Questions tagged [глаголы]
Questions about verbs, both finite and non-finite forms such as infinitives, gerunds, participles. The tag covers formation, derivation, functions, usage and meaning of verbs.
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What's the difference between "Я хочу приготовить суп на обед" and "Я хочу готовить суп на обед"
I was reading about aspects and I think I understand it's meaning for past tenses, but I still cannot figure out the difference between perfect and imperfect present.
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1
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Does отходить/отойти include the moving by train?
While learning on Memrise course (Top 10,000 words, Part 1), I found that отоходить/отойти shows the meaning of not only leaving by foot, but also leaving by train. The user-based Memrise course often ...
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The perfective verb опереться (to lean on) has the strangest conjugation in the future and imperative, what is the etymological reason for it?
From the impf/pf pair опираться/опереться (=to lean on), опереться seems to be the only verb that exhibits the following strange conjugations, though apparently belonging to the -e- conjugation group:
...
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Tenses used in relative clauses
а) Читая книгу, Иван не обращал внимания на то, что происходило вокруг.
б) Читая книгу, Иван не обращал внимания на то, что происходит вокруг.
Are both sentences correct?
Do they have the same meaning?...
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151
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Epenthetic л: why there is no л in the conjugation of the verb звать between the в and the ё in зовёшь, зовёт, зовём and зовёте?
I understand that an epenthetic л should always appear between any of the five labial consonants б, п, м, ф and в and the sound /j/ (except in front of the sound /ja/), so that, for example, in the ...
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First conjugation verbs and first person singular in -ю or in -y ? What is the phonological or orthographical underlying rule?
It seems that for first conjugation verbs (or -e- conjugation verbs i.e. those with endings in -ю/-у, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ют/ут), the -y ending is always used at the first person singular after any ...
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1
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Exact rules governing consonant changes as seen in the first person singular in verb conjugations
Apparently, in verbs ending in -ить (but maybe others are also concerned), the last letter of the stem for the first person singular changes according to the following pattern:
д becomes ж as in ...
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1
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Complete rules for the epenthetic л in verb conjugations
My question is twofold:
What are the complete and exact rules that govern the epenthetic л in verb conjugations i.e. the л that is inserted either just in the first person singular of certain –и ...
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117
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Verbs that require either an accusative or genitive object, depending on their nature
Apparently, there is a number of verbs that may require either an accusative or genitive object, depending on their nature.
If it's a specific, concrete object, the accusative would apply: I wait for ...
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Is there a resource that lists what case(s) verbs govern?
In Russian, there are verbs that govern a certain case, but also verbs that can be used with more than one case (typically verbs that take either the accusative or the genitive-partitive).
Would there ...
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3
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Почему глагол "управлять" непереходный?
Ведь, действие переходит к объекту. И вопрос "управлять что?" вроде звучит нормально.
Например: "Я управляю машину рулем и педалями." – Что управляю? Машину. Чем управляю? Рулем и ...
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What is the force of prefixes on perfective and imperfective verbs? Are all prefixed verbs perfective?
So you have the perfective and imperfective form of verbs, e.g. дарить и подарить.
This is sometimes determined by the prefix, as shown above.
But verbs can also have other prefixes which determine ...
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What would you call a drinker of non-alcohol beverages in Russian?
A noun derived from the verb “to drink” is a “drinker”. Following this analogy, how would I derive a noun from Russian verb «пить»? Would that be «пьец», «питьец», «пьюн»?
I know that there are words ...
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What is the difference between "Куда ты идёшь?" and "Куда ты собрался?"
I recently learned that
Куда ты собрался?
usually gets translated as
Where are you going?
Or, at least it does on Reverso.
This raised at least a couple of questions for me. The first is the ...
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What verbs require that the experiencer be in the dative case?
I recently learned the verb нуждаться (to need), and noticed that to say I need something, one would say мне нужно ..., so I is in dative case.
So how come for this verb, the speaker is in Dative case?...
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What is the difference between "разделить" and "поделить"?
Both of these words came up on a word list for me to study and I have no idea when to use which. I looked them up on Wiktionary and discovered that they are both perfective. I then ran them through ...
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Do Russians really use "Расход!" to say, "Let's go!"?
I was watching an episode of Better Than Us" (Лучше, чем люди) in Russian with English subtitles. Since I was actively watching, to the extent of making a vocabulary list from it, I noticed that ...
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звонить в школу vs звонить школе?
I found the following sentence:
Моя мама позвонила в школу.
According to my dictionary, звонить/позвонить takes either dative, or в + accusative.
However, I'm not sure when to use it over the other. ...
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Why does she say "Я понимаешь" and not "Я понимаю"?
I've heard people say "понимаешь" when they clearly intend to mean "I understand", such as in this line from the Serebro song Не Время:
Я понимаешь, я это чувствую потом мы всё ...
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Are there perfective verbs that only accept perfective infinitives?
The following perfective verbs are said to only accept perfective infinitives.
забыть - to forget
успеть - to manage, have time
удаться - to manage, succeed
суметь - to be able to manage
получиться - ...
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Verb aspect is listed as being different or both
For the verb живописать (to describe vividly) Wiktionary [en] lists it as imperfective; the [ru] Wiktionary lists it as perfective; while a database of verbs I has lists it as 'both'.
The database ...
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Difference between imperfective (Будет) and perfective future verbs
It seems to me that the difference between the imperfective and perfective future tense of verbs is that the imperfective refers to a general or uncompleted action; while the perfective refers to a ...
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Which verbs prefer the по-...-ски format?
I have in my notes that the format по-...-ски is required over на ...-ком succeeding the verbs - говарить, читать, писать, понимать & думать.
This rule is discussed somewhat here.
