Verb tense in Russian. Meanings of the present tense form of the verb in Russian

It is with this verb that you need to start studying English grammar. Verbs in English language do not change by person, but the verb to be is an exception. With the help of this verb, we will learn how to compose simple sentences which do not contain a verb in Russian, for example, “I am a student”, “He is at home”, “This is interesting”, etc. In English, it is unacceptable to compose without a verb that performs an action, and to be serves as a linking verb. For example, to say "I am a student", we must insert the correct form of the linking verb to be and, as a result, the sentence will take on the meaning "I am a student" - "I (are) a student."

Present tense forms of the verb to be

In the present tense, the verb to be has three forms: AM, IS, ARE:

• Remember: to be and AM, IS, ARE are not 4 different ones, but forms the same verb:

(We hope our dragon will help you remember this)

Consider how the verb to be changes in the present tense

affirmative form

• We are friends - we are friends
• They are busy - they are busy
• The book is thick - the book is thick
• It is a cat - this is a cat
• She is clever - she is smart

negative form

To form the negative form of the conjugation of this verb, you need to put the negative particle “not” after one of necessary forms verb (am, is or are). Here are some examples of negative sentences:

• I am not hungry - I am not hungry
• He is not busy - he is not busy
• The room is not big - the room is not big

Interrogative form

To form an interrogative form, you need to put the appropriate form of the verb (am, is or are) at the beginning of the sentence:

• Are you Peter? Are you Pete?
• This room? – Is this a room?
• You are hungry? Are you hungry?
• He is busy? – Is he busy?

• To understand how verbs live in English, let's first remember at least one Russian verb in its initial form, for example, the verb "live". As you know, the verbs of the Russian language in the initial form end in "-t", and later, when conjugated, the ending changes. With regard to English, the verb in the initial form is used together with the particle to, for example, we say to be - would be, find be sya, i.e. if the particle to precedes the verb, this means that the verb is in the initial form, and when the verb is used with persons, this particle is omitted. Let's give an example: “To be or not to be” - there are two verbs in the sentence - both in the initial form, and they must be used together with the particle to, and, accordingly, we will translate into English as “to be or not to be”. If we have before us the sentence “I (am) a student”, i.e. Since we have changed the verb to match the person of the subject, the particle to is omitted and the proper form of the verb is used, in this case am.
• Unlike the verb to be, other verbs in English do not conjugate, for example, the verbs “live, sit, love” in the initial form are translated into English “to live, to sit, to love”, i.e. with particle to, and when conjugated - without to, for example, “I live, sit, love” will be translated into English as “I live, sit, love”, i.e. the initial form of a verb in English without a particletonot used, but when conjugatedtogoes down. The initial form in English is called the Infinitive - Infinitive.

More about the particle to watch our video tutorial:

Verb conjugations tobe in present time

Now let's learn how the verb to be changes (conjugates) in the present tense. As mentioned above, in Russian sentences like “I am a student, she is a doctor, we are workers” are formed without a predicate verb. But to translate these sentences into English, you need to put the appropriate form to be after the subject - “I am a pupil, she is a doctor, we are workers”.

Pay attention to the translation of the following sentences in the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms into English:

Verb conjugations tobe in past and future tense

In the past tense, the verb to be has two forms - was and were (was, was, were)

In the future tense, the verb to be is conjugated as follows

Note: In modern English the form shall is of little use for the formation of the future tense of verbs (although its use is not grammatical error), for all persons the form is used will. Therefore, sometimes there is a discrepancy in different textbooks.

