(no subject)

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Can you explain the difference between these three verb pairs?

Оканчивать/Окончить

Заканчивать/Закончить

Кончать/Кончить

Оканчивать and кончать can both refer to graduation from school, yes? But what about the other meanings? Maybe I can't understand the differences because I'm not familiar with Russian prefixes.

Any explanations (and examples!) for their usage would be greatly appreciated. Thanks))

Comments

Just some cents )

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Well I just have two cents to donate, and that's that I hardly ever hear кончать/кончить anywhere, specifically because it has a dirty connotation to the expression "to cum." I learned that through time, for my Russian teacher always said "NEVER USE THAT! THAT'S BAD RUSSIAN!" and I was like "um... ok." So it's usually just used along the lines of Работа кончается в пять часов. If you wanted to use "to end/finish" in the perfect, better to use закончить(ся).

Re: Just some cents )

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Umm, who would've thunk it? lol. See, these are the things that textbook publishers never seem to mention.

Re: Just some cents )

[aciel.livejournal.com]

Wow, shit. That explains SO MUCH.

Re: Just some cents )

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

yeah, yeah, yeah. i learned that the hard way;)
it's still laughed about...

Re: Just some cents )

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

According to gramota.ru (http://www.spravka.gramota.ru/hardwords.html?no=296) only "Оканчивать/Окончить" can be properly used to describe graduation and either verb can be used to mean "to finish"

And yes, wolfie_18 is absolutely correct about "кончить" . Avoid it :)

Re: Just some cents )

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

And yes, wolfie_18 is absolutely correct about "кончить" . Avoid it :)

I disagree. It's a normal word and I don't care about perverts' perception. You see, only youngsters bother to avoid it, while elderly and educated people don't care at all. And so do I.

Re: Just some cents )

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Bah! If youngsters didn't avoid it, adults would just be shocked by our language. Hmph. Adults. Besides, connotations in languages develop very quickly, so as educated as a youngster might be, we'd have to avoid it to show that we're above the silly connotations. I dunno... it can go one way or the other...

Re: Just some cents )

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

Seeing that many people studying Russian _are_ young, and so are likely to talk to other youngsters, I think it's a fair warning.

Btw, this has nothing to do with perversion or sexual hangups. The slang sense, like many other slang words, comes from prison lingo. See writings by Yuz Aleshkovsky, for instance.

[eva-lotta.livejournal.com]

If you compare two sentences:
Я заканчиваю работу в пять.I work till five. (like every day)
Я закончил работу в пять. I worked till five. (like today or yesterday or last Monday)

The verbs оканчивать\окончить are never used in any other meaning than graduate.

The verbs кончать\кончить apart from cum also have a slang meaning of kill.
Чего ты ждешь? Кончай его! What are you waiting for? Kill him!

[byzov.livejournal.com]

Прежде всего нет такого глагола:"оканчивать/окончить".
Всё остальное,как ораторы выше обЪясняли,существует
в природе русского языка.

[yms.livejournal.com]

you're kidding...

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

what do you mean there's no such verb???

I have it written right here in my high school diploma.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I would love to remind that the working language of this community is English. It's OK to post or comment in Russian, but you are expected to provide a comprehensive English translation.

[oryx_and_crake]

I cannot agree with you.
оканчивать, окончить are perfectly normal Russian verbs.

[ex-my3bikaht259.livejournal.com]

«У нас кончается вода» - in this sentence verb «кончать» means to be at end. Good verb sometimes

[byzov.livejournal.com]

да,кончается,но не"о-кончается"

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Note that кончаться and кончать are two different verbs with different meaning.

[freyja-freyja.livejournal.com]

"Кончать" means "to come", "to have an orgasm". That's why you'd better avoid it. :)

[moon-aka-sun.livejournal.com]

Probably it's worth to note that 'кончить' means 'to come' only the last 20 years or so. In the 70-s and before it was a normal verb meaning 'to end'. The same can be said about 'трахать'. And 'голубой'. It's all 'новояз' (newspeak).

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

What's the alternate meaning of трахать?

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

What's the alternate meaning of Голубой? I thought it only meant "light blue..."

Sorry in advance if this is really gross and I'm just missing something.

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Wow. What a firestorm that set off!

Thanks everybody for your help. I will confine myself to закончить and окончить)))

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

Мы кончили??? :-D Are we "finished"?

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Да, кончили. Yep, done in:-)

[andrushka-il.livejournal.com]

"Кончил работать - протри станок" :)))