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This is one of the reasons why I love Russian so much, it's like a puzzle, when you get the logic of prefixes you can generate tons of new verbs from a verb, at first it seems intimidating but believe me in time you will learn the logic behind it
And it also depends on the speaker, sometimes all these rules make no sense when you hear someone saying «он хочет погулять» and five seconds later «он хочет есть».
@@xmaria26 Bearing in mind even native Russian speakers make many mistakes when it comes to grammar, the biggest mistake you can make is in search of being perfect at speaking Russian because it is impossible, being aware of general concept of it is enough.By the way I haven't said you will learn it completely in time, what I've said is you will learn the "logic".Don't be afraid of making mistakes, they will understand what you want to say in any case even if your sentence or the prefix you use is wrong
@@tahep3906 i know, i know, but the fact of knowing the theory by heart and still making mistakes when it comes to aspect or verbs of movement is very frustrating :/ I know I shouldn’t worry but I want to be perfect at it hahahahaha
The concept of "perfect" in verbs comes from Latin where "perfectus" means "completed" (perfectioned). So "imperfect" would mean "incomplete" or "in progress".
I think there is also nothing perfect in english perfect times like present or past perfect etc. And actually english perfect times have the same meaning as russian perfective (And imperfective is like english simple and continues)
@@user-rj5wg3bb9e I think past simple in English is perfective in Russian most of the time. Also, we just have to worry about the verb being perfective either speaking in the past or future tense or with compound verbs like я хочу прочитать это
@@jesussanchezherrero5659 well, yes you're right. In that case our imperfect form of past tense is more about english past continuous or 'used to' form
I am lucky to speak Russian as a native language, and I have enjoyed this video very much. It is great to get a logical explanation to grammatical motifs that just "come natural" and unnoticed to someone who had never formally learned Russian.
It is not that the imperfective verbs are 'not perfect'. It is that the action is still going on in the time of the context. A perfective verb describes an action that is (perfectly) complete. I enjoy your videos and your organized methods of presenting the material. Thanks for that.
this explanation was a difficult and bad one :) All you need to know about aspects that you need to use perfective when you want to mention that an event has a finish point or it has no length (like "I felt asleep" that happens at some moment and not a period of time) and you need to use imperfective when an event has no finish point or you don't want to speak about its finishing and you want just say that event happened/happens/will happen. This has nothing with english tenses to do because you can translate it to english as perfect, continuous or simple, that depends on a situation.
aspsect is easy, english has it afterall. all you have to remember is this: imperfect: incomplete process (I was learning, I am learning, I will be learning) perfect: complete process (I had learned, have learned, I will have learned) simple: tense without aspect, a fact (I learned, I learn, I will learn)
@@lotionman1507sorry for the late answer, but if imperfective has no prefixes, how do we go about them on simple aspect? Do you have to add a different prefix? And if not, how to differentiate between simple and imperfective?
@@spacenaves if youre talking about doing so in russian, i dont know for sure, i still dont speak it very well. as far as i know the imperfect and the simple are generally treated as the same unless you need to specify that an action is ongoing, in which case you'd specify the timing with тогда (then), or сейчас (now).
Fedor it is 3am. I could not sleep. I looked at YT and as I have already watched your vids this one popped up. I have really enjoyed it. I have just started learning Russian and I have just learnt the difference between the 2 aspects. And your explanations are so great as in just a couple of minutes they teach all the necessary concepts. Tks !!!!
Love your videos, Fedor! So much easier to hear about grammar explained in real life than reading from a book- though having read helps too. Much success, all good wishes!!
I am familiar with this concept because it is the same in Polish, I just didn't know the rules but after you've explained it I applied it to Polish and its the exact same
Прослушал урок и поймал себя на мысли, как наверное трудно понять и осознать не носителям русскую речь. Никогда об этом не думал про приставки и как они меняют слова, если их переводить с русского на английский язык.
еще можно подумать о том, каково работать преподавателем русского как иностранного. им приходится отвечать на такие каверзные вопросы студентов, которые и в голову бы не пришли носителю языка, вроде "какая разница в значении между словами испачкаться, запачкаться, перепачкаться?" )))
@user-lo6to7pk4n the first two are complete synonims, while the last one emphasises the "level of pollution". "перепачкался" means "I got super ditry ".
Thanks for explaining this in an easy to understand way. I was learning this in the past and they were going on about imperfect/perfect aspects and things like that, and it was just too confusing. But I get it now.
Of cause we don't have aspects in German but lots of prefixes which change the meaning of verbs and we have the prefix "ge" which shows that an action hast really finished in the past perfect. So to us it is not difficult to understand it! Very well explained, thank you!
