#verbal aspect

[haxyr3]

Language enthusiast and freelance translator Justin Douglas created a detailed and accurate infographic on the intricacies of Russian aspect – all while simultaneously translating a highly academic book on semantics by Elena Paducheva!

Check out Justin's impressive work here

[haxyr3]

Нельзя выбегать vs нельзя выбежать

I was very pleased to see how easy you made the the quiz on verbs of motions with prefixes - congratulations!

However, there was one particularly difficult question, and almost half of you made a mistake:

So, what is the actual difference between нельзя выбегать на дорогу and нельзя выбежать на дорогу?

Нельзя may mean both "not allowed, may not" and "physically impossible, can not".

If нельзя goes with an imperfective verb, it means "not allowed". Нельзя выбегать (imp) на дорогу means "don't run onto the road!". This is what moms usually say to their children, because roads are dangerous for small kids.

If нельзя goes with a perfective verb, it means "physically impossible", "you can't"

Нельзя выбежать (perf) на дорогу means that the road is inaccessible, you can't run onto it - for example, because it's fenced off from pedestrians.

Another example with нельзя and perfective or imperfective verbs:

Нельзя нарушать законы! - You should not break the laws!

Нарушать is the imperfective, and obviously this sentence is referring to human laws, such as those spelled out in the criminal code and so on.

Нельзя нарушить законы физики! - You cannot break the laws of physics. But you can try to do it, it is not a crime!

This is how the verbal aspect changes the meaning of нельзя.

[haxyr3]

Word of the Day: сказать

сказать /skɐˈzatʲ/ verb, perfective -- to say, to tell

Я сказала, что всё хорошо! I said it's okay!

сказать is the most frequent perfective verb in Russian, according to the Russian National Corpus.

When you re-tell your conversation with someone, “сказать” is the correct verb for direct or indirect speech in the past:

-- Он сказал: "Давай играть в карты!". А я сказала, что играю тольков шахматы. (He said: “Let's play cards!” And I said I only play chess.)

It is also the correct verb to play future dialogues in your head:

-- А она мне скажет: "Отличная идея!" (And she'll tell me, it's a great idea!)

With some actions, perfective are more frequent than their imperfective counterparts. Сказать is one of these verbs.

If you want to learn more about perfective and imperfective verbs, join our informal meeting on Zoom this Friday!

[haxyr3]

Informal Gathering of Russian Learners on Zoom

Greetings, wonderful community of language lovers, Would you like to have a casual chat about Russian over Zoom? Let me invite you to an

Hey Russian learners (and teachers!),

Would you like to gather together in Zoom and talk about one of the most dreadful grammar topic - perfective and imperfective verbs? I know, many of you struggle to comprehend the concept of the verbal aspect (especially if your mother-tongue is not one of Slavic languages). I understand how difficult it is to pick the right verb. But I also know that you can master this topic, and I can share my methods, tips and tricks. Would May 31st, 5 PM EST work for you? Click on the link to register! See you in Zoom!

[haxyr3]

Why do the words «шантажировать» and «вымогать» only have perfective forms?

Your information is wrong, they both are imperfective.

And no, they do not have perfective counterparts. For finite act of blackmailing (шантажировать) or begging/ extorting (вымогать), you can either add prefixes (пошантажировать, зашантажировать, дошантажироваться, довымогаться) or use descriptive construction: - завладел шантажом (с помощью шантажа, вымогательством) - отобрал (took away) And many other variations: Он шантажировал меня пять лет, пока не получил всё, что хотел. Они вымогали у правительства деньги и добились своего.

It is not uncommon that some verbs do not have both aspects. Not every verb is capable of having aspectual relationships.

[haxyr3]

Starting and Stopping | HAXYR3

Get more from HAXYR3 on Patreon

Weekend long-read + free flashcard set

Dive into my latest article exploring words often overlooked by Russian learners. Learn the secrets to sounding like a native speaker with a lot of real life examples and snag a free flashcard set! Your support keeps the educational journey alive - become a patron for just $2/month! 💡 Let's delve into the beauty of language together.

[haxyr3]

About one third of those of you who took the perfective-imperfective quiz made a mistake in the question about забыть vs. забывать.

Very often, you can see short perfective verbs (usually with prefixes), and very similar, but slightly longer verbs as their imperfective counterparts.

[haxyr3]

Some "rules" you may find in your textbooks are simply a result of misunderstanding and authors not knowing the subject well enough.

Всегда may easily go with perfective verbs:

Возьми деньги, не стесняйся, деньги тебе всегда пригодятся. - Take the money, don't be shy, you can always make use of it. Пригодятся - perfective.

В классе всегда найдётся такой ребёнок, который молчит и ничего не спрашивает. There's always a kid in class who doesn't talk and doesn't ask anything. Найдётся - perfective.

Скучный факт всегда проиграет мифу. Boring fact will always lose to myth. Проиграет - perfective.

Don't waste your time memorizing made-up rules. Embrace actual, real language instead, read and listen in your target language.