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*
NOTE *

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

Welcome to Episode 11. Before we get started, I just wanted to say: If you’re feeling more confident now and are ready to start actively speaking Russian, I encourage you to get my Russian Made Easy podcast. I promise, it’ll have you talking right from the start.

Anyway…here’s
our new word for this episode.
попробовать

Let’s
see if we can get it from these Russian conversations.

(cooking
sounds)…Mom’s in the kitchen…Andrei comes in…

Привет,
Мама. Что ты готовишь?

Я
готовлю спагетти.

А
это соус?

Да,
это соус. Хочешь попробовать?

Да.
(slurp) Mmmm! Вкусный!

Now
Dad is in the kitchen when Sophia wanders in…

Привет,
Папа. Что ты готовишь?

Я
готовлю гамбургеры.

А
это рис?

Да.
Хочешь попробовать?

Да.
(crunch chew) Mmmm! Вкусный!

So
попробовать
is a verb, and it
translates as “to
try,” or “to sample”

Can
you guess how the past tense would sound? Let’s say babushka is
making a salad. Perhaps венегрет, which
in Russian is a salad, not a dressing. She sees you, and lifts
a spoonful. Listen to Alex say, I already tried some.

Я
уже попробовал.

Literally
just: I already tried.

Then
Nastya walks by. Again, grandma and her spoon…

Спасибо,
Бабушка. Я уже попробовала.

Let’s
say you’re curious to sample some. Say: “I want to try.”

Я
хочу попробовать.

To
help you recall the word, try to make this connection: When you try
something, you’re essentially PROBING it, seeing if you like it. The
word “probe” leads us to попробовать

File
that away for a minute and let’s talk about today’s main topic. Let’s
imagine you own a Russian/English dictionary and are
trying to look up a word. Maybe, “to give.”

You
flip thru the pages. There it is: дать

Now
we learned that verb in Episode 6. Try to say: Jeff gave the key to
Clark.

Джеф
дал ключ Кларку.

But
the dictionary is telling us the word is дать.
It sounds like it ends with a weird T, doesn’t it?

That’s
what we call the infinitive of the verb. Its most basic form.

Take
the English verb “to be.” That’s the infinitive. And then
you have the conjugations:

I
am. You are. He is.

And
in the past tense: I was. You were.

Well,
the verb we learned today was in its infinitive form. Do you recall
it? Say…

I
want to try.

Я
хочу попробовать.

See
how it ends with that odd T sound? Not all, but almost all
Russian verbs end with this odd T sound in their infinitive form.
What’s making it sound odd is something called a “soft sign”
at the very end. It looks like a tiny, lowercase English b.

попробовать
<—The last
letter is not a letter at all, but what’s called a “soft sign.”
Like a pronunciation instruction to Russian speakers.

To
help you hear it, I’ll have Alex say the last three letters without
the soft sign, and then with.

ват…вать

Darina,
can you do the same thing?

ват….вать

I’m
not a stickler on pronunciation. My thoughts, which are echoed by
others like Tim Ferris and Benny the Polyglot, are that you just need
to say it well enough to be understood. But here, getting that weird
ending, it will definitely help native speakers understand you. And
it’s really not that tough. Let’s listen to another pair. We’ll hear
D-A-T …first as is, and then with a soft sign at the end.

дат….дать

мат…..мать

Let’s
try a different vowel.

рит….рить

I’ll
test you on these some more in a moment. For now, let’s return to our
new verb. Imagine Vova doesn’t want to try Grandma’s pie. How would
Grandma say: “Vova doesn’t want to try?”

Вова
не хочет попробовать?

So
let’s listen to that construction as our speakers insert other verbs
we know, but now in their infinitive forms. See if you can guess the
translation. Ready?

–
– –

We
actually did a bunch of these in Ep. 9, but I didn’t explain that we
were using the infinitive. I just kind of snuck it in there. But
hopefully you’re starting to hear it, now.

