{"id":3385,"date":"2012-07-18T08:56:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T08:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2014-07-17T18:36:37","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T18:36:37","slug":"a-couple-more-words-from-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/a-couple-more-words-from-the-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"A couple more words from the birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was working on last Monday’s “Name That Bird<\/a>” post, in which a panel of six avian “mystery guests” offered \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0441\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0437\u043a\u0438<\/b> (“hints, clues”) to their identity, I considered a longer list of birds but ended up cutting some of the feathered panelists just to avoid making the post too long. For instance, \u0444\u043b\u0430\u043c\u0438\u043d\u0433\u043e<\/b> and \u043f\u0438\u043d\u0433\u0432\u0438\u043d<\/b> didn’t make the final cut because their names are pretty obvious — I gave precedence to birds with distinctively Russian names.<\/p>\n

But in the process of trimming, I also got rid of a few interesting words and phrases that some of the birds had used in their clues, and I thought that two of them were useful<\/i> enough to have a post of their own:<\/p>\n

\u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> — “to peck (as a bird does with its beak)”<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0438\u0442\u044c (\u0433\u043d\u0435\u0437\u0434\u043e<\/span>)<\/b> — “to build (a nest)”<\/p>\n

You may think, “Useful? How many times am I likely to need the verb for to peck<\/i> when I’m struggling through a conversation in Russian? And unless I’m actually breeding parakeets or whatever, is it terribly important that I know how to say build a nest<\/i>?”<\/p>\n

But what makes these two verbs useful is that learning their conjugations will teach you (or reinforce) the conjugations for a bunch of other verbs that follow the same pattern.<\/p>\n

Let’s take \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to make by twisting”) first. The past tense is easy, apart from the fact that the stress shifts to the end in the feminine:<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0438<\/span>\u043b, \u0432\u0438\u043b\u0430<\/span>, \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u043b\u043e, \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u043b\u0438<\/b><\/p>\n

In the present, the \u0432\u0438-<\/b> changes to \u0432\u044c-<\/b>, but otherwise it behaves like a normal, end-stressed -\u0435-<\/b> verb:<\/p>\n

\u044f \u0432\u044c\u044e<\/b>, \u0442\u044b \u0432\u044c\u0451\u0448\u044c<\/b> … \u043e\u043d\u0438<\/span> \u0432\u044c\u044e\u0442<\/b><\/p>\n

And the imperative is:<\/p>\n

\u0412\u0435\u0439(\u0442\u0435!)<\/b><\/p>\n

If this seems vaguely familiar, it’s possibly because \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> follows the same “inflectional paradigm” as \u043f\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to drink”). Or, for that matter, there’s \u0431\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to beat”) and \u043b\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to pour”) and \u0448\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b><\/a> (“to sew”).<\/p>\n

Quick, how do you say “We are sewing” in the present tense? Well, if you’ve already learned that the 1st-person plural present of \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> is (\u043c\u044b) \u0432\u044c\u0451\u043c<\/b>, then the answer is a cinch: \u043c\u044b \u0448\u044c\u0451\u043c<\/b>. Similarly, once you know the imperative \u0432\u0435\u0439(\u0442\u0435)<\/b>, you’ll have no trouble telling someone “Pour<\/i> some beer and drink<\/i> it!”<\/p>\n

Although it can be translated “to build” when it’s followed by \u0433\u043d\u0435\u0437\u0434\u043e<\/b> (“nest”), more literally \u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> means “to construct by weaving or twisting.” But when you put the reflexive -\u0441\u044f<\/b> suffix on it, it can mean “to grow in a twisting manner” or “to move in a twisting way”:<\/p>\n

\u041a\u043e<\/span>\u0448\u043a\u0430 \u0432\u044c\u0451\u0442\u0441\u044f \u0443 \u043c\u043e\u0438<\/span>\u0445 \u043d\u043e<\/span>\u0433 \u0438 \u0433\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u043c\u043a\u043e \u043c\u044f\u0443<\/span>\u043a\u0430\u0435\u0442<\/b>
\n(“The cat is winding around my legs and meowing loudly.”)<\/p>\n

\u0412\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> is also the root of \u0432\u044c\u044e<\/span>\u0433\u0430<\/b> — a “whirling, twisting blizzard.” And it forms various other verbs by prefixing — of which the most important one for a foreign student is probably \u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b>, “to develop,” with the imperfective \u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0438\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b>.<\/p>\n

