Aspects of Russian Verbs

One of the most difficult topics in Russian language is aspects of Russian verbs. A lot of people confuse the verbs, especially when they start learning Russian language. But don't worry, I'm here to help you. My name is Alina, and today I'm going to explain to you this topic in general terms. You should understand that it's impossible to put everything I want to say in one little video. So that's why I made my own course about aspects of Russian verbs that you can find under the video. I made 16 lectures, a lot of tests and different activities for you to practice it better. And also I made a list of 55 Russian verbs, the most frequent verbs, that will help you to practice them also during the whole course. You already know my way of explanation of grammar, so you can be sure that it won't be difficult at all. It'll be fun and easy. You can find the link for the course and more information under this video. But now let's move on and let's talk a bit about these aspects in this video. So, we have two aspects of Russian verbs, imperfective and perfective. In Russian we call it совершенный и несовершенный вид глагола. But we don't need it, we need to remember imperfective and perfective aspects of the verb. The most important thing that we need to remember is that imperfective aspect has all three tenses present, past and future. But perfective aspect we use only in past and future. That's why probably when you start learning Russian language you don't even know about this topic. Yes, so you don't know that each English verb has basically two Russian verbs, two different, sometimes similar translations. Yes, so the verb to call will have звонить и позвонить, to know знать, узнать, etc. So, you don't know this because you always start learning the language from easy topics and usually it's present tense. And in present, as I told you, we don't use perfective aspect. So, that's why you know only imperfective verbs like знать, говорить, делать, есть and much-much more. That's why we also start from present tense. I already made the video about the formation of present tense, so you can watch it here if you missed it. And now we'll just talk about when we use this. Obviously, present tense, that's when we're talking about our actions at the present moment. I'm working, I know, I'm doing, I do. For us, it'll be just one form always. So, let's look at the examples. Я знаю тебя. Then, Мы живём в США. And, for example, Они работают в большой компании. But later comes the hard part. So, why a lot of people don't like this topic in general? Just because there are no rules about the formation of perfective aspect. Sometimes, we add different prefixes, sometimes we change suffixes, sometimes we change the whole word, so you never know which way to use to change the aspect of the verb. Basically, you need to remember the pair of each verb. And, as you can understand, we have a lot of verbs, as in English, as in other languages. In Russian, it's the same, so that's why it's really difficult to remember all of them. You can use my document that also you can find under the video with 55 Russian verbs, and their imperfective and perfective form. It'll help you to practice and to remember, for now, at least those 55, the most frequent verbs. But, in general, as I told you, yes, we can have different formations. So, we can say ЗВОНИТЬ, ПОЗВОНИТЬ. Here, it's different prefix. Then, we can say ОТКРЫВАТЬ, ОТКРЫТЬ. We don't use suffix ИВА in perfective aspect. And, sometimes, different verb БРАТЬ, ВЗЯТЬ. As you can see, they are really different, so you need to remember all of them. The second part is our past tense. Here, it's a little bit more complicated, because we have to use both aspects. And, also, I made the video about formation of past tense, so you can check it out later. But, now, let's talk about aspects. So, first, imperfective. Imperfective we'll use when we're talking about actions that are repeated or continuous or about permanent states with no indication of the start or the end of the action. We talk about imperfective. So, like this, we can say Я ЧАСТО РАБОТАЛА НОЧЮ. ЧАСТО, often, so, obviously, that's a repetition of the action. Then, МЫ ДОЛГО ГУЛЯЛИ ПО ПАРКУ. ДОЛГО shows the process of the action. And, then, ТЫ ВСЕГДА ТАК МНОГО ЕЛ? ВСЕГДА, again, like repetition of the action. Here, you will have a lot of words that will help you to identify this aspect. Because, always, when you have the words, always, often, usually, sometimes, never, for a long time, you will use imperfective. And, then, the opposite. When we're talking about a single action that has a clear result, that is completed, you will use perfective aspect. Here, we can say Я СДЕЛАЛА РАБОТУ БЫСТРО. БЫСТРО, quickly, so, you can understand that you've finished your work already. It's a completed action. Then, МЫ ХОРОШО ПОГУЛЯЛИ ВЧЕРА. Also, we're talking about the result of the action. So, we went out and we had a great time. And, the last ЗАЧЕМ ТЫ СЬЕЛ ВЕСЬ ТОРТ? ВЕСЬ ТОРТ, we understand that he ate the whole cake, so, that's why the action is finished, it's completed already. And, the last part, future tense. Here, it's more complicated because each aspect has its own future, so, they are different, not the same as we had