День 4 из 37: Кот в сумке!
📚 Слова́ дня · Words of the day: 10 – у́тро, су́мка, стака́н, окно́, ку́ртка, рука́, нос, он, она́, оно́.
🔤 Бу́квы дня · Letters of the day: 3 – В Н У. Three more letters that look English – but they are not!
⏱ Part 1 = 15 minutes – everybody finishes it. Part 2 = more, only if you want. · 🗺️ All days
Stand up! Yesterday's homework: put a biscuit on the table 🍪. Point at your mouth: Тут рот, point at the biscuit: там торт. Hand to your mouth: Торт – в рот?! Shake your head: Нет! Р-р-р! Swing your arm: Старт! 🏁
You remembered it – that is your first win today. Keep the biscuit: today it goes into a bag. 👜
- Don't read anything yet. Watch the bag – and listen. 👜🐈
- Tap the words above to hear them.
Say every word aloud and show it – the gesture is under the picture. The movement falls on the loud syllable: СУ́М-ка – the biscuit drops into the bag on СУМ; ста-КА́Н – you lift the glass on КАН; ру-КА́ – your arm goes into the sleeve on КА.
Tap a word or its picture – the dictionary opens. 🔊 = listen (when Natasha has recorded it).
🧠 A word you say and act out with your own hands stays in your memory much longer than a word you only hear. Feels silly? Do it anyway! 😄
🧥 Get dressed:
👉 Russian things are he, she or it too. Point and say:
- Why is a bag «она́» and a window «оно́»? Don't ask yet – just copy Natasha. 😉
- Three new letters – three more false friends, like Р and С yesterday.
- В looks like English B – but says v: ВОТ = vot.
- Н looks like English H – but says n: НОС = nos (nose!).
- У looks like English y – but says oo as in moon: ТУТ = toot.
- Small letters: в н у – small в and н are small capitals, not b and h.
- 🎉 ВОТ, ТУТ, ТУК-ТУК, НЕТ, НЕ, НА and В are not picture words any more – now you can read them!
- Now you know eleven letters: А К М О Т Е Р С В Н У. Read today's words: У́ТРО, СУ́МКА, СТАКА́Н, ОКНО́, КУ́РТКА, РУКА́, НОС, ОН, ОНА́, ОНО́ – all of them! 🎉
- ✍️ Пиши́те! Write them by hand: В · Н · У – how each letter is written, and a sheet to print.
👂 Listen first, don't read yet. Everybody says their name. Hand on your chest on «меня́». 🤚 Nobody asks you to speak – just listen and laugh.
- Ната́ша 🤚: Меня́ зову́т Ната́ша.
Сли́нки: Меня́ зову́т Сли́нки. 😺 — Ната́ша: Да! Так!
Ска́ффлз (in the bag, cream on her nose): Меня́ зову́т… Торт! 🎂 — Ната́ша: Нет! Не торт! — Ска́ффлз: Сок! 🧃 — Ната́ша: Нет! Не сок! — Ска́ффлз: Рестора́н! 🍽️ — Ната́ша: Нет, нет, нет! Ска́ффлз! — Ска́ффлз: Р-р-р… Меня́ зову́т Ска́ффлз.- Ри́чард 👋: А меня́ зову́т Ри́чард.
- Ната́ша (open hand to you) 🖐: А вас? Как вас зову́т?
And you? Hand on your chest: «Меня́ зову́т…» and your name – aloud, or just in your head. Both count. 😊 🌱 The seed of the day: «Меня́ зову́т…» = My name is… Say it as one block, like a song – you don't need the words inside it yet. (Scuffles thinks her name is Cake, Juice, Restaurant… Natasha says «Нет!» and puts her right. You know better.) Two of its letters come later, so today it is for listening.
Say the story aloud, with the actions. Then play: do the action – say the word. Mix them up!
У́тро! 🌅
Вот сок. Сок в стака́не. 🥛
Кот у окна́. 🐈🪟
Вот торт. Торт – в су́мку! 👜
Ку́ртка. Рука́ – вот так! Рука́ – вот так! 🧥
Кто там? … 👜
Кот в су́мке! Нос в кре́ме! 😼
Кот – он. Су́мка – она́. Окно́ – оно́. 👉
Торт? Сок? … Сли́нки! 😹
👂 listen – say it only if you like: Не покупа́й кота́ в мешке́.
