Learn Russian: Russian Made Easy 2
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Episode #2 – Russian Made Easy
Welcome to this second podcast of Russian Made Easy. Let’s start by reviewing what we learned in the first podcast. Although we learned eleven new words — which is a lot — eight of them were cognates, so it was still a manageable amount of new words.
Anyway, imagine you’re in Moscow with some friends of yours who don’t know any Russian. After each Russian phrase you hear, please say the English translation out loud. Ready?
Мама – доктор.
Mom is a doctor.
[NOTE: As I mentioned in the transcript of Podcast 1, I’ve chosen to not sound out the Russian words in this transcript using English letters. So be sure to read along with the audio of the podcast. And if you’d like to be able to read Russian — and I promise you, it can be learned in just a few days — I’ll include a link at the bottom of this transcript to my course on reading Russian.]
Папа – бизнесмен.
Dad is a businessman.
Он – инженер.
He is an engineer.
Я – музыкант.
I’m a musician.
Наташа – студентка?
Is Natasha a student?
Николай – студент?
Is Nikolai a student?
So, how did you do? If you got all of those, you should feel really good about yourself. If you had trouble, then it’s probably a good idea to listen to the first podcast again, taking written notes as you go. Although, don’t worry too much. These podcasts are cumulative, so you’ll get more practice and exposure to all the words we learn.
Anyway, here’s our first new word for today. Please repeat after the native speaker:
Это
One more time:
это
Can you figure out the meaning? Imagine you’re in Moscow with your friends, John and Sandy. A Russian person has asked you who your friends are, so you point to John and say:
Это Джон.
Then you point to Sandy and say:
Это Сэнди.
Or imagine that a Russian acquaintance is looking at a photo of your parents. You point to your Dad and say:
Это папа.
Then you point to your mom and say…
…hmm, can you guess?
That’s right:
Это мама.
So, how would you translate ЭТО?
In this context, eto translates as “This is”
Pretend your Russian friend is looking at a baby photo of you. Of course, she can’t tell who it is, so you point to the photo and say:
Это я.
In English we’d say: This is me. But in Russian they phrase it literally:
This is…I.
Listen again:
Это я.
And that brings up an extremely important point:
V.O. And now, here’s your Tip of the Day from Russian Made Easy…
You need to know both the normal English version and the super-literal version for each phrase you learn. This is what I was referring to at the end of the first podcast: The biggest mistake that virtually all language students make is they don’t learn the super-literal translation of things…what we call the SLT. As you’ll see throughout these podcasts, I’ll always point out the SLT. This is a great shortcut to actually thinking in Russian.
OK, next…
Imagine you’re having dinner at your Russian friend’s house. Uncle Vadim plunks down a shotglass in front of you and fills it with a clear liquid, telling you:
Это водка.
What do you think he said? Listen again:
Это водка.
He said: This is vodka.
So the word vodka is a cognate. We say vodka, but in Russian it has a full “oh” sound:
водка
Listen again and repeat after our native speaker:
водка
You’re still at this Russian dinner, when grandma serves you a bowl of red soup, saying:
Это борщ.
Listen again:
Это борщ.
She said…This is borscht.
That last sound in that word is a sh-ch sound. Like, “fish chips”…shh-ch…
Repeat after the speaker:
борщ
If you’ve never had it, by the way, borscht is a delicious soup made with cabbage, beets, potatoes and a bit of pork.
Now let’s re-do this dinner scenario, except this time let’s ask about the food or drink. So, ask Uncle Vadim: This is vodka?
Это водка?
He nods his head,
Да, это водка.
Ask grandma: This is borscht?
Это борщ?
She smiles and nods:
Да, это борщ.
ДА as you probably guessed, is the Russian word for YES.
Of course, in normal English we’re more likely to phrase those questions by saying, “IS this” instead of the literal “This is”, right? We’d ask:
Is this vodka? That’s the normal English version. But they phrase it literally:
This is vodka?