To summarize, consider the following table:

I bring to your attention a few commonly used expressions with the verb to be which you should learn and conjugate yourself according to the conjugation table:

• To be happy / unhappy - to be happy / unhappy
• To be glad - to be joyful
• To be hungry / to be full up - to be hungry / full
• To be fond of - love, get involved in something
• To be busy - to be busy
• To be late (for) - to be late (on)
• To be in time for - be on time
• To be present at - attend (for example, in a lesson)
• To be absent (from) - absent
• To be married - to be married / married
• To be single - to be single / not married
• To be lucky - to be lucky
• To be ready (for) - to be ready (to, for example, a lesson)
• To be afraid (of) - to be afraid
• To be interested (in) - be interested in something
• To be ill / well - get sick / feel good
• To be angry (with) - angry, angry (at someone)

Let's conjugate together the expression to be married in the affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences. What did you get?

The present tense form is very capacious in terms of meaning and is capable of expressing several shades of meaning.

Its main meaning is to indicate an action that coincides with the moment of speech: "There goes my friend"; "Why are you smoking! After all, the bell has already rung, and it's time for a lecture" (actions are in progress, smoking is carried out at the moment of speaking); "Dear grandfather, Konstantin Makarych! - he wrote. - And I am writing you a letter. I congratulate you on Christmas and wish you everything from the Lord God" (Ch.) (the actions "I write", "congratulations", "wish" occur at that moment when the hero of the story writes a letter). This is the present specific time. However, already from the examples given, it is obvious that all the actions named in the examples coincide only in some part with the moment of speech and denote such processes that are wider than the moment of speech - that conditional reference point at which speaking takes place. Usually, the idea of ​​the present time (opposite to the past and future) is associated in the minds of the speakers with a certain time plane, a certain period of time. Within this segment, those actions are carried out that are perceived by the speaker as happening now, now, at a given time (as opposed to what was and what will be).

Depending on what specific meaning of the verb imperfect form(long continuous or long intermittent, or, as it is called, long repetitive) is manifested in the context, the present concrete tense is realized: 1) as a present concrete extended; 2) as a present concrete repetitive.

1) This specific extended designates actions, processes that began before the moment of speech, coincide with it and will continue for some time after it. For example: "I thought that the world has ceased to be divided into two impenetrable parts, over which there are different skies. We understand more and more that the world is one earth and one sky" (Shchekoch.); "American farmers are putting hard pressure on President Bush so that he would provide the Union with an additional loan for the purchase of agricultural products. We are talking about an amount of about $ 3.5 billion, which George W. Bush has not yet decided to provide "economic space." farmers, accustomed to working for the Soviet market, is explained by the desire to protect their own interests of producers of excess products for America "(Kur. 1991. Nov. 19).

2) This specific repetitive indicates actions that are periodically repeated in a given time period: "I would like to draw attention to the fact that when people are shown on television speaking foreign languages, cases of inadequate translation are very frequent ... It should also be noted that when the translation ends, the speaker's speech, as a rule, sounds for a few more seconds and breaks off in mid-sentence" (Sov. cult. 1989. 24 Aug.).

In addition to the designation of the present concrete, which was mentioned above, the forms of the present tense can also designate actions regardless of the moment of speech, that is, outside of any confinement to the moment of speech: "In the next world, they hang the Yabednik by the tongue"; "They meet by clothes - see off by mind"; "The well-fed does not understand the hungry." This is the present abstract tense. It appears when the speaker (writer) needs to name permanent properties of objects, people, phenomena, etc., not related to any time plan. For example: "A light year is equal to the path that light travels in a year, i.e. 9.46x1012 km" (Soviet encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1.980. S. 1189); "The deception of peoples is preceded by their self-deception. Self-deception is preceded by the troubles of life and the desire to reshape it" (Klyamk.). The present abstract can also be realized in different ways, depending on the aspective meaning of the verb: 1) as an abstract constant; 2) as an abstract repetitive. So, in the statements: "A man breathes with the help of lungs, and a fish - with the help of gills"; "Penguins are a detachment of swimming birds ... weigh up to 42 kg .... They live on the sea coasts, swim and dive well. They nest in colonies" (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary. S. 999.) The meaning of this abstract constant appears. But in a comic statement by A.P. Chekhov from the story "The Death of an Official", the verb to sneeze in the present tense expresses the meaning of the present abstract repetitive: "Sneezing is not forbidden to anyone and nowhere. Men and police chiefs sneeze, and sometimes even secret advisers. Everyone sneeze "(Ch.).