8 years living in Russia and still don't understand this part of grammar. I read the theory a thousand times, watched hundreds of videos, and even yours from which I usually get the concepts rather quickly, and nothing! I guess that little part of my brain that is supposed to store this particular subject is very damaged. But I won't give up, I hope in 10 years more I will be able to speak with the correct aspect of the verb :D
I don't know if my explanation can help. Я хочу есть / играть - означает что ты акцентируешься на самом действии без указания временных ограничений. Я хочу поесть / поиграть - означает это будет ограниченный временными рамками процесс.
i watched the video and as a russian his explanation seemed quite confusing to me, i still can't get the idea why we speak like that, i think his explanation is wrong. conceptualy and even in comparison with english. okay i ll try to explain that one too😅 nice challenge so, when we speak about past tense, i ll bring a few examples: without по- я гулял я слушал я ел - states that you in fact done those things, what s important - not getting into ANY detail. when you say я погулял я послушал я поел you say that you decided to do something (гулять, слушать, есть), you went to do it and was doing it for some time, then you finished! so it gives a person you are talking to - - - a sense of time! you state that you were doing sth during an interval of time. you say that so this person understands that you did something else after that or was intended to if you had no time to realise your plans before meeting this person. and to english it would be more of a perfect tense, present perfect - so i have eaten, i have walked, i have listened to. there is also present and future tenses. here it gets tricky. you simply can't use по- in present tense, it s impossible to construct a sentence with such a verb for it to be in present tense. for example you say я гуляю and я погуляю. in the first case you state that you re walking right now. and in the second that you are intended to go for a walk for an interval of time! it means you re intended to walk for some time then finish and go to do other things. same goes for я поем, я послушаю. when using future tense people often or rather always add пойду, so пойду поем, пойду послушаю, пойду погуляю, it translates something like - i ll go eating, i ll go walking, i ll go listening to. so summarising - prefix по- always indicates an interval of time, it implies the beginning of an action and the end of it and used for expressing more detailed answer, for giving a person some sense of time of your actions
@@richbabushka2752 hmm, so I can't say "я вчера гуляла 4 часа подряд" or "я вчера гулял с утра до ночи"? and instead I should use "я вчера погуляла 4 часа подряд" or "я вчера погулял с утра до ночи". I thought Russians use "по-" (talking about the past) simply to focus on the fact that the action is finished rather than on its duration. Like with not so specific time period ("я немного погулял") or to separate the actions in a chain ("сперва я погулял часа с два, а затем принялся за работу") or something like that. Guess I learn something every day.
@@DanielBreadly i mean, yeah, as i said, beside similarity with present perfect - which focuses on the finishing of the action, it gives a person SOME sense of time, which is the same with your 'no specific time period' i assume, and of course you shouldn't specify any time period after that bcs по- means you already put the implication of time there and won't go into detail. so your first sentences were right of course. either я вчера гулял 4 часа (specific time period) or я вчера погулял, потом пошел рисовать (no specific time period, but it states the action is finished, and that you were doimg it for some, usually not very long, time) about actions in a chain i haven't thought🤷♀️ but your idea is right, it gives right results 🤷♀️🤷♀️👍 i m not a teacher thou 🤷♀️
Remembering grammar rules will not teach you language, you have to remember phrases a where to use them. I had same problem with English, I was completely lost with that crazy grammar, you are constantly thinking about that tense you should use and how to make some sentence, that's nonsense, you must just remember phrases, you don't need to know why exactly it's said like that.
You can say this and “поиграть” and “играть” makes no difference. it’s just that “поиграть” sounds somehow softer, and as a native speaker I would say “поиграть”. By the way, in the past form I would say “играла” (without "по")
Привет Fedor! Ive been watching your videos for almost a year now as I learn Russian and I am very interested in your classes. I havent signed up because I work away from home and only have a phone for internet and I work every day with various times. Is there a way I can still use your classes even with my hectic schedule?
We have a similar thing in Lithuanian, but I can't verify if it works exactly the same way you described. I've been asking myself the same question regardless and this video gave me answers. Thank you!!
its called imperfective and perfect because of latin actually! It comes from the word perfectus, meaning complete, so words that are perfect are showing the action has been completed whereas imperfect signifies incompleteness
Imperfective comes from the Latin word "perfectus" meaning "done, completed, finished". Therefore being the Russian я играл being translated with "I was playing" , focusing on the process in action, you call it imperfective ❤ ps we have a similar tense in Italian called imperfetto which is presenting facts in activity. You see, languages are all connected and LOVELY ❤❤ спасибо
Perfection is when the action is finished and imperfection when action is unfinished. Evidently when is process, the action in unfinished, but is more understandable the concept finished - unfinished in relation with perfection that the concept process - fact.
I’ve heard someone say the perfect I’ve aspect denotes doing and action and getting it done, that is finishing it. So Я поиграл is doing something and finishing it, finishing playing. This helped me tremendously to understand the perfective and imperfective aspect
You may say «(по)играть в футбол» (play football) or «(по)играть в игру» (play a game), but you should not say «играть в компьютер». It's a colloquialism. The correct version is «играть (в игру) на компьютере». Well, you CAN «играть в компьютер» but it implies some roleplaying - "let's pretend i'm a computer, and ..."
What's so "perfect" or "imperfect" about verbs? The original meaning of "perfect" (in Latin which was used when they were coming up with grammatical terms) was "complete." A perfective verb describes an action that is complete or has a definite ending. An imperfective verb describes an action that is incomplete or ongoing or had no definite ending.
Both statements are FACTS, that is “I am playing on the computer” and “i was playing on the computer”. The real difference between these 2 aspectual verbs are “process” vs “result”. I think the word “fact” is confusing.
Я хочу "поиграть" я думаю звучит более смягченно. Так говорят маме когда хотят залипнуть на 5 часов в КС, а говорят "поиграть" как будто речь идет о 15 минутах)
I was wondering why I keep seeing на in front of some past tense verbs. I guess i will get the explanation eventually in my language book for many of these prefixes.
