{"id":137,"date":"2008-05-28T13:11:26","date_gmt":"2008-05-28T17:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=137"},"modified":"2014-07-16T17:49:18","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:49:18","slug":"brief-thoughts-on-the-russian-verb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/brief-thoughts-on-the-russian-verb\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief Thoughts On The Russian Verb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most confusing part of Russian language \u2013 putting aside, of course, those six cases for the moment \u2013 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 <em>\u2018aspect\u2019<\/em>, of which each and every Russian verb has two, and that\u2019s the subject for today\u2019s linguistic discussion \u2013 how to know if you\u2019ve actually done something to the end, reaching some kind of result, <strong>\u00ab\u0441\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0430\u043b \u0447\u0442<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>-\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong>, or if you\u2019ve only done something, <strong>\u00ab\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0430\u043b \u0447\u0442<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>-\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong>, 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 <strong>\u00ab\u0432\u0438\u0434\u00bb<\/strong>, and the two different kinds of aspect are <strong>\u00ab\u043d\u0435\u0441\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0448<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0432\u0438\u0434\u00bb<\/strong> [imperfect aspect] and <strong>\u00ab\u0441\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0448<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0432\u0438\u0434\u00bb<\/strong> [perfect aspect]. In the example above, <strong>\u00ab\u0441\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0430\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> is perfect, generally showing a process already over and with a achieved result, while <strong>\u00ab\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0430\u0442\u044c\u00bb <\/strong>is imperfect, stressing the process, which doesn\u2019t necessarily has to lead to any result. But using this very verb-couple (that\u2019s 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 \u2013 even a Russian would be able to tell the difference there between imperfect and perfect. The fact is that the whole \u2018aspect\u2019 thing is so difficult and confusing that many native speakers seem to find it hard to explain, though they don\u2019t make any of the mistakes that foreigners do, especially when you start thinking: <em>\u201cDid I achieve something with this, or did I not? Was it really perhaps all about the process?\u201d<\/em> For example, a university professor once told me that the perfect <strong>\u00ab\u043d\u0430\u043f\u0438\u0441<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> to the verb <strong>\u00ab\u043f\u0438\u0441<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> [to write] doesn\u2019t apply to large works of fiction, such as for example novels, because it takes too long to write. Then another university professor said that\u2019s that it\u2019s okay to say <strong>\u00ab\u044f \u043d\u0430\u043f\u0438\u0441<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0430 \u0440\u043e\u043c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u00bb<\/strong> [I have written a novel] if you only just finished writing it, thus making it more of <em>&#8216;I finished writing a novel (only just recently)&#8217;<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--more--><\/div>\n<p>On a more positive note, the Russian verb only has three tenses \u2013 present <strong>\u00ab\u043d\u0430\u0441\u0442\u043e<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u044f<\/span>\u0449\u0435\u0435 \u0432\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u044f\u00bb<\/strong>, past <strong>\u00ab\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0448<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u0434\u0448\u0435\u0435 \u0432\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u044f\u00bb<\/strong>, and future <strong>\u00ab\u0431<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0443<\/span>\u0434\u0443\u0449\u0435\u0435 \u0432\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u044f\u00bb<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Due to reasons beyond my control \u2013 my crappy internet connection [Russia has my heart forever and ever] and my laptop, currently taking one of its last breathes \u2013 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&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most confusing part of Russian language \u2013 putting aside, of course, those six cases for the moment \u2013 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&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/brief-thoughts-on-the-russian-verb\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6053,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/6053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}