Have tried to find out (checked several sources) what the difference is between: "свистать" and "свистеть"?
Do you have an explanation?
1 Answer
In the modern language, свистать is a little bit outdated, but otherwise is a synonym to свистеть ("to whistle").
Historically, it's an iterative, similar to летать / лететь, плавать / плыть etc.
In some idioms (свистать всех наверх!, ищи-свищи!) or metaphorical meanings "to hiss, to boo (as when expressing discontent)", "to make whistling sound (of a wind)", etc., only one verb of the pair can be used:
Играют волны, ветер свищет
Профессора на рысаках не ездят, меня освистали бы студенты.
answered Feb 28, 2016 at 15:12
