Perfective or imperfective? Part 2 - Parallel and sequential actions

In the first post devoted to the verb aspect we discussed the basics of its usage. Of course, there are some special cases, as well as some exceptions, which we will discuss in detail in the following post. Today we will focus on one specific set of examples demonstrating how verbs of the definite and indefinite aspect may be used when we describe two or more actions that took/will take place at the same time or one action that took/will take place after another. Since there are a lot of different situations of this kind, let's start from the simplest ones.

1) If there are two actions that took place in the past (or will take place in the future), and they are absolutely parallel (both started/will start at the same moment and finished/will finish at another, but also the same moment), then we normally use two imperfective aspect verbs: Когда/пока я принимал душ, Наташа читала книгу. - When I taking a shower, Natasha was reading a book.

2) If something happened/will happen at one particular moment (or within a particular period of time) while the second action was/will be performing (in fact, it started/will start earlier, and finished/will finish when the first one had/will have been completed), we normally use the imperfective aspect for the second ('background') action, and the perfective aspect for the first action: Пока я принимал душ, Наташа полила цветы. - When I was reading a book, Natasha watered the flowers. There is a trick here, though: there are some verbs of the imperfected aspect which can describe a completed action. The meaning of the whole sentence is in this case different from that of the sentence where the corresponding perfective aspect verb is used. These verbs are mainly those of motion, also verbs like приходить, уходить; брать, давать; класть, вешать, ставить; надевать, снимать; просыпаться; садиться, ложиться, вставать; подниматься, спускаться etc. Just compare: "он ушел" means that he has left; he isn't here anymore. At the same time, "он уходил" may mean that he left for some time, but came back; so he is here now. In the compound sentences where one of the verbs describe a 'background' action, the difference is even more pronounced: "Пока я принимал душ, приходила Наташа" - I missed her, "Пока я принимал душ, пришла Наташа" - she came and stayed, so she is at my home now, we can have some tea and chat.   

Are there any other cases when indefinite aspect verbs describe completed actions? Definitely, yes. For example, verbs like есть, пить, видеть, слышать, смотреть, слушать, знать, писать, читать, звонить (and their synonims) can be used in the context like "Спасибо, я уже обедал сегодня" (declining an invitation for a lunch) or "Я уже смотрел этот фильм, давайте пойдем на что-нибудь другое" (explaining why you don't want to watch the film your friends suggest watching in the cinema). 

3) Before describing the next point, I need to make some introductory notes. As you may already know, the verbs "начать" and "кончить" ("закончить") are used with imperfective aspect verbs only: "начать считать", "кончить работать". At the same time, there are some perfective aspect verbs which mean the same, so they can be replaced by "начать/кончить + imperfective aspect verb": засмеяться - начать смеяться, доделать - кончить делать (many verbs with the prefix "до-" are of this kind). So if one action started/finished (will start/finish) while the other lasted (will last), we use the perfective aspect verb for the former one, and the imperfective aspect verb for the second one: "Пока я спал, Наташа домыла (кончила мыть) посуду".

There are also the verbs "начинать" и "кончать" ("заканчивать") which are also used with imperfective aspect verbs. The difference between "начать + imperfective aspect verb" and "начинать + imperfective aspect verb" may be described using the information from the previous post.

4) Let's now discuss which verbs are used when one is talking about two actions in the past or future that follows one another, so that there is a sequence of those two. If both actions are supposed to be completed, than we're likely to use two perfective aspect verbs. For example, "Когда/после того как я получу электронное письмо (e-mail), я (сразу же) напишу ответ"; here it's supposed that you will complete both actions up to some moment in the future.

5) When you don't want to emphasize the fact that the second action will be finished up to some moment (for example, if you describe the relaxation after work :)) than you may use the following combination: a perfective aspect verb for the first action and the imperfective aspect verb for the second one: "Когда/после того как я допишу статью, я буду отдыхать". Of course, you may replace the perfective aspect verb by the combination of "(за)кончить" in the required form and the imperfective aspect verb: "Когда я закончу писать статью, я буду отдыхать". These constructions are normally refer to the future. Talking about the past, we normally use the combination of "начал(а, о)" (or - in some cases - "стал (а, о)") with the imperfective aspect verb in the second part: "Когда Наташа дочитала книгу, она начала рисовать".