Yeah changing the -ать to -ывать (-ивать after 7 letter rule) changes the prefixed perfective verbs back to imperfective. The stress normally changes too
@@zhopka77 ы changes to и after the letters ж, ш, щ, ч, к, г, х (that's why it's русский, not русскый). There's also the 5 letter rule, where unstressed о changes to е after ж, ш, щ, ч, ц and the 8 letter rule, where я and ю change to а and у after ж, ш, щ, ч, ц, к, г, х. The channel Russian Grammar has some good videos about them and how they affect different endings :)
Even though "fact" descends from "facere" we no longer use it in English to indicate "completing an action", "a completed action" instead it refers merely to a thing, not a process, whether completed (=perfected) or not yet completed or still in profress (=not perfected, i.e. imperfect). This distortion of facere into a mere material object as opposed to a human process leading to a result is English distorting Latin all right. Russian still uses fact in the latin sense, German has that sense somewhat too in the famous East Germany radio statements "Fakt ist"=the fact is, i.e. "the stated observations of the government regarding social relations are as follows". Leave it to Germany to render Soviet bureaucracy less wordy! We call verbs "perfected" because the verb's action is completed. It's the non-abuse of facere hiding in that word perFECTed. Although the noun "perfect" and it's adjective form perfectly are used much like the English word "fact" to describe a state, the verb forms "perfecting" "perfected" are still used even in current (highly literary) english to indicate a process, not a mere result without regard to any process! Completed actions are perfected. Incompleted actions are not perfected, they are imperfect. We can approximate the russian prefix po as in "igrat / poigrat" in English using "by" for po. However, this following approximation is Russinglish: it is not at all proper but serves as a memory lemma (memotechnique). I was by playing hockey. I played hockey. English doesn't use that "by-playing" (German does! ich war beim Spielen). In English: I just made that structure up. BUT, remember this: by and by you will be understanding that PO in Russian as a prefix to a verb is basically the same idea as BY--verb--ING That sentence is your memory key and while it is colloquial not literary it is correct (unlike "I was by playing").
Goodness! What fabulous explanation!! Thank you. Whilst it’s not meaning alot to me at the moment, I know as my Russian studies progress this explanation will make more sense to me. Thank you so much for your excellent observations and articulation of speech.
Imperfective is like progressive. In English we add to be + verb -ing to make it progressive. In Russian the addition goes to the Perfective, like PO- to the past
Привет Федя. At 2:05 you ask what's imperfect about the process? I understand it this way: Perfect = complete. The action has been completed. Imperfect = some how incomplete as yet ... 'I was playing' Or 'am playing' does not convey the same meaning as 'I'm done playing'. 'I played' implies that I played for a specific period of time, and the action was completed.
The terminology used in grammar is of Latin origin. "Perfectum" means "finished, completed" in Latin, hence the terms "perfective" and "imperfective" aspect.
Кстати, приставка "per-" по-латински значит "про-" и "fectum" является фонетическим вариантом слова "factum", то есть "сделанное". Поэтому, "perfective" значит "слеланное".
Subject po, but you went up on the subject of prefixes. Any beginner knows the prefixes change the meaning but the subject PO is a topic for advanced learners.
The explanation (90% of the video) was very clear. In past tense I could've been playing or I could've finished playing, and the prefix по is used to differentiate those two cases. The introductory sentence is what is still a puzzle to me. In present tense я хочу играть is said to be incorrect, BUT whatever I am doing is the present can only be a "process" as soon as the process is over it becomes the past, so я хочу поиграть should be the incorrect version, no? What am I missing? Спасибо in advance!!
imperfective and perfective mean несовершенный and совершенный (uncompleted and completed). A process is - if it's supposed to still be in process - unfinished, incomplete. If you just state a fact, I did it, I will do it, describing it as something that happens at one moment in time, and after that moment it's over, completed. perfectum in Latin basically means done. facio - I do; factum est - it is done
Hi, Fedor! I absolutely love your content, and I can really tell you’ve been trying to up your game lately! The travel videos are really sharp, dude! However, grammar isn’t a strong suit of this channel-and it’s OK if it’s not. For example, your choice of the word “popular” to describe the use of по- to indicate the perfective aspect is misleading. It’s not used because “people like it,” that is, “it’s popular,” it’s used because certain verbs require it to signal the perfective aspect. Also, the вы- and про- prefixes really didn’t have anything to do with the aspect discussion. Have you considered partnerships with linguists? The reason I ask that out loud is because there are a few of us who do appreciate grammatical minutia. And while I love your content, I’m not really going to get a lot of grammar from your channel. Take care and be safe! All the best from a Fatboy in Kentucky!
I agree. I’m English and am learning with Mark Thompson of “Russian Made Easy/Understanding Spoken Russian/Russian Accelerator “. His teaching is so different to how native Russian speakers teach. As Mark says, if your teacher starts making you learn tables or grammar rules, RUN THE OTHER WAY”. I agree. I find Fedors lessons helpful but to actually properly grasp learning then it needs to be done differently. Mark is a legend at teaching Russian and I’ve not found any other teachers a touch on him.
