Questions tagged [вид]
Questions regarding the meaning, usage, formation and translation of aspectual forms of Russian verbs.
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Can the verb "прозябать" actually be perfectivized?
I recently came across the verb прозябать in a book. Its meaning is one of eking out an existence in the sense of enduring hardship and suffering instead of truly living. This to me, is an ongoing ...
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Perfective of "путешествовать"
Neither of my dictionaries gives a perfective for this imperfective.
Is there an appropriate perfective form of this verb, or should I buy better dictionaries?
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Purpose of «по-» as prefix
The way I saw it, «шутил» was potentially the past tense of «шутить».
So, what's the reason for saying «пошутил»? Is it just to make the verb perfective? If so, does that apply to all verbs?
All I ...
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What's the meaning of "было" in these contexts/sentences?
I'm wondering what the purpose and meaning of "было" is in these sentences, and if it is a conjugation of "быть" or a separate word. The word "было" meaning "there ...
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Aspect and tense for the verb Войти/Bxодить
In a charming old book "Russian Through Pictures" designed by Harvard University we have a picture of a mother and daughter preparing to enter a shop, and the text underneath says
Они ...
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What's the most common usage and meaning of the verb исходить, which belongs to two impf/pf verb pairs, each with a different meaning?
According to a table of frequency I found, the verb исходить ranks pretty high (1716 out of 100,000). However, since it has two usages and meanings, I wonder which one is most frequently used:
in the ...
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How does the meaning of "не мог/смог сдержа́ть/сде́рживать" vary according to the aspect used?
I'm trying to figure out how exactly these aspectual variations modify the meaning of "Она́ не могла́ сдержа́ть слёз" in the following:
Она не могла сдержать слёз.
Она не cмогла сдержать ...
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"Презентую" - какое это время?
Слово "презентую" это настоящее время несовершенного вида или будущее время совершенного?
Одновременно ведь быть не может?
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Is the phrase 'Они пойдут на концерт' the correct translation of 'They'll go to the concert?'
I've already tried to use Tatoeba/reverso.net to find out whether the phrase is acceptable. They didn't seem to give much information, so I decided to check here.
I really just had two issues:
A) If ...
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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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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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The verb слышать for finished action
На обратном пути, сжимая в руке пакет с большим пончиком, он
случайно услышал обрывки их разговора:
– Поттеры, все верно, именно так я и слышал…
Why is the imperfective version of the verb слышать ...
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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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Choosing between multiple 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 ...
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My dictionary sometimes lists two imperfective forms
Consider the verb to send, which my dictionary translates as *посылать (imp.), слать (imp.), послать (perf.). My question is about those cases in which there are two imperfective forms, like in this ...
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Do Russian infer the first conjugation from the verb like in Latin and Italians do? [duplicate]
In Latin one does not need to have seperate words for I, you, we, she/he ect it is just inferred by the ending of the first conjugation verbs and the context. Say for example in I give or you give ...
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"Готовил" vs "приготовил" usage in emphasising time
Why does the following sentence use НСВ готовил instead of CB приготовил
Повар 3 часа готовил обед.
If I use готовил doesn't that mean I regularly cooked for 3 hours?
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Use of the imperfective where the perfective would be expected to express a completed action in the past
This is the opening line in a dialog from a Russian course:
Я заказывал у вас номер по телефону.
Why is the imperfective заказывал used here instead of заказал if the speaker completed the ...
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Choice of aspect in question and answer
In a Russian dialogue course, I came across the following snippet in which the questioner uses the imperfective phrase мне выходить, and the respondent uses the perfective phrase вам выйти, and was ...
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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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How to tell apart "нареза́ть" from "наре́зать"?
Можете нарезать хлеб и сыр? (perfective)
Ты хочешь нарезать лук? (imperfective) ... I think
It seems like for the verb нарезать the perfective and imperfect infinitive forms are
нареза́ть
наре́зать
...
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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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Perfective and imperfective with infinitive
AFAIK the perfective aspect expresses an event which has already finished once and the imperfective aspect expresses a single unfinished event or a periodic event. Why would someone use the perfective ...
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Future simple and future perfect in Russian
I'm trying to understand Russian future verb tenses and aspects.
I'm aware Russian has three tenses, the present, the past and the future. And I'm aware the imperfective verb indicates non complete ...
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Do "целить" and "нацеливать" mean the same thing?
They both seems to mean “to aim”, but dictionaries seem to indicate that it’s:
наце́лить – наце́ливать
which constitute an aspectual pair, and not
це́лить – наце́лить
as I have previously thought....