ЭТО is such a useful word, we need to work with it some more. So pretend you’re showing your Russian friend some photos of your trip to Russia. She points to one photo and asks:
Это Сэнди?
Tell her:
Yes, this is Sandy.
Да, это Сэнди.
She points to another:
Это Джон?
Tell her: Yes, this is John.
Да, это Джон.
Imagine you’re showing her a family photo, now, and say the following phrases in Russian:
This is Dad. He is an engineer.
Это папа. Он – инженер.
This is mom. She is a doctor.
Это мама. Она – доктор.
This is Jeff. He is a musician.
Это Джэф. Он – музыкант.
This is Steve. He is a student.
Это Стив. Он – студент.
This is Tanya. She is a student.
Это Таня. Она – студентка.
Let’s add two new Russian words now. Repeat after the speaker:
мой….моя
One more time: мой….моя
As always, let’s try to figure out the meaning from context.
Imagine that the Russian dinner you’re attending has turned into a party. Lots of people are coming and going, putting their drinks down here, and their food down over there, and so on. You walk up to the table and pick up what you thought was your bowl of borscht, but some woman says…
Эй, это мой борщ!
Whoa! You put the woman’s soup down and back away apologetically. A bit later, you pick up the shotglass of vodka that you’re certain is yours. And yet, a guy turns and says:
Эй, это моя водка!
Again, you put his shotglass down and wander off in search of yours.
So, how would you translate these?
это мой борщ translates as, “This is my borscht.”
And это моя водка! translates as “This is my vodka.”
As we see, Russian has two different ways to say “my.” And actually, it has many, MANY more ways to say “my.” But first things first. Let’s see if we can figure out when to use мой and when to use моя.
In fact, I realize you have little or no experience with Russian grammar, and yet — just for fun — I wonder if you can guess which to use. In three words, how might you say:
He is my doctor.
Он мой доктор.
And how about: She is my student.
Она моя студентка.
Whether you got those right or wrong, we’ll come back and look at them in a minute. But I want to continue for just a moment by giving you two new, easy cognates. The Russian word for pizza is:
пицца
And the Russian word for soup is…
суп
Say them out loud:
пицца
суп
Now, just by guessing, how do you think you’d say:
This is my soup.
Это мой суп.
How about:
This is my pizza.
Это моя пицца.
I bet you’re catching on to a pattern here. Let’s try some more, to make sure you’re getting it. Say just…
My vodka.
Моя водка.
My pizza.
Моя пицца.
My borscht.
Мой борщ.
My soup.
Мой суп.
My male student.
Мой студент.
My female student.
Моя студентка.
In your own words, how would you describe the pattern here? Hit pause and think about it for a moment.
OK, so…If a word ends in an “ah” sound — like пиццА студентКА and водКА — it needs “моя.” Otherwise we use “мой”.
This is where so many Russian courses go wrong. They burden students right off the bat with the intimidating grammar terms for this. They make students memorize stuff like “nominative case” and “adjective noun agreement” and “declension paradigms” as if that’s how we actually learn grammar. Well it’s not.
The superior method for teaching grammar is to simply let the student discover the patterns. And in Russian, it’s particularly easy because — as you’ll see throughout these podcasts — Russian grammar is based on rhyming. Listen again…I’ll exaggerate the endings of the words:
моя пицца
моя водка
And how about…
она моя студентка
I’ll say it again, because this is a fundamental point: Russian grammar is based on rhyming. These words that end in an “ah” sound: пицца…водка…студентка and so on, are called feminine.
All the others are considered masculine. Now, admittedly, the masculine pairs weren’t really rhyming. I mean, суп doesn’t rhyme with мой. Neither does студент or доктор and so on. But masculine words WILL rhyme in many other situations. It depends on the phrase. Just know that there is a ton of rhyming in Russian, and I’ll be pointing it out as we go.
There is one exception to this pattern, though. Listen to our native speaker say: This is my Dad.
