A few words and exercises on ASPECT.
Aspect is probably the most complex concept you'll encounter when learning Russian: Unlike so many phenomena in language learning (like, say, verbal conjugation), there's often no right/wrong answer. That might SEEM to make it easier -- "Hey, I can't get it wrong! -- but aspectual choice is tough because it requires the speaker to be "context aware." This awareness is precisely what makes 99% of exercises on aspect choice total garbage.
I speak the language pretty good, and I still get confused about aspect in certain circumstances... It's the one thing that Russians still correct me on, so it must "sound really wrong" when I pick the wrong aspect.
But, FOR OUR PURPOSES in Elementary Russian (heck, in ADVANCED Russian!)... aspect is pretty simple:
- In the present tense, use only IMPERFECTIVE.
- In the FUTURE tense, use only PERFECTIVE. (Really, how often do you talk about how you spend time in the future? Usually you are listing things you will get DONE, thus emphasizing result, this using the perfective.)
- In the past tense, if you want to emphasize the result of an action, use PERFECTIVE.
- In the past tense, if you want to emphasize how you spend time (especially repetition), use IMPERFECTIVE.
📣 I say present, you say IMPERFECTIVE. I say perfective, you say RESULT. I say imperfective, you say PROCESS.
If you follow these rules, you'll get it right 90% of the time.
So, three things you have to understand about aspect.
- Virtually all verbs in Russian exist in pairs, one imperfective and one perfective. You've ONLY learned imperfective verbs... Now, you're going to start learning perfective forms, too.
- The only way to express the PRESENT tense is imperfective verbs: Я читаю книгу. I am reading a book.
- Perfective verbs conjugate just like imperfective verbs, they do not have a separate conjugational pattern. You are learning nothing here! When you conjugate a perfective verb, you AUTOMATICALLY leap into the future. When you put an "el and gender marker" on a perfective verb, no surprise, you're in the past.
And so...
- Я читал книгу. I was reading a book. (Imperfective, past, you care about the process. Perhaps you finished, perhaps you didn't.)
- Я прочитал книгу. I read a book. (Perfective, past, note the prefix! You care about the result. Maybe you finished it, maybe you just read some of it and then did something else.)
- Я читаю книгу. (Present, therefore imperfective. Present is always focussed on "how I spend my time.")
- Я прочитаю книгу. (Perfective, future, note the prefix. Conjugate the darn verb! It's a claim about what you will do, result oriented.)
- Я буду читать книгу. (Imperfective, future, note the auxiliary verb. This is theoretically possible, how you will spend time in the future... but, practically, it's very rare. How often do you say, "I will be reading a book"? You almost never talk about how you'll spend your time in the future; instead, you make claims about how you will finish something! "I'm going to read a book!")
Look through this Power Putin Presentation. It contains wisdom and information.
Here's a "basic list" of the verbs you know and their PERFECTIVE counterpart, with a few clues to remind you how they conjugate.
- смотрéть (смо́трят)/посмотрéть to watch
- писа́ть (пи́шут)/написáть to write
- чита́ть (-ают)/прочита́ть to read
- ви́деть (ви́дят)/уви́деть to see
- по́мнить (по́мнят)/запо́мнить to recall, remember
- пить (пьют)/вы́пить (пью, пьёшь, пьёт) to drink
- есть/съесть to eat, eat up (ем, ешь ест, еди́м, еди́те, едя́т)
- гото́вить (гото́вят)/пригото́вить (пригото́влю) to prepare
- расска́зывать/рассказать (расска́жут) to tell
- зака́зывать/заказа́ть (зака́жут) to order
- покупа́ть (покупáю)/купи́ть (куплю́) (to buy)
- говори́ть (говоря́т)/сказа́ть (ска́жут) to speak, say
Do this exercise!