- Put your biscuit into a bag: Торт – в су́мку! Look at the bag: Что там? Take it out: Торт! 😄 (A thing – что. A cat or a person – кто.)
- Put on a jacket with the words: Ку́ртка. Рука́ – вот так! Рука́ – вот так! 🧥
- Point at a bag, a window, your cat: су́мка – она́, окно́ – оно́, кот – он.
- Be the teacher: say су́мка, стака́н, окно́, ку́ртка, рука́, нос – a friend (or your cat) does the action. No friend? Do it yourself.
- Speaking is optional – listening and doing count too.
Can you do it without the video? – Молоде́ц! Go to the tap quiz.
Guess, then tap. A wrong tap is not a mistake – it is a guess. 😊
Хорошо́! Молоде́ц! Two small things left – two minutes.
The letter У is never you and never y. It is oo – and rounder than English oo.
- Push your lips forward, round, like an owl: у-у-у! 🦉
- At the start – not you-tro: у́-у-тро.
- In the middle: су́-у-мка, ку́-у-ртка, ту-у-т.
- After Р: р-р-ру-ка́ – yesterday's growl, then the owl.
- 30 seconds, every day. The lips are muscles – this is aerobics. 💪
Tomorrow morning put a biscuit into a bag 🍪👜: «Торт – в су́мку!» Look at the bag: «Что там?» Take it out and show it: «Торт!» Then hand on your chest: «Меня́ зову́т…» and your name. 😄
That is the first minute of День 5. You already know it – so День 5 starts with a win.
You may stop here – see you tomorrow: День 5 · Кот на столе́?! Нет! ▶
- Gesture → word. Don't look at the cards. Make a gesture – say the word. Mixed order: 🌅 · 🧥 · 👃 · 👜 · 🪟 · 🥛 · 💪 · 👍 · 🙌 · ⭕
- Word → gesture. Say a word – your friend (or your cat) shows the gesture. No friend? Say it, then show it yourself.
- Yesterday comes back. Mix in four words from День 3: торт 🍰 · сок 🧃 · старт 🏁 · крем. Careful – НОС and КРЕМ: for «нос» you sniff, for «крем» you touch the tip of your nose!
Remembering a word from the gesture works better than reading it again.
People 2: Who is it? – Ни́на Ива́новна, Лев Бори́сович…: a woman, a man, young and old.
Today's он · она́: мужчи́на – он, же́нщина – она́. Tap the title – the page opens; the bar at its top brings you back here.
Only the eleven letters you know: А К М О Т Е Р С + В Н У. Read the word aloud, then tap it to check.
👜 СУ́МКА · СТАКА́Н · ОКНО́ · КУ́РТКА · РУКА́ · НОС
🙋 ОН · ОНА́ · ОНО́ · ВОТ · ТУТ · НЕТ · НА
🌅 У́ТРО · СТЕНА́ · НО́ТА · ВА́ННА
🦉 СОВА́ · У́ТКА · ВКУС
🍽️ РЕСТОРА́Н
🎂 ТОРТ · СОК · КРЕМ · СТАРТ · КОТ · КТО
- Write three words in big letters: СУ́МКА, ОКНО́, У́ТРО. Say them. Is your У round, like an owl's? 🦉
Don't buy a cat in a sack. Look before you buy – don't take a thing you haven't seen. The English say: Don't buy a pig in a poke.
At the end of the video Scuffles finds a big sack. Cake inside? Juice? She opens it – and out jumps Slinky! 😹 Then Natasha says the proverb. A мешо́к is a big sack – bigger than a су́мка, but the joke is the same. Gesture: shake your finger on «не покупа́й», open your hands like a sack on «в мешке́».
🔊 Sound, meaning, word by word: tap the proverb – it opens its own page.
У́тро! Вот сок. Сок в стака́не. Кот у окна́. Вот торт. Торт – в су́мку! Ку́ртка. Рука́ – вот так! Рука́ – вот так! Кто там? … Кот в су́мке! Нос в кре́ме! Кот – он. Су́мка – она́. Окно́ – оно́. Торт? Сок? … Сли́нки! Не покупа́й кота́ в мешке́. Молоде́ц! Пока́!