There is no impenetrable boundary between the two main meanings of the present tense form (the present concrete and the present abstract). So, when using temporary indications, such as now, now, at the present time, etc. when put into context, statements with the present abstract can take on the meaning of the concrete: "Now there is a flu in Moscow, and everyone is sneezing." On the contrary, removed from the context, which establishes the confinement of the action to a certain point in time, statements containing the forms of the present tense can acquire a timeless, generalized character. The following example is extremely indicative in this respect. More recently, in almost every cinema you could see a poster quoting the words of V.I. Lenin: "Of all the arts, cinema is the most important for us." This phrase reproduced the statement of Lenin, mentioned in one of the letters of A.V. Lunacharsky. In the letter, Lunacharsky recounts a conversation with Lenin in which the possibilities of cinematography were discussed as one of the forms of propaganda most accessible to a mass audience at that time. The conversation was not at all about the priority of cinema in general, but only about its importance at that moment, from Lenin's point of view. And in the verb form, the meaning of the present concrete tense was realized. taken out of context later specific situation, the phrase began to be perceived as a statement of a generalized nature, in which the meaning of the present abstract time is realized, although from the point of view of logic, the thought that is expressed in it cannot be recognized as a universal, some kind of immutable truth.

Rakhmanova L.I., Suzdaltseva V.N. Modern Russian language. - M, 1997.

verb tense expresses the relation of the action denoted by the verb to the time of its implementation. Forms stand out past, present And future tense.

In most cases, the use of forms of time is determined by the attitude to the moment of speech; this use of them is called absolute time.

In relatively rare cases, the starting point for the use of tenses is not the moment of speech, but other starting points, for example, the time of other actions reported in the speech. This is called the relative use of tenses. In additional (explanatory) clauses of a complex sentence, the tense of verbs is determined by the relation to the time of the action of the main part:

My brother said that he sent (sends, sends) the book I need.

The grammatical point of time here is the verb of the main part “reported”, in relation to which the action of the verb of the subordinate part is performed, is being performed or will be performed. “He wrote that he works”: the present tense of the verb “works” indicates the coincidence of the time of the action not with the moment of speech, but with the time of the action expressed by the verb “wrote”.

Imperfective verbs have all three forms of tense (I decide - I decided - I will decide).

Perfective verbs, denoting actions limited by a limit, are used only in the past and future (simple) tense (I decided - I will decide), but they do not have a present tense.

Past tense denotes an action that precedes the moment of speech. It is formed by adding a formative suffix to the stem of the infinitive -l-: write - pi-sa-l, chita-t - read-l, kol-t - kol-l.
When forming forms of the past tense, some features are observed:

If the stem of the past tense ends in r, k, x, z, s, b, then when a masculine verb is formed, the suffix -l- drops out: guard, peck, soh, carried, carried, rowed, but remains in the feminine and neuter gender, and also in plural: guarded, baked, dried, carried, carried, guarded.

Verbs for - heret in the past tense lose the second in full vowel combination e, and in the masculine gender they do not have the suffix -l-: erase - erased, die - died.

Verb go and derivatives from it form the past tense from another basis - shed - with the loss of the root d: walked, walked, walked, came, came, came.

The past tense allows the verb to change in numbers. In turn, the singular can easily be declined by gender. It should also be noted that verbs in the past tense in the plural do not change by person.

Verbs in the form present time denote an action that is happening at the moment of speaking, for example: I am looking for a meeting with you. Verbs in the present tense change in person and number.

From verbs perfect look forms of the present tense are not formed: the concept of completeness, effectiveness, characteristic of perfective verbs, is incompatible with the concept of the present tense.

