Уро́к 10
10.5 Grammar: Verbal Aspect
Люби́мая Грамма́тика
Introduction
As far as verbs in Russian go, you have learned how to use them in the present, past, and future tenses. There are only three tenses in Russian, which is great news. English has twelve. There is, however, something else about Russian verbs that it is finally time to learn.
VERBAL ASPECT
Russian has the ability to encode ‘how’ an action is carried out in its verbs. If tense denotes time when, aspect denotes perspective.
[VIDEO]
Consider the following passage in English. The decision to consider English is intentional. Note the bolded verbs. Think about these action words. How do you perceive them? Do they describe continuous action, incomplete action, repeated action, or do they refer to isolated or completed events? Maybe successive actions or one-time events?
The alarm clock pierced the quiet dusk that was settling over Oleg’s forest home. It was Monday evening. Time for work. Typically on Mondays, Oleg rolls out of bed, searches for his glasses that have inevitably fallen off the nightstand, finds them, and then lightly scurries to the kitchen to put the tea kettle on. He typically washes and grooms himself while the tea steeps, and then goes out to his front yard in search of mushrooms for his evening breakfast. He takes such joyful pleasure in this activity and always finds the perfect ones. That is, until recently. Oleg depends on his nightly forage to sustain him throughout his night working at the perfumery, but this evening things are different. This evening when the alarm sounded, Oleg leaped out bed, grabbed his glasses (he didn’t need to search for them this time), and scampered directly out the front door to find, much to his dismay, that the deer had once again been feasting at his mycologic trove. And now, he must decide whether to go on to work and grab something on the way, or stay home and try to fix this problem before it gets out hand.
II. Aspect in Russian
Verbs in Russian are either imperfective or perfective.
Imperfective verbs denote an ongoing, incomplete, and/or repeated action.
- IMPERFECTIVE verbs can be used in ALL tenses: past, present, and future.
Note – you have been learning ONLY imperfective verbs to this point.
Perfective verbs denote one-time, completed events (as far as the speaker is concerned) with an emphasis on the completion. That is, the completion of the event, in the speaker’s mind, is relevant to the context at hand.
- Perfective verbs can NEVER be used in the present tense. They can ONLY be used in the past and future tenses. If they emphasize completion, they cannot be on-going, repeated, or in progress, so they can never be used in the present tense.
Most Russian verbs have both imperfective and perfective forms. You have learned imperfective forms up to this point.
Here are some verbs you already know listed with their perfective partners. The imperfective is listed first, followed by its perfective pair. This is standard for most Russian textbooks.
Notice that the pairs are often similar, although not always. Refer to your vocabulary list this unit to learn the aspect pairs and their conjugations.
- де́лать / сде́лать – to do
- писа́ть / написа́ть – to write
- чита́ть / прочита́ть – to read
- смотре́ть / посмотре́ть (на) – to watch (look at)
- слу́шать / послу́шать – to listen
- ви́деть / уви́деть – to see
- говорить / сказа́ть – to say
- покупа́ть / купи́ть – to buy
- за́втракать / поза́втракать – to have breakfast
- обе́дать / пообе́дать – to have lunch
- у́жинать / поу́жинать – to have dinner
Let’s consider some past tense examples:
Notice how the verbs are translated into English. There is no consistent correspondence in English to Russian aspectual pairs.
The imperfective aspect can be translated into English with a past simple form or a past progressive form but not always.
Perfective aspect can be translated with a past simple form or a perfect form in English, but not always.
It is because there is no clear cut correspondence between English and Russian verbs that we have to devote attention to this topic. Mostly, you will just need a lot of exposure to Russian verbs in context and practice using them.
Imperfective PAST TENSE Examples:
1. Process with no focus on completion:
- Война́ и Мир о́чень большо́й рома́н. Я его́ до́лго чита́ла!
“War and Peace” is a really big novel. I read it for a long time!
2. Repetition:
- Мы смотре́ли но́вости ка́ждый ве́чер.
We watched the news every night.
3. General statement of fact with no focus on completion:
- Вы смотре́ли ру́сский фильм «Левиафа́н»?
Have you seen the Russian movie ‘Leviathan’?
Perfective PAST TENSE Examples:
1. A focus on completion / result:
- Они́ е́ли весь день. Они е́ли, е́ли и наконе́ц-то, съе́ли всю́ еду́!
“They ate / were eating all day. They ate and ate and finally ate all the food! - «Война́ и Мир» о́чень большо́й рома́н. Я его́ прочита́ла за две недели.
War and Peace is a really big novel. It took me two weeks to read it.
2. One time event that interrupts an action in progress:
- Он чита́л газе́ту на ку́хне и уви́дел тарака́на на ча́йнике!
He was reading the paper in the kitchen and saw a cockroach on the teapot!
III. Demonstration
Molly and I will attempt to demonstrate here. After you watch, read below for more information.
[VIDEO]
[VIDEO]
NOTE: Perfective future (we will talk more about this later…)
When a perfective verb is conjugated, it always has a future tense meaning:
Я куплю́ маши́ну.
(купи́ть – to buy)
I will buy a car.
Студе́нт сде́лает дома́шнее зада́ние.
(сде́лать – to do)
The student will do (his/her) homework.
Ты уви́дишь подру́гу на вечери́нке.
(уви́деть – to see)
You will see (your) friend a the party.
Мы напи́шем тебе́ письмо́.
(написа́ть – to write)
We will write you a letter.
