Уро́к 2
2.6 Grammar: Говори́ть (to speak) – continued …
Люби́мая Грамма́тика
More about that verb ‘Speak’
You just saw the conjugation for the verb говори́ть – to speak
Let’s look at this verb and how it’s used a little closer.
One very important verb for this unit is the verb meaning ‘to speak’-говори́ть. It is a second conjugation verb, meaning that the vowel и will occur in all persons (as opposed to the e/ё vowel in the first conjugation verbs, like рабо́тать and жить. The first person singular “я” form will end in ю, and the 3rd person plural “они” form will end in я –unless the stem ends in a consonant that requires alternate spelling.
| говори́ть – to speak |
|
|---|---|
| Я говор-ю́. ‘I speak.’ |
Мы говор-и́м. ‘We speak.’ |
| Ты говор-и́шь. ‘You speak.’ |
Вы говор-и́те. ‘You all speak.’ |
| Он / она говор-и́т ‘He / She speaks.’ |
Они говор-я́т ‘They speak.’ |
To say that a person speaks a particular language, we use specific adverbial forms beginning with по-, as shown in the following examples, and which translates as ‘in the style of’. Посмотри́те видео. Watch. I give a whole lot of examples and you can hear how it all sounds:
Например:
Я говорю́ по-англи́йски. ‘I speak English.’
Ты говори́шь по-ру́сски? ‘Do you speak Russian?’
Мой муж говори́т по-че́шски. ‘My husband speaks Czech.’
Мы не говори́м по-кита́йски. ‘We don’t speak Chinese.’
*NOTE: to say ‘DON’T do something > use ‘не’ + the verb in Russian!
Вы говори́те по-неме́цки? ‘Do you (all) speak German?’
Ее родители говоря́т по-коре́йски. ‘Her parents speak Korean.’
В Канаде говоря́т по-англи́йски и по-францу́зски.
‘In Canada (people) speak English and French.’
-or-
‘English and French are spoken in Canada.’
The Russian literally means something, like ‘speak in the style of English / Russian / Czech / Chinese / German / Korean. Most of these adverbs used to describe languages are cognates, and they should be fairly easy to learn. The ones you are responsible for for this unit are listed in your Словарь for this unit.
