Verbs in Russian language. Tenses. Imperfective and Perfective aspects. Imperative.

1. Russian verbs have:
• two aspects: imperfective, perfective;
• three tenses: present, past, future;
• two conjugations in the present tense;
• forms of person and number in the present and future tense;
• forms of gender and number in the past tense;
• three moods: indicative, imperative, conditional.

2. In dictionaries verbs are given in the infinitive. Infinitives end in -ть
делать — to do, любить — to love. Some verbs have the infinitive ending -ти: найти — to find, трясти — to shake. Few verbs have the infinitive ending -чь; жечь — to burn.

3. Present tense
The present tense is used when we speak of action which:
a) is happening at the present moment - Я готовлю ужин сейчас. I am cooking dinner now.
b) is a routine - Земля вращается вокруг Солнца. The earth goes around the sun.
c) is repetitive - Я хожу в магазин каждую субботу. I go for shopping every Saturday
d) started earlier, but continues at the moment of speaking - Я учусь в университете уже четыре года. I have been studying at the University for four years already.

Only verbs of the imperfective aspect are used in the present tense.

Russian Verbs Conjugation
Verbs in the present tense change by person and number. Russian verbs are divided into two categories by type of conjugation: First Conjugation and Second Conjugation. Most Russian verbs fall into the First Conjugation.

The first conjugation verbs include those which have the infinitive ending -ать, -ять (class 1), -еть (class 2), -овать, -евать (class 3), -нуть (class 4). Second conjugation verbs are those with the infinitive ending -ить (class 5).

Exception:

There are a few verbs ending in -ать (слышать, молчать, кричать, стучать, лежать, гнать, дышать, and others) and several ending in -еть (сидеть, видеть, смотреть, обидеть, гореть, ненавидеть, терпеть, велеть and others) which fall into the Second Conjugation category.
There is a small group of verbs in the First and Second Conjugations that have unusual conjugations including such verbs like ждать, класть and others. The conjugation of such irregular verbs should be memorized.

4. Past tense

There is only one form of the past tense in Russian language. In the past tense verbs change not by person and number, but by gender and number. The past tense is formed from the stem of the infinitive + -л (т.), -ла (f.), -лo (п.), -ли (pl.). For the majority of Russian verbs with stem ends in a vowel past tense will be built this way.

For example: читать: читал (m.) — читала (f.) — читали (pl.).

However, there are irregular verbs which will be formed slightly different.

5. Future tense
There are two forms of the future tense: the compound future and the simple future. The compound future is formed for actions which described be imperfective verbs. The simple future is formed for perfective verbs.
The compound future is formed for imperfective verbs only. It consists of the verb быть (to be) in the future tense the infinitive.

For example:
я буду читать книгу
ты будешь читать книгу
он, она будет читать книгу
мы будем читать книгу
вы будете читать книгу
они будут читать книгу.
The simple future is formed from the perfective aspect of the verb in the same way as the present tense of verbs in the imperfective aspect.

Compare:
Present tense of imperfective aspect of the verb: я читаю письмо
Future tense of perfective aspect of the verb: я прочитаю письмо

6. Aspects of verbs
Russian verbs have two aspects: imperfective (думать, слушать) and perfective (подумать, послушать). Most imperfective and perfective verbs go in aspectual pairs of verbs with the same lexical meaning.

The Imperfective Aspect
1. Вчера вечером я читала книгу. Yesterday evening I was reading a book.
Presents an action as a process, in its development evolving in time.
2. Обычно он ложится спать в одиннадцать часов. Usually he goes to bed at eleven o’clock.
Я часто обедала в ресторане. I often had lunch in the restaurant.
Denotes habitual, repeated actions.
3. Ты читал эту статью? Did you read this article?
Да, читал. Yes, I did.
Что Вы делали утром? What did you do in the morning?
Играл в теннис. I played tennis.
Sate that the action took place.
Note.
1. Imperfective verbs are usually accompanied by the adverbs всегда, иногда, часто, редко, обычно, долго.
2. The verbs начинать – начать, продолжать, кончать – кончить are followed by imperfective verbs.