Only verbs have present tense forms imperfect form . These forms are formed with the help of personal endings, depending on whether the verb belongs to I or II conjugation.

I conjugations: -u (-u), -eat, -et, -eat, -ete, -ut (-yut)
II conjugations: -u (-u), -ish, -it, -im, -ite, -at (-yat)

An example of a verb I conjugation:

1st person → I am walking, we are walking
2nd person → you walk, you walk
3rd person → he walks, they walk

An example of a verb II conjugation:

1st person → I drive, we drive
2nd person → you carry, you carry
3rd person → he carries, they carry

The present tense has the following meanings:

shows that the action expressed by the verb coincides with the moment of speech: the Caucasus is under me. Again, solemnly and wisely, an old coniferous forest rustles over me (V. Belov);

denotes action permanent, timeless; The earth revolves around the sun.; In communicating vessels, the surface of the liquid is set at the same level.;

denotes an action that passes into a property. Compare: a boy reads a book and student Petrov reads Pushkin well; birds fly in the garden and swallows fly faster than sparrows.

is used instead of the past to give liveliness to the story and make the reader (listener) as if a witness to the event depicted: I was walking down the street yesterday and I see. This is the so-called real narrative (picturesque, historical);

The present tense is used in the sense of the future, if we are talking about an action that must certainly take place; Tomorrow I pass the last exam and leave to rest. The use of present tense forms in this function is usually characteristic of verbs of motion - to run, to go, to go. Sometimes the forms of the present tense convey the picture imaginary by the author: One more day of this accursed hell - and here you have a hungry winter, typhus, cattle are falling, children are dying (A. N. Tolstoy).

Future denotes an action (process) forthcoming or subsequent in relation to the moment of speech. It has two forms: synthetic (simple) and analytical (complex). These forms differ from each other both in their structure and in their meaning.

The synthetic form is characteristic of perfective verbs (I will write, I will tell, I will read), the analytical form is characteristic of imperfective verbs (I will write, I will tell, I will read).

The future tense of the analytical form is formed from the personal forms of the future tense of the verb to be and infinitive (necessarily imperfect form). Acting as a service component, auxiliary to be forms with infinitive one grammatical form.

The future compound always denotes an unlimited, limitless action that will take place after the moment of speech and cannot be used in the meaning of another tense: We will continue to consistently defend the cause of peace.

The form of the future tense from perfective verbs is simple: it coincides with the present tense form of imperfective verbs: read, read, read, read, read, read; build, build, build, build, build.

The future of the synthetic form (from perfective verbs) has a variety of meanings:

its main meaning is the expression of upcoming (future) actions that have a limit, completeness: We will get everything, understand and open: the cold pole and the blue vault (V. Lebedev-Kumach);

denotes an action that turns into a property: Whatever task you give him, he will definitely solve (it is impossible to say solves or solved). The future tense in this sense is often used in proverbs: Tell the truth - the truth will help out. On a crooked road you will break your legs.

denotes a repeated action (in descriptions next to the present):
A storm covers the sky with darkness (present tense),
Whirlwinds of snow twisting,
Like a beast she will howl
That will cry like a child (A. Pushkin);

with negation does not mean the impossibility of action in the present: will not read quickly (cannot read quickly), will not say simply (cannot say simply), will not see at a distance (cannot see at a distance);

used in the meaning of the past tense: During the day she mostly dozed off. He sits in an armchair in front of the table ... and takes a nap (present tense). Then he shudders, wakes up, looks out the window and for a long time, without any conscious thought, does not take his (present tense) eyes off the endless distance (M. Saltykov-Shchedrin).

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A verb is a part of speech that denotes an action. Verbs change in number, person, and tense. In addition, they have conjugations, types and moods. There are three main forms of verb tense in Russian: past, present and future. Let's talk in more detail about how to understand the tenses of the verb.

