Learn how to express negation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dana: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 7 - Exchanging an Item at a Romanian Store. Dana Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Dana: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express negation. The conversation takes place in a clothes store. |
| Mihai: It's between Maria Mareș and a salesperson. |
| Dana: The speakers are strangers in a customer service context; therefore, they will speak formal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Maria Mareș: Bună ziua. Am cumpărat o rochie de la dumneavoastră din magazin ieri și aș vrea să o schimb. Se poate? |
| Vânzător: Da, sigur. Haideți să vedem despre ce produs este vorba. |
| Maria Mareș: Aceasta este rochia. Fiicei mele îi place foarte mult, însă din păcate nu-i intră pe cap pentru că este prea strâmtă și am vrea să o schimbăm cu un număr mai mare. |
| Vânzător: Da. Avem însă o problemă. Pentru acel model era ultima bucată. Din păcate, nu mai avem și alte numere și n-o să vă putem ajuta. |
| Maria Mareș: A, ce păcat! Denisa n-o să fie prea fericită cu aceasta veste. Ce alte șanse mai avem? Mai sunt alte magazine din rețeaua dumneavoastră care ar putea să mai aibă modelul? |
| Vânzător: Stați puțin să verific în sistemul electronic. |
| Maria Mareș: Mulțumesc mult. Nu știu ce altceva am putea face cu produsul dacă nu se găsește o soluție. O să îmi spună că numai ei i se putea întâmpla asta. |
| Vânzător: Dar aveți și opțiunea de a înlocui cu un alt produs de aceeași valoare. Nu vă atrage și un alt model de rochie? De exemplu, cel cu buline. |
| Maria Mareș: Nu sunt sigură. Haideți că mă uit prin magazin până aflați dumneavoastră cum este cu disponibilitatea produsului. |
| Vânzător: Da. Din păcate, nu mai avem acest model în stoc în niciun alt magazin. Îmi pare rău. |
| Dana: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Maria Mareș: Hello. I bought a dress from your store yesterday and I would like to exchange it. Is that possible? |
| Salesperson: Yes, sure. Let's see which product you are talking about. |
| Maria Mareș: This is the dress. My daughter loves it very much, but unfortunately it does not fit her head because it's too tight and we want to exchange it with a larger size. |
| Salesperson: Yes. But we have a problem. That model was the last piece. Unfortunately, we do not have any more items like this one and we will not be able to help you. |
| Maria Mareș: Oh, what a pity! Denisa will not be too happy with this news. What other chances do we have? Are there any other stores in your network that might have the model? |
| Salesperson: Just wait a minute. I’ll check the electronic system. |
| Maria Mareș: Thank you very much. I do not know what else we can do with the product unless a solution is found. She will tell me that this could only have happened to her. |
| Salesperson: But you also have the option of replacing it with another product of the same value. Don't you like any of our other dresses? For example, the one with polka dots. |
| Maria Mareș: I'm not sure. Let me look around the store until you find out the status of the product's availability. |
| Salesperson: Yes. Unfortunately, we do not have this model in stock anymore in any other store. I am sorry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dana: I think it is not always easy to find a present for daughters and sons as a parent. |
| Mihai: I think so too. But I think you can always find an easier way to find a gift for your sons and daughters. |
| Dana: You mean buying things online, right? |
| Mihai: Or you can ask them to pick what they want. Like other countries, teenagers in Romania are digital natives who are born with a smartphone, tablet, or computer in their hands. They know how to get by in the online environment. |
| Dana: I see. What would be the most valued gift that teenagers would like to get in Romania these days? |
| Mihai: I would say… technological devices such as phones. |
| Dana: I think it is a global trend. They also like to get connected with other friends on smart-phones, so that should be very necessary. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dana: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: a schimba [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to change |
| Mihai: a schimba [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a schimba [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: vorbă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: saying |
| Mihai: vorbă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: vorbă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: cu buline [natural native speed] |
| Dana: with polka dots |
| Mihai: cu buline [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cu buline [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: păcat [natural native speed] |
| Dana: mistake |
| Mihai: păcat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: păcat [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: șansă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: chance |
| Mihai: șansă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: șansă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: rețea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: network |
| Mihai: rețea [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: rețea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a verifica [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to check |
