Brief Thoughts On The Russian Verb Posted by josefina on May 28, 2008 in language
The most confusing part of Russian language – putting aside, of course, those six cases for the moment – is the verb. The Russian verb is both confusing and difficult to master for foreigners, especially for foreigners with a non-Slavic native language. The reason why this is so is because of a little thing called ‘aspect’, of which each and every Russian verb has two, and that’s the subject for today’s linguistic discussion – how to know if you’ve actually done something to the end, reaching some kind of result, «сделал что-то», or if you’ve only done something, «делал что-то», not to the end, without reaching any results, but still spending quite the amount of time on this certain process. Aspect is in Russian called «вид», and the two different kinds of aspect are «несовершенный вид» [imperfect aspect] and «совершенный вид» [perfect aspect]. In the example above, «сделать» is perfect, generally showing a process already over and with a achieved result, while «делать» is imperfect, stressing the process, which doesn’t necessarily has to lead to any result. But using this very verb-couple (that’s what the two aspects together are usually called, seen not as two verbs but one, as they share a one and the same meaning) is really making it easy for oneself – even a Russian would be able to tell the difference there between imperfect and perfect. The fact is that the whole ‘aspect’ thing is so difficult and confusing that many native speakers seem to find it hard to explain, though they don’t make any of the mistakes that foreigners do, especially when you start thinking: “Did I achieve something with this, or did I not? Was it really perhaps all about the process?” For example, a university professor once told me that the perfect «написать» to the verb «писать» [to write] doesn’t apply to large works of fiction, such as for example novels, because it takes too long to write. Then another university professor said that’s that it’s okay to say «я написала роман» [I have written a novel] if you only just finished writing it, thus making it more of ‘I finished writing a novel (only just recently)’.
On a more positive note, the Russian verb only has three tenses – present «настоящее время», past «прошедшее время», and future «будущее время».
Due to reasons beyond my control – my crappy internet connection [Russia has my heart forever and ever] and my laptop, currently taking one of its last breathes – I cannot, despite very much wanting to do so, continue on this subject today. I will have to leave you with these brief thoughts, to return at another time, with more profound and, hopefully, less brief ones. Sorry.small>
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Comments:
Maria:
Hey,
I just cam across this blog and fell in love with it – it explains the rules of Russian in an easy-to-understand way, but also touches upon Russian culture. I’ll be back for more!
John Baker:
J,
Even if it is Мало да помалу, keep up this good and important work. I often use an on-line resource at http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/, which has some cool features, but says that Russian is simple and easy. Ha! I have studied Latin, French, Spanish, German, plus a little Greek and Hebrew, but I find Po Russkiy much more complicated than these others, especially VERBS!
Even if we must recieve Russian Blog a little at at time, we happily look forward to it.
Anyse Joslin:
Thank you for trying to deal with this tough topic in Russian grammar. Permit me to remark that the two verbs (not counting verbs of motion as that is another thing entirely of its own!), the perfective and imperfective are know as “perfective/imperfective pairs.” Also, the perfective has more than just “finishing” an action. There is also the statement of intent that one will do something for an “intended” result or with the intention of completing the action in the near future.
I would also point out that there are a number of books on this subject alone! It has so many complications that it cannot simply be described in a very short blog on the internet. One book that is quite popular for English learners of Russian is “Russian Verb Aspects, Second Edition” by E. Vasilenko, A. Yegorova, and E. Lamm, Russian Language Publishers, Moscow, 1988. I bought this book only a few months ago from Biblio Globus Books in the USA. [«Виды Русского Языка» 2-е издание. Е. Василенко, А. Егорова, и Э. Ламм. Москва. «Русский язык», 1988.] This is a wonderful book with 202 pages just to help us to understand and to help with exercises for better competency.
Also, remember that I pointed out that verbs of motion are not listed in perfective/imperfective pairs? One Russian person was trying to teach that motion verbs were in imperfective/perfective pairs. I wrote to her stating that this was not the best way to teach about motion verbs. Again, there are a number of wonderful books on the various pairs of motion verbs. You can get this book from Amazon. It is called “Russian Motion Verbs for Intermediate Students (Yale Language Series)” by William J. Mahota for $27 new. You can look for used copies and, if you read the condition of each book carefully, you can actually get a “new” copy that is advertised as “used” for even less than half of the sale price at Amazon.
I hope that this will help you as well as those who read this blog. I hope that you actually enjoy my input as well.
Thank you, again, for such a wonderful, thought provoking blog for Russian language learners.
Anyse
anyse1@mac.com
SKYPE: anyse1
(915) 364-1743 (9AM-5PM PST M-F only please)
Yaroslav:
> радИусе
Рáдиусе. And the ‘typography keyboard layout’ would be useful to insert accents: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/02/typography-keyboard-layout-download-now/