Russian of the Day.
Oct. 24th, 2010 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tyggerjaiSo I don't lose *everything* I've learned before I get back to classes.
(ROTD disclaimer: I Am Not A Russian. If being embarrassed in front of Actual Russians might bother you, check with an Actual Russian before using anything you learn here. I will give you a heads up, though - "сучка" does not mean "my sweet". I learned that one the hard way so you don't have to.)
I think I'm going to start by going through the quote in my sidebar. It's from the song "Прекрасное Далеко" (and interestingly, I can't find the e-with-an-umlaut that I need for Далеко, but (and Certain People may correct me here) I think it's often left out in written Russian. Everyone just knows). That's "Prekrasnoe Dalyoko", for those of you who don't read Cyrillic (the umlaut makes it explicitly "yo" as opposed to Dal*ye*ko), and it's the theme song to a film called "Гостья из Будущего" - "Gosta iz budushevo", or "Guest from the future". IMDB is your friend here, but suffice to say the film and song are pretty much instantly recognisable to Russians of my generation, and many Russian men my age had their first crush on Alisa Seleznyova.
The title of the song translates roughly as "Far-away Beauty", or "Distant Beauty". Прекрасное doesn't translate *very* well - it's literally "In the presence of beauty". When we were, for example, in Suzdal, we went to one of the monasteries (I forget which) and were honored to hear a 3-man acapella group singing an old Russian plainchant, in a 400 year old church covered with beautiful, classic Russian ikons. And at the end of the song, an old Russian woman exclaimed "Прекрасное". So it's "Beauty", but somewhat emotionally charged. Далеко, however, translates very easily - "far from", or "distant".
So today's *actual* Russian of the Day, now that you have the background, is the verb "Слышать" (slishat') - to hear (the perfective form is "Услышать" (uslishat')). It's a second conjugation verb[0], and conjugates as follows:
Я слышу (Ya slishu - I hear)
Ты слышишь (Ti slishish - you hear)
Она слышит (Ona slishit - she hears)
Мы слышим (Mi slishim - we hear)
Вы слышите (Vi slishite - you (plural or formal) hear)
Они слышат (Oni slishat - they hear)
The past tense is absolutely normal - слышал (slishal), слышала, слышало, слышали. The imperative forms are слышь and слышьте, but they are uncommon, given that you can order someone to *listen*, but not so much to hear.
Apropos, this is an example of one of the Russian verb "pairs" - the verb "to listen" is слушать (slushat') (послушать), although that's first conjugation. Personally, I can only hear the difference in the ending - I know this has to be "слышать" because in the song it's "слышу", not "слушаю". I really can't hear the distinction between "слы" and "слу" in the stem..
So there you go. The verb "to hear".
Tomorrow, the noun "голос". Dear people who speak only English - yes, I can spend an entire post on a noun :) (unless we stop for a brief detour into perfective vs imperfective verbs, but we might wait and see if a perfective crops up).
[0] I *think* the "-у" first person ending makes it a slight exception to the conjugation, but it's a very common exception, and really doesn't change much.
(ROTD disclaimer: I Am Not A Russian. If being embarrassed in front of Actual Russians might bother you, check with an Actual Russian before using anything you learn here. I will give you a heads up, though - "сучка" does not mean "my sweet". I learned that one the hard way so you don't have to.)
I think I'm going to start by going through the quote in my sidebar. It's from the song "Прекрасное Далеко" (and interestingly, I can't find the e-with-an-umlaut that I need for Далеко, but (and Certain People may correct me here) I think it's often left out in written Russian. Everyone just knows). That's "Prekrasnoe Dalyoko", for those of you who don't read Cyrillic (the umlaut makes it explicitly "yo" as opposed to Dal*ye*ko), and it's the theme song to a film called "Гостья из Будущего" - "Gosta iz budushevo", or "Guest from the future". IMDB is your friend here, but suffice to say the film and song are pretty much instantly recognisable to Russians of my generation, and many Russian men my age had their first crush on Alisa Seleznyova.
The title of the song translates roughly as "Far-away Beauty", or "Distant Beauty". Прекрасное doesn't translate *very* well - it's literally "In the presence of beauty". When we were, for example, in Suzdal, we went to one of the monasteries (I forget which) and were honored to hear a 3-man acapella group singing an old Russian plainchant, in a 400 year old church covered with beautiful, classic Russian ikons. And at the end of the song, an old Russian woman exclaimed "Прекрасное". So it's "Beauty", but somewhat emotionally charged. Далеко, however, translates very easily - "far from", or "distant".
So today's *actual* Russian of the Day, now that you have the background, is the verb "Слышать" (slishat') - to hear (the perfective form is "Услышать" (uslishat')). It's a second conjugation verb[0], and conjugates as follows:
Я слышу (Ya slishu - I hear)
Ты слышишь (Ti slishish - you hear)
Она слышит (Ona slishit - she hears)
Мы слышим (Mi slishim - we hear)
Вы слышите (Vi slishite - you (plural or formal) hear)
Они слышат (Oni slishat - they hear)
The past tense is absolutely normal - слышал (slishal), слышала, слышало, слышали. The imperative forms are слышь and слышьте, but they are uncommon, given that you can order someone to *listen*, but not so much to hear.
Apropos, this is an example of one of the Russian verb "pairs" - the verb "to listen" is слушать (slushat') (послушать), although that's first conjugation. Personally, I can only hear the difference in the ending - I know this has to be "слышать" because in the song it's "слышу", not "слушаю". I really can't hear the distinction between "слы" and "слу" in the stem..
So there you go. The verb "to hear".
Tomorrow, the noun "голос". Dear people who speak only English - yes, I can spend an entire post on a noun :) (unless we stop for a brief detour into perfective vs imperfective verbs, but we might wait and see if a perfective crops up).
[0] I *think* the "-у" first person ending makes it a slight exception to the conjugation, but it's a very common exception, and really doesn't change much.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-25 04:03 am (UTC)JgVouNFSgzZM
Date: 2011-08-09 01:38 am (UTC)