Yeah, sometimes native speakers aren't the best at explaining grammar; I know I wouldn't be comfortable trying to teach English grammar! I only have an intuitive sense of what's right or wrong in English grammar that I might not be able to describe to someone else. I feel like the same thing's happening here. I think that вы- and про- can add a lot of depth to the discussion though. They're more semantically rich than по-, like how вы- can mean "out of" or "complete" (идти - to go -> выйти - to go out, exit). Whereas, по- seems to have little semantic meaning. The only one I can think of is that it can mean "a while" sometimes: the usual perfective of говорить is сказать - to speak/say, but there's also поговорить - to talk (for a while)/to have a conversation. Other than that, по- seems quite purely grammatical - that's why it's the most common method of forming perfectives, it doesn't usually change the meaning. All the other prefixes may change the meaning and lead to even more complex webs of imperfective/perfective pairs and it ends up making more sense to learn them individually, like with выигрывать/выиграть - to win and проигрывать/проиграть - to lose.
Two mistakes in the main premise: (a) "Я хочу ИГРАТЬ" - тоже правильно, хотя значение иное, чем в "я хочу ПОИГРАТЬ". (b) "играть / поиграть НА компьютере", а не "в компьютер".
Лучший пример будет, наверное, "я хочу играть на гитаре" и "я хочу поиграть на гитаре". В первом случае - это скорее означает, что человек не умеет играть на гитаре и хочет научится, а во втором случае - он умеет играть, но просит разрешение взять гитару и сыграть что-то. Но "я хочу играть в GTA" для меня звучит странно, а "я хочу поиграть в GTA" - нормально. Хотя "я хочу играть в GTA и не ходить на работу" - вполне уже.
"Imperfect" comes from Latin, where "perfectum" has the sense in "finished, with completion" (it's related to the word for "to do"). I adore this channel but this time I feel (I think, still a beginner) the explanation is not clear enough, should be maybe more about ongoing actions vs. completed actions?
The explanation here is very chaotic indeed. Those prefixes change the complete/incomplete aspect as well as.changing tense at the same time, so you need to present a table for what they do with each kind of verb. Ya hachu igrat v kompyuter. = I want to be playing the computer (e.g. during the long boring film). Ya hachu poigrat v kompyuter. = I want to play some/a bit on the computer (i.e. This is my plan or desire to do. I want to play for some finite time, so the verb is complete/finite.). He is wrong to say the 1st sentence is incorrect, because it is perfectly correct! It's just not what one would want to say in the implied context.
Все эти приставки и окончания - русские phrasal verbs Hey guys! No one says to you it but all prefixes and endings with verbs contain the same model formation of meaning as well as phrasal verbs in English.
Switching from imperfective aspect to perfective aspect does not always mean adding some prefix. There are some verbs where imperfective and perfective aspect have completely different stems, like говорить and сказать for the verb "to say".
![[UNCUT] ฝันรักห้วงนิทรา | EP.3 (1/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zVXAFD1OLZg/mqdefault.jpg)
This is one of the reasons why I love Russian so much, it's like a puzzle, when you get the logic of prefixes you can generate tons of new verbs from a verb, at first it seems intimidating but believe me in time you will learn the logic behind it
Mmm I don’t agree. I’ve been learning Russian for seven years and I still don’t get at a 100% the nuances of the perfective aspect
And it also depends on the speaker, sometimes all these rules make no sense when you hear someone saying «он хочет погулять» and five seconds later «он хочет есть».
Are you really exiciting to come russia or you’re in there 💜
@@xmaria26 Bearing in mind even native Russian speakers make many mistakes when it comes to grammar, the biggest mistake you can make is in search of being perfect at speaking Russian because it is impossible, being aware of general concept of it is enough.By the way I haven't said you will learn it completely in time, what I've said is you will learn the "logic".Don't be afraid of making mistakes, they will understand what you want to say in any case even if your sentence or the prefix you use is wrong
@@tahep3906 i know, i know, but the fact of knowing the theory by heart and still making mistakes when it comes to aspect or verbs of movement is very frustrating :/ I know I shouldn’t worry but I want to be perfect at it hahahahaha
The concept of "perfect" in verbs comes from Latin where "perfectus" means "completed" (perfectioned). So "imperfect" would mean "incomplete" or "in progress".
And in russian it's completely the same
I think there is also nothing perfect in english perfect times like present or past perfect etc. And actually english perfect times have the same meaning as russian perfective (And imperfective is like english simple and continues)
I agree with you @СЛАВА ЕВГЕНЬЕВ
@@user-rj5wg3bb9e I think past simple in English is perfective in Russian most of the time. Also, we just have to worry about the verb being perfective either speaking in the past or future tense or with compound verbs like я хочу прочитать это
@@jesussanchezherrero5659 well, yes you're right. In that case our imperfect form of past tense is more about english past continuous or 'used to' form
I am lucky to speak Russian as a native language, and I have enjoyed this video very much. It is great to get a logical explanation to grammatical motifs that just "come natural" and unnoticed to someone who had never formally learned Russian.
To clear the confusion, Russians usually learn their language in school. My condolences to you, good person.
@@DanielBreadly I was born in a Russian speaking country, but immigrated in early childhood, so my Russian is completely intuitive
I like learning new and difficult languages like Russian
As a native Russian speaker I didn't know the difference before this video 😂
@@DanielBreadly they dont teacch stuff like this in school
IT TAKES ME 2 YEARS TO LEARN FEW WORDS , but with you Sr I'm making some good steps
It’s called perfective and imperfective since they refer to an action being perfected or not, as in concluded. Love your lessons!!!!!
effective and simply put, that's it! :)
That make sense. I´ve never seen it that way!
It is not that the imperfective verbs are 'not perfect'. It is that the action is still going on in the time of the context. A perfective verb describes an action that is (perfectly) complete.