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Verbs of motion with prefix "у-" and "при-"
I am currently learning how to use verbs of motion with the prefixes у- and при- to express that someone departs from or arrives at a certain location.
However, I struggle with the following sentence ...
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Neutral perfective prefix vs nuance prefix
As far as I understood, when a russian verb becomes perfective by prefixation, the resulting verb can either have a new nuance of meaning or just express the completion of an action.
As such, сделать ...
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How to express verb + infinitive in Russian?
In English you can sometimes append an infinitive to another verb to express the concept of purpose. For example:
Let's meet to discuss this.
How would I translate this construction to Russian? ...
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Aspectual pairs with one reflexive
Normally a reflexivity of a verb stays the same regardless of aspect (not talking about semantic derivation). But I have learned three exceptions to this rule already:
станови́ться – стать (but: ...
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Intepretation of the imperfective participle "переводивший"
In the sentence:
Cтуденты, переводившие эту статью, говорят, что она очень трудная.
¿Is the meaning one of a perfect action of the type "Students, having translated this article,..." or is it more ...
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When the perfective counterpart doesn't show up on a dictionary
I know that not all verbs have a perfective counterpart, while there are others which are perfective-only.
However, some verbs do have both aspects, but many times dictionaries don't indicate their ...
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лазить vs лезть
With verbs such as ходить, плавать, ехать, летать, the fact that they are indeterminate means that they imply movement in many directions without a particular finish line.
However, the verb "to climb"...
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Are "тянуть" and "растягивать" equivalent?
I've noticed that some imperfective verbs are converted to the perfective by just adding a prefix. However and oddly enough, sometimes there's an alternate imperfective formed from an internal ...
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(по)вредить with accusative and/or dative
According to my dictionary (Kenneth Katzner, link):
вреди́ть v.impfv. [pfv. повреди́ть; pres. врежу́, вреди́шь] (with dat.) to harm; damage; be injurious to.
I think I should use the dative case ...
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What's the appropriate verb for the following context? (найти Vs. находить)
I just want to say "I need to find it", or "The main thins is that you will find it" (for example, the key, the document, etc.). Now I am not sure which verb is more appropriate to the context that I ...
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What is the difference between the forms of verbs?
Very often in russian verbs have two forms, some examples are:
делать/сделать
встречаться/встретиться
My russian friends keep telling it is important to differentiate both but cannot explain to me ...
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Off-aspect conjugations
It has been confusing me the fact that a few verbs have participles which, according to textbooks, normally don't match a particular verb aspect (perfective or imperfective).
For example, гореть (imp....
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Imperative with imperfective verbs
Is it rude to use imperative with imperfective verbs?
Like, suppose you are a customs officer asking someone to open their case, you could probably (I'm just guessing at this point) say either:
...
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сказать VS поговорить
What's the difference between these two? According to wiktionary both are perfective forms of говорит but I'm not sure if they're really interchangeable. When should each one be used?
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Perfective of таскать
Before asking my question, let me tell what I know about verbs of motion so far:
-For each verb of motion in English (ex.: to go) there are multiple verbs in Russian;
-Each nuance of motion verbs in ...
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Do all verbs in Russian have both an imperfective and perfective aspect?
I have a lot to learn about Russian verb usage and structure, but at least I've been introduced and somewhat understand the difference between the perfective and imperfective aspect of a verb. Early ...
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Is the perfective aspect used to indicate failure?
If I began an action, failed it, and was unable to ever do it again, my action would be completed (but it would be completed in a way that I wouldn't expect). Would I use the perfective aspect for ...
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Meaning of prefix по- in verbs поехать and пойти
Both this website and my grammar workbook state that the meaning of по- in the verbs пойти and поехать is to indicate the beginning (but not necessarily the completion) of an action.
However, I ...
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Are there truly "empty" perfectivizing prefixes in Russian? (aspectual clusters versus aspectual pairs)
Foreign learners are often taught that Russian verbs always come in aspectual pairs, with the perfective verb formed from the imperfective verb either by changing the stem or adding a prefix. The two ...
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What is the correct perfective partner for курить?
The dictionaries I could find did not agree on whether the perfective form of the (imperfective) verb курить is either: (i) закурить or (ii) покурить.
What is the correct perfective partner for ...
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Do Russian speakers consistently produce the same perfective form for a new verb?
Suppose, for example, that a new verb снапчатовать ("to snapchat") was coined in Russian. Would Russian speakers agree on what the perfective form of this verb should be? Is that generally the case ...
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What is the difference between посмеяться and засмеяться?
Question: Can someone explain what the difference between посмеяться and засмеяться is?
Both have смеяться (to laugh) as their imperfective form, so I am really confused about what the difference ...
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