Understanding Spoken Russian

Lots of locations in Russian are cognates with English--that is, they sound very much like the English versions. And in this lecture, you'll learn how to determine if the speaker is located there, or merely headed there. Spotting "location markers" is a great skill...and you'll master it in this video!

So much of what we say is about the things we've done...In conversational speech, therefore, we most often use the past tense of verbs. And in this lecture, you'll learn to spot the patterns, helping you understand what Russians are saying.

In the previous lesson we learned to spot the masculine form of past tense verbs. (When guys are talking about the things they did.) In this lesson, we'll learn to spot the feminine version of those verbs. Check it out!

The ends of Russian words change all the time...but why? In this lesson, we discover some fundamental patterns that will help you understand the things Russians are saying.

Think of the difference between these two phrases: "I was watching basketball". --vs-- "I just watched JAWS. What a great movie." In the first, you get the sense he watched hoops for a while, but probably didn't watch the entire game.  In the second phrase, we understand that he watched the entire film. Those are examples of verb aspect, and the way Russian handles it is really cool. And you'll have a firm grasp of it after this lesson.

In English, because of our strict word order, it's easy to figure out who gave what to whom. (Steve gave the book to John.)  In Russian, because of their use of recipient markers, they can mix up the word order in whatever way best helps them express their ideas. This makes it tougher to grasp who did the giving (and who did the "getting.") That's why this lesson is so important, because you'll learn to spot those key endings...those recipient markers.

In this lesson we'll learn to spot (and to say) the You and I forms of some common verbs in the present tense. Although we more commonly speak in the past tense, certain ideas--like where we live and work, the things we're doing right now, the things we love--are more commonly expressed in the present tense. So let's dig in and get a handle on them right now!

Along with learning a new verb today, we learn to pick out the He/She forms of verbs in the present tense.

To love, to want, to be able to, to make...In this lesson we'll work with these four Russian verbs in the various tenses and conjugations we've learned so far. As your vocabulary expands, so does your ability to understand what Russians are saying. Check it out!

Have you been taking notes and practicing everything we've learned? Then get ready to put your skills to the test in today's midterm exam!