I enjoy your videos and your organized methods of presenting the material. Thanks for that.
Wow, this makes so much sense. Thank you so much!
This was the first discussion of verb aspect that didn’t cause me to recoil in horror. Thanks!
this explanation was a difficult and bad one :) All you need to know about aspects that you need to use perfective when you want to mention that an event has a finish point or it has no length (like "I felt asleep" that happens at some moment and not a period of time) and you need to use imperfective when an event has no finish point or you don't want to speak about its finishing and you want just say that event happened/happens/will happen. This has nothing with english tenses to do because you can translate it to english as perfect, continuous or simple, that depends on a situation.
aspsect is easy, english has it afterall. all you have to remember is this:
imperfect: incomplete process (I was learning, I am learning, I will be learning)
perfect: complete process (I had learned, have learned, I will have learned)
simple: tense without aspect, a fact (I learned, I learn, I will learn)
@@lotionman1507sorry for the late answer, but if imperfective has no prefixes, how do we go about them on simple aspect? Do you have to add a different prefix? And if not, how to differentiate between simple and imperfective?
@@spacenaves if youre talking about doing so in russian, i dont know for sure, i still dont speak it very well. as far as i know the imperfect and the simple are generally treated as the same unless you need to specify that an action is ongoing, in which case you'd specify the timing with тогда (then), or сейчас (now).
Oh my goodness thank you so much for this!!! Such a huge help!!!
Вы очень добрый! Я американец. Я люблю русский. Спасибо
Ta bueno puñetas ta bueno
@@user-mm8rq7en4e both are possible
Ян Хай bruuh it’s still understandable.
@@marston5920 best English speaker in Spian
What a great explanation 😃❤️
Keep up the good work 👍🏼
Awesome video bro! Total inspiration for learning Russian!
Fedor it is 3am. I could not sleep. I looked at YT and as I have already watched your vids this one popped up. I have really enjoyed it. I have just started learning Russian and I have just learnt the difference between the 2 aspects. And your explanations are so great as in just a couple of minutes they teach all the necessary concepts. Tks !!!!
Love your videos, Fedor! So much easier to hear about grammar explained in real life than reading from a book- though having read helps too. Much success, all good wishes!!
Just amazing!! Here a Basque learning this interesting and fascinating language! 🤩
Thank you so much.. Your videos is such a big help..🙂
I am familiar with this concept because it is the same in Polish, I just didn't know the rules but after you've explained it I applied it to Polish and its the exact same
Прослушал урок и поймал себя на мысли, как наверное трудно понять и осознать не носителям русскую речь. Никогда об этом не думал про приставки и как они меняют слова, если их переводить с русского на английский язык.
Best english speaker in Russia
еще можно подумать о том, каково работать преподавателем русского как иностранного. им приходится отвечать на такие каверзные вопросы студентов, которые и в голову бы не пришли носителю языка, вроде "какая разница в значении между словами испачкаться, запачкаться, перепачкаться?" )))
добро пожаловать в лингвистику
@user-lo6to7pk4n the first two are complete synonims, while the last one emphasises the "level of pollution". "перепачкался" means "I got super ditry ".
@@TheBarabaka надо ученикам про синонимы рассказать
So well explained!😄 You are great! Thank you!
extremelly clear and interresting, if you have this on other verbs, i'm all ears! Maladietz
Such a beautiful language.I love it.
Amazing video! Answered so many questions, thank you so much
More excellent content. Thanks Fedor.
Masterful explanation. Super helpful for me! Thanks so much.
I've been waiting this video, thank you a lot
Thanks for explaining this in an easy to understand way. I was learning this in the past and they were going on about imperfect/perfect aspects and things like that, and it was just too confusing. But I get it now.
You are a great teacher !
Thanks for posting this right before my test in aspects (and more)
Of cause we don't have aspects in German but lots of prefixes which change the meaning of verbs and we have the prefix "ge" which shows that an action hast really finished in the past perfect. So to us it is not difficult to understand it! Very well explained, thank you!
Thank you for the lesson!
Thanks a lot for this video. It helped me understand the diff between perfectives and imperfectives verbs.
I loved the way of your explanation
Спасибо большое
Another brilliant explanation спасибо
Very good explanation
8 years living in Russia and still don't understand this part of grammar. I read the theory a thousand times, watched hundreds of videos, and even yours from which I usually get the concepts rather quickly, and nothing! I guess that little part of my brain that is supposed to store this particular subject is very damaged. But I won't give up, I hope in 10 years more I will be able to speak with the correct aspect of the verb :D
I don't know if my explanation can help. Я хочу есть / играть - означает что ты акцентируешься на самом действии без указания временных ограничений. Я хочу поесть / поиграть - означает это будет ограниченный временными рамками процесс.
i watched the video and as a russian his explanation seemed quite confusing to me, i still can't get the idea why we speak like that, i think his explanation is wrong. conceptualy and even in comparison with english.
okay i ll try to explain that one too😅 nice challenge
so, when we speak about past tense, i ll bring a few examples:
without по-
я гулял
я слушал
я ел
- states that you in fact done those things, what s important - not getting into ANY detail.
when you say
я погулял
я послушал
я поел
you say that you decided to do something (гулять, слушать, есть), you went to do it and was doing it for some time, then you finished! so it gives a person you are talking to - - - a sense of time! you state that you were doing sth during an interval of time. you say that so this person understands that you did something else after that or was intended to if you had no time to realise your plans before meeting this person. and to english it would be more of a perfect tense, present perfect - so i have eaten, i have walked, i have listened to.
