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Imperfective vs. Perfective Verbs Guide

The document discusses the differences between imperfective and perfective verbs in Russian. It provides four criteria for choosing between the two: whether an action is ongoing or completed, repeated or a single occurrence, being discussed for the first time or previously, and simultaneous actions versus a sequence. Examples are given that illustrate imperfective verbs depicting ongoing processes while perfective verbs denote completed actions. The document also notes how prefixes and suffixes can change a verb from imperfective to perfective or vice versa, and that some verb pairs are simply two different words.

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Riccardo Spinicci
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55 views5 pages

Imperfective vs. Perfective Verbs Guide

The document discusses the differences between imperfective and perfective verbs in Russian. It provides four criteria for choosing between the two: whether an action is ongoing or completed, repeated or a single occurrence, being discussed for the first time or previously, and simultaneous actions versus a sequence. Examples are given that illustrate imperfective verbs depicting ongoing processes while perfective verbs denote completed actions. The document also notes how prefixes and suffixes can change a verb from imperfective to perfective or vice versa, and that some verb pairs are simply two different words.

Uploaded by

Riccardo Spinicci
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Imperfective or Perfective?

You will usually choose between Imperfective and Perfective verbs based on one of the following four
criteria:

1) Is the action in the process (Imperfective) or is it already finished  (Perfective)?

 Виктория целый месяц планировала (Imperf.: It was lasting for a whole month!) свой отпуск!

 Вчера она наконец спланировала (Perf.: The plan is ready. Great!) свой отпуск.

2) Does the situation repeat (Imperfective) or it happened only once (Perfective)?

 До вчерашнего дня я каждое утро занимался (Imperf.: I did it every morning.)  йогой.

 Вчера я впервые за пять лет не позанимался  (Perf.: It happened only once.) йогой утром!

3) Do we talk about it for the first time  (Imperfective) or did we already discuss it before (Perfective)?

– Ты когда-нибудь пробовал (Imperf.:We didn’t discuss it before.)  русские блинчики со сметаной?

– Нет, никогда!

– Обязательно попробуй (Perf.: Try it at least once!)!

In a week:

– Ты попробовал  (Perf.: We discussed it one week before.) русские блинчики со сметаной?

– Попробовал! Действительно очень вкусно!

4) Does the subject do several things simultaneously (Imperfective) or one after another (Perfective)?

 Как ты можешь работать (Imperf.) и говорить  (Imperf.) по телефону одновременно?

 Антон написал (Perf.) письмо, позвонил (Perf.) клиенту, выключил (Perf.) компьютер и


пошёл (Perf.) домой. ← He finished one activity before starting another.

Imperfective and perfective forms

How to get a Perfective verb from an Imperfective verb? One way is to add a prefix. (Note, that it works
vice versa for “покупать / купить”: Imperfective form is prefixed, while a perfective form isn’t).
More verbs

Another way to get a Perfective verb from an Imperfective one is to change a suffix.
More verbs

Some pairs of Imperfective and Perfective verbs are just two different words. Here are several examples:
More verbs

Comment:

There are not only pairs of verbs. For instance, some Imperfective verbs often correspond to several
perfective ones:

 говори́ ть  (Imperf.)  – сказа́ть (one person says to another), поговори́ ть (two or more people talk).

 ду́мать (Imperf.) – поду́мать (for a short time), приду́мать (to find a solution or some idea).

Past, present and future tenses

Imperfective and perfective verbs act similarly in the past tense. They end with -л/-ла/-ло/-ли  (он
готовил  / она готовила  / оно готовило  / они готовили).

In the present tense, only Imperfective verbs are valid, just because we use the present tense to say about
either what are we doing right now (process), or what do we regularly do (repeated action).
To say about a completed or single action, we can use only past or future tenses. So, the form of the
present tense for Imperfective verbs, in case of a Perfective verb, refers to the future (он
приготовит). And there is no “быть”.  We use the construction ‘быть + infinitive’ only for Imperfective
verbs (он  будет  готовить).

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