Lesson: What is this?

When beginning to learn Russian you might not always know the name for everything. Doesn't it make sense that you should know how to ask what something is if you don't know the word? It is very simple to do, all you say is "Что это?" (sh-toe eto) or "What this?".

Now suppose you are pointing to a radio and you ask your friend "Что это?" Your friend would quickly reply "Это радио." or "This radio."

Now let's pretend you knew it was a radio all along and what you really wanted to know was the make or type of radio that it is. You would reply "какое радио?" or "What kind of radio is it?"

Ok let's stop there. Notice that the word "радио" ends in an o. This indicates that it is a "neuter" word, or more simply, it is not masculine or feminine. The word "какое" is also neuter. Confused? If you were holding a book instead of a radio and you wanted to know what kind of book it was, you would say "какая канига?" instead. This is because the word "канига" is feminine (ends in the letter "a"). If it were a printer instead you would say "какой принтер?"

To answer the question your friend is going to have to give you some adjectives. You already know so many that this will not be difficult. For example, the radio. You have already asked your friend what kind it is, so they would answer "Это хорошое русское радио!" or "It's a good Russian radio!" Notice that all the adjectives match the subject noun. Because "радио" is neuter, to words to describe it "хорошое" and "русское" are also neuter, and end with "ое".

To answer the question about the book your friend might say "Это плохая английская книга." or "It is a bad English book."

To answer the question about the printer they would say "Это неплохой японский принтер." or "It's a pretty good Japanese printer."

Practice makes perfect

Сара and Лена's grandmother seems to have taken a liking to you. She has invited you over to her apartment to have some tea.

When you get there you greet her formally but call her grandmother.

When she invites you in, you roll your eyes as you notice the extremely large photo album sitting next to the tea pot. You are so tired of looking at photographs at this point, but what can you do?

Grandmother sits you down and starts showing you old pictures of herself, her sisters, and her friends (male and female) from when she was younger.

As she goes through the pictures try to be as polite possible and remember that she is older than you so you should always address her formally.

Try to guess who some of the people are by asking "Это вы... (mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, friend, etc..)? Say something nice about each person and give grandmothers responses: "Спасибо", "Ну что ты!", "Да, это мой/моя....", "Нет, это мой/моя..."

When tea time is over, thank Grandmother and say goodbye.

Practice makes perfect

Now you try it!

Introduce yourself and tell me what languages you speak and how well you speak them. Tell me about your family, what languages they speak, and what they do as a profession/hobby. What about their friends, and their friends families? Try to be creative and if you are at a loss for words, check out previous vocabulary or the Master Vocabulary List.

Some more words that you may want to use for this exercise are:

• хена моего отца - stepmother
• муж моей матери - stepfather
• сестра по оецу/ сестра по матери - stepsister
• брат по оецу/ брат по матери - stepbrother
• бывшая жена - ex-wife
• бывший муж - ex-husband

Good luck!

Practice makes perfect

Сара and Лена invite you over to their family's house on the weekend. When you get there you are surprised at just how many relatives they have. As they show you the rooms of the house they introduce you to their family.

1. Make a list of Сара and Лена's and relatives. Supply introductions (remember to use the pronoun "наш/наша" to describe "our" and "ваш/ваша" for "your" plural) and remember to reply politely "очень приятно." Once you have been introduced to all of them you realize you can't remember who is who. Ask Сара "Игорь - твой дядя или твой дедушка?" (and so on) to find out.

2. You brought over your photo album to show Лена and Сара (use your real photo album or facebook account for this exercise). Go through and introduce your friends and family. Remember to convert their names to Russian.

3. As you are going through the pictures the girls ask for more details. For example while looking at some pictures of your friend Peter Сара asks "Петер - это актёр? Он очень симпатичный!" Provide their questions and use both yes and no answers.

Practice makes perfect

You are hanging out with Sarah at school by your locker. Lately all she seems to talk about is herself and you are getting anxious for other friends to chat with. The guy in the locker next to you seems cool, but before you can make a new buddy you need to make sure he can speak a little English...

You: "Здравствйте, как вас зовут?"

Саша: "Здравствйте, меня зовут Саша. А вас?"

You: "(give your name). Очень приятно."

Саша: "Очень приятно"

You: "Вы говорите по-английски?"


Саша: "Нет. Вы говорите по-русски?"

You: "Да. Я немного говорю по-русски."


Sasha doesn't look very impressed with your Russian skills, and considering he doesn't speak any English it looks like you will have to move on.


Sasha: "До свидания!"

You: "До свидания Саша."


Move on to other students who have their lockers by you. Ask them if they speak and understand in English. Ask them about other languages as well (remember how nosey you can be). Give their answers and have them ask you about your Russian Language skills. Make sure you are using both verbs говорить - to speak and понимать -to understand.

Practice makes perfect

You are still at the party but Иван has disappeared. You can't find him anywhere and now you will have to introduce yourself to people at the party.

You're feeling slightly better after having to throw up for a half hour, but you can't remember what he told you their names were.

You take a deep breath and walk over to one of the girls and ask "Как вас зовут?" (kak vas zobyt?) (How you called?).

You are using the formal version of "you" which is "вас". If this were someone that was younger than you, you would use the informal which is "тебя" (teba) or "Как тебя зовут?".

She smiles and answers "Меня зовут Сара, а вас?" (meenia zovoot Sara, a vas?) (Me called Sara, and you?)

You reply "Меня зовут (and say your name), очень приятно" (meenia zovoot... , oichen pre-yat-no) (Me called ..., nice to meet you).

Now go and introduce yourself to others at the party. Go on, don't be shy!

Practice makes perfect

You go to a party with your friend Иван. He knows you don't know many people so he wants to introduce you to his friends. He is secretly hoping that someone else will start hanging out with you because you are constantly annoying him with your lack of vocabulary.

You walk into the party and everyone is standing around listening to music and talking. Иван see's that you are nervous so he points out each girl and tells you their names. Knowing how inquisitive you are he makes sure to add in their interests and nationalities (mostly he is trying to avoid your embarrassingly English sounding accent).

1. Make a list of 5 girls names and 5 boys names and decide their nationality and their interest. If you are feeling confident make sure to add a word about quality to the sentece. Pretend you are Иван and introduce them.

Example: "Сара - это плохая английская балерина"


By now you have had some vodka and are feeling a little out of sorts. You want to meet these people but you can't quite remember everything he told you about them.

2. Ask questions about the people you are about to meet. Give Ivan's answers and remember you are drunk! So make sure to get a few wrong once and awhile.

Example: "Сара - это хорошая балерина?"

...and then give Иван's answers

Example: "Нет, плохая" or "Нет, это плохая балерина".

And so on.

Practice makes perfect

Now that you know a little Russian, let's take what you have learned and apply it to a simple exercise.

Make a small list of people that are either writers, basketball players, musical artists, or actors.
Convert those names to Russian (remember, Russians spell names how they sound). Pretend that you don't know what the person's profession is and ask your imaginary friend Иван about them. Give Иван's answer.

Example:

You: Эдди Мерфи (Eddie Murphy) - это баскетболист? (remember to raise the intonation of your voice when saying "basketball player")

Иван: Нет, это актёр.

And then try this answer:

Иван: Нет, это не баскетболист, а актёр.