Once you’ve heard

them and are aware of them, it makes learning to play the style so

much easier.

After

a few listening sessions, I’d put on a tune…say, the solo from Good

Times Bad Times, and now he can hear it. “Oh, that’s just a

pentatonic lick, right? Descending in triplets?” And bingo—now

that he understands what he’s hearing, he can very quickly

express it himself on the instrument. He’ll need to practice it,

obviously, to get fluent, but it’s no longer foreign to him. It makes

sense.

Similarly,

as you progress through these lessons, you’ll be hearing things with

confidence. “Oh, that’s just the feminine ‘doing something’

rule, right?” And like my guitar student, once you understand

what you’re hearing, you’ll be able to quickly express similar

concepts. Yes, you’ll need to practice to become fluent, but the

grammar and syntax of Russian will no longer be foreign to you. The

changing word endings won’t surprise you….you’ll expect them. Even

predict them.

That’s

when learning to speak Russian becomes easy.

Speaking

of predicting, that’s what I’d like you to do in this next exercise.

First the native speaker will say a word in its basic, dictionary

form. Then, they’ll say a phrase that has that same word at the very

end of it. I’ll hit pause just before

that word, and you need

to say just the ending of the word. For ex: It’s going to end with an

“u” sound.

And

you know why. Because buying something counts as doing something to

it. Ready?

–

– –

interesting sidenote: In English, when we talk about playing a

musical instrument, sometimes we use the word “on” and

sometimes we don’t. It depends, of course, on context. For ex: I play

guitar. We don’t say “on”. But in a different context, I

might say…”Oh, I played that solo on my Stratocaster.”

Or, when introducing the members of your band…”On drums we

have John Bonham. And on bass guitar, we have John Paul Jones.”

Russian, the idea of playing an instrument is always “on”…and

so it takes that locational “yeh” ending. Listen…Mark is

now playing guitar. ..or…Charlie Parker played the saxophone.

Russian we always play “on” an instrument. And yet….we

play “towards” sports. And

here’s why I believe Russian does this. When you play a musical

instrument, you’re more or less sitting still. You’re in one

location. Hence, the “yeh” ending. But in sports,

you’re always moving somewhere. And movement towards something, we

don’t add that “yeh” sound. Right? Я

иду в парк. I’m going to the park. No “yeh”

sound.

–

– –

Imagine

you’re showing someone photos of your family. I know I never ask you

guys to say anything, but this is to quickly review our new words

from today. So, as you point to a family photo, tell your Russian

friend: My mom. My Dad.

You

see a photo on their wall. Point and ask: Your mom? Your dad?

Alright…onto

our exam for the day. Can you translate the gist of these phrases?

And if you don’t know what a word is, just try your best anyway.

Alright…see

you in Episode 5!

...more

View all episodes

By Understanding Spoken Russian

4.9

4242 ratings

March 04, 2019

Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 4

36 minutes

Full Episode Audio

Exercises Only Audio

Download Full Episode (right click save-as)

Download Exercises

NOTE *

All

phrases intended for translating/listening practice have been

deleted.

Welcome

to Episode #4 of Understanding Spoken Russian. Let’s jump right to

our new word for today. мой

We’ve

heard versions of it in prior episodes, but today we’ll officially

add it to our core vocabulary. Let’s look at it in context. If Sophia

is eating popcorn, and you try to take it away from her, she’ll

scream…

William is playing with his toy cars, just try taking one away from

him!

And

if Andrei, our five yr old, is drinking milk…well, don’t take it

from him, either. Or else…

the words мой

моя моё…they’re

all forms of the same word…and

they all translate as My.

Imagine

Sophia has lost two of her toys. Her… динозаврик

which is a “little dinosaur,” and her игрушка

which is a toy. As she

wanders the apartment looking for them, what do you think she’s

saying?

–

– –

maybe she’s lost some clothing. Her wool свитер

and her short-sleeved футболка.

Listen

to those again. What are the genders?

Okay,

so… what’s Sophia saying here?