As
a warm-up for our Russian Immersion section, let’s listen again to
those opening conversations in the kitchen. This time you’ll be asked
some questions. As always, if you don’t know, just say so…

(cooking
sounds first)…Mom’s in the kitchen…Andrei comes in…

–
– –

This
last one will have lots of words we don’t know, but many are
cognates, and the rest you can probably get from context. So, Babu –
babushka– has just made a rather unpleasant smelling pirog, which is
a Russian pie.

(oven
dings)

Кто
хочет попробовать мой пирог? (тишина)
Вова? Иди сюда.

Ээээ…не
я, Бабу. Я не очень люблю пироги.

Вова,
перестань.

Хорошо.
Попробую.

Ну,
как?

Здесь
есть брокколи? И киви? И карамель?

Да.
И бекон. На. Возьми ещё кусочек.

Спасибо.
Я дам папе.

For
a transcript of that, and a good laugh, head over to the site and you
can read the whole thing. You can even get grandma’s recipe…

Random
grammar quiz. Quick, tell me: What is a verb infinitive?

If
you said it’s an ingredient in grandma’s pies, you’re close. But
here’s the answer I was looking for:

The
infinitive is the basic, unconjugated form of a verb.

In
English, we use two words for the infinitive: To cook, to eat, to
gag, and so on. In Russian, it’s just one word, but they—almost
always—have a recognizable ending. That —ть
that we listened to. And that I’m going to test you on now.
All I want you to do is tell me ДА or
НЕТ…Did the speaker use a verb
infinitive?

–
– –

<<
tip of the day>>

If
there’s one thing worse than a Russian teacher who forces you to
memorize grammar charts and declension tables, it’s one who drowns
you in rules and grammar jargon. The following is from an actual
online Russian lesson aimed at beginners. I kid you not.

<<Passive
participles can be used to modify persons or objects but only if the
nouns they are modifying are in the accusative case. Present passive
participles are formed from some transitive imperfective verbs. To
form the present passive participle using the one-stem system, add
“em” and the adjectival ending to the stem…>>

That
kind of quote-unquote “teaching” literally sickens me. It’s
lazy. It’s thoughtless. It’s presumptuous. And ultimately, it’s not
only unhelpful, it is detrimental to the student’s success. It
doesn’t just frustrate the student, it puts them down. And that was
light on the jargon. There is so much out there far, far
worse. It pains me. Russian should be a joy to learn. Not a nightmare
of complex, confusing grammar terminology and rules.

What’s
the tip? There are times when grammar terms are inescapable.
Today, I had to bust out the word “infinitive.” But I tried
to explain the meaning. And I tried to keep it at that. But if your
teacher spouts grammar terms and rules without end…it’s probably
time to look elsewhere.

<<
end tip >>

Hey,
another random question: What do you think the word вкусный
means? We heard it in our opening dialogs. Listen again…

Да,
это соус. Хочешь попробовать?

Да.
Mmmm! Вкусный!

Да.
Хочешь попробовать?

Да.
Mmmm! Вкусный!

Вкусный
translates as tasty
or delicious.

Imagine
you’re with some Russian friends having dinner in a restaurant. About
your soup, try to say: “Delicious! Want to try?”

Вкусный!
Хочешь попробовать?

You’ll
often hear it shortened to вкусно! It
just depends on exactly what the speaker is describing…the food, or
the taste. Don’t worry about it. It’s just cool to spot it.

So
let’s end with a fun quiz. You’ll hear the speakers describe various
things as tasty. Notice how the word вкусный
changes to match the noun. And see if you can translate…

Вкусное…вино.
/…пиво. /…молоко.

Вкусный…пирог.
/…венегрет. /…паштет

Вкусная…каша.
/…кукуруза. /…колбаса.

Вкусные…блины.
/…грибы. /…помидоры.

Alright.
That was a fun lesson. See you in Episode 12!