for past tense, the same formation. So, here, at first, let's look at imperfective aspect. This one is very, very easy. All you need to do is to every infinitive, any infinitive of any verb, you add the verb ТЮБИ and in present tense. So, basically, you conjugate it and you have Я БУДУ, ТЫ БУДЕШЬ, ОН, ОНА, ОНО БУДЕТ, МЫ БУДЕМ, ВЫ БУДЕТЕ, ОНИ БУДУТ. And, as I said before, you just add any infinitive in imperfective aspect. So, Я БУДУ РАБОТАТЬ, ТЫ БУДЕШЬ ЗНАТЬ, ОНА БУДЕТ ДЕЛАТЬ, МЫ БУДЕМ ХОТЕТЬ, etc. So, here, let's look at some examples. We use imperfective in future in the same situations as we use them in past, so, when you're talking about repetition and process of the action. We can say Я БУДУ РАБОТАТЬ КАЖДЫЙ ДЕНЬ. КАЖДЫЙ ДЕНЬ shows us the repetition of the action. Then Я ЧАСТО БУДУ ЗВОНИТЬ ТЕБЕ. Again, ЧАСТО, that's repetition. And Я БУДУ ДОЛГО ЕСТЬ. Я БУДУ ДОЛГО, ДОЛГО shows that it'll be a long process. And then future for perfective aspect. Here, it's different, so, it's not already two words that we had before, it's one word. So, what we are doing is that we take the infinitive of the verb in perfective aspect, for example, let's take ПРОЧИТАТЬ, then we drop last two and then we add the endings. And here, good news, the endings will be the same as for the present tense. So, basically, here we have such conjugation. Я ПРОЧИТАЮ, ТЫ ПРОЧИТАЕШЬ, ОН, ОНА ПРОЧИТАЕТ, МЫ ПРОЧИТАЕМ, ВЫ ПРОЧИТАЕТЕ, И ОНИ ПРОЧИТАЮТ. At the same time, it's easy, yeah, to use the same endings that you use in present tense, but at the same time it's super-super tricky, because you never know if it's present or future tense, if you don't know how these verbs look at their basic form in the infinitive, if it's imperfective or if it's perfective. So, here you have to be careful and basically you need to know these aspects to know how to use them correctly in present and in future. Also, the verbs that are exceptions in present tense, like ПИСАТЬ, when you conjugate it, it's Я ПИШУ, ТЫ ПИШЕШЬ, ОН ПИШЕТ, ОНА ПИШЕТ, etc. When you conjugate this verb in future tense and you need to use perfective aspect, it'll be НА ПИСАТЬ, you use this prefix НА, you will do the same as you do in present, so it'll be Я НА ПИШУ, ТЫ НА ПИШЕШЬ, ОН, ОНА НА ПИШЕТ, МЫ НА ПИШЕМ, ВЫ НА ПИШЕТЕ, ОНИ НА ПИШУТ. You see? It's super tricky, super similar, Я ПИШУ, Я НА ПИШУ. So, you need to know if it's Я НА ПИШУ, that's future, I will write. If it's Я ПИШУ, that's present, I write or I'm writing. We have to be careful. And here also people make a lot of mistakes because they mix these two future tenses up. So, what they are doing sometimes is that they want to say I will write you or I will call you, let's say I will call you. So, they do Я БУДУ, as we did for imperfective, but then they take the verb in its perfective aspect. Я БУДУ ПОЗВОНИТЬ. You should understand that it's a mistake, obviously that's a mistake, you don't mix them up. Always if you say Я БУДУ, then it's imperfective. Я БУДУ ЗВОНИТЬ or Я ПОЗВОНЮ. So, let's look at the examples here. Я ПОЗВОНЮ ТЕБЕ ЗАВТРА. Also, we're talking just about one single action, so that's why Я ПОЗВОНЮ ТЕБЕ ЗАВТРА. Then ДАВАЙ ПОГУЛЯЕМ ВЕЧЕРОМ. Also, here actually it's tricky because after ДАВАЙ you always use perfective tense, so you need to remember this part. And the last Я НАРИСУЮ КАРТИНУ ДЛЯ ТЕБЯ. This one we're not talking about the process of the action. Yes, so here it's more like I'll draw it for you, I'll paint it for you, so here it's more the emphasize on the result of the action that you will have a picture, a painting from me, so that's why Я НАРИСУЮ КАРТИНУ ДЛЯ ТЕБЯ. In general terms, that's it. You should understand that we have much more situations and that's why in my course I edit every possible situation that you can meet. I edit lectures about the infinitive of the verb Я, when you want to say I want to do something or I need to do something, then this to do that's infinitive, so you also need to know how to use it in this situation. Another important topic is imperative. Imperative when you're given orders or when you want someone to do something for you in English, that's easy, you just say do it, go there, come here, you don't change your verb. In Russian, obviously, we change it and that's why it'll be a little bit complicated to learn imperative form. Also, negative sentences. It seems easy, yeah, why you have to change something in negative sentences when you want to say I didn't do something or I want to do something, but Russian, as we remember, is a language of a lot of exceptions, so that's why we need to pay attention to every little detail and to study it all separately. And yes, that's why I emphasize all the tricky questions, all the tricky things that you can meet and I put everything in one big course, but it's not that big, actually, just two hours, and in two hours, you'll be able to learn everything about this topic. And another advantage of this course is that now it has the lowest price, just $35. That's crazy because one individual lesson with me now costs $30, so you have to take this opportunity and use it because that's really a good opportunity to learn Russian with my help. Thank you very much for watching. Subscribe to my channel and stay with me and learn Russian with me.