–

– –

Russian, the words for “my” and “your”—like,

this is my salad, and that’s your salad—they’re

adjectives. And because they’re adjectives, they, too, have to rhyme

or “agree” with the noun.

Granted,

the masculine МОЙ doesn’t really rhyme

with the nouns динозаврик свитер

грейпфрут,

but

the other forms rhyme. Even

the plural.

So,

we got МОЙ…Let’s

see if we can guess what this

word means: ТВОЙ

Imagine

William is sitting in front of a mound of toys and is sorting them

into two piles as Sophia watches. Let’s stand in the doorway and

listen…

–

– –

So,

what do you think твой and твоя

mean? They’re forms of “your.” And notice how мой

rhymes with твой…just as моя

rhymes with твоя and моё

with твоё

Anyway,

now Sophia will go through the two piles and confirm whose toy is

whose. This time, try to translate what she says. And if you’re not

sure what the toy is, just say something like:

“And

this is your…masculine noun.” Ready?

–

– –

Although

they have a lot of forms, these adjectives for my and

your are so

common, you won’t need to actively study them. They’ll sink in

naturally with lots of exposure.

So,

how would you translate the following two phrases…

–

– –

Easy

enough, right? Now brace yourself. Here comes a massive grammar

point. Listen to this…

(monster

movie scream) Now wait a second! I was positive that the word for

guitar was гитара.

Alexei,

can you please say: This is my guitar.

Это

моя гитара.

And

I’m positive the word for car is just машина.

Alex, how do you say: Is this your car?

Это

твоя машина?

what’s going on here? Well, as we already know, the ends of Russian

words change depending on how they’re used. We know that from the

very first lesson. Take the word парк (a

park).

you’re headed towards it, it keeps its basic form. Я

иду в парк. But if you’re located in the park, it has

to change its ending: Я сейчас в парке.

Well,

in Russian, whenever you do something to a feminine noun, its “ah”

ending changes to an “u” sound. I don’t normally request

this, but would you mind repeating that point with me?

Russian, whenever you do something to a feminine noun, its ‘a’ ending

changes to an ‘u’ sound.

Listen

as the speaker says: Anton bought a car.

Buying

something counts as ‘doing something’ to the car, and so it had to

change its ending. Or this..

Galina

bought a guitar.

Again,

гитар has to change to гитару.

And if you add “my” in there—Anton bought my car—the

word моя has to change to rhyme with

машину. Listen…Anton bought my

car.

this: Galina bought my guitar.

fact, all the adjectives that describe the object would

change. And they’d all rhyme.

Here.

Listen….A “biblioteka” (библиотека)

is a library. Think of the word bibliography, right?

she’ll say: This is our new, big, beautiful library.

And

now she’ll say: In the center I saw a new, big,

beautiful library.

Did

you hear all those feminine adjectives rhyming with библиотеку?

новую,

большую, красивую

what else counts as “doing something” to a word? Taking

it, putting it, seeing it, eating it, opening or closing it, throwing

or catching it…the list goes on.

Hey

Alex, did you see the library? Listen to his response…

says Библиотека at first, because

he’s just naming the place. But when he says that he saw

it, “seeing something” counts as doing something to it. And

so it changes to “biblioteku” (Библиотеку)

This

happens even to a person’s name. “Hey Alex, did you see Galina?”

Listen to his response…

in our next exercise, all I want you to say is whether there’s a

feminine noun that’s being acted upon in the phrase. You can tell by

hearing the “u” sounding adjectives. Ready?

–

– –

today’s tip, I’d like to talk about an interesting parallel between

learning to play a musical instrument, and learning to speak a

foreign language. I have a lot of experience there, because—

before I developed this passion for the Russian language—I taught

guitar professionally for years.

And

from time to time I’d get a new student who wanted to learn to play a

style of music that they’d barely listened to. “My Dad says I

should learn classic rock,” the student would say.