However, using a ...
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Dictionary listing case for verbs
Is there a dictionary that lists the case that precedes, succeeds verbs? For example идти (accusative) - Я хочу идти в Россию; быть (past, instrumental) - Я был собакой.
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Using the future in the meaning of 'would'
So recently I was looking up some sentences on reverso.net, and I noticed that most of the translations of 'would' would most often use the compound or perfective future. I asked some Russian friends ...
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Is there a present tense verb form for 'should' that is a true verb form and not an adjective and that can be used with a noun in the nominative?
The normal way to express the idea of present tense obligation in Russian is with должен. If one wanted to say 'he should speak', one could say 'он должен сказать'. But должен (and other options, ...
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What is the difference between ехать and поехать [duplicate]
I understand they both mean to go (by vehicle) but I can't get the difference in my head. Can someone provide English examples, please
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"Reading up" on а subject
I would like to know the conventional and/or colloquial way in Russian to express that one is reading up on a subject. In English, to read up on/about something means to inform oneself about a ...
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Difference between questions like "у вас ли сыр?" and "есть ли у вас сыр?"
I am a newbie at Russian. To the best of my knowledge, есть is used in questions when possession is being questioned. I was given the following sentences and their translations:
Have you the good ...
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Verbs of motion - how to define local distances?
I am a little bit confused about the idea of driving short distances taking ходить (as in, I’m going to the coffee shop) and what amount of distance is needed before it becomes ездить. For example, ...
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How would you rephrase the sentence "Всех больных закапывать в семь утра!"?
Of course, the author meant administering eye drops.
How do you change the phrase in order to exclude the undesirable meaning (burying people)?
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Questions about "бежать" and "побежать"
I know that the difference between бегать and побегать is that бегать is imperfective while побегать is perfective. However, my dictionary says бежать is a facultative verb (i.e. it has both ...
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Doubts about "бы ни" meaning "No matter what/ how much/ etc."
I know some Russian constructions which translate the English expressions "Whatever... [sth]", "Wherever... [swh]", "No matter how much... [things]". Those constructions ...
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How would you translate an expression like "would become"?
I was recently assigned to write about the Franco-Prussian War, and wanted to write at the end that "German strength and French revanchism would become causes of World War I." How would you ...
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Perfective x Imperfective doubt
I have the following doubt:
Is there a difference in these phrases below?
Я видел его, когда он выходил из магазина.
Я увидел его, когда он выходил из магазина.
Does the first one mean "I was ...
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Perfective verbs to describe a routine
I am struggling to see why this sentence used perfective verbs when the use of imperfective ones would be more appropriate:
Ба́ня – э́то ме́сто, куда́ ру́сские лю́ди хо́дят, что́бы рассла́биться, ...
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Пытался for a one-time action
Why is the past tense of the imperfective verb пытаться used in this context?
Говорят, он пытался убить сына Поттеров, Гарри. Но – не смог.
I would expect попытался to be more appropriate here since,...
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Я помогу + написать or писать?
In my Russian textbook I came across this example:
я помогу Татьяне написать письмо.
Why is помогу used with the perfective infinitive? I was expecting an imperfective verb, because "writing&...
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вовлечённых - proper use in a translated English sentence for "involved"?
I had earlier asked a question about adjectives and participles, and cited this link:
How to tell a participle from an adjective?
I now understand the answer of the above link better -
The ...
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Живут или живёт?
I have come across this sentence where the verb жить is declined for the third person singular:
Там живёт около 500 человек.
Shouldn't живут be grammatically correct since we're talking about ...
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Can it be said that the verbs in -ить are more localized in space and time than in -еть?
My gut feeling is this is the case.
Verbs in -еть usually have prolonged, undetermined and broad character, while verbs in -ить are more "here and now". Is this view correct?
Examples: хаметь-хамить,...
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My dictionary sometimes lists two perfective forms
I recently found in my dictionary the triple проща́ться (нв.), прости́ться (св.), попроща́ться (св) for to say goodbye. What do the two imperfective forms mean here in particular? Is there a general ...
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Other meanings of "идти" besides "to go by foot"?
I was reading my copy of The New Penguin Russian Course and I read about the verb идти (to go by foot); I was excited because I finally knew the meaning behind a song that I sometimes listen to (а ...
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Differences between выслать and отправить
Im wondering the correct usage of отправить and выслать (to send/dispatch).
I've seen the former in the context:
Отправить сообщение в сети (to send an online message)
and the latter:
Выслать ...
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10
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What's the difference between "люблю" and "обожаю"?
I was doing a Clozemaster exercise and it asked to translate "I love reading" to Russian. I thought of putting Люблю читать but the correct answer that the exercise wanted was Обожаю читать. What's ...
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Why "вести" but "веду"
Let's compare three verbs and their first person singular forms:
нести - несу
везти - везу
вести - веду
Is there a particular reason why, in вести, the с turned into д ? Is there any intuitive ...
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Why "не могу выехать из гаража" but "нельзя выезжать с территории завода"?
Going through some review on verbs of motion in Поехали II, page 40, was the following exercise.
Я не умею водить машину и не могу ______ из гаража.
So noting that it seemed a one-time, completed ...
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3
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3
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Preposition with спросить
I'm puzzled by the use of the preposition у with the verb спросить:
Я спрошу у мамы смогу ли взять машину
In this example, the preposition is used. But:
Журналист спросил президента о его ...
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Difference between быть and бывать
What is the semantic difference between быть and бывать?
2
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2
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Unidrectional versus multidirectional verbs (идти - ходить)
In these examples you can see verbs идти (unidirectional) and ходить (multidirectional). Apart from the difference in tense seen in the examples, what is the reason for using different types of verbs? ...
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