Morning! Here is some juice. The juice is in a glass. The cat is by the window. Here is a cake. The cake – into the bag! The jacket. Arm – like this! Arm – like this! Who's there? … A cat in the bag! A nose in the cream! The cat – he. The bag – she. The window – it. Cake? Juice? … Slinky! Don't buy a cat in a sack. Well done! Bye!
- В = v, never b: вот. Н = n, never h: нос. У = oo, never y: у́тро, тут.
- В = in: сок в стака́не, кот в су́мке. У = by: кот у окна́.
- After в and у the end of a word changes a little: су́мка → в су́мке, окно́ → у окна́. Just copy Natasha – the rule comes later.
- он · она́ · оно́ = he · she · it. Things are he, she or it too.
- «Меня́ зову́т…» = My name is… – one block, learn it like a song.
- Tap a new word or its picture – the dictionary opens 📖. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
ударе́ние – stress – shows the syllable you say louder and longer, just like in English: LUN-dun (London), TEL-ih-fohn (telephone).
ЛО́НДОН – the stress is on the first syllable, as in English. But Russians say a real, round о: LON-d’n, not LUN-dun. The second о comes after the stress, so it is short and weak (like the a in sofa).
ТЕЛЕФО́Н – not like the English TEL-ih-fohn: the stress is on the last syllable: ti-li-FON (е without stress sounds like a short и). That is why we mark the stress.
🎯 Why does о sound like а?
Yesterday tourists read РЕСТОРА́Н as "pectopah". Today you know every letter: r-e-s-t-o-r-a-n – restaurant! 🍽️
Let the cat out of the bag – English has the same bag as today's proverb. People say an old market trick was to sell a cat in a sack as a piglet; open the sack – and the cat jumps out! 🐈👜
🔬 Почему́ так · Why this way
- A win in the first minute – yesterday's homework. Remembering yesterday's words without looking is one of the best-proven tools – 50 classroom experiments: Agarwal · Nunes · Blunt 2021.
- 15 minutes a day, not one long lesson. Short daily sessions beat one long one: 35 min × 6 days scored 83 vs 70 for one 3.5-hour lesson. Study with adults – Stoltzfus · Sukseemuang 2018; gaps of 1–4 days work best – Rogers · Nakata · Chiu 2025.
- В, Н and У get a day of their own. Like Р and С, they look English but sound different. English speakers learning Russian kept misreading exactly these letters, and a warning did not fix it – only a lot of reading practice did. Study with adults – Showalter 2020. So today you read many words with В, Н and У.
- We put things into bags – we don't explain endings. A word said with a matching gesture, made by the learner, stays in memory far longer than a word only heard. Study with adults – Macedonia · Knösche 2011 (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig).
- Watching helps too. Watching the gesture helps almost as much as doing it, so the video works even before you move. 7 studies, 309 adults – Oppici et al. 2023.
- The action on the loud syllable. A hand beat on the stressed syllable helps adults pronounce new words. Studies with adults – Prieto's group, Barcelona.
- A block before the rule. «Меня́ зову́т» is learned whole, like a song; the grammar inside it comes much later, after you have met it many times. Learners pick up such ready-made blocks whole (Wray 2002, formulaic language).
- Words come back. торт, сок, крем, старт (День 3) and кот, кто (День 2) are in today's reading rows and the gesture game. A word met four times over several days is remembered far better than four times in a row (84 % vs 63 %, Wegener et al. 2023).
- The proverb: heard in the story, explained in Part 2. Natasha says it once at the end of the video, where the story shows it; its explanation sits in Part 2, outside the core lesson – extras inside the core lower learning of the main thing (Mayer, seductive details). Heard today, read on День 10 – an idiom learned with its picture and story is remembered better than with a bare translation (Boers 2001).
- The cat makes the mistakes. Nobody corrects the student. The student laughs and is never the one who is wrong.
- Our own method. Natasha's Language Aerobics – tested for many years with her students.
- Videos needed
- Russian сумка
- Russian стакан
- Russian окно
- Russian куртка
- Russian рука
- Russian нос
- Russian он
- Russian она
- Russian оно
- Russian утро
- Russian в
- Russian у
- Russian на
- Russian вот
- Russian тут
- Russian не
- Russian нет
- Russian торт
- Russian сок
- Russian рот
- Russian кот
- Russian кто
- Russian крем
- Russian старт
- Russian стена
- Russian нота
- Russian ванна
- Russian сова
- Russian утка
- Russian вкус
- Russian ресторан