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

to lean on the wall; bang one’s leg on the table; side by side 6

Note: rukaó´b ruku ‘hand in hand’, a rare example of ob before a 7

consonant.

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Pro + accusative

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‘about, concerning’ (more colloquial than ‘o’)

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govori´t; pro deĺo

talk about business

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Pro hto \´tot fil;m?

What is this film about?

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fil;m pro 'ivo´tnyx

a film about animals

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Exercise 12

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Put the words in brackets in the appropriate case.

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Q govoriĺa o (syn). 2 Q zna´[ vse¨ pro (ty). 3 On spotknuĺsq 1

ob (igru´wka). 4 Uhenikiópira´[tsq o (stol). 5 Mne nra´vqtsq 421111

fiĺ;my pro (l[bo´v;).

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Cultural life in Russia

Stress

Feminine nouns

Fixed stress – stress remains on the same syllable throughout the declension, singular and plural: gostińica, doro´ga, sposo´bnost;.

This group contains a large number of nouns with three or more syllables, but also some one syllable nouns: bol; and two syllable nouns ending in unstressed -a or -q: veŕa, kni´ga, buŕq.

Mobile stress – there are five types of mobile stress on feminine nouns.

Type 1 – stress on the ending in the singular and stem in the plural: vojna´ (gen. sing. vojny

´ ; nom. pl. vo´jny; gen. pl. vojn; dat. pl.

vo´jnam, etc.); strana´, glava´, sestra´ (pl. se¨stry). Most of these nouns have two syllables, but there are some with three. In this case the stress moves back one syllable in the plural: krasota´ (krasoty´, kraso´ty, kraso´t, kraso´tam, etc.).

Type 2 – stress on the stem in the singular and nominative plural (and accusative plural if it takes the same form as the nominative), on the ending in all other plurals: hast; (haśti, haśti, haste´j), o´hered; , lo´wad; and many other nouns ending in -; .

Type 3 – stress on the ending except in the nominative / accusative plural: guba´ (guby´, gu´by, gub, guba´m, etc.); sveha´, sleza´ (pl. sle¨zy).

Type 4 – stress on the ending except in the accusative singular and the nominative / accusative plural, which are stressed on the first syllable: gora´ (acc. sing. goŕu; gen. sing gory´; nom. / acc. pl. goŕy; gen. pl. gor; dat. pl. gora´m, etc.); doska´, noga´, reka´, ruka´, sreda´, stena´, golova´, storona´, boroda´.

Type 5 – stress on the ending in the singular, except for the accusative singular, and on the stem in the plural: voda´ (acc. sing. vo´du; gen.

sing. vody´; nom. pl. vo´dy; gen. pl. vod; dat. pl. vo´dam, etc.); zima´, duwa´, spina´, cena´, zemlq´.

Kul;turnaq 'izn; v Rossii

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Exercise 13

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Translate into Russian.

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1 A winner of the Moscow International Film Festival was the 7

American film The Fanatic.

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2 The Maly Theatre of St Petersburg is one of the most interesting 9

theatres in Russia; it became famous thanks to the artistic skill 10

of the director Lev Dodin.

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3 The majority of the members of the jury judging the films were 2

professional actors.

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4 All newspapers wrote about the film which received the top 4

prize at the Film Festival.

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5 The actors playing the main parts clearly belonged to the 6

Stanislavsky school.

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6 There are a lot of people in Russia who appreciate the art of 8

the theatre.

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7 Theatres are becoming more and more commercial in Russia: 20111

they only put on plays guaranteeing a full house.

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8 A lot of the films taking part in the competition turned out to 2

be foreign. Only one Russian film was among them.

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