Это мой папа.
Это мой папа. Hmm….ПАПА ends in an “ah” sound, so why didn’t we say “моя”? Well, simply put, papa is masculine. Isn’t it? I mean, your Papa is a man. It doesn’t get more masculine than that. So, despite the “ah” sound at the end of papa, it’s still treated as a masculine word. That’s why it gets мой.
One last pair of new words, to wrap this all up today. Repeat after the speaker:
твой
твоя
One more time…
твой
твоя
Let’s try to get them from context. To do so, let’s go back one more time to that Russian dinner party we were at. You remember how you were picking up other people’s soup and vodka, thinking they were yours? Well, the host has noticed that and approaches with a bowl of borscht. She hands it to you, saying:
Это твой борщ.
She then hands you a shotglass…
Это твоя водка.
So, how would you translate these?
это твой борщ translates as, “This is your borscht.”
And это твоя водка! translates as “This is your vodka.”
So, твой and твоя are two forms of the word “your”. It’s an informal version that we use with friends and family members. We’ll learn the formal version in a future podcast.
Anyway, hand your friend a slice of pizza and tell him:
This is your pizza.
Это твоя пицца.
Hand someone their soup and say:
This is your soup.
Это твой суп.
Did you get those? We used твоя because it needs to rhyme with пицца
But we used the masculine form, твой with the word суп.
твоя пицца
твой суп
Imagine you’re at the party, talking with one of your friends who is a teacher. Pointing to a kid across the room, ask her:
Is he your student?
We’ll phrase it literally just: He your student?
Он твой студент?
Point to a girl and ask:
Is she your student?
Она твоя студентка?
Then you notice what seems to be a family photo on your friend’s desk. Point to the woman in the photo and ask:
Is this your mom?
Это твоя мама?
Now point to the man in the picture:
Ask: Is this your dad?
Это твой папа?
How will she answer:
Yes, this is my mom.
Да, это моя мама.
Yes, this is my dad.
Да, это мой папа.
Did you remember to use the masculine forms — твой and мой — for the word папа? Good!
Alright, here’s your final exam for this podcast. Try saying the following phrases in Russian. And please say them out loud…
Is this my soup?
Это мой суп?
Yes, this is your borscht.
Да, это твой борщ.
Is this my pizza?
Это моя пицца?
Yes, this is your pizza.
Да, это твоя пицца.
Is he your doctor?
Он твой доктор?
Yes, he is my doctor.
Да, он мой доктор.
Is she your mom?
Она твоя мама?
Yes, this is my mom.
Да, это моя мама.
This is my dad. He is an engineer.
Это мой папа. Он – инженер.
I bet you did great with those, so treat yourself to a slice of pizza today. And as you eat it, tell yourself, Это моя пицца.
In the next episode, along with teaching you some cool new phrases, I’m going to clear up a myth that people seem to believe in about Russian pronunciation. And in the meantime, as I mentioned at the end of the last episode, I’ve made a short, practice version of this podcast. It has just the exercises, without the explanations. So head over to RussianMadeEasy.com to grab a copy of those, and download the transcript to this podcast, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
CLICK HERE to learn to read Russian quickly and easily
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Please comment or share with one of the buttons below. Your support helps keep the ball rolling!
Hi Mark!
Your website is great. I like all the verbal practice that you have us do. I’ve been learning Russian from 2 other websites (dotty-dingo and russianforfree). I’ve learned a lot from the other websites, but felt like I needed to try a different approach. My 8 year old daughter and I just started this website this week. She’s much more receptive to your method than trying to learn about the Russian Cases! You’re absolutely right about learning to speak right away first, and then learn the grammar AFTER.
My goal is to eventually become fluent in Russian, to the point of possibly getting some kind of interpreter job or something. If it happens, great. If not, I’ll still be fluent in Russian, which is awesome on its own terms.
Well, on to your lesson 3. Talk to you again soon.
