Say it in Russian has created its own site! You are very welcome to visit it and leave your comments to get the answers to all your questions about the Russian language and culture!
Как это будет по-русски
вторник, 10 января 2017 г.
пятница, 6 января 2017 г.
My own web site
Dear friends, I have created my own site!
I will be enhancing it. It only the very beginning. Please, visit from time to time to support me: sayitinanylanguage.com
Happy Birthday, Say It in Any Language Project!
вторник, 3 января 2017 г.
Ты and Вы: What's the Difference? 5 Tips When to Use which Format
Ты
and Вы: What's the Difference? 5 Tips When to Use which Format
Dear
friends,
Happy
New Year to everyone!
This
year I made a resolution to start Как это будет по-русски or Say it in Russian video channel which will
help my international friends learn more about Russian language and
culture. And here is my first video.
These are a companion video
episode and a post for my Personal Pronouns mini-project dedicated to the issue which both important and challenging – the ты and Вы
format of addressing people.
One
of my international friends wrote me that the colleague whose desk
is to the right of hers says ты to her, while the colleague whose
desk is
to the left says Вы to her. And they are all of more or less the same
age and status / background. So she is quite puzzled. Have you had similar situations?
Here is the video about how to choose the appropriate format and below you can see the 5 tips summarized.
Tip 1
Let
the native speaker take the initiative and listen carefully to what
(s)he says. Did you hear 'Рад(а) с Вами познакомиться' or 'Рад(а) с тобой познакомиться'? If you heard
Вы, use Вы-format (unless you are talking to a kid or a
teenager), if you heard ты, then ты should be ok (exception –
people way older than you).
Tip 2
If
you hesitate, say Вы. It is better to sound a bit too polite than a
bit too impolite. And if ты is ok, you are most likely to be
offered to switch the format.
Tip
3
Use
ты when talking to:
-
Kids and teenagers (I think Вы starts from the age of 17 or 18)
-
Friends + your boyfriend / girlfriend
-
School, college and university mates
-
Family: parents, spouse, children, grandparents, siblings, cousins
-
If agreed upon
Phrases
to offer to say ты to each other instead of Вы:
Давайте
перейдём на ты.
Давайте
будем на ты.
Перейдём на ты?
Будем на ты.
Давай на ты.
Tip
4
Use
Вы to talk to:
-
People you meet for the first time or don't know really well
-
People way older than you
-
Officials: bank clerks, teachers, lawyers, doctors etc.
-
People providing services: waiters / waitresses, porters,
shop-assistants, even a pizza guy :-)
-
In the family aunts, uncles, parents-in-law, god father / god mother
(here it can be different from family to family, of course)
-
Boss (in most companies and institutions you are expected to say Вы
to your boss)
-
Colleagues (here it depends on a person, see the tips 1 and 2)
Tip 5
We
often use ты and Вы format talking to the same person depending
on either the situation is formal or informal. So if your good friend
is also your colleague, be ready to hear Вы at a company meeting in
front of a big audience, even though you normally say ты to each
other.
What
about you? Have you ever had any difficulties choosing between ты
and Вы? Please, leave your comments below. I am looking forward to
answering all your questions including the daring ones, the obvious
ones and the uncomfortable/awkward ones :-) So feel free to ask whatever you
would like to know to be able to say t in Russian!
Thank
you for being with me! Спасибо, что Вы со мной!
вторник, 27 декабря 2016 г.
Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. The Seppuku Vowel and The Cheshire Cat. Part 3.
Struggling
with the Cyrillic Characters. The
Seppuku
Vowel and The Cheshire Cat. Vowels.
Part 3.
Dear
readers and
followers,
Our
struggle with the Russian vowels is coming to an end. We have the
last two enemies to defeat. And I must say that on of these two is an
absolute nightmare for non-native speakers.
You,
probably, have noticed that our paradigm of vowels is lacking the
essential sound /i/. So why haven't I mentioned it until now in the Part 1 or Part 2? Why an
individual post?
