Word of the Week: «Съездить» Posted by josefina on Aug 14, 2009 in language
The week might almost be over (it is after all «пятница» [Friday] already as I’m posting this) but it is not too late to learn a new Russian word before «воскресенье» [Sunday] is upon us, inevitably followed by yet another «понедельник» [Monday]. The word of the week this time is a verb and a rather interesting one as such: «съездить» [go; run over; take a trip; visit; skip]. Maybe many of you are already familiar with «глагол движения» [the verb of motion] «ездить» [go; travel; drive; ride] and if you are, then making today’s new acquaintance won’t be too difficult a task. The Russian verbs of motion can be hard to tackle in English translation since most of them can be translated into this language simply as ‘to go’, but when you translate back into Russian there are many more questions that need to be asked. When it comes to the verb «ездить» what we need to know is that it is a) an imperfect verb; and b) a movement in many different directions and many times (as opposed to «ехать» which is a verb of motion only in one particular direction and only once). Here’s a quick illustration of the difference between the two:
«Я люблю ездить в гости к моим родственникам в соседний город» – [I love to go (by some kind of transport) visit my relatives in the neighboring city].
«Когда мы ехали к нашим родственникам в соседний город, мы увидели лося» – [When we were going to our relatives in the neighboring city, we saw a moose].
Now I hope that’s more or less clear, because now it is high time to deal with our real word (verb, that is) of the week: «съездить». This verb is «совершенный вид» [perfect aspect] and has two meanings (today we’ll mainly discuss the first meaning): 1) «поехать куда-нибудь и возвратиться назад» [to go somewhere and come back]; and 2) «сильно ударить» [to severely strike; hit; knock out]. The second meaning is colloquial, of course, and could be used in a sentence like this: «съездить кому-нибудь в челюсть» [to give someone a smack on the jaw]. Let’s hope that’ll be a phrase you won’t use on a daily basis, and move ahead to what I really wanted to talk about – how to use the verb «съездить»!
«Съездить удобно всего на машине, или, как на этой фотографии, на машине, которая на пароме…» [To go somewhere (and come back) is most comfortably done by car, or like on this picture, on a car that’s on a ferry]. This picture was taken on the ferry between «Дания» [Denmark] and «Швеция» [Sweden] yesterday morning.
The thing about this verb is that it makes it so much easier to say that you have been somewhere and come back from there (if this is not obvious already because you’re standing right in front of the person you’re saying this to). Russian grammar deserves to be loved and respected because it can save you a lot of time. Much meaning can be expressed using a minimum of words. Don’t think so? Not quite convinced? Let’s have a look at a few examples!
«Вчера я съездила в Данию» – [Yesterday I went to Denmark (and came back)]. (In this sentence because I’m using just this very verb what’s important is that a) I was in Denmark; and b) I have come back).
«Вы уже съездили к бабушке?» – [Have you already visited grandmother (and returned home)?]. (Here the question by help from this verb is asked in such a way that the important thing to find out is if you have already been there and returned back. The main point is that it’s been done – i.e. you’ve paid your respects by paying a visit to the older generation).
«Давай съездим зимой на Кавказ!» – [Let’s go to the Caucasus (this) winter!]. (This way of using the verb is not really imperative, but more of a way of expressing that you’re really planning on doing this – «выражение намерения» [an expression of intent]).
And «да», I really did go to Denmark and came back from there yesterday! It was lovely!
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Comments:
alpup:
«Съездить удобнее всего на машине, … the sentence sounds a bit awkward. It’d be a bit better to say something like “Удобнее съездить …, Лучше съездить… ”
P.S. Welcome, back.
Christopher:
I know people will laugh at this, but is there any way to put Russian phonetic pronunciations, along with Cyrillic characters, for those of us still on the early side of our Russian training? I am having a hard time learning proper pronunciation using just Cyrillic…Conversely, any advice on how to overcome this would be great!
Thanks
Natasha_TLadmin:
Christopher, if I may. Russian definitely has some aspects that are very difficult. Alphabet is not one of them. I know it seems intimidating but it is really easy. There are actually only 2 (some might argue that it is 3) letters that have sounds which are very difficult for an English speaker. The rest of sounds are found in the English language. They are just represented a bit differently, and not even all. A while back I came up with this trick to help students remember all the Russian letters that look and sound the same in English. K O M E T A – they spell a Russian word that means “comet”. Can you guess how it is pronounced? Anyway, good luck in your studies and give the Russian alphabet one more chance :)))
Mark Thomson:
Где именно в Дании ты была, Джосефина? Ты видела Тиволи? (Я предлагаю что ты была в Копенхагене…ой, как пишется Copenhagen?) Ну, класс…скажи!
And to Christopher: There are many approaches to learning Cyrillic. If you let me know how you’ve approached it, I could then recommend other plans of attack for you. Please don’t give up…Russian rules!
trudy ringer:
On learning the alphabet, I taught my students first the letters that look like English letters and sound like them, then we went to letters that look like English, but have a different sound, next, we took the Greek letters and learned them, last, we learned the letters that were really strange. It took about 2-3 weeks for them. Then, I reenforced them with pages of cognates. They were hung up on not learning the Cyrillic in order and I told them that would come later., it wasn’t important for beginning. Hope this is somewhat helpful.