Thread: Johanna's Progress..

I will write some sentences using new words and expressions that I have learnt.
If you have a few minutes please would you help me to check spelling and grammar?
I hope to be able to write gradually more complicated sentences and communicate in Russian.

If anybody laughs at me or is nasty, be warned, I will TRASH your English.... Hehe!
But I will correct any English mistakes that I see in this thread.

I am waiting for an order that I have placed for some Swedish-Russian grammar books -- in the meantime I just learning sentences from all over the place, as I come across them.. Trying to learn grammar the natural way. But it's irritating not to have a formal grammar reference.

Каждый день я готовлю завтрак.
[Every day I make breakfast]

Я забыла купить муку.
[I forgot to buy flour]

Коричневая корзина под столом.
[The brown basket is under the table]

Моё имя по-русски -- Юханна
[My name in Russian is... ]

Это всё! До скорой встречи!
[That's all! See you later!]
(This is a weird way of saying see you later! "Until quick meeting??" Is this commonly used? )

.

Каждый день я _готовлю завтрак.
[Every day I make breakfast]

Я забыла купить муку.
[I forgot to buy flour]

Коричневая корзина под столом.
[The brown basket is under the table]

Моё имя на русском -- "Юханна"
[My name in Russian is... ]

Это всё! До скорой встречи!
[That's all! See you later!]

(This is a weird way of saying see you later! "Until quick meeting??" Is this commonly used? )

Until quick meeting? Is it normally sounds in English? I'd say "see you soon", but "see you later" is also ok.

Thank you so much delog!
Not a very impressive beginning by me...

I will update my sentences with your corrections.

Until quick meeting? Is it normally sounds in English? I'd say "see you soon", but "see you later" is also ok.

No, no, you don't say that... I was just trying to figure out (understand) which English expression it sounded the most like.

Also, this sentence was wrong

Is it normally sounds in English?

I think you wanted to say "Does this sound normal in English?

Thanks for the corrections!

Originally Posted by Johanna

Каждый день я [s:2zzoqgoe]пре[/s:2zzoqgoe]готовлю завтрак.

There are differences between prefixes «пре-» and «при-». The first is used rarer (usually with adjectives) and means «очень» and «пере-»: Right now, I can recall only few verbs with «пре-»: прейти (not прийти), презреть, превосходить, превозмогать, преодолевать. The verb «приготовить» is not used in present time.

Originally Posted by Johanna

Я забыла купить муку

Only object (in this sentence: я, I) can be in nominative case.

Originally Posted by Johanna

Коричневая корзина под столом.

The preposition «под» points to instrumental case.

Originally Posted by Johanna

Моё имя по-русски -- Юханна

The word «имя» is an exception, it’s neutral. Short adjectives, which is ending by «-ски» have not the letter й. Only titles is putted into quotes.

Originally Posted by Johanna

Это всё! До скорой встречи!

It's right.

Originally Posted by Johanna

This is a weird way of saying see you later! "Until quick meeting??" Is this commonly used?

In informal speech just "До встречи", "Пока".

Originally Posted by Johanna

Это всё! До скорой встречи!
[That's all! See you later!]
(This is a weird way of saying see you later! "Until quick meeting??" Is this commonly used? )

"Скорый" doesn't mean "quick" here (it can mean "quick", but not in this partcular construction). It is more like "prompt", but not precisely "prompt" either. It means "occuring/taking place soon, in immediate future". "До скорой встречи!" and its more colloquial version "До скорого" are indeed very common. It is like the French phrase "À bientôt".

Thank you so much for the thorough explanations Звездочёт!

You are incredibly good at formal grammar! Are you a teacher or a university student?

I feel silly to have made so many mistakes in simple sentences.
But all beginnings are hard... I will keep at it even if I'm not particularly naturally gifted.

Originally Posted by Звездочёт

I can recall only few verbs with «пре-»: прийти (not придти)

and not прейти

Originally Posted by Johanna

I think you wanted to say "Does this sound normal in English?

Thanks, I don't know, what I wanted to say, more precisely what I have really said, but probably you are right.

Originally Posted by Johanna

I will update my sentences with your corrections.

I suggest you not to do that because you can re-read them later so that it helps you to avoid making the same mistakes again. I can't explain it better, but when I started to communicate in the Italian Lounge, I corrected all my posts first, but later, when I was re-reading them, I regretted a lot that they were corrected, and I couldn't see my original variant. So I couldn't see my original mistakes, and I didn't like it.

Originally Posted by Johanna

You are incredibly good at formal grammar! Are you a teacher or a university student?

No, I’m not a teacher, and no longer a student. I just have a technical education, so I feel structures and formulas better. Grammar gives me a possibility to feel a structure of a sentence, to see its skeleton and a core, an essence, and makes internal life of a sentence clear for me.

Originally Posted by delog

Originally Posted by Звездочёт

I can recall only few verbs with «пре-»: прийти (not придти)

and not прейти

No, I said what I wanted. «Прейти» means «пройти», «истечь». For example: «Истинно говорю вам: не прейдёт род сей, как все сие будет. Небо и земля прейдут, но слова Мои не прейдут» (the Bible).

Just an update on my progress.

I have definitely made progress since I last posted here.
Now I am able to listen to the radio and understand what they say in between the songs.

I was so surprised to realise that, and very pleased indeed!

We cannot get normal Russian radio here in the UK, or any Russian TV channels at all, so I have to listenn online.

I listened to two radio stations that I came across by chance but which were useful because they only play Russian music. The ones I found were Nashe Radio which can be accessed through iTunes (Itunes access is good!). The other was Radio Moskva - that cannot be accessed through iTunes. If you know of a good Russian-only radio station please let me know!

I was terribly pleased when I heard the presenter talk about events that were taking place in Moscow and telling people how to get tickets etc.

Russian to me has been a mysterious and incomprehensible language for as long as I can remember. I have known exactly what it sounds like since I was a kid - but what is being said is a complete mystery! It is never possible to guess... Right now it is like the "door is opening".

I haven't been spending a lot of time cramming grammar yet, but I have memorised a fair number of words and phrases - perhaps 1000-1500.
I could defininitely have a simple conversation with a stranger about things like the weather, where I come from, family, work etc.

I am determined to finish the Pimsleur course - simply because I started it - I know the quality is questionable.

I have my Swedish grammar book and a pretty good school course and I have started working through them. I am also using Anki (flashcard system) a lot.

I want to be careful that I don't turn studying Russian into a boring chore - I want it to remain fascinating and fun. That's why I keep visiting this forum.

More soon!

http://www.deti.fm/ - the great radio

Here is The Russian radio (Русское радио). All the songs in Russian. It has on-line broadcast. http://www.rusradio.ru/onlineradio/
You can find some lyric for Russian songs here http://megalyrics.ru/site/songs.htm. There are translation there (mostly from English into Russian). The best way to find lyric is using of "найти" field (it is in the right bottom side of the web page).
Here are some lyrics as well http://mirpesen.com/ru