Learn how to use modal adverbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dana: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 6 - Romanian Business Negotiations. Dana Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Dana: In this lesson, you’ll learn about modal adverbs. The conversation takes place in the office. |
| Mihai: It's between Petru Mareș and Bogdan. |
| Dana: The speakers are co-workers; therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bogdan: Deci, Petru, înțeleg că stăm cât de cât bine cu proiecțiile pe anul acesta, nu? |
| Petru Mareș: Da, stăm binișor. Cu siguranță mai este loc de îmbunătățit, însă cred că împreună ne putem atinge ținta pe acest an. |
| Bogdan: Perfect. Din acest motiv am convocat această ședință. Aș vrea să facem împreună un plan de cum să îi implicăm pe toți din echipa ta să colaboreze mai bine pentru a ne atinge planul și, de ce nu, pentru a-l depăși. |
| Petru Mareș: Atât cât se poate, ne vom da silința să iasă bine. |
| Bogdan: De ce alte resurse ai avea tu nevoie, ca manager, ca să se întâmple astea? |
| Petru Mareș: Păi, ar fi vorba de un buget crescut pentru deplasările în teren ale vânzătorilor, atunci când merg la clienții din provincie. |
| Bogdan: Bun. Am notat. Cât crezi că ar însemna asta din punct de vedere procentual față de bugetul actual? |
| Petru Mareș: Maxim 20 la sută, nicidecum mai mult de atât. |
| Bogdan: Ok. Așa cum am promis, voi face tot posibilul să vă sprijin. Desigur, depinde și de managerul național de vânzări. |
| Petru Mareș: Am înțeles bine că nu va mai fi domnul Stroe în funcție și vine cineva nou? |
| Dana: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Bogdan: So, Petru, I understand we're somewhat as projected for this year, right? |
| Petru Mareș: Yes, we are pretty good. There is certainly room for improvement, but I think that together we can reach our target this year. |
| Bogdan: Perfect. This is why I convened this meeting. I would like to make a plan with you for how we can engage your team to work better to reach our plan and how to overcome it. |
| Petru Mareș: As much as we can, we will do our best to come out well. |
| Bogdan: What other resources do you need, as a manager, to make this happen? |
| Petru Mareș: Well, it would be an increased budget for sellers' field trips for when they go to customers in the province. |
| Bogdan: Good. Noted. How much do you think that would mean in terms of a percentage of the current budget? |
| Petru Mareș: A maximum of 20 percent, no more than that. |
| Bogdan: Okay. As I promised, I will do my best to support you. Of course, it depends also on the national sales manager. |
| Petru Mareș: Did I hear correctly that Mr. Stroe will not be in this position anymore, and that somebody new will be appointed? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dana: We heard a business meeting in this lesson. They were trying to improve the performance of Petru’s team. |
| Mihai: Yes. One of the best ways to do that would be through more training, I think. |
| Dana: Yeah, on the job, continuous training is important. Many jobs require this because they change so much. |
| Mihai: It is especially important in Romania. As compared to other EU countries, the Romanian education system isn’t doing so well. |
| Dana: How so? |
| Mihai: Well, for example the dropout rate was 18.5% in 2016, compared to 10.7% in the EU as a whole. |
| Dana: How about adult training? I know that the rate of adults that do training in the EU is 10.8% and increasing. What is it in Romania? |
| Mihai: It’s only 1.2%. In Romania, companies only really invest in adult education if there is either a tax incentive for it, or to offer training to young people in entry level positions. |
| Dana: What about the workers themselves? Do they pursue their own training? |
| Mihai: Sometimes they do. Some workers will find their own training courses and try to talk their employers into funding it. |
| Dana: If the training will help them do their day to day job, it in turn helps the company. |
| Mihai: Right. It might be worth funding. |
| Dana: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dana: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: cât [natural native speed] |
| Dana: how |
| Mihai: cât [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cât [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: binișor [natural native speed] |
| Dana: pretty good |
| Mihai: binișor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: binișor [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: țintă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: target |
| Mihai: țintă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: țintă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a convoca [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to convene |
| Mihai: a convoca [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a convoca [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a implica [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to engage |
