<figure class="wp-block-image"></figure>

Full Episode Audio

<figure class="wp-block-audio"></figure>

Exercises Only Audio

<figure class="wp-block-audio"></figure>

Download Full Episode (right click save-as)

Download Exercises

*
NOTE *

All
phrases intended for translating/listening practice have been
deleted.

Welcome
to Episode #3 of Understanding Spoken Russian. Let’s warm up by
trying to name the gender of the words we hear—specifically
the last word in each phrase. If you’re new
to all this, you might be wondering…Wait, words have gender? And,
yeah, they do. It’s pretty common in other languages, too. Anyway,
here’s how it’ll work: If the last word ends with an “ah”
sound, you’ll say feminine. Like this one….

If
it ends with an “oh”…or really, an “oh-uh”
sound, say neuter:

If
it ends with a consonant, say masculine. Ready?

– – – Exercise Omitted– – – keep in mind this is a listening course, so putting the answers here so they can be read, defeats the purpose. If you have done the exercises but are having trouble and / or would like to see how things are written, mention the issue you are having in the comments and I’ll either post a reply or e-mail them to you directly. —

If
you got most of those, you’ve got a good ear, and that’s going to
serve you well. And getting back to this concept of gender, what’s
really cool about Russian is—as we discovered in the last
lesson—they apply it to verbs in the past tense. So, in this
next exercise, tell me: Is the speaker talking about what a man did
or what a woman did?

–
– –

Hmm…Did
you catch something odd about those last two? First we heard Саша
купил…

and
now it’s Саша купила…with
an “a” at the end. How can that be? Well, the name Sasha is
a nickname for guys named Alexander, and
for women named Alexandra. It’s like the name Pat. Pat can be a guy
or a girl. And what’s interesting is, if we heard similar English
phrases, we wouldn’t know if Pat was a man or woman. Pat bought a
car. We don’t know who Pat is. But in Russian, you do. Tell me,
in this next one, is Sasha a guy or a girl?

купил…It’s
a guy.

And
I’d like купить
to be our new word of this lesson.

To
help you remember it, let’s imagine winning the lottery. What do we
do first? Run out and buy a Mercedes Coupe. That sound…”coupe”
(куп) is the
root of the word.

So
let’s work with it a bit. Can you translate the following phrases?

–
– –

(re:
the last example) First of all, is Sasha a guy or a girl? Саша
купил…It’s a guy.

Next,
what do you think вино is? As you
probably guessed, it’s wine. And what’s the gender of that word? вино
ends with an “oh-uh” sound, which makes it neuter.
Next…

Notice
that, even though Papa ends with an “a”, the verb ending
“tells the truth.” The verb купил
was in its masculine form because Papa, despite the “a”
ending, is obviously male.

–
– –

Next,
what I’d really like to show you today is the importance of rhyming
in Russian. Important is an understatement, really. Rhyming is the
core principle behind the grammar of the language. And it’s what
makes the language so beautiful. In essence, Russian is set up to be
one big poem.

Here.
Just listen. There’ll be two phrases. In the first one, our speaker
will say: Wow, such a big and costly car.

In
the next: Wow, such a big and costly airplane.

The
English versions obviously don’t rhyme. But in Russian?

They
can call it “adjective noun agreement” if they want. But my
two year old daughter Sophia? She knows the words are just rhyming.
Listen and compare. In English we might say, The food is fast and
tasty! In Russian?

See
how the adjectives быстрая and
вкусная rhyme with еда?

In
English, we’d say: A new, two-story school. I mean, does that rhyme?
It does in Russian.

In
English I might say: She’s a beautiful, smart dog. Does that rhyme?
It does in Russian…

I
mean, it can be anything…The long, yellow pen.

In
Russian, the words for food, school, dog, pen, and thousands of
others… they’re feminine.

And
so their adjectives have to rhyme with them. That’s why we had all
those “ya” sounds…

They’re
rhyming with those feminine nouns.