there is also present and future tenses. here it gets tricky. you simply can't use по- in present tense, it s impossible to construct a sentence with such a verb for it to be in present tense. for example you say я гуляю and я погуляю. in the first case you state that you re walking right now. and in the second that you are intended to go for a walk for an interval of time! it means you re intended to walk for some time then finish and go to do other things. same goes for я поем, я послушаю. when using future tense people often or rather always add пойду, so пойду поем, пойду послушаю, пойду погуляю, it translates something like - i ll go eating, i ll go walking, i ll go listening to.
so summarising - prefix по- always indicates an interval of time, it implies the beginning of an action and the end of it and used for expressing more detailed answer, for giving a person some sense of time of your actions
@@richbabushka2752 hmm, so I can't say "я вчера гуляла 4 часа подряд" or "я вчера гулял с утра до ночи"? and instead I should use "я вчера погуляла 4 часа подряд" or "я вчера погулял с утра до ночи".
I thought Russians use "по-" (talking about the past) simply to focus on the fact that the action is finished rather than on its duration. Like with not so specific time period ("я немного погулял") or to separate the actions in a chain ("сперва я погулял часа с два, а затем принялся за работу") or something like that.
Guess I learn something every day.
@@DanielBreadly i mean, yeah, as i said, beside similarity with present perfect - which focuses on the finishing of the action, it gives a person SOME sense of time, which is the same with your 'no specific time period' i assume, and of course you shouldn't specify any time period after that bcs по- means you already put the implication of time there and won't go into detail. so your first sentences were right of course.
either
я вчера гулял 4 часа (specific time period)
or
я вчера погулял, потом пошел рисовать (no specific time period, but it states the action is finished, and that you were doimg it for some, usually not very long, time)
about actions in a chain i haven't thought🤷♀️ but your idea is right, it gives right results 🤷♀️🤷♀️👍
i m not a teacher thou 🤷♀️
Remembering grammar rules will not teach you language, you have to remember phrases a where to use them. I had same problem with English, I was completely lost with that crazy grammar, you are constantly thinking about that tense you should use and how to make some sentence, that's nonsense, you must just remember phrases, you don't need to know why exactly it's said like that.
Excellent explanation!!! 💪🏼 Greetings from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷
I love the new thumbnails!
Thank you for useful information 👌
You can say this and “поиграть” and “играть” makes no difference. it’s just that “поиграть” sounds somehow softer, and as a native speaker I would say “поиграть”. By the way, in the past form I would say “играла” (without "по")
This was so helpful please do explanation of all prefixes
Great!! Thank you 🙏🏻
thank you...good explanation!
Thank you fedor, i like this explanation
thank you this was really helpful , i wish you could make some social type videos like how do we engage in chat with Russians and make friendships
First time - I understood Aspects, no, and prefix. Thanks 👍
Nice thumbnail, man. I loved it
So helpful!
Love the new thumbnails 👍
Thanks a lot !
Привет Fedor! Ive been watching your videos for almost a year now as I learn Russian and I am very interested in your classes. I havent signed up because I work away from home and only have a phone for internet and I work every day with various times. Is there a way I can still use your classes even with my hectic schedule?
We have a similar thing in Lithuanian, but I can't verify if it works exactly the same way you described. I've been asking myself the same question regardless and this video gave me answers. Thank you!!
Very clear.
its called imperfective and perfect because of latin actually! It comes from the word perfectus, meaning complete, so words that are perfect are showing the action has been completed whereas imperfect signifies incompleteness
This is super helpful
Imperfective comes from the Latin word "perfectus" meaning "done, completed, finished". Therefore being the Russian я играл being translated with "I was playing" , focusing on the process in action, you call it imperfective ❤ ps we have a similar tense in Italian called imperfetto which is presenting facts in activity. You see, languages are all connected and LOVELY ❤❤ спасибо
Great video! Can you make a video on "того" i am having trouble grasping it. Would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Perfection is when the action is finished and imperfection when action is unfinished. Evidently when is process, the action in unfinished, but is more understandable the concept finished - unfinished in relation with perfection that the concept process - fact.
I’ve heard someone say the perfect I’ve aspect denotes doing and action and getting it done, that is finishing it. So Я поиграл is doing something and finishing it, finishing playing. This helped me tremendously to understand the perfective and imperfective aspect
You may say «(по)играть в футбол» (play football) or «(по)играть в игру» (play a game), but you should not say «играть в компьютер». It's a colloquialism. The correct version is «играть (в игру) на компьютере». Well, you CAN «играть в компьютер» but it implies some roleplaying - "let's pretend i'm a computer, and ..."
soooo important❤️❤️❤️
This was very useful
As a learner of Russian for 3+ years
I didn't really know this
Thanks this help lot
💜💜💜thxxd
Thank u
What's so "perfect" or "imperfect" about verbs? The original meaning of "perfect" (in Latin which was used when they were coming up with grammatical terms) was "complete." A perfective verb describes an action that is complete or has a definite ending. An imperfective verb describes an action that is incomplete or ongoing or had no definite ending.
imperfective verbs reflect verbs without completion status. vice versa.
perfective verbs are verbs that indicate completion.
