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

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N.B. ottqnuś; po poĺnoj progra´mme – I’ll chill out good and proper; 40

skupi´t;sq na (+ acc) – skimp on; ogoro´d – vegetable garden; rvanuĺa by k 1

he¨rtu na kuli´hki – I’d get the hell out of here! Berezo´vskij – Russian 421111

tycoon

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Russian society

Stress

Past tense of verbs

Fixed stress – the majority of verbs formed from a root verb with two or more syllables have stress fixed in the past tense on the same syllable as the infinitive: pisa´t; (pisaĺ, pisaĺa, pisaĺo, pisaĺi); rabo´tat; (rabo´tal, rabo´tala, rabo´talo, rabo´tali).

Some monosyllabic verbs have the stress on the stem throughout: pet; (pel, peĺa, peĺo, peĺi); klast; (klal, klaĺa, klaĺo, klaĺi); det; , est; , kryt; , myt; , sest; , stat; .

Mobile stress on feminine endings – some monosyllabic verbs are stressed on the feminine ending but on the stem in all other forms: pit; (pil, pila´, piĺo, piĺi); brat; (bral, brala´, braĺo, braĺi); byt; , vzqt; , dat; , 'it; , lit; , spat; .

Note also naha´t; (na´hal, nahala´, na´halo, na´hali).

Stress on the ending – verbs ending in -ti and -h; are stressed throughout on the ending: vesti (ve¨l, vela´, velo´, veli´); moh; (mog, mogla´, moglo´, mogli´), vezti´, nesti´, teh; .

Stressed on the prefix – all perfectives with the prefix vy- are stressed on the prefix: vy´pit; (vy´pil, vy´pila, vy´pilo, vy´pili).

Prefixed verbs are otherwise generally stressed in the same way as the root verb. But note these exceptions: zaby´t; (zabyĺ, zabyĺa, zaby

ĺo, zabyĺi); zada´t; (za´dal, zadala´, za´dalo, za´dali).

Exercise 13

Translate into Russian.

1 Sociologists are still arguing over whether a middle class exists in Russia.

2 There is a big difference between the Russian and British middle classes.

3 If the economic situation gets worse in Russia, many people will lose their jobs.

4 If only people knew how dangerous it is to walk at night.

5 If only I had money I would travel all over the world.

Rossijskoe obwestvo

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6 The majority of so-called new Russians became rich thanks to 2

their connections with the Soviet government.

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7 I want my son to study at Moscow university; I want him to study 4

English.

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8 He asked me to buy a Russian newspaper for him.

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9 A Russian family considers itself poor if it cannot afford to buy 7

fruit and sweets for its children.

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12 ZDRAVOOXRANENIE

In this unit you will learn:

◗ about health care in Russia

◗ about a variety of impersonal expressions

◗ when to use the buffer vowel -o in prepositions

◗ about stress in short form adjectives

The Soviet Union provided universal and free health care for all its citizens. The health service had both its strengths and its weaknesses.

There were a very large number of doctors per head of population (43 per 10,000), about three times as many as in Britain. However, doctors were extremely badly paid. This resulted in the profession being female-dominated and in the expectation that patients would reward doctors with ‘gifts’. There were some centres of excellence, but, in general, hospitals were poorly equipped and the primary care delivered by polyclinics was impersonal. The collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent economic crises had a devastating effect on the health service. However, it also opened the way to a burgeoning private health sector, delivering high quality care. Inevitably, these private clinics are located in major population centres.