How
does this help us? Again, let’s look at how my daughter Sophia
processes Russian. We were taking a walk this morning and saw our
neighbor’s new BMW. In English, I might’ve said, “Man, that
car…I bet it’s pretty expensive.”

Notice
how ‘car’ and ‘expensive’ were separated from each other. To Sophia,
it’s less clear that ‘expensive’ is describing the car. But if I’d
mumbled the same thing in Russian…

Here,
Sophia’s ears perk up. Because дорогая
rhymes with машина…So
she knows that дорогая is
describing the машина. Even though
the words were separated from each other.

So,
in this exercise, see if you can spot the feminine noun and its
adjective. For ex:

Еда
там в ресторане очень вкусная.

Еда
was the noun and вкусная was
the adjective.

For
now, let’s not bother with the meaning. Just listen for the noun and
its adjective…

<<Tip
of the day….>>

Today I’d like to answer a question I get from a lot of listeners, which is: How does this course differ from my Russian Made Easy podcast? And I think what they really want to know is: Is it okay to do both at the same time?

The
answer is: Absolutely. And as I’ve done before, let me use my
kids as an analogy.

I
mentioned that during their first two years or so, our twins William
and Sophia didn’t talk much. But once he approached his third
birthday, William became all about communicating. Just like William,
my Russian Made Easy podcast is totally focused on speaking the
language. One thing William does constantly now, for example, is use
constructions. If you haven’t heard the term, a construction is a
phrase where you change out a word or two each time you repeat it,
and they’re very powerful because they mold you into a fluent
speaker. Here, listen to William using a construction in English…

In
Russian Made Easy we work a lot with constructions because I want you
to be able to express yourself, quickly and fluently.

This
course, on the other hand, is more like William’s twin sister Sophia.
She speaks a lot less than her brother but I think she understands
things even better. If we’re watching, for example, Winnie the Pooh
in Russian…

…and
I hit pause and ask…”Okay, guys…Кому
он купил шарик? — who did Piglet buy the balloon
for?” Sophia will correctly say, “Winnie the Pooh.”
Meanwhile, William ignores the question and launches into a
construction: Я купил шарик…и Мама
купила шарик…и София купила шарик и
Андрюша купил шарик. He’s saying, I bought a
balloon, and Mama bought a balloon, and so on. I’m sure he
knew the answer, too, but he’s so focused on communicating, it’s all
he wants to do.

I
sometimes wish Sophia would speak a little more, but it’s okay.
She’ll talk more when she feels comfortable. And therein lies today’s
tip: Of course you can do both podcasts—they complement each other
perfectly—but it’s okay to be like Sophia and stick with this
course for a while, building up your ear and your confidence until
you’re ready, like William to unleash your Russian on the world.

<<
end tip >>

Next,
let’s listen to some clips from youtube. Except for one, they’re all
videos of women talking about what they bought, so we can listen for
today’s new word. Here’s the first one. Can you spot where she
bought these things?

Listen
again…it comes right at the end.

She
said: In this video I want to show you the things which I bought in
second-hand.

The
key phrase was: купила в секонд-хенде

Here’s
another “shopper blogger” about to share what she bought…

She,
too, is saying…..what I bought in
second-hand. Remember, the basic form of the word is just:

секонд-хенд

But
she bought it in
second-hand and so she has to add that locational “yeh”
ending.

Then
she tugs at her T-shirt and says: I just understood, or “just
realized” that I put on a white futbolka. Listen?

A
futbolka (футболка) is a T-shirt,
by the way. And did you spot those two past tense verbs,
поняла…and…надела?
Listen one more time..

This
next lady will also tell us about…

…about
her purchases in second-hand. And there’s that куп
again…покупка is a
purchase. Something that you bought

Then
she gets down to business and busts out all her shopping bags…

Now
I’ll show you guys what I bought. Listen again…

She
says her viewers sometimes ask…

She
said: How in general one can go to second-hand, and how you can buy
something there.

Notice
that, since she’s talking about GOING TO a second-hand store, it
doesn’t get the “yeh” ending. And also notice our “COUP”
sound in покупать…an