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Welcome to episode 20 &#8211; the final exam. You should feel proud for having made it this far. It&#8217;s a small course, but still&#8230;you put in the time and effort. After this exam you should treat yourself to something..I recommend Russian blini. Ever try them? Блины are basically crepes—very thin pancakes, usually filled with some jelly or sweet cheese inside. They&#8217;re a Russian delicacy. In fact, try to say&#8230;



I
want to cook (or, more literally, &#8216;prepare&#8217;) blini.



Я
хочу приготовить блины.



Speaking
of popular Russian foods, have you ever tried пельмени?
They&#8217;re basically dumplings filled with meat&#8230;usually pork.
Here&#8217;s the word again. пельмени 




So
try to say: I want to cook dumplings.



Я
хочу приготовить пельмени.



With
two words, ask your roommate: Want shishkabob?



Хочешь
шашлык?



Want
dumplings?



Хочешь
пельмени?



He
shrugs and says the Russian word for, Okay.



Хорошо.



Moving
on: Try to say: My mother lives in Odessa.



Моя
мама живёт в Одессе.



My
dad lives in Kharkov.



Мой
папа живёт в Харькове.



Anastasia
is traveling to Dubai.



Анастасия
едет в Дубай.



I&#8217;m
traveling to Munich.



Я
еду в Мюнхен.



Speaking
of traveling, say: In New York I want to see Times Square.



В
Нью Йорке я хочу увидеть Таймс
Сквер.



Quick
quiz on voicing and devoicing. Imagine these three Russian letters:
В-С-Е



How
will that word be pronounced? Will the &#8216;В&#8217;
be voiced?



все



It
was devoiced because, if you remember that pattern, the last letter
in a cluster determines whether your vocal cords are involved. Right?
So, since the &#8216;S&#8217; sound (С) is naturally devoiced, it affects the
&#8220;v&#8221; sound that comes before it. So not &#8220;V-syeh&#8221;
but an &#8220;F&#8221; sound: Fsyeh




And
we&#8217;re going to need that word, which means &#8220;all&#8221;, in this
next sentence.



I
want to see all the main tourist sites in Paris. 




Я
хочу увидеть все
достопримечательности в Париже



Try
that again. I want to see all the main tourist sites in Amsterdam.



Я
хочу увидеть все
достопримечательности в
Амстердаме.



I
think that was the longest sentence in the whole course.



In
your studies, you&#8217;ve probably encountered the word кафе,
which is how Russians pronounce cafe. So try to say: I&#8217;m going
to the cafe. (implying, on foot)



Я
иду в кафе.



Now
that word we use for &#8220;to&#8221; the cafe&#8230;it&#8217;s the letter В.
But was it voiced or no? Say the phrase again: I&#8217;m going to the cafe.



Я
иду в кафе.



So
it was devoiced. But why? Because the letter that follows, the &#8216;k&#8217; of
cafe is naturally devoiced. And even though it&#8217;s a separate word, in
Russian, prepositions like &#8220;to, from, for&#8221; and so on, are
treated as if they are part of the word that follows. We do that in
English too, right? We say:



I&#8217;m
going t&#8217;McDonalds. We don&#8217;t say: I&#8217;m going **to** McDonalds.
The word &#8220;to&#8221; basically gets absorbed into the beginning of
McDonalds.



Say:
I&#8217;m going to the park.



Я
иду в парк.



Again,
&#8216;В&#8217; is devoiced because of the &#8216;П&#8217;
in парк. Now say&#8230;



I&#8217;m
going to Burger King.



Я
иду в Бургер Кинг. 




There,
the &#8216;В&#8217; is voiced&#8230;В
Бургер Кинг&#8230;because the &#8216;Б&#8217;
in Бургер is naturally voiced.



How
will your friend ask: Where is Burger King located?



Где
находится Бургер Кинг?



Tell
her: Burger King is located downtown.



Бургер
Кинг находится в центре.



Let&#8217;s
try this. Two phrases: I&#8217;m going to the cafe. I want dumplings.



Я
иду в кафе. Я хочу пельмени.



The
word for a mini-market in Russian is an easy cognate. Listen&#8230;



мини-маркет



So
try this: I want yogurt. I&#8217;m going to the mini-market.



Я
хочу йогурт. Я иду в мини-маркет.



Before
the word мини-маркет&#8230;was that В
voiced?



I
want a magazine. I&#8217;m going to the mini-market.



Я
хочу журнал. Я иду в мини-маркет.



Next&#8230;Try
to say: Taras was in St. Petersburg.



Тарас
был в Санкт-петербурге.



Imagine
that your friend is a violinist and she, somehow, misplaced her
instrument. It&#8217;s not in the car, not in the hotel&#8230;and then she
finds it. How will she say: 




The
violin was in the theater.



Скрипка
была в театре.



Of
course, because Скрипка ends with an
&#8220;ah&#8221; sound, making it feminine, she used the feminine past
tense—была—to match. (Or to rhyme,
really.)



Let&#8217;s
try that phrase again, but add an expression of relief. 




Thank
God. The violin was in the theater.



Слава
Богу! Скрипка была в театре.



Next:
How do we convey the idea that: I like rock&#8230;as in, rock music.



To
me&#8230;.is pleasing&#8230;.rock.



Мне
нравится рок.



Say:
I like jazz.



Мне
нравится джаз.



The
final letter was a Z (З), which is
normally voiced. But, being at the end of the word, Russians devoice
it.



Say:
I really like jazz. To me&#8230;very pleasing&#8230;jazz.



Мне
очень нравится джаз.



One
last example of devoicing the final consonant&#8230;What&#8217;s the Russian
version of Oh, my God?



О,
мой Бог.



That
final letter is a G (Г)&#8230;normally
voiced as.&#8217;guh&#8217;&#8230; but that&#8217;s the pattern in Russian. They get
devoiced at the end of a word.



Speaking
of endings&#8230;We&#8217;re at the end, not only of this exam, but of the
whole course.



Hopefully,
though, this isn&#8217;t goodbye. I have two other podcasts that you can
get. 




Russian
Made Easy



&#8230;and
my newest one&#8230;



Understanding
Spoken Russian. 




Or, if you want to really speed things up, then I hope you&#8217;ll join my <a href="http://russianaccelerator.com/sign-up.html">Russian Accelerator course</a>. We&#8217;ll get you conversational in Russian in just a few months. See you soon!



До
встречи

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