Sentence Structure in Russian. Questions – Lesson 8 – Russian Language Lessons

Привет, друзья! Как дела? I hope you're doing great. And welcome to the new lesson. Today we're gonna talk about word order and questions in Russian. And by word order I mean how to make sentences in Russian. So here we go. I'm sure some of you have already heard that word order in Russian is flexible, meaning that you can take any word, put it anywhere in the sentence, and the meaning will stay the same. On the one hand, yes, that's right, you can put words in different positions, but I want you to remember that it's not random. It is not random. It depends on the context, on emotions that are involved in the process, so it's not random. And I will explain you what to do with this. First let's take some example in English. She is a teacher, for example. Who might that be? A teacher. Okay, she's a teacher. You can't just randomly switch places, positions, not here. The sentence wouldn't make any sense, or you will sound like Yoda. A teacher, she is a... It doesn't sound natural, okay? So what about Russian? In Russian you can do this, you can change the positions of words. So let's take a sentence МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ. I hope you are writing with me. МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ. Don't forget about double S here. Guess what? My profession, right? МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ УЧИТЕЛЬ. A teacher. МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ УЧИТЕЛЬ, МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ УЧИТЕЛЬ. Right? So here I'm gonna explain you how it depends on the context and emotions. Yes, first we can say like this МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ УЧИТЕЛЬ. I can say it in some general situation, for example, I'm introducing myself officially. I'm Daria, my profession is a teacher. Я ДАРИЯ, МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ УЧИТЕЛЬ. But, for example, when I'm being asked 100 times what's your profession, maybe somebody doesn't understand and asking me what's your profession? I'm sorry, is it an engineer? Is it a cosmonaut? Are you a president? And I'm getting angry and I'm saying УЧИТЕЛЬ, МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ. You see? I'm getting angry, so I'm emphasizing that it's a teacher. УЧИТЕЛЬ, МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ. Or something like a once-upon-a-time situation, you're telling some story, you may start УЧИТЕЛЬ, ПРОФЕССИЯ МОЯ, and bla-bla-bla-bla-bla, telling a story. So yes, you change those places of the words. Let's write it down. УЧИТЕЛЬ, ПРОФЕССИЯ МОЯ, ПРОФЕССИЯ МОЯ. УЧИТЕЛЬ, ПРОФЕССИЯ МОЯ. УЧИТЕЛЬ, МОЯ ПРОФЕССИЯ. So you see, it's not random. I can't be angry, well, I can, but all those small details, intonations, little contexts... that's why I don't recommend you dealing with this stuff at all. Now you may wonder why on earth have you been speaking about it for five minutes if we don't need that? Because unfortunately many people get confused with this idea of flexibility. It is flexible, it's not random, it's for native speakers, so don't play with this, don't mix those words. So let me explain a little bit more about the word order. Just like in most other languages, in Russian we have the standard basic word order too. This is SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT. SUBJECT does something to the OBJECT. In general, of course, there are different variations. For example, Я ЧИТАЮ. I hope you remember this verb. ЧИТАТЬ – to read. ЧИТАЮ КНИГУ. A book. I'm reading a book. Don't ask me about this ending У НА У. Now I'm sounding... making my Russian accent now. So it's all about cases. We will speak about cases, because don't worry, cases will be after you. Don't worry, they're coming just like winter. Cases are always coming when you deal with Russian, with learning Russian. So now don't look at the ending, just remember that SUBJECT – Я ЧИТАЮ. And OBJECT – КНИГУ. Я ЧИТАЮ КНИГУ. I'm reading what? I'm reading a book. So this basic word order, basic and most typical for the most languages. So if you are a beginner and even intermediate learner, stick with this. Don't try to to play with the word position and don't try to do it... it's advanced, it's for native speakers, okay? So it's much easier to stick with this subject-verb-object order. I hope you will remember this. Of course, you will certainly meet different word order in reading, in listening, so you will have to deal with it anyway. So a quick tip for you – NEW