Determine the type of the verb

Verbs are either perfective or imperfective. Perfect verbs indicate that the action has already been done (or will be done) and the result is achieved. The question “what to do?” is suitable for such verbs. Perfect verbs have only two tenses: past and future.

Imperfect verbs can be in past, present and future tenses. They answer the question “what to do?”.

Past tense verbs

The main signs that the verb refers to the past tense are:

• suffix -l; (walk, fly)
• endings -a (feminine), -o (neuter) and -i (plural). Masculine verbs in the past tense have no ending. Example: played, played, played, played.

To understand that the verb is in the past tense, the following questions must be substituted for it, depending on the gender and number:

• for the perfect form: “what did you do?” (m. p.), “What did you do?” (f. p.), “What did you do?” (cf. p.), “what did they do?” (plural);
• for the imperfect form: “what did you do?” (m. p.), “What did you do?” (f. p.), “What did you do?” (cf. p.), “what did you do?” (plural).

Present tense verbs

In the present tense, the verb reflects the action taking place at the moment of speech. The general defining question of such verbs is:

• in the singular - “what is he doing?”;
• in the plural - "what are they doing?".

As noted above, in the present tense there can only be imperfective verbs.

The ending of the verb in the present tense will depend on whether it belongs to the 1st or 2nd conjugation.

Verb endings of the first conjugation

Singular: -y, -yu (first person); -eat (second person); -et (third person). Example: carry, carry, carry; reading, reading, reading

Plural: -em, -em (first person); -ete, -ete (second person); -ut, -yut (third person) Example: we carry, we carry, we carry; read, read, read.

Verb endings of the second conjugation

Singular: -y, -yu (first person); -ish (second person); -it (third person). Example: lying, lying, lying; build, build, build.

Plural: - endings -im (first person); -ite (second person); -at, -yat (third person). Example: lie down, lie down, lie down; build, build, build.

Future verbs

Verbs in the future tense reflect an action that is planned to be done or an action that will be done in the future. Determining questions for singular verbs:

• perfective: “what will he do?”;
• imperfective form: “what will he do?”.

Questions for plural verbs:

• perfective: “what will they do?”;
• imperfective form: “what will they do?”.

Imperfect verbs in the future tense have one interesting feature- they turn into complex verbs. The verb "to be" is added to the infinitive in the appropriate form. For example: I will walk, we will run, they will play.

Endings of perfective verbs of the first conjugation

Singular: -y, -yu (first person); -eat, -eat (second person); -et, -et (third person). Example: I'll take it, you'll take it, I'll take it; read, read, read.

Plural: -em, -em (first person); -ete, -ete (second person); -ut, -yut (third person). Example: take it, take it, take it; read, read, read.

Endings of perfective verbs of the second conjugation

Singular: -y, -yu (first person); -ish (second person); -it (third person). Example: lie down, lie down, lie down; build, build, build.

Plural: - endings -im (first person); -ite (second person); -at, -yat (third person). Example: lie down, lie down, lie down; build, build, build.

Good afternoon, dear student! With my students, we began to study, perhaps, one of the most difficult topics in the Russian language - verbs and their tenses. The fact is that in some languages ​​of the world there are only a few times, in Russian there are 3 of them - this is the past tense, present and future. In order to correctly understand and use them in our speech and writing, we will consider all three tenses in more detail.

present tense

Present tense verbs in Russian mean a real action that takes place in this moment, now, moreover, they can conjugate, i.e. change its shape. Verbs in the present tense are one of the most inflected verbs, and in an imperfect form, it should be noted that perfective verbs do not have a present tense, because the action has already been completed!

Present tense verbs in Russian answer the question: what is he doing? For example,

Kate in a hurry Kate is in hurry on her way to work.

What is Katya doing? - in a hurry - she is now, at the moment in a hurry, which means that the present time.

Every week parents are going to the dacha Every week parents go to dacha.