“Ok…”

I pick up my guitar. “So, what are some of your favorite classic

rock groups? Led Zeppelin? (Whole Lotta Love) AC/DC? (Highway to

Hell) Boston? (Peace of Mind)

And

the guy shrugs. “I never really listened to classic rock.”

Hmm.

Ok. So, I’d give him homework: “Take some time—just for a

little while—to listen to the style. Put your guitar away. Dont try

to play any of it. Just listen and get a feel for the phrasing, the

chord progressions, the keys and time signatures.”

the next lesson, we’d sit and I’d point out those things. “This

is a pentatonic scale, which is the backbone of classic rock riffs.

And this is call and response (demo) which is a fundamental part of

how solos were constructed.” And so on. Those stylistic elements

of rock music—of any style of music—are analogous to the

vocabulary, the grammar and syntax of a language. Once you’ve heard

them and are aware of them, it makes learning to play the style so

much easier.

After

a few listening sessions, I’d put on a tune…say, the solo from Good

Times Bad Times, and now he can hear it. “Oh, that’s just a

pentatonic lick, right? Descending in triplets?” And bingo—now

that he understands what he’s hearing, he can very quickly

express it himself on the instrument. He’ll need to practice it,

obviously, to get fluent, but it’s no longer foreign to him. It makes

sense.

Similarly,

as you progress through these lessons, you’ll be hearing things with

confidence. “Oh, that’s just the feminine ‘doing something’

rule, right?” And like my guitar student, once you understand

what you’re hearing, you’ll be able to quickly express similar

concepts. Yes, you’ll need to practice to become fluent, but the

grammar and syntax of Russian will no longer be foreign to you. The

changing word endings won’t surprise you….you’ll expect them. Even

predict them.

That’s

when learning to speak Russian becomes easy.

Speaking

of predicting, that’s what I’d like you to do in this next exercise.

First the native speaker will say a word in its basic, dictionary

form. Then, they’ll say a phrase that has that same word at the very

end of it. I’ll hit pause just before

that word, and you need

to say just the ending of the word. For ex: It’s going to end with an

“u” sound.

And

you know why. Because buying something counts as doing something to

it. Ready?

–

– –

interesting sidenote: In English, when we talk about playing a

musical instrument, sometimes we use the word “on” and

sometimes we don’t. It depends, of course, on context. For ex: I play

guitar. We don’t say “on”. But in a different context, I

might say…”Oh, I played that solo on my Stratocaster.”

Or, when introducing the members of your band…”On drums we

have John Bonham. And on bass guitar, we have John Paul Jones.”

Russian, the idea of playing an instrument is always “on”…and

so it takes that locational “yeh” ending. Listen…Mark is

now playing guitar. ..or…Charlie Parker played the saxophone.

Russian we always play “on” an instrument. And yet….we

play “towards” sports. And

here’s why I believe Russian does this. When you play a musical

instrument, you’re more or less sitting still. You’re in one

location. Hence, the “yeh” ending. But in sports,

you’re always moving somewhere. And movement towards something, we

don’t add that “yeh” sound. Right? Я

иду в парк. I’m going to the park. No “yeh”

sound.

–

– –

Imagine

you’re showing someone photos of your family. I know I never ask you

guys to say anything, but this is to quickly review our new words

from today. So, as you point to a family photo, tell your Russian

friend: My mom. My Dad.

You

see a photo on their wall. Point and ask: Your mom? Your dad?

Alright…onto

our exam for the day. Can you translate the gist of these phrases?

And if you don’t know what a word is, just try your best anyway.

Alright…see

you in Episode 5!

...more

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Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 4

Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 4

More shows like Understanding Spoken Russian

Speaking Russian

Learn Russian | RussianPod101.com

Very Much Russian - Learn Russian as Russians speak it!

Slow Russian

Russian Made Easy: Learn Russian Quickly and Easily

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Что это было?

Learn Russian! Russian with Sasha

Learn Russian with Dasha

Russian podcast for beginners!

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Russian you can understand💡

Easy Russian: Learn Russian with native speakers | Учим русский с носителями языка