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Russian imperfective vs perfective | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5335 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 17 06 February 2012 at 7:20am | IP Logged |
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I am tried many resources on the explaination of the aspect portion of Russian verbs, and
I just cannot seem to wrap my head around it. Trying to understand the meaning behind the verbs in each tense, while also trying to find the perfect way of determining when to use one over the other. I've read that many people have this issue when coming towards Slavic languages. Please don't use complex sentences, or words, because my knowledge of Russian vocabulary is really lacking, so I won't be able to understand a lot. Sorry about that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5217 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 2 of 17 06 February 2012 at 8:01am | IP Logged |
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My Russian sucks, so I can't give you examples. However, as simple explanations go someone spared me to write my own, which would be almost the same:
----8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8< ;--------8<--------8<--------8<---- An aspect is the imperfective or perfective form in the Russian verbs: Imperfective is an incomplete, ongoing, or repeated action. Perfective is a successfully completed action. Usually the Russian perfective and imperfective are used in the past and future, for the present tense, you don’t have to worry about which to use, just use the imperfective, because actions are still in progress therefore not complete so there is no need to use the perfective. For the Russian past tense, if the action is completed successfully or was not or will not be repeated then use the perfective aspect. if otherwise then use the imperfective (even when you’re not sure, you can still use the imperfective) For the Russian future tense, if the action will be completed successfully, and will not be repeated then use the perfective aspect. if otherwise then use the imperfective (even when you’re not sure, you can still use the imperfective) ----8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8< ;--------8<--------8<--------8<---- Source: Russian @Speak7 Edited by mrwarper on 06 February 2012 at 8:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5335 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 17 06 February 2012 at 9:04am | IP Logged |
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Yeah it was like:
говорить - to speak сказать - to say Now here comes the confusion. I spoke to him. (to speak) I told him (to say) Both are past tense, and also, completed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Voodie Tetraglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4795 days ago 17 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Written), Greek | Message 4 of 17 06 February 2012 at 9:36am | IP Logged |
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Yes, but in "я говорил с ним" (imperfective) you point out the process itself, not that it's completed (like in "I was speaking to him").
Compare it with "я поговорил с ним" (perfective). Here it's clear that the action is over (like "I have spoken to him"). As for the present tense, only imperfective verbs have it. If you try to make a present form of a perfective verb, it will denote future. говорить - говорю (present) - I speak/say, I am speaking/saying. сказать - скажу (future) - I will have said. Edited by Voodie on 06 February 2012 at 10:50am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5335 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 17 06 February 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
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I guess something like this will just have to be learned in time.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Voodie Tetraglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4795 days ago 17 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Written), Greek | Message 6 of 17 06 February 2012 at 11:06am | IP Logged |
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Yes, but you can just keep in mind that Perfect tenses in English correspond to perfective verbs in Russian in 99% of all cases, just as Continious tenses correspond to Russian imperfective verbs (that is, probably, the reason why many Russians tend to use Continuous tenses more often than it's necessary, when they learn English).
With English simple tenses it's more ambiguous, but I think, perfective verbs are used more often. You should just ask yourself, if the action is completed or not. For example: Когда я писал письмо,... - When I was writing the letter,... Когда я написал письмо,... - When I wrote the letter,... (meaning "After it was finished"). 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5335 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 7 of 17 06 February 2012 at 12:02pm | IP Logged |
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So perfective is only when something was done successfully, or will be successful in the
future, everything else use imperfective. What happens, if you will be doing something in the future say (tonight), but you failed to make it successful, or you will not know the outcome of an event, or action? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4948 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 8 of 17 06 February 2012 at 12:36pm | IP Logged |
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They have a good explanation and quiz to test whether you've got it here.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/aspect.html 1 person has voted this message useful |
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