Tag Archives: Russian word families
Russian Verbs With Prefixes: Держать Posted by Maria on Jun 13, 2016
Remember that time we covered verbs with prefixes on this blog? Let’s combine various prefixes with the popular verb держать, to hold, to form new words. I can only list several of the many verbs, so feel free to add in the comments! The base verb is держать, which normally means to hold something. Мама держит…
Knowledge Transfer: Verbs With The Root -вещ- Posted by Maria on Nov 26, 2015
I thought it may be interesting to look at a “family” of words related by a shared root. One such family refers to all things knowledge and knowledge transfer. Knowledge The basic form is ве́дать, a bookish/archaic way of saying “to know.” Он не ве́дает, что твори́т. (He knows not what he’s doing.) The word…
Verbs with Prefixes: Вернуть Posted by Maria on Oct 22, 2015
It appears that our “verbs with prefixes” series has turned out to be a surprise hit, so let us do another installment! This time, we are looking at the verb верну́ть (to return). As always, these are just some of the meanings. The imperfective counterpart to вернуть is возвраща́ть. Нали́чных в кошельке́ бы́ло мно́го, но их…
Verbs with Prefixes: Писать Posted by Maria on Oct 8, 2015
It appears that our verbs with prefixes series has been successful. In this series, we take a common Russian verb and discuss its derivatives formed by adding a prefix to the original verb. Be sure to check out previous posts in this series: брать and играть. This time, we will look at a verb…
Changing Your Ways – Variations of Менять Posted by Maria on Sep 17, 2015
We have looked at expanding your vocabulary by adding prefixes to verb roots. Now I would like to suggest looking at variations of a very popular verb – меня́ть. This verb means to change (perfective – поменять). Из-за плохо́го поведе́ния ему́ за во́семь лет пришло́сь меня́ть шко́лу 11 раз. (Because of his poor behavior…
Expand Your Vocabulary: Verbs With Prefixes – Играть Posted by Maria on Aug 27, 2015
A couple of weeks ago, we looked at combining prefixes and verb roots to expand your Russian vocabulary. One of the verbs that I was asked to cover was игра́ть. This is an excellent suggestion for a versatile and useful verb to have in your arsenal. The primary meaning of играть is, as you…
Expand Your Vocabulary: Verbs With Prefixes – Брать Posted by Maria on Aug 13, 2015
One way to learn more verbs in Russian is to take a common verb you already know and look up its derivatives with the most common Russian prefixes. Here are some of the most widespread Russian verbal prefixes. These are only some of the meanings, and they do not cover everything. However, you can…