Now the main cases, when the verbs of different aspect are used, have been described, I hope, so there are only few additional tips to cover in the next post, which is coming soon. Until then you may practice a bit. Hope, the figure below will help you! :)

Perfective or imperfective? Part 1 - Some aspects of verb usage

Hello, I'm back! Recently I've received an email from a Russian language learner (thank you, Robert! :)) that motivated me to proceed with giving some grammar tips. So today we will be discussing a very interesting but pretty difficult topic, namely, the grammatical aspect of verbs. This is the category many languages including English lack, so even if you're an advanced learner, you may still have some questions about it. Today we'll talk about how to use verbs of different aspects in a simple sentence, next time we'll be talking about compound and complex sentences, since there are additional tricks there. We'll also won't touch upon verbs of motion - they deserve a separate post.

In general, there are several cases when we need either a perfective or an imperfective aspect verb. For the imperfective aspect they are: a) description of the process, not the result, b) description of a long (especially when you mention how long it took) or regular action and c) just mentioning the action; for the perfective case: a) description of a result, not the process itself and b) description of the action that took (or will take) place once. Let's now see how these principles work.

First, let's talk about duration of an action. Normally, if we mention duration, we use imperfective aspect verbs. But if you're talking about time the action was/will be completed within (if you think the fact that it was/will be completed is the main thing you address), please use perfective aspect verbs (have you already noticed that there is no Present Tense form for this type of verbs?). Interestingly, if the action wasn't completed (or the result wasn't achieved), we normally use imperfective aspect verbs. For example, "Я сварил рис за пятнадцать минут" is used when you'd like to emphasize that it was cooked after this time. One can say, "Посмотри! Я сварил рис всего за пятнадцать минут!" - to highlight that it took them just 15 minutes to complete. At the same time, you may say "Я варил рис пятнадцать минут" just to mention how (how long) you cooked it, or if you didn't achieved any result: "Представляешь, я варил рис целых пятнадцать минут, но он так и не сварился!" If you think that the action took a long time (and want to emphasize it), you're also likely to use verbs of imperfective aspect: "Я весь/целый вечер простоял у плиты!" (that means you spent the whole evening cooking). 

As you could notice, we often use imperfective aspect verbs with the words "целый", "весь", describing the period of time. Another hint for test takers: mentioning duration, we need the preposition "за" with the period of time only when  a perfective aspect verb is used (you can see it from the examples above). 

The second point is regularity. Here it is more or less clear: if you're talking about regular actions (especially using the adverbs "часто", "иногда", "редко" or mentioning that the action took/takes/will take place каждый час/день/год etc., ежедневно, ежегодно etc., or раз в час/день/год etc.), then use the imperfective verb. 

I also have a couple of examples illustrating the last trend, which is the description of the process or result of an action. My parents call me nearly every day; mostly they're interested in what I was doing during the day, so they ask: "Что ты сегодня делала?" However, when my boss wants to know what I've done (generally, she doesn't care what I spend my time for; the only thing she is interested in is the result), she asks: "Что ты (за) сегодня сделала?"

There are also some special cases of verb usage. More sophisticated ones will be described later (in one of the following posts), so here I'll just list the basic meanings: if we describe the condition or location of someone or something, or talk about someone's talent or general capability to do something, we normally use imperfective aspect verbs. If we describe an action that was completed in a single moment, or something that happened suddenly, we use perfective aspect verbs. Sounds logical, doesn't it?

Ok, that's it for today, in a couple of days we'll be looking at what's going on when there are two actions which are simultaneous (or in the case one of them is a background action, so actions are 'partially simultaneous'), or one action follows another.