Thanks sooo much,
David R
Hi David!
Thanks for your kind words about my podcast. So glad both you and your daughter are enjoying it.
Hopefully, after you’ve finished all 30 episodes, you’llconsider taking my online course, ‘Russian Accelerator.’ (I try to not plug it *too* much during the podcasts. 🙂 )
Anyway, keep up the great work…both of you!
I absolutely love your podcasts and exercises! I find your content really educational and useful and I really appreciate it! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Mark! You are doing an excellent job! I’m a native greek speaker and I speak also English and Italian. I tried a few times to have a glimpse into Russian and it was so difficult following the classical textbooks ways.. Learn the alphabet, the handwritting, learn this, learn that and remember nothing..
Your method is great and reminds me how I started speaking Italian gradually when I lived there for a long period. This is how humans learn how to speak and this is how foreign languages should be tought..
Congratulations, I will be a very frequent visitor and fan of your website!
Spasibo, Christos! I’ve been to Greece a few times (Crete, then Corfu) and have always been impressed by how — at least those in the tourism businesses — always seemed to speak both English *and* Russian. (Which was smart, given how many Russians travel to Greece.) Anyway, I’m sure you’ll do great in the language. And I hope to see you in my Russian Accelerator video course!
You can learn more about it here…
http://russianaccelerator.com/why-it-works
Thanks again,
Mark
Hello Mark I’m so happy to find this website, I start with Russian today and I hope I will stay to the end, thank you very much 🙂
I hope you’ll stick through to the end as well. Please let me know how you do on the mid-term and finals of the podcast!
Mark
Hi Mark! Thanks so much for an engaging way to learn a new language. Somewhere, you say Russian is one of the 3 hardest languages to learn and I was surprised to see that! This course makes it seem–well–easy!
I have a trip to Russia in about a month and want to learn as much Russian as I can beforehand. I listened to half the podcasts a year ago and am re-starting them now. You mention Russian Accelerator a lot and I was wondering what your thoughts were on how to use your language material. Should I skip the podcasts and go straight to the Accelerator course or do the podcasts first (2 per day) and then Accelerator?
Thanks again!
Dear Mark,
20 years ago I learnt Japanese one of the tough language in a Japanese University in a very complex way. They are of course well programmed for 6 full months. But your way of teaching is very practical. I just started yesterday and I find it very interesting & down to earth way of learning.
Chinnnappan Mani UAE
Great lessons! One question. As a newbie how do I find out the SLT of a sentence? Are there particular books/ online resources that will help me look these up?
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for writing. Glad you’re enjoying my Russian Made Easy podcasts.
Throughout those lessons I’ll always give the SLT, but I’m able to give more detailed SLTs in my online video course called Russian Accelerator. (I try not to plug it too much during the podcasts. 🙂
I hope you’ll check it out. We’ll turn you into a confident, conversational Russian speaker!
You can learn more about it here…
http://russianaccelerator.com/why-it-works
Thanks again for your kind words of support.
Cheers from Ukraine,
Hi there, I have found your course about two weeks ago. I find it very useful. Most of my practice is during driving a car. I am listening to the material every day and I think I catch it:)My native language is polish, so I think it is a little bit easier to learn the pronunciation. Thak you very much, because I have just started my adventure with this language. All the best Mark. Greetings from Wroclaw – Tom.
Thanks for writing, Tom. I love travelling to Poland because–though I don’t speak much Polish–I can understand a surprising amount of what I read.
Lots of cognates between Russian and Polish (obviously, both being Slavic languages.)
I love how it’s inevitably the words that are central to a culture:
ENGLISH:
beer, bread, water, meat, God, market
POLISH:
piwo, chleb, woda, mięso, Bóg, rynek
RUSSIAN:
пиво, хлеб, вода, мясо, Бог, рынок
Anyway, hope to welcome you to my Russian Accelerator video course one day.
Best wishes,
Mark