What are the parents doing? - go, every week shows us that the action takes place regularly, that is, in the present tense. Please always pay attention to keywords, they can serve as a clue to you what time to use at one time or another.

In the present tense, the endings in the conjugation depend on their conjugation. If you have forgotten what conjugation is and whether it is worth learning, I recommend reading this topic. It will help you understand the difficulties in using present tense verbs.

Future

Very often my students get confused and do not understand why there are so many different verbs in the future tense and how to remember all this. The fact is that the future tense in Russian shows us that the action has not taken place, we are planning to do something in the future, no matter if it is soon or far away. Future tense verbs answer questions:

What will you do? What do we do? What will we do? What will you do? For example:

When will vacation, I I will go to Moscow I will go to Moscow, when the holidays will come.

What will the holidays do? - they will begin, they have not yet begun, this time has not come, which means that we understand that the conversation is about the future tense.

What will I do? - I will go, the person is not going anywhere yet, but he is already planning his trip to Moscow, which means we are talking about the future tense.

In Russian, the future tense is of two types, you can find, for example, such a verb:

I draw this picture and I will give Mom I will draw this picture and will present it to my Mom. What will I do? - draw, give

But you can also see this phrase, and it will also be in the future tense:

I am going to draw this picture tomorrow and will present it to my Mom.

What will I do? - I will draw, the action did not happen, he plans to do it, therefore this is the future tense.

But how then to figure out which form should be used in a particular case? The fact is that the verbs of the future tense are simple and complex. Simple verbs in the future are formed from perfective verbs (which answer the questions what will I do? What will I do?)

I'll make up, I'll clean, I'll take it, I'll tell you, I'll sing- they all answer questions of the perfect kind. Where feature to help you remember this form is to add the letter -c at the beginning of the question:

What will I do? I will remove

Compound future tense verbs are formed from imperfective verbs with the help of the verb to be+ infinitive or initial form verb - this is the form that is in the dictionary, open the Russian dictionary and you will see that the verb: I guessed it is in the form of an infinitive: guess.

Let's look at examples with compound verbs:

Ivan is going to watch a serial every day, as he is planning to pass the Russian language exam.

Verb " to be", in turn, changes according to faces:

I will (paint)
You will (paint)
They will (paint)
He/She will (paint)
We will (paint)
You will (paint)

Verbs in the future tense change for person and number, but genus cannot be determined in the future!
There are a number of verbs that do not form the 1st person singular form. Here are some of them:

To win
To convince
To feel
To find oneself in

When they are used, the word completely changes in the future tense, for example:

I will find myself in..
I want to make sure I want to convince
I will be the winner [Ya stanu pabeditelem] I will be the winner

Past tense

In previous articles, I already wrote about verb tenses, here I want to note only the main features that we have not touched on initial stage. Let's remember that the past tense answers the questions: what did you do? What did you do? What did they do? What did you do?

Basically, past tense verbs are formed from the indefinite form of the verb (which is in the dictionary) and the addition of the suffix -l, for example:

clean - clean L(what did you do?) to clean - was cleaning

Watch - see L(what did you do?) to look - looked

Knowing this rule, you will already have a hint and you will be able to form the past tense verb without any problems. Depending on the gender, one or another ending may appear at the end:

He looked- she looked- they looked

But there are verbs that are formed in the past form not according to this rule, for example, without adding the suffix -l in the masculine gender:

Carry - carried ( masculine, past tense) to carry - was carrying, but in other forms of the genus: carried, carried they were carying, she was carrying.

When there is an alternation in a word (when letters interchange each other), for example, when forming the past form, the letters h / / g, h / / k can alternate in those verbs that end in -ch:

stereo whose- guarded (masculine, past tense: what did you do?) to watch over - was watching over, but in feminine and the plural ending is added depending on the person: guarded, guarded she was watching over, they were watching over.

Remember, please, that with past tense verbs we cannot determine the person, only gender and number.