| Mihai: a verifica [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a verifica [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: strâmt [natural native speed] |
| Dana: tight |
| Mihai: strâmt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: strâmt [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: valoare [natural native speed] |
| Dana: value |
| Mihai: valoare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: valoare [natural native speed] |
| Dana: And last... |
| Mihai: disponibilitate [natural native speed] |
| Dana: availability |
| Mihai: disponibilitate [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: disponibilitate [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 phrase is... |
| Mihai: a fi vorba despre |
| Dana: meaning "to be about." First, we have the infinitive form of the verb |
| Mihai: a fi |
| Dana: which means "to be," then we have the feminine singular noun in articulated form |
| Mihai: vorba |
| Dana: meaning "the saying." |
| Miha: Then, we have the preposition despre meaning "about." |
| Dana: Altogether, it literally means "to be the saying about" or in plain English, "to be about." Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Este vorba despre un coleg de clasă de al meu care a întârziat la ore. |
| Dana: ...which means "It is about a classmate of mine who was late to class." |
| Dana: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Mihai: din păcate |
| Dana: meaning "unfortunately" |
| Mihai: This is an adverbial phrase composed of the preposition din which means "by" and the neuter plural noun păcate meaning "mistakes." |
| Dana: It literally translates as "by mistakes" and means "unfortunately." You can use it to suggest that a certain fact or action exists despite someone's interests or implies his or her regret. Mihai, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Am aflat că din păcate nu mai pot recupera acest curs. |
| Dana: It means "I found out that unfortunately I can not catch up in this course." |
| Dana: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mihai: Ce păcat! |
| Dana: meaning "What a pity!" |
| Dana: This is an exclamatory expression formed of the indefinite pronoun… |
| Mihai: ce |
| Dana: meaning "what" and the neuter singular noun |
| Mihai: păcat |
| Dana: meaning "mistake." The literal translation would be "What mistake!" and the meaning is "What a pity!" or "What a shame!" You can use it to express someone's feelings of compassion mixed with regret about a specific situation. |
| Dana: It can be used either independently as an exclamatory sentence or at the beginning of a sentence when followed by the conjunction |
| Mihai: că, or "that." |
| Mihai:. For example, you can say... Ce păcat că nu a venit și Andreea cu noi! S-ar fi distrat de minune. |
| Dana: ... which means "What a pity Andreea did not come with us! She'd have a great time." |
| Dana: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dana: In this lesson, you will learn how to express negation. First, let’s check the way to use negative pronouns and negative pronominal adjectives. |
| Mihai: The negative pronoun can be used only in negative sentences that include the particle nu or n which means "not." |
| Dana: Negative pronouns can be simple for example… |
| Mihai: nimeni |
| Dana: "nobody" or it can be a compound, for example… |
| Mihai: nicio |
| Dana: meaning "no." There are some other negative pronouns and you can find them in the PDF notes. Make sure to check them out. So when a negative pronoun or a pronominal adjective is used, you need to put them before the word meaning "not" right? |
| Mihai: That’s right. The order should be an adjective, plus nu meaning “not”, plus verb. For example… Nimănui nu îi place să fie trezit la patru dimineața. |
| Dana: "Nobody likes to be awake at four in the morning." |
| Mihai: We have the negative pronoun Nimănui first, then the word nu, before we have the verb. |
| Dana: OK. What’s the other way to make negation? |
| Mihai: You can use pronouns in negative verbal structures. |
| Dana: I know there are two types of pronominal verbs - dative case and accusative case. |
| Mihai: That’s right. And with accusative case, it is easy as you need to put the word nu meaning "not" right in front of the particle, such as mă or te. |
| Dana: Can you give us an example? |
| Mihai: Sure. mă interesează means "I am interested in." If you want to make it as a negative sentence, such as "I am not interested in..." you simply need to add the word nu in front of the particle mă, so it becomes nu mă interesează. |
| Dana: But what about dative verbs? They have more complicated rules, right? |
| Mihai: That’s right. So we added the chart showing how to conjugate them for each case in the lesson notes so that you can easily understand how to negate sentences. |
| Dana: Next, we have the way to use double pronouns pronominal verbs. There are also cases of double pronouns pronominal verbs with one pronoun in dative and one in genitive. |
| Mihai: In these cases, the verb in the reflexive form takes only the third person situation of the subject, either singular or plural. |
| Dana: For example? |
| Mihai: a i se părea |
| Dana: which means "to seem", and |
| Mihai: a i se întâmpla |
| Dana: "to happen to." These rules might be complicated, so listeners, make sure to check out our PDF notes so that you can fully understand how to negate sentences in Romanian. |
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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