Unit quiz: Taken live: the phone and the messenger, the spoken story, humour, the ты and вы switch and a capstone exchange

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Question 1

A message reads «спс, пож скинь голосовое». Your Russian teacher says it is fine between friends and wrong in a letter to a landlord. Why?The three items are all compressed speech: спс is the written skeleton of спасибо (spa-SEE-ba), 'thanks', пож of пожалуйста (pa-ZHA-las-ta), 'please', and голосовое (ga-la-sa-VO-ye) is a clipped голосовое сообщение, 'voice message'; the whole line is peer-to-peer texting register, and it signals intimacy or haste, neither of which a landlord relationship grants.The line is wrong in both contexts because abbreviations are not words and Russian does not permit them in writing.

Question 2

A story begins «Представляешь, вчера стою на остановке, жду автобус...» (preet-stav-LYA-yesh, fchee-RA stoy-OO na a-sta-NOF-kye, zhdoo af-TO-boos). A learner retells the same events entirely in the past tense. What is lost?Nothing is lost, because Russian narrative always uses the past tense for past events and the present here is a learner error.The present-tense opening puts the listener inside the scene and marks the past-tense clauses that follow as the events; retelling everything in the past flattens scene and event into one timeline, so the listener no longer knows which details are background and which are plot.

Question 3

A Russian friend says «Ну ты чего» (noo ty chee-VO) after you refuse a third helping of cake. Is she offended?No. «Ну ты чего» here is mild mock reproach, roughly 'come on, what's wrong with you', and the expected reply is a smile plus a reason, «Я правда больше не могу» (ya PRAV-da BOL-she ne ma-GOO), 'I really can't manage any more'.Yes, «ну ты чего» is a serious reproach and the refusal has damaged the evening.

Question 4

Mid-conversation a manager who has been saying ты switches to вы: «Вы мне это обещали». What has happened, and why is this shift more serious than the earlier ты?Nothing has happened, because вы is simply the polite form and politeness is always an improvement.The switch to вы is a deliberate withdrawal of closeness: it turns the earlier ты into something the speaker now disowns, and in a work hierarchy it signals formality plus displeasure, so it lands as a rebuke rather than a correction of address.

Question 5

In the capstone exchange you are offered a lift and you do not want it. Which reply keeps the relationship intact, and which one closes the conversation?«Спасибо, я лучше на метро» (spa-SEE-ba, ya LOOT-she na meet-RO), 'thanks, I'd rather take the metro', keeps it intact because it thanks first and gives a preference rather than a verdict; «Я пас» (ya PAS) closes it by treating the offer as a game to be declined, which is fine among friends and abrupt with an acquaintance.«Не хочу» (ne ha-CHOO), 'I don't want to', is the polite option because it states your wish without inventing an excuse.

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