INFORMATION. Something you don't know yet usually goes to the ending, to the end of the sentence. Let me explain in a very short sentence. Я УЧИТЕЛЬ. I'm a teacher. You see, remember that in Russian we don't have the verb TO BE here. Я УЧИТЕЛЬ. No, it's just I teacher. You, robot, I teacher, right? So Я УЧИТЕЛЬ. So here the new information is УЧИТЕЛЬ. Probably this is the answer to the question WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU DO? WHAT'S YOUR PROFESSION? So I am a teacher. Я УЧИТЕЛЬ. So it was the question КТО ТЫ? Right? WHO ARE YOU? КТО ТЫ? A little dialogue. WHO ARE YOU? I'm a teacher. КТО ТЫ? Я УЧИТЕЛЬ. Я СПОРТСМЕН. Я КТО? МАТЕМАТИК. Я АКТРИСА. Я ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛЬ. Я МАШИНИСТ, ВОДИТЕЛЬ. Anybody. So just replace it with anything and just practice with professions. So WHO ARE YOU? I'm a teacher. The new information is this. But if we say УЧИТЕЛЬ, Я, УЧИТЕЛЬ, Я, this is this Yoda situation, a teacher is me, right? When can this happen? So you see, new information is here. It's in the end. So this probably answers the question WHO IS A TEACHER? КТО УЧИТЕЛЬ? There is a crowd and WHO IS A TEACHER? Actually, oh my goodness, this happened a lot to me. This happened a lot when I was teaching Russian history at the university, and I was like five years older than all of my students, and sometimes during the break somebody would come into the room, and I was somewhere in the end of the room, and they would say WHO'S THE PROFESSOR? WHERE IS THE PROFESSOR? And there I was, shorter than everyone else, and wearing my sneakers, and yeah, I was here! УЧИТЕЛЬ, Я, ПРОФЕССОР, Я. So it's kind of a real-life situation, happened all the time. Yeah, nobody believed me, I looked like a student. So, КТО УЧИТЕЛЬ? УЧИТЕЛЬ, Я. So remember this quick tip, it will help you in reading when you need to understand what's the main point, the main meaning of the sentence, you will start feeling that difference, that intonation of the sentence. Я УЧИТЕЛЬ or УЧИТЕЛЬ, Я. It can be anywhere. Remember, new information usually is in the last part of the sentence. Now let's get to questions in Russian. There are several types of questions, and one of them is so-called yes-no kind of questions, the worst type for interviews, but the best type for learning. You will ask why is it the best? Because it's super simple, and everything you need to do is to use your intonation. So it doesn't work in English again. Let's take another example. For example, I am, let's say, a human. All of a sudden. I am a human. I am a human, right? So to ask am I a human, you put this verb at the first position, and this is how you turn it to the question. I hope you understand. I am a human. Am I a human? Right? In Russian it's easier on the one hand, so let's write it down. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК. I don't need it here. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК. Actually, I think we should... I hope you got it. Now I'm gonna move here on the left, because I remember that terrible blind spot of the window. I can't... you ask me all the time why don't you get rid of this light here, because I can't. It will be all dark, and you won't be able to see anything, and... oh my goodness. Okay, so Я ЧЕЛОВЕК. I am a human being. ЧЕЛОВЕК. Actually, I think it's a new word for us, right? ЧЕЛОВЕК. So again I'm gonna be annoying and remind you about vowel reduction. Here Е, the last Е is stressed, so only this vowel is pronounced clear. ЧЕЛОВЕК. What happens with these two? First one sounds more like ЧИ. ЧЕЛОВЕК. ЧЕЛОВЕК. Ла-ла-ла-ла-ла. It's not ЧЕЛОВЕК. ЧЕЛОВЕК. Ла-ла-ла-ла-ла. Like La La Land. ЧЕЛОВЕК. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК. I'm a human. Oh, it's about questions. So in Russian, you don't need to put anything before Я, you just use your intonation. You ask Я ЧЕЛОВЕК? You hear that? Я ЧЕЛОВЕК. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК? So it's a question, and in reading, in writing, you will always show it with a question mark. You see? It's super simple. You turn that dot to a question mark, it becomes a question. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК? But here what's interesting, the difficult part of it... there is always a difficult part, nothing simple in Russian. The intonation is different, it's not like in English. In English, usually there is a question, there is some sentence-sentence going, and in the end you go up, and that's the question. That's the question. In Russian, no. In this example, yes, so this will sound like English intonation. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК? Like ты-ты-ты-ты. Repeat it to me. Я ЧЕЛОВЕК? ЧЕЛОВЕК? ЧЕЛОВЕК? But in other words, for example, let's say... Она ЖЕНЩИНА. She is a woman. Она ЖЕНЩИНА. She is a woman. If you don't know this word, write it down now. Она ЖЕНЩИНА. How do we turn it to a question? Yes, we put the question mark here, and it sounds АНА ЖЕНЩИНА. АНА ЖЕНЩИНА. Do you see that we don't say АНА ЖЕНЩИНА? No, like we would do in English. No, in Russian the stressed vowel goes up, like up to that stressing mark. АНА ЖЕНЩИНА. Repeat after me. You really need to feel this, because unfortunately so many people, they pronounce words correctly, but they bring their own language intonation into the Russian language, so they don't sound natural, and since the intonation here is the only way to show that it's a question, you really need to master it. So АНА ЖЕНЩИНА. Let's try with another example. He is a man. ОН МУЩИНА. If you missed some of the previous lessons, I explained the pronunciation of this word. МУЩИНА. It's like Ш. He is a man. So write down ЖЕНЩИНА woman, man – МУЩИНА. You don't say ОН МУЩИНА like in English. No, no, no. Here look at the stressed vowel. ОН МУЩИНА. And that's the question. Is he a man? Sometimes, yeah, we can have our doubts if it's a man or a woman. ОН МУЩИНА? ДА, ОН МУЩИНА. Or НЕТ, ЭТО ЖЕНЩИНА. That's a woman. ОНА ЖЕНЩИНА. What else? ОНИ... Wait a second. Let's say ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ. Friends. ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ. I hope you remember that it is an exception. Exception when it comes to plurals. Friends – ДРУЗЬЯ. ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ. Here it's easy because the last vowel is stressed. So how do we ask if they're their friends or not? Correct? ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ. Repeat after me. ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ. And actually you can say, no, they are enemies. And yeah, actually you should start learning vocabulary like this. You have some word, for example, ДРУГ – a friend. Look for the word with the opposite meaning, for example, an enemy, a foe. ВРАГ. And the plural is ВРАГИ. Like, ОНИ ДРУЗЬЯ? Нет, ОНИ ВРАГИ. And the one enemy is ВРАГ. So I hope you understood that you just turn the sentence to a question by adding the question mark and the right intonation. Let's look at more examples. Let's take an example with a girl. We had a woman. Let's say it's a girl. ДЕВУШКА. In Russian there is a hierarchy depending on age. The youngest one, the little girl, is ДЕВОЧКА. Again, pay attention to pronunciation. ДЕВОЧКА. The older one is ДЕВУШКА. And be careful with this, because it can also mean your girlfriend. For example, I want to find a girlfriend. Я ХОЧУ НАЙТИ ДЕВУШКУ. So girlfriend is ДЕВУШКА. And the older lady is ЖЕНЩИНА. The grown-up adult woman is ЖЕНЩИНА. We already have written it down. Okay, so ЭТО ДЕВУШКА. Turn it to a question now. ЭТО ДЕВУШКА. Right, because it's dressing go here. Okay, the next sentence about this girl. ЭТО ДЕВУШКА. ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. I hope you remember a verb. What's wrong with pronunciation? I hope you remember verbs. РАБОТАТЬ. To work. She's working. ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. Now turn it to a question. ОНА РАБОТАЕТ? Again, you don't say ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. No, we say ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. That's the question. Is she working or is she making her nails at her workplace? ОНА РАБОТАЕТ? Да, ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. Everything is fine, she's working, don't worry. ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. Or maybe what else? What else do we know? ОНА РАБОТАЕТ. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. Let's say it like this. This is her computer. ЭТО ЕЁ... Remember the possessive pronouns. I hope you remember. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. How do we change it to the question? ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. Here it's interesting that we want to emphasize usually different words. For example, let's add a question mark here. For example, there are several computers there, and you want to understand which one of those is hers. So you ask and emphasize the word HER computer. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. And we say yes or no. It's hers, it's not hers. If there is a group of computers, five computers, and you take one of them and ask IS THIS HER COMPUTER? ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. ЭТО or ЭТО. Maybe two computers. ЭТО or ЭТО. ЭТО или ЭТО. HER COMPUTER. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. That's the question. Or if you want to understand if it's a computer or it's a purse in a form of computer. I sound ridiculous, but anyway, let's imagine she has some strange-looking purse. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. Here you emphasize this YOU because it's stressed. КОМПЬЮТЕР. ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР? ДА, ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. It's not a purse, it's her computer. ДА, ЭТО ЕЁ КОМПЬЮТЕР. So if it's a long sentence, you understand what you want to emphasize, what exactly you're trying to ask, and in this word you emphasize that stressed vowel. I hope you practiced with me a little bit, and I want you to practice with all the materials you have from the previous lessons. And before it gets really dark... I've already changed the lighting a little bit. Before it gets dark, let's speak about another type of questions. The question with a special word. Just like in English, we have all those questions. WHERE? WHO? WHO? WHAT? Why? Why? We have them all in Russian too. So usually... Let's first write them down. The first one is ГДЕ. For example, ГДЕ ТЫ? Where are you? I hope there is no that window here, but it's pretty simple. And we can answer here. Let's learn this word. ЗДЕСЬ. For example, Я ЗДЕСЬ? It can work with any other examples. We can't speak about cases yet, but a pretty simple way to expand your speaking is use just those simple sentences. For example, ГДЕ ОН? He's here. ОН ЗДЕСЬ. If you want to say that he is over there somewhere, you can say ТАМ. He is here. He is there. Now you can practice with anything, with any nouns that we learned. Where is the book? And we already know the possessive pronouns, so let's make several dialogues. Like, I can say ГДЕ МОЯ КНИГА? Where is my book? And you answer ТВОЯ КНИГА ТАМ? On the table of that girl who's making doing nails. How do you say to manicure? That's what Russian girls like to do at work. Or where are my dragons? I don't know. Okay, so... Stupid Game of Thrones jokes. I can't believe it. Okay, so I hope you got the question where. That's all we need now, okay? Don't touch cases, for God's sake, don't touch cases. So where is ГДЕ? Who we already know is КТО. Anything. So practice with any nouns. Okay, WHAT. You already know it again. Remember that we pronounce it as ШТО. It's not ЧТО, it's ШТО, okay? So just remember it. Again, ЧТО ЭТО? Eraser. Now I know it in English, but don't know it in Russian. Okay, ШТО. And finally, WHY. WHY is ПОЧЕМУ. Again, ПОЧЕМУ. It's not ПОЧЕМУ, ПОЧЕМУ. You will sound, I don't know, Estonian-like. ПОЧЕМУ. Or ЗАЧЕМ. ЗАЧЕМ. There are two words, we will talk about them with more details. But ПОЧЕМУ is WHY, and ЗАЧЕМ has the meaning of kind of WHAT FOR. What have you done it for? Why did you do it? So ЗАЧЕМ, ПОЧЕМУ. Don't dwell on that too much now. I just wanted you to know that there are several types of questions. Because today we have just general information. Word order, I hope you remember. It's flexible, but not random. So stick with the basic structure. Subject, verb, object, right? So questions, yes and no questions, you just make with intonation. And you stress the stressed vowel. So you emphasize the stressed vowel. ЭТО УЧИТЕЛЬ. Okay, and questions with different special question words. There we'll be talking when it comes to cases. We will talk about all of them. That's it for today. You were complaining about lessons being too long, so I've decided to make it a little shorter. And the homework. The homework is practice. Practice, practice and practice. Check out the links below this video. I will put more examples, more words to my website. There is a list of the lessons, so you can go and practice there. And yeah, unfortunately I can't expand your vocabulary here every time, because I need to explain you this stuff. And you can google any nouns you want. So any word in English, in French, in your language you need, if it's a noun, google it. Google it, check out the translators. You can expand your vocabulary with nouns. And yeah, I guess that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the lesson. If you did, share with your friends who try to learn Russian. And if you have any questions, leave them below this video. I'll be happy to answer. Thank you very much for watching. I'm tired of speaking. I hope to see you next time. Bye-bye!