Well,
there is nothing special about the sound /i/ in Russian. It is pretty
similar to its equivalent in most of the European languages. And the
letter which indicates it looks like a mirror reflection of the
capital letter N.
И
и
It
is a soft-indicating vowel, which means that the preceding
consonant is soft. But what if the preceding consonant needs to be
hard? In that case we will need another sound which does not exist in
English and has no analogue in most of European languages and it is
the hard /i/ or
Ы
ы
It
looks like b and l or b and I. But this is one letter, not two
letters. And it is a hard-indicating vowel. It never occurs at
the beginning of a word or after another vowel.
Now
you must be really curious what the difference between и
and ы is, and how to master the pronunciation of this painstaking sound.
There
are quite some ways of learning to pronounce the sound ы offered by
Russian as a Second Language teachers and speech therapists. From
visualization of stabbing yourself in the guts with a dagger when committing seppuku to pressing your tongue with a toothbrush and
lifting heavy tables.
I
have picked up 6 most well-crafted and illustrative youtube videos so that you could select the way that suits you best. Or you could try all of
them to get a better effect :-)
1.
The first video is really short and it provides an excellent
illustration of a tongue position when one pronounces this
'punch-in-the-stomach' sound. This is Yulia Kovalenko's channel and you
can find many more great pronunciation videos there.
2.
This is the seppuku video, I have already mentioned. It is awesome! But, please, no
violence! No hard punches in the stomach, no harakiri! I still need
you alive to learn the Russian consonants! How can I let you die
without knowing them? :-)
3.
In this episode of Weekly Russian Language Lessons for Beginners, a
beautiful and charming teacher Natalia is teaching how to pronounce 'ы' comparing it to 'и' and 'у'. You will also practice the two crucial
Russian pronouns мы (we), ты (you, informal / singular) and Вы/вы
(formal / plural).
Russian
hard consonants are much harder than the English ones so it will be
impossible to pronounce 'и' after them. The sound 'ы' originates deep
in the throat so you must feel tightening of your muscles there. Don't be
afraid to exaggerate at the beginning.
4. This Russian from Scratch episode provides a good illustration of the lip and tongue position, you
can also practice some syllables and short words.
5.
The
Real Russian Club provides two excellent techniques. First, you will
be saying a long ooh and then spreading your lips in a wide smile, trying not to change your tongue position, and then you will need a
toothbrush to help you feel the difference between the classic /i/
and the hard /i/.
6.
Finally, learnrussian.org video recommends practising a Cheshire cat smile
or a “harsh smile” and then pulling your mouth corners down; putting your finger between your teeth while pronouncing the classic
/i/ and... lifting a heavy table.
So
the sound 'ы' was the last and the greatest challenge when it comes to
mastering the Russian vowels. Once you have dealt with this issue, you
are a king or a queen of Russian vowels!
Now
the first part of our journey is completed! Congratulations! In the
next posts I will tell you what the difference between the Russian
and the English consonants is, and how to pronounce the hard and soft
Russian consonants. And we are about to actually start reading just
in no time!
Thanks
for supporting me!
Was
this post of any help? I will appreciate if you drop me a line in the
comments :-)
понедельник, 26 декабря 2016 г.
Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.Part 2. Yeah, yo, you and yahoo!
Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.Part 2. Yeah, yo, you and yahoo!
Dear
readers,
We are continuing our
struggle with
Russian vowels. And we are going win it quite soon, I promise :-) In
this post we are going to learn soft
indicating vowels.
These vowels are a bit trickier than the ones
in Part 1,
as there are two ways of reading them.
But
let's have a look at them first.
Я
я
Я
я
looks
like a mirror reflection of the English R and it is called 'ya', like
the first syllable in the word 'yahoo'.
Ю
ю
Ю
ю
looks
like half of the capital letter H which has crushed into or
on the
letter O. Probably, it is the kid of H and O :-) Or I chained to O
with a horizontal bar. This is 'yu'
like “you”.
Е
е
Е
е looks
just like the English E e. This
is 'ye'
like 'yeah'!