| Mihai: a implica [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a implica [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: silință [natural native speed] |
| Dana: effort |
| Mihai: silință [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: silință [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: provincie [natural native speed] |
| Dana: province |
| Mihai: provincie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: provincie [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: crescut [natural native speed] |
| Dana: increased |
| Mihai: crescut [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: crescut [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: deplasare [natural native speed] |
| Dana: trip |
| Mihai: deplasare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: deplasare [natural native speed] |
| Dana: And last... |
| Mihai: procentual [natural native speed] |
| Dana: percentage |
| Mihai: procentual [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: procentual [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Dana: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Mihai: cât de cât |
| Dana: meaning "somewhat" |
| Dana: This is a compound modal adverb. |
| Mihai: It is composed of a double adverb cât "how" united by the preposition de "of.” |
| Dana: It literally translates as “how of how,” but we say “somewhat.” It means that we hope this little is enough. |
| Mihai: Yes, it has a hopeful meaning, so you wouldn’t use it with negative words such as “bad” or “wrong.” |
| Dana: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Am înțeles cât de cât clar ce își dorește de la mine. |
| Dana: ...which means "I understand somewhat clearly what he wants from me." |
| Dana: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Mihai: a(-și) da silința |
| Dana: meaning "to do his best" |
| Dana: This is a verbal phrase. |
| Mihai: First is the pronominal reflexive verb a(-și) da, which means "to give (oneself)." Then is silința. |
| Dana: This is a feminine singular noun that means “effort.” The literal translation is “to give oneself effort,” but we can say “to do one’s best.” |
| Mihai: You can use it to refer to someone that works hard to meet a specific aim. |
| Dana: Is this a formal expression? |
| Mihai: It’s informal. A more formal version is a depune efort. |
| Dana: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Petre și-a dat silința să ne învețe cum să atragem clienții. |
| Dana: ... which means "Peter gave his best to teach us how to attract customers." |
| Dana: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dana: In this lesson, you'll learn about modal adverbs. |
| Dana: Adverbs are words that usually accompany verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They can be classified by their form, meaning, and correlation. |
| Mihai: Some adverbs can be compared to each other when describing different actions (verbs), qualities of actions (adverbs) or traits (adjectives). |
| Dana: To do this, we use words like “more” |
| Mihai: mai |
| Dana: “very” |
| Mihai: foarte |
| Dana: or “extremely” |
| Mihai: extrem de. |
| Dana: To use positive degree adverbs, they don’t need any other supplements or comparisons. |
| Mihai: For example, Am ajuns devreme. |
| Dana: “I arrived early.” Comparative degree adverbs indicate a relation between elements. |
| Mihai: For example, Dansează mai bine decât el. |
| Dana: “He dances better than him.” The superlative degree shows that something is of the highest, or lowest, degree. |
| Mihai: For example, Ei au primit cel mai puțin dintre toți concurenții. |
| Dana: “They received the least from all the competitors.” We can use modal adverbs or phrasal verbs to express multiple aspects. Let’s hear some example sentences. |
| Mihai: Să ne zici de când ai ajuns și când plănuiești să pleci. |
| Dana: “Let us know how long ago you arrived and when do you plan to leave.” |
| Mihai: Nu l-a mai văzut niciodată de atunci pe Paul. |
| Dana: “She has never seen Paul since.” We can also use correlative adverbs such as “where.” |
| Mihai: That is acolo unde. Țara mea este acolo unde mă simt ca acasă. |
| Dana: “My country is where I feel like home.” A common correlative adverb of time that is used is “at once.” |
| Mihai: deodată cu. A venit la masă deodată cu mine și am mai apucat să stăm puțin de vorbă despre proiect. |
| Dana: “He came to the table with me at once, and we started talking about the project.” There are also correlative modal adverbs, such as “such that.” |
| Mihai: astfel încât. Vorbea astfel încât să nu fie auzit de vecinii care i-au făcut deseori reclamație. |
| Dana: “He spoke softly such that he would not be heard by the neighbors who often complained to him.” |
Outro |
| Dana: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Mihai: La revedere. |
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