Svetlana Flemming - Colloquial Russian - The Next Step in Language Learning

sro´dni (+ dat)

akin to

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s#ezd

congress; convention

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tr[k

stunt

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tuso´vka

get-together

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ustraívat; sorevnovańiq

to hold competitions

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utver'da´t;

to claim

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N.B. na peŕvyj vzglqd – at first glance; na sve´te – in the world; na kra[´

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opaśnosti – on the brink of danger, on the edge; v sezoń – during 40

the high season; shitaétsq – it is considered

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Sport

Exercise 3

Answer the following questions in English.

1 Why have extreme sports become popular?

2 Is Moscow a suitable venue for extreme sports?

3 What kind of people go mountain biking?

4 When is the ‘high season’ and what takes place?

5 Why do the local authorities not like bikers?

6 What do bikers say in their own defence?

Exercise 4

True or false?

1 Sredi´ ba´jkerov mno´go (po'ily´x l[de´j, mo´dnyx rebq´t, podrośtkov)?

2 Na Vorob;e¨vyx gora´x est; (gornoly´'nyj sklon, bol;woé oźero, sporti´vnyj klub)?

3 prodol'aétsq (s noqbrq´ po mart, s apreĺq po oktq´br;, kru´glyj god)?

4 |kstremaĺ;]iki 'aĺu[tsq, hto gorodskié vlaśti (ne

prinima´[t ix vser;e¨z, udelq´[t im mno´go vnimańiq, ne

puska´[t ix v paŕki)?

5 Akvaa\ro´bika podxo´dit dlq (professionaĺ;nyx sportsmeńov, l[de´j l[bo´go voźrasta, molode¨'i)?

Language points ♦

Genitive of cardinal numbers

There are some examples in the text of numerals in the genitive, either after prepositions or to translate ‘of’: do tridcati´ tyśqh helove´k

‘up to 30 thousand people’; rebq´ta dvadcati´-tridcatiĺet ‘guys of 20 to 30’; do pqti´desqti helove´k ‘up to fifty people’.

Note the change of ending on the numeral and the fact that the noun following is in the genitive plural. Cardinal numerals will be dealt with in greater detail in Unit 9.

Sport

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Kotoryj

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There are a large number of examples in the text, |kstrema ´l;nyj 4

sport, of the way in which kotoŕyj is used. Meaning ‘which, that, 5

who / whom’, kotoŕyj is a relative pronoun used to introduce adjec-6

tival clauses. It declines like a hard adjective. The number and gender 7

of kotoŕyj are determined by the noun to which it refers and the 8111

case by its role in the adjectival clause:

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V vyso´kij sezoń, kotoŕyj prodol'aétsq s apreĺq . . .

In the high season, which lasts from April . . .

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2

In this example kotoŕyj is masculine singular to agree with sezoń 3

and nominative because it is the subject of prodol'aétsq.

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Net gor, s kotoŕyx mo´'no pry

´ gat;.

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There are no mountains from which to jump.

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Here kotoŕyx is feminine plural to agree with goŕy and genitive 8

after s.

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Note that adjectival clauses are introduced by kto ‘who / whom’

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or hto ‘which, that’, not kotoŕyj, if they refer back to a pronoun: 1

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te, o kom ide¨t reh;

those of whom we speak

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vse¨, hto zna´[

everything that I know

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Exercise 5

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Insert the relative pronoun kotoŕyj in the correct form.

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1 V Moskve´ mno´go l[de´j, . . . zanima´[tsq pla´vaniem. 2 On 'ive¨t 1

v maĺen;kom goŕode, . . . net da´'e na kaŕte. 3 Pośle ma´tha my 2

powli´ k druz;q´m, . . . ne´ bylo sego´dnq na stadiońe. 4 Mno´gie 3

tuso´vki, . . . q posetiĺa, proisxodiĺi na Arba´te. 5 Vorob;e¨vy 4

gory, na . . . est; ly´'nyj sklon, populqŕny sredi´ ba´jkerov. 6 V

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