By the way, you may know that the prefix \u0440\u0430\u0437-<\/b> can sometimes correspond to English un-<\/em>, so the original and literal meaning of \u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> was basically “to unravel.” It may seem strange that a word that literally refers to a rope falling apart would eventually be used in the secondary sense of “develop.” But consider English examples like Let’s wait and see how the situation unfolds<\/i> — where you could replace “unfolds” with “develops” without changing the meaning.<\/p>\n

Moving on to \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to peck”), it’s also a good word to learn as a model verb with a slightly unusual conjugation. The past tense, again, is no sweat:<\/p>\n

\u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u043b<\/b>, \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0430<\/b>, \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u043e<\/b>, \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0438<\/b><\/p>\n

But in the present, it’s:<\/p>\n

\u044f \u043a\u043b\u044e\u044e<\/span>, \u0442\u044b \u043a\u043b\u044e\u0451\u0448\u044c … \u043e\u043d\u0438<\/span> \u043a\u043b\u044e\u044e<\/span>\u0442<\/b><\/p>\n

The 3rd-person plural form, by the way, figures into the expression \u0423 \u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e<\/span>-\u043d\u0438\u0431\u0443\u0434\u044c \u0434\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0435\u0433 \u043a\u0443<\/span>\u0440\u044b \u043d\u0435 \u043a\u043b\u044e\u044e<\/span>\u0442<\/b> — which is literally “The chickens don’t peck for money at so-and-so’s house,” and signifies that someone is quite wealthy and has “money to burn.”<\/p>\n

And if you needed to tell a bunch of chickens to start pecking, the imperative would be:<\/p>\n

\u041a\u043b\u044e<\/span>\u0439(\u0442\u0435)!<\/b><\/p>\n

Once again, maybe that conjugation pattern looks slightly familiar. Do you know the easy verb \u043f\u0430\u0440\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to park a car”)? It conjugates \u044f \u043f\u0430\u0440\u043a\u0443<\/span>\u044e, \u0442\u044b \u043f\u0430\u0440\u043a\u0443<\/span>\u0435\u0448\u044c…<\/b> — in other words, essentially like \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b>, except the latter happens to have a stem ending in a soft consonant, and thus it has -\u044e-<\/b> instead of -\u0443-<\/b> in the present-tense conjugation, and it also happens to be end-stressed.<\/p>\n

And that same -\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> pattern is also found in some very commonly used verbs, such as \u043f\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to spit”); \u0432\u043e\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to fight”); \u0436\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to chew”); \u0433\u043e\u0440\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to mourn, grieve”); and the somewhat gross-sounding and d\u00e9class\u00e9<\/em> \u0431\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to puke; to barf; to blow chunks; etc.”).<\/p>\n

For the most part, these behave like \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b>, although take note that \u0436\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> conjugates \u0436\u0443\u044e<\/span>, \u0436\u0443\u0451\u0448\u044c…<\/b>, and not \u0436\u044e\u044e<\/span>, \u0436\u044e\u0451\u0448\u044c…<\/b>, in accordance with Russian spelling rules. Also, for some reason, verbs related to vomiting tend to be used in impersonal constructions in Russian. So “Look out, I’m gonna puke!” would be \u041c\u0435\u043d\u044f<\/span> \u0431\u043b\u044e\u0451\u0442!<\/b>, not the logically expected \u042f \u0431\u043b\u044e\u044e!<\/b><\/p>\n

Not all verbs with infinitives ending in -\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> have the distinctive conjugation -\u044e\u044e, -\u044e\u0451\u0448\u044c…<\/b> of verbs like \u043a\u043b\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b>, however: \u0437\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b> (“to yawn”) is, in the present tense, \u044f \u0437\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u044e, \u0437\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0448\u044c…<\/b> And, similarly, \u0441\u043e\u043c\u043d\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f<\/b> (“to doubt”), which conjugates \u0441\u043e\u043c\u043d\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u044e\u0441\u044c, –\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0448\u044c\u0441\u044f<\/b>, etc., and \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043e\u0434\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c<\/b><\/a> (“to disguise as”), which is \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043e\u0434\u0435\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u044e, -\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0448\u044c<\/b>, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Traditional

When I was working on last Monday’s “Name That Bird” post, in which a panel of six avian “mystery guests” offered \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u043a\u0438 (“hints, clues”) to their identity, I considered a longer list of birds but ended up cutting some of the feathered panelists just to avoid making the post too long. For instance, \u0444\u043b\u0430\u043c\u0438\u043d\u0433\u043e and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":3397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8,7828],"tags":[385640,1237,173117],"class_list":["post-3385","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-russian-for-beginners","tag-russian-for-beginners","tag-russian-grammar","tag-verb-conjugations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385","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\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3385"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6478,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions\/6478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}