Verbal Aspect in Russian: an Introduction (UPDATED)

Why do Russian verbs come in pairs? Learn the basics of the imperfective and perfective aspects in Russian. We'll explore how perfective verbs point to completion and result, while imperfective verbs often express processes, and repeated actions.
In this brief introduction to the concept of verbal aspect, we explore the basic contrasts between the imperfective and perfective aspects. Later videos will go into more detail on forms and usage in specific contexts.
Some like to think of "clusters" rather than pairs of verbs, but in my experience, starting with the concept of pairs provides beginners with a gentler introduction to this deep topic.
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[@peterlonter9053]

thanks for the video I refer to your videos to understand russian grammar .this lesson is very important .keep doing these vids with logical explanation to make it easy for us to grasp the essence .

[@itsmrhunter]

Excellent information and thoroughly explained. I wish I had found this channel when I began my Russian learning journey!

[@t0umart0u]

I'm glad I found you. It's clear and to the point. Спасибо

[@VerticalBlank]

Thank you for all your videos: they are so clear and to the point.

[@lilyrose4191]

Superb video 🙂 thank you !

[@planetareynoso]

Great video, as always! Thanks and regards from Chile.

[@catboy721]

Thanks for this and for slowing the pace a bit from your older videos. I guess the expression “drink up” is a bit of a regionalism but it still works. After studying this forever, I still feel like Russian speakers can be subjective with aspect. Not always cut and dry if (for them) the result should have more emphasis than the process. BTW, what do you do with “I have finished the book.” Without additional context this would be imperfective (present progressive) but it can also mean a one-and-done act, right? Thanks.

[@russiangrammar]

I agree that aspect choice can be subjective; that's what makes it challenging: sometimes only one aspect is possible, but sometimes it depends on context and the speaker's perspective. For me, the present perfect "I have finished the book" = a completed action, so just я прочитал книгу. Glad you appreciate the slower pace; when I started making these I knew nothing about proper narration technique. 😭

[@dmitrychoobise]

I have finished the book это 💯% я прочитал книгу

[@fmaylinch]

Now I was wondering... how would it sound to say "каждый день я прочитаю главу из книги", meaning "every day I completely read one chapter of the book"? :) As far as I know, if you say "прочитаю" (perfective), it automatically refers to the future. But I wonder if it's possible to twist the language to use the perfective as present.

[@russiangrammar]

I don't think I've heard прочитать used in that way; it feels very much like 'future' to me. But it is possible to derive a "secondary imperfective" from a perfective, most often when a prefix has added a nuance: писать 'to write' (imperfective), > подписать 'to sign' (perfective), > подписывать 'to sign' (imperfective). So you can add - ыв - to get прочитывать, for the sense of regularly reading something to the end: Он прочитывал три серьезных книги в день...'He read 3 serious books a day' (Довлатов). Обычно, прежде чем отправить деловое письмо, он прочитывал его Людмиле вслух. 'Usually, before sending a business letter, he would read it aloud to Ludmila.' (Гроссман). Прочитывать isn't super common; you can also just say читать, which doesn't exclude completion - it just doesn't specify it. There's more on secondary imperfectives here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6mQkKOXlptmhcU :)

[@HalfgildWynac]

It does not work. Прочитаю in that structure is a future tense form referring to one specific, non-repeated action. There is, indeed, a use of perfective forms in sentences like "Не каждый день такое увидишь", "Такого умного человека не каждый день встретишь". It is also used to give "examples" of actions a person may regularly do. The most creative examples are from prose, but simple sentences of this type can be found in speech, too: • Он, бывало, каждый день выпьёт и драться лезет = "At times, he would have a drink, every day, and then tried to start a fight" • Иногда и жрать ему не даст в наказание. = "Sometimes, she would not feed him as a punishment." • (spoken) Она иногда вообще вот придёт и даже время не запомнит... во сколько ей в следующий раз приходить. = "Sometimes she would come and, like, she would not even remember the time... when she'd have to come next time." You may conceptualise them as short glimpses of single actions, in a sequence or in no particular order, small scenes that are given as an illustration to a person's behavior.

[@fmaylinch]

@@HalfgildWynac спасибо огромное!

[@russiangrammar]

Thanks for chiming in! J Forsyth describes these uses of the "perfective present" as "singularization" of a multiple action, or sometimes a contingency: that the action can occur given certain circumstances. There can be a similar nuance with "will" in English: "Sometimes I will have a coffee after dinner, if I'll be driving late." I don't usually burden beginners with these nuances, but occasionally I'll (!) bring it up if a sharp-eyed learner brings me, usually with a look of confusion or betrayal, an example of a perfective used with всегда or иногда.

[@marcplanet4776]

Unfortunately this concept of “completed” versus “not completed” not always works well to explain the difference between perfective and imperfective. For example: “я почитал книгу” means that I read the book for a while, but not necessarily finished reading the entire book (although the verb is in the perfective aspect). There’s also the “factual imperfective”: ты когда-нибудь читал эту книгу? Да, читал. Here, читал can mean that I I’ve read it once (some time ago) and probably finished it, but it’s still an imperfective form.

[@russiangrammar]

You're not wrong, of course: as I mention at 4:02 in the video, we're just scratching the surface here. There will be much more to touch on (aspect in commands, aspect with negation in the past, aspect after нельзя, etc). Keep in mind that this is an introduction for those first encountering aspect; covering all aspects (!) of aspect in a brief video would be impossible. Duratives with по- (почитать, поспать) are often introduced later, perhaps to avoid confusion with non-durative uses as in посмотреть, so I plan a separate video on duratives. I touch on the общефактическое значение in this video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3O2pp98pLWXf8k), and in commands in this video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnqwhXZriKySo7s). For a truly in-depth discussion of aspect, though, a book is a more appropriate medium, and I'd recommend J Forsyth's "A Grammar of Aspect: Usage and Meaning in the Russian Verb" (Cambridge University Press, 1970) - over 350 pages, with enough thoughtful analysis to satisfy anyone's curiosity. :)

[@marcplanet4776]

@@russiangrammarThank you for your book suggestion. I’ve already ordered it! In your future advanced videos, you may also want to mention about the “biaspectual” verbs, which can work as either perfective or imperfective depending on the context.

[@russiangrammar]

I'm sure you'll enjoy Forsyth. :) After decades of learning Russian, I still find something to think about nearly every time I open it. And good idea about those bi-aspectuals...

[@marcplanet4776]

@@russiangrammar Yes, I think biaspectuals are an interesting concept from a linguistic perspective. Many of them are derived from foreign verbs by adding the suffix “ировать”. However, somehow many of them have resisted further “russification” and do not have a perfective form by adding a prefix. Is this only temporary or will they eventually form perfective/imperfective pairs? It’s interesting to see how language evolves over time, especially in a more globalized world..

[@dmitrychoobise]

Почитал книгу не равно прочитал. ПРОчитал это законченный результат. ПОчитал говорит, что действие было недолгим или поверхностным. Например: Я почитал книгу, но она мне не понравилась и я её бросил (читать).