Спасибо большое тебе
I guess you could say it's "по-fective"
And now I remember it forever haha
Bro your vids so helpful that I'm sure I can talk to my friend (without translator) one day🥲👌 thank
Both statements are FACTS, that is “I am playing on the computer” and “i was playing on the computer”. The real difference between these 2 aspectual verbs are “process” vs “result”. I think the word “fact” is confusing.
esa era la duda de mi vida al aprender ruso 😇😇😇😇😇😇
It's really hard to explain to english speaker people how it works like. You are a man ! You can do this =)
Нет ничего неправильного в предложении: "Я хочу играть на компьютере".
Но потом идёт "в", а не "на"
@@elmarnigmatullin4490 нет не идёт, всю жизнь "на компе" говорю. "В компьютер" можно сказать, но не "в компьютере"
Оба варианта правильно написаны. Но есть отличие в смыслах.
Я хочу "поиграть" я думаю звучит более смягченно. Так говорят маме когда хотят залипнуть на 5 часов в КС, а говорят "поиграть" как будто речь идет о 15 минутах)
It is imperfect, because didn't finish - it's happening. When it ends, it's a perfect action wich had a begning and a end
I was wondering why I keep seeing на in front of some past tense verbs. I guess i will get the explanation eventually in my language book for many of these prefixes.
Thank you very much! How is it possible to make the difference between "I was winning" and "I won" then? "Выигрывал" and "выиграл"? Is this correct?
Yeah. That's another step into aspects!
Yeah changing the -ать to -ывать (-ивать after 7 letter rule) changes the prefixed perfective verbs back to imperfective. The stress normally changes too
@@harry_page What's the 7-letter rule? 😬
@@zhopka77 ы changes to и after the letters ж, ш, щ, ч, к, г, х (that's why it's русский, not русскый). There's also the 5 letter rule, where unstressed о changes to е after ж, ш, щ, ч, ц and the 8 letter rule, where я and ю change to а and у after ж, ш, щ, ч, ц, к, г, х.
The channel Russian Grammar has some good videos about them and how they affect different endings :)
@@harry_page Ahhh, I didn't know them by those names, but I know what you're talking about.
Спасибо
I studied Russian maybe 35 years ago for a few months, so it took me a while to recall "imperfective" and "perfective"!
Even though "fact" descends from "facere" we no longer use it in English to indicate "completing an action", "a completed action" instead it refers merely to a thing, not a process, whether completed (=perfected) or not yet completed or still in profress (=not perfected, i.e. imperfect). This distortion of facere into a mere material object as opposed to a human process leading to a result is English distorting Latin all right. Russian still uses fact in the latin sense, German has that sense somewhat too in the famous East Germany radio statements "Fakt ist"=the fact is, i.e. "the stated observations of the government regarding social relations are as follows". Leave it to Germany to render Soviet bureaucracy less wordy!
We call verbs "perfected" because the verb's action is completed. It's the non-abuse of facere hiding in that word perFECTed.
Although the noun "perfect" and it's adjective form perfectly are used much like the English word "fact"
to describe a state, the verb forms "perfecting" "perfected" are still used even in current (highly literary) english to indicate a process, not a mere result without regard to any process!
Completed actions are perfected.
Incompleted actions are not perfected, they are imperfect.
We can approximate the russian prefix po as in "igrat / poigrat" in English using "by" for po. However, this following approximation is Russinglish: it is not at all proper but serves as a memory lemma (memotechnique).
I was by playing hockey.
I played hockey.
English doesn't use that "by-playing" (German does! ich war beim Spielen). In English: I just made that structure up. BUT, remember this:
by and by you will be understanding that PO in Russian as a prefix to a verb is basically the same idea as BY--verb--ING
That sentence is your memory key and while it is colloquial not literary it is correct (unlike "I was by playing").
Goodness! What fabulous explanation!! Thank you. Whilst it’s not meaning alot to me at the moment, I know as my Russian studies progress this explanation will make more sense to me. Thank you so much for your excellent observations and articulation of speech.
I wish this guy was my professor back in the day.
to win is to outplay or play out as in wi- or dwi- away or asunder dwis or dwisa
спасибо, наконец понимаю.
Imperfective is like progressive. In English we add to be + verb -ing to make it progressive. In Russian the addition goes to the Perfective, like PO- to the past
Привет Федя. At 2:05 you ask what's imperfect about the process? I understand it this way: Perfect = complete. The action has been completed. Imperfect = some how incomplete as yet ... 'I was playing' Or 'am playing' does not convey the same meaning as 'I'm done playing'. 'I played' implies that I played for a specific period of time, and the action was completed.
The terminology used in grammar is of Latin origin. "Perfectum" means "finished, completed" in Latin, hence the terms "perfective" and "imperfective" aspect.
Кстати, приставка "per-" по-латински значит "про-" и "fectum" является фонетическим вариантом слова "factum", то есть "сделанное". Поэтому, "perfective" значит "слеланное".
Subject po, but you went up on the subject of prefixes. Any beginner knows the prefixes change the meaning but the subject PO is a topic for advanced learners.
The explanation (90% of the video) was very clear. In past tense I could've been playing or I could've finished playing, and the prefix по is used to differentiate those two cases.
The introductory sentence is what is still a puzzle to me. In present tense я хочу играть is said to be incorrect, BUT whatever I am doing is the present can only be a "process" as soon as the process is over it becomes the past, so я хочу поиграть should be the incorrect version, no? What am I missing?
