Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 4

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* NOTE *

All phrases intended for translating/listening practice have been deleted.

Welcome to Episode #4 of Understanding Spoken Russian. Let’s jump right to our new word for today. мой We’ve heard versions of it in prior episodes, but today we’ll officially add it to our core vocabulary. Let’s look at it in context. If Sophia is eating popcorn, and you try to take it away from her, she’ll scream…

If William is playing with his toy cars, just try taking one away from him!

And if Andrei, our five yr old, is drinking milk…well, don’t take it from him, either. Or else…

So the words мой моя моё…they’re all forms of the same word…and they all translate as My.

Imagine Sophia has lost two of her toys. Her… динозаврик which is a “little dinosaur,” and her игрушка which is a toy. As she wanders the apartment looking for them, what do you think she’s saying?

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Or maybe she’s lost some clothing. Her wool свитер and her short-sleeved футболка.

Listen to those again. What are the genders?

Okay, so… what’s Sophia saying here?

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In Russian, the words for “my” and “your”—like, this is my salad, and that’s your salad—they’re adjectives. And because they’re adjectives, they, too, have to rhyme or “agree” with the noun.

Granted, the masculine МОЙ doesn’t really rhyme with the nouns динозаврик свитер грейпфрут,

but the other forms rhyme. Even the plural.

So, we got МОЙ…Let’s see if we can guess what this word means: ТВОЙ

Imagine William is sitting in front of a mound of toys and is sorting them into two piles as Sophia watches. Let’s stand in the doorway and listen…

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So, what do you think твой and твоя mean? They’re forms of “your.” And notice how мой rhymes with твой…just as моя rhymes with твоя and моё with твоё

Anyway, now Sophia will go through the two piles and confirm whose toy is whose. This time, try to translate what she says. And if you’re not sure what the toy is, just say something like:

“And this is your…masculine noun.” Ready?

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Although they have a lot of forms, these adjectives for my and your are so common, you won’t need to actively study them. They’ll sink in naturally with lots of exposure.

So, how would you translate the following two phrases…

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Easy enough, right? Now brace yourself. Here comes a massive grammar point. Listen to this…

(monster movie scream) Now wait a second! I was positive that the word for guitar was гитара.

Alexei, can you please say: This is my guitar.

Это моя гитара.

And I’m positive the word for car is just машина. Alex, how do you say: Is this your car?

Это твоя машина?

So what’s going on here? Well, as we already know, the ends of Russian words change depending on how they’re used. We know that from the very first lesson. Take the word парк (a park).

If you’re headed towards it, it keeps its basic form. Я иду в парк. But if you’re located in the park, it has to change its ending: Я сейчас в парке.

Well, in Russian, whenever you do something to a feminine noun, its “ah” ending changes to an “u” sound. I don’t normally request this, but would you mind repeating that point with me?