Good evening, Dear listeners! Добрый вечер, дорогие слушатели!

 

 Episode 14 - Happy New Year: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today is already the last day of the year. How do Russians celebrate this holiday?

Usually New Year is a family holiday with tables full of different tasty things and champagne. President of Russia addresses nation before clock strikes 12 and then a lot of fireworks and bottles of champagne burst out into celebrations which now officially lasts almost 10 days.

For children it’s a magical day - they can find their presents under the New Year Tree. Sometimes Дед Мороз / Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus, we call him Father Frost) and Снегурочка / Snegurochka (Ded Moroz’s granddaughter) come to houses and give away gifts after children sing them a song or recite poems about winter and New Year.

Let’s learn some phrases which we use to congratulate each other:

• C наступающим НовымГодом! [S nas-too-pa-yu-schim Novym Godom!] Happy coming New Year!
• С Новым Годом! [S Novym Godom!]Happy New Year!
• С наступающим Рождеством ! [S nas-too-pa-yu-schim Rozh-dest-vom! ] Merry coming Christmas! P.S. Russians celebrate Christmas on 6th-7th of January night (Julian calendar)
• C Рождеством [Христовым]! [S Rozh-dest-vom [Khris-to-vym]!] Merry Christmas!
• Со Старым Новым Годом! [So Starym Novym Godom!] Happy Old New Year! Yeah, it sounds strange but we do celebrate it too on 13th of January – New Year by Old Style (Julian calendar). It’s not an official holiday but a good chance to have a small gathering again.

Common phrases which can be said for any holiday (we took it in Episode 4 – Victory day):

• С наступающим праздником! Happy coming holiday!
• С праздником! Happy Holiday!
• Поздравляем! Congratulations! (plural, from a group of people)
• Поздравляю! Congratulations! (singular)

The most famous Russian New Year song is “V lesy rodilas yolochka” (A small fir-tree was born in the forest). Every Russian young and adult knows it. That’s all for today, now let’s sing a song and see you already in New Year 2009!

Удачи! И с наступающим Новым Годом! Пока!

В лесу родилась ёлочка / V lesu rodilas yolochka

(lyrics by Raisa Adamovna Kudashyova, music by Leonid Karlovich Bekman)

Useful links:

• New Year’s Day (wiki)
• Old New Year (wiki)
• The most popular New Year movie: Ирония судьбы (Irony of Fate, wiki)

Vocabulary podcast "House" - the next block of new words: first english and then russian equivalent.

Before you start:

• download file Episode 13 - Vocabulary “House” (pdf).
• at first time it’s better to read new words and repeat after me, later you can just listen and remember.

 

 Episode 13 - Vocabulary "House": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Поздравляю! Another 100 words in your vocabulary!

Vocabulary podcast "Relatives" - the next block of new words: first english and then russian equivalent.

Before you start:

• download file Episode 12 - Vocabulary "Relatives" (pdf).
• at first time it’s better to read new words and repeat after me, later you can just listen and remember.

 

 Episode 12 - Vocabulary : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Let’s start!

Hi, everybody! Всем привет! Here we are! Spoonfed Russian and its Episode N11! Today we will learn how to use Russian verbs with nouns and pronouns.

Before we start:

• download Episode 11 - Verb Conjugation - Present time.pdf;
• and follow the topic.

 

 Episode 11 - Verbs - Present Tense: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What is a verb? Verb is a word which plays an action role in the sentence. For example: enjoy, smile, go etc.

In dictionaries verbs are given in infinitive form:

• the majority of infinitives ends in “-ть”: работать - to work, читать - to read, писать - to write;
• some verbs end in “-ти”: идти - to go, нести - to carry;
• few verbs end in “-чь”: мочь - to be able, печь - to bake.

In Russian we have only one Present Tense - it sounds great, isn’t it? “I speak” or “I’m speaking” we say the same way “Я говорю”. But we have to change verb endings depending on the person, what we actually do in English too but not that much, for example: “I smile”, but “He smiles”.

Russian verb endings are mainly changed according to one of the two rules known as Conjugation I and Conjugation II. There are some exceptions and irregular verbs but they are also changed quite similar.

Conjugations of some verbs you can find in the file of this episode. Please open it and follow me.

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Exercise. Упражнение.

Look at the sentence “I hear you”. In English we have to follow strict order in the sentence. In Russian we have to use “you” in accusative case (see pronouns in accusative case in Episode 9) and put it almost in any part of the sentence: Я слышу тебя or Я тебя слышу. Now try to translate yourself:

• You hear me.
• Do you hear me?
• I see you.
• I see him.
• Do you see her?

Answers are welcome to spoonfedrussian at gmail.com and you are always welcome to Spoonfed Russian! Увидимся! И до скорой встречи!

Всем привет! Hello everybody! Nice to see you at Spoonfed Russian and the Episode N10 ! Today we will learn how to ask about age.

Before we start:

• download and open file Episode 10 - Asking about age.pdf.

 

 Episode 10 - How old are you?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Home task. Tell about the age of your relatives. For example:

• Это моя мама. Ей 33 года. (This is my Mom. She is 33 years old)
• Это мой папа. Ему 35 лет. (This is my Dad. He is 35)
• Это мои сестра и брат. Им 6 и 9 лет. (These are my sister and brother. They are 6 and 9 years old)
• Это я. Мне 11 лет. (This is me. I’m 11)
• А сколько тебе лет? (And how old are you?) informal

Any questions and answers are welcome to spoonfedrussian at gmail.com. Хорошего дня! Have a nice day! Пока-пока!