Спасибо in advance!!
imperfective and perfective mean несовершенный and совершенный (uncompleted and completed). A process is - if it's supposed to still be in process - unfinished, incomplete. If you just state a fact, I did it, I will do it, describing it as something that happens at one moment in time, and after that moment it's over, completed.
perfectum in Latin basically means done. facio - I do; factum est - it is done
Interesting. I was wondering why .
Hi, Fedor!
I absolutely love your content, and I can really tell you’ve been trying to up your game lately! The travel videos are really sharp, dude!
However, grammar isn’t a strong suit of this channel-and it’s OK if it’s not.
For example, your choice of the word “popular” to describe the use of по- to indicate the perfective aspect is misleading. It’s not used because “people like it,” that is, “it’s popular,” it’s used because certain verbs require it to signal the perfective aspect.
Also, the вы- and про- prefixes really didn’t have anything to do with the aspect discussion.
Have you considered partnerships with linguists?
The reason I ask that out loud is because there are a few of us who do appreciate grammatical minutia. And while I love your content, I’m not really going to get a lot of grammar from your channel.
Take care and be safe!
All the best from a Fatboy in Kentucky!
I agree. I’m English and am learning with Mark Thompson of “Russian Made Easy/Understanding Spoken Russian/Russian Accelerator “. His teaching is so different to how native Russian speakers teach. As Mark says, if your teacher starts making you learn tables or grammar rules, RUN THE OTHER WAY”. I agree. I find Fedors lessons helpful but to actually properly grasp learning then it needs to be done differently. Mark is a legend at teaching Russian and I’ve not found any other teachers a touch on him.
Yeah, sometimes native speakers aren't the best at explaining grammar; I know I wouldn't be comfortable trying to teach English grammar! I only have an intuitive sense of what's right or wrong in English grammar that I might not be able to describe to someone else. I feel like the same thing's happening here.
I think that вы- and про- can add a lot of depth to the discussion though. They're more semantically rich than по-, like how вы- can mean "out of" or "complete" (идти - to go -> выйти - to go out, exit).
Whereas, по- seems to have little semantic meaning. The only one I can think of is that it can mean "a while" sometimes: the usual perfective of говорить is сказать - to speak/say, but there's also поговорить - to talk (for a while)/to have a conversation. Other than that, по- seems quite purely grammatical - that's why it's the most common method of forming perfectives, it doesn't usually change the meaning.
All the other prefixes may change the meaning and lead to even more complex webs of imperfective/perfective pairs and it ends up making more sense to learn them individually, like with выигрывать/выиграть - to win and проигрывать/проиграть - to lose.
One easy way to remember (for me) -- add "по" for "pe"rfective aspect
Two mistakes in the main premise: (a) "Я хочу ИГРАТЬ" - тоже правильно, хотя значение иное, чем в "я хочу ПОИГРАТЬ". (b) "играть / поиграть НА компьютере", а не "в компьютер".
Лучший пример будет, наверное, "я хочу играть на гитаре" и "я хочу поиграть на гитаре". В первом случае - это скорее означает, что человек не умеет играть на гитаре и хочет научится, а во втором случае - он умеет играть, но просит разрешение взять гитару и сыграть что-то.
Но "я хочу играть в GTA" для меня звучит странно, а "я хочу поиграть в GTA" - нормально. Хотя "я хочу играть в GTA и не ходить на работу" - вполне уже.
Thanks a lot! I'm studying Russian by myself and I thought so ( -
ING/ not -ING form) but I wasn't sure about it
Do u need help? I can help you in Telegram
@@kravchenko8953 Thanks a lot but it's ok :)
@@kravchenko8953 i need help.
"Imperfect" simply means "not complete" with reference to grammar and also other things.
"Imperfect" comes from Latin, where "perfectum" has the sense in "finished, with completion" (it's related to the word for "to do"). I adore this channel but this time I feel (I think, still a beginner) the explanation is not clear enough, should be maybe more about ongoing actions vs. completed actions?
The explanation here is very chaotic indeed. Those prefixes change the complete/incomplete aspect as well as.changing tense at the same time, so you need to present a table for what they do with each kind of verb.
Ya hachu igrat v kompyuter. = I want to be playing the computer (e.g. during the long boring film).
Ya hachu poigrat v kompyuter. = I want to play some/a bit on the computer (i.e. This is my plan or desire to do. I want to play for some finite time, so the verb is complete/finite.).
He is wrong to say the 1st sentence is incorrect, because it is perfectly correct! It's just not what one would want to say in the implied context.
Все эти приставки и окончания - русские phrasal verbs
Hey guys! No one says to you it but all prefixes and endings with verbs contain the same model formation of meaning as well as phrasal verbs in English.
In lithuanian it's the same prefix so it's very easy
за is even harder one, like i see russian use prefix за a lot, but the rules for за seem quite subtle and i still don't know how to use.
Thank you, now I finally understand why the по in звезда по имени солнце from кино
по here is a preposition not a prefix :)
@@Eagles_Hunter fuck this language, hard as fuck hahaha
@@Eagles_Hunter thanks for the correction man btw
Everyone: oh, that makes sense
Confused Czechs who don't have this feature in language:
Switching from imperfective aspect to perfective aspect does not always mean adding some prefix. There are some verbs where imperfective and perfective aspect have completely different stems, like говорить and сказать for the verb "to say".
Говорить- to talk,to speak
Сказать-to say.
But you are right there are a lot of other forms both with other prefixes and without.