Ё
ё
And
this is yo, like “yo, man!”. The Е е with two dots above. I
should mention that in most texts you will see Е е instead of Ё ё.
Russians are just probably too lazy to put the two dots above. But
in the texts for beginners it has got the dots most of the time.
Also, please, mind, the
syllables containing the letter Ё ё are always stressed.
Now
let's read aloud
some
words where these
four
letters
are
pronounced the way they
are
called in the alphabet.
Я
я Ю
ю Е е Ё ё
я
(I), я́блоко
(apple), я́йца
(eggs),
я́года
(berry)
éсть
(to eat), éвро
(Euro, currency),
éсли
(if), éхать
(go by some transport, not walk)
ю́бка
(skirt), юг (South), ию́нь
(June), ию́ль
(July)
ёж
(hedgehog), ёлка (fir-tree or
New Year tree),
ёрш (ruff, the fish or a brush, you can see this
kind of brush
on the picture or the one you have in the restroom), ёрзать (to fidget).
As
I have already mentioned, there are two ways of pronouncing these letters. They are either
pronounced the way they are called in the alphabet (all their names contain the /j/ sound).
Like in
the examples above.
Or they are pronounced like а (я), э (е), о (ё), у (ю), but
they indicate that the preceding consonant is soft. That' why they are called soft-indicating vowels.
What the soft and hard consonants in Russian are and when exactly we should read the letters each way is to be told in the next posts.
That's
all for now!
Thank you :-) Спасибо!
Was
this post helpful for you? Do
you find Russian letters frustratingly difficult? Or has learning the
reading rules been easy for you so far?
Please,
leave your comments below!
среда, 21 декабря 2016 г.
Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels. Part 1. The Easiest
Struggling
with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.
Part 1. The Easiest
Dear
readers,
I
know how painstaking learning the Russian alphabet / letters can be.
That's why I have divided this material in several parts for you to
gain this crucial knowledge ASAP and with minimum stress and effort.
I
would also like to point out right from the very beginning, there are
sites and other resources with provide so called “pronunciation”
with Latin characters below. I strongly advice you against applying this
technique because:
1. Russians use ONLY Cyrillic characters so you will be
unable to read without knowing them.
2. Russian language has sounds which don't exist in European
languages which are indicated with special letters.
3. There is a
logical connection between Russian alphabet and Russian
pronunciation. Little effort at the very beginning will save you from
so much stress afterwards.
In
the “Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels”
section you will learn 10 Russian vowel letters in three posts. 4 letters in
this one, 4 - in the next one and 2 - in the last one. 15-20 minutes for each post and you are done with this issue!
So,
let's begin Part 1. The easiest!
- There
are two letters which look the same as in the Latin alphabet and are
pronounced in the same way. These
are А а and O o.
А
а like in cut or nut. O o like in hot and spot. Both perhaps a bit
longer.
- Then
there is the letter У у. It looks more or less the same as Y y, but it is
pronounced as “u” like in the words spoon or put.
Note!
Russian doesn't have long and short vowels like English. So these
sounds are shorter than English long vowels and longer than English short
vowels.
And
the last letter is Э э. It is like a reverted Euro currency sign
but with only one horizontal bar. Or a reverted c with a horizontal
bar. This is the Russian e. It is pronounced a bit harder than the
English e.
So
basically, that's it! Let's sum it up and practice a little!
А
а О о У у Э э
Please,
note all these vowels are hard-indicating. That's is going to be important because Russian language has got hard and soft consonants.
So the consonants preceding these vowels are going to be hard.
Now,
listen to these vowels in words and repeat! The stressed syllables are underlined.
А
а О о У у Э э
Мама
(mom), папа
(dad), брат
(brother), сестра
(sister)
Он
(he), дом
(house), ложка
(spoon), полка
(shelf)
Суп
(spoon), лук
(onion), друг
(friend, a male friend), подруга
(friend, a female friend)
Это
(it or this), этот
(this, Masculine), этаж
(storey or floor of a house), экзамен
(exam)
And
that's it! Thank you :-) Спасибо!
Was this post helpful for you? Please, leave your comments below.
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