The Perfective Aspect
1. Я прочитала книгу.
I have read the book. Denotes the completion of an action, it’s result.
2. Вчера он лег спать в девять часов. Yesterday he nine o’clock.
Сегодня я пообедала в ресторане. I had a lunch at the restaurant today.
Denotes a single specific action occurring at a specific time.
Notes. – The adverbs вдруг, неожиданно, сразу are more often used with perfective verbs.
Though English tenses do not correspond with the Russian aspects of the verbs, English Past Continues Tense and the construction ‘used to + Infinitve’ tend to be translated into Russian by imperfective aspects of the verbs. For example, Дети смотрели фильм пока родители готовили ужин. Children were watching a film while parents were cooking dinner. Мои друзья раньше часто ходили в кино. My friends were used to go to the cinema often.
A combination of a verb ‘to finish’ + the gerund or noun is translated into Russian by using a perfective aspect of the verb. Я закончил работать сегодня в пять часов. I finished working today at 5 o’clock.
The aspect of the verb is indicated in the dictionaries. These two verbs делать — im¬perfective, сделать — perfective make up an aspect pair. They indicate the same action, but the im¬perfective aspect describes the action itself, whereas the perfective aspect besides indicating the action also stresses the completion or result of the action. Verbs of the imperfective aspect are used in the present, past and future tenses (делаю — делал — буду делал). Verbs of the perfective aspect exist only in the past and future tenses (сделал — сделаю).
In order to identify the aspect of the verb you have to know main indicators and the way the verbs of perfective and imperfective aspects are formed.

Indicators of imperfective aspect
1) no prefix - читать
2) the suffix -ива- (-ыва-) - спрашивать
3) the suffix – ва - давать
4) the suffix –aть/ -ять- решать, изучать

Indicators of perfective aspect
1) with prefix (вы-, на-, под(о)-, при-, про-, по-, с-, за-, у-) прочитать
2) no suffix -ива- (-ыва-) - спросить
3) no suffix -ва- дать
4) the suffix -и- купить
5) the suffix -ну- крикнуть
In some cases aspectual pairs consist of verbs with different stems. Many verbs exist either in imperfective or perfective aspect and don’t have a pair.
Perfective verbs formed by means of prefixes have the conjugation pattern of their imperfective aspect. Therefore, for instance the verbs написать and подумать are conjugated the same as the verbs писать и думать.

7. Imperative
The imperative of Russian verbs have two forms: 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural. Imperative is formed from the stem of the present tense of verbs for the imperfective aspect or of the future tense of verbs for the perfective aspect.

Formation of the imperative:
1) If the stem ends in a vowel, -й is added for 2nd person singular and –йте is added for 2nd person plural.
делать — делаю — делай — делайте
читать — читаю — читай — читайте
2) If the stem ends in a consonant, -и is added for 2nd person singular and -ите is added for 2nd person plural.
смотреть — смотрю — смотри — смотрите
говорить — говорю — говори — говорите

8. Conditional mood
The Conditional mood is formed using 1) the past tense of the verb; 2) thе particle бы, which can be placed after or before the verb; 3) in complex phrases the conjunction если is used.
Я бы с удовольствием съел кусок торта. I would eat a piece of cake with pleasure.
In complex phrases, бы is placed on both parts of the phrase. Если бы я был миллионером, я бы купил виллу. If I were a millionaire, I would buy a villa.

9. Reflexive verbs

There is a large number of Russian verbs with the reflexive particle -ся (-сь) on the end.
Note:
-ся after consonants: одеваться, умываться
-сь after vowels: одеваюсь, умываюсь

Reflexive verbs are divided into the following groups:
1) The action is reflected to the person who is making an action. Thе meaning of the particle -ся in this case is synonymous with the meaning of себя.
Ребенок одевается (т. е. одевает сам себя). The child is getting dressed (dresses himself).
2) Reciprocal-reflexive verbs: one and the same action, is occurring with two or more people.
Друзья случайно встретились на вокзале.
Friends met each other by chance at the train station.
3) General reflexive verbs: indicate changes in movement, situation, the beginning or end of an action.
Такси остановилось около дома.
Taxi stopped near the hourse.
Концерт заканчивается в 10 часов.
The concert finished at 10 o'clock.
There are verbs which do not exist without the reflexive ending -ся: стараться, бояться, надеяться, смеяться, улыбаться and others.