imperatives

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

Can someone please explain the difference between imperfective and perfective imperatives? I have difficulty remembering when I should use one versus the other.

Also, an unrelated question: how do you say "It's not worth it" in Russian?

Comments

[ustas.livejournal.com]

>how do you say "It's not worth it" in Russian?
оно того не стоит

[oryx_and_crake]

imperfective and perfective imperatives - can you give an example? Do you mean something like ходи vs. иди? In this case you probably should decide what exactly you want this person to do (i.e. what verb would describe his behaviour if he obeys your imperative), and use the verbs accordingly.

"It's not worth it" - Оно того не стОит. (Please note the emphasis in стОит.)

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much what I mean. For example, my professor wants me to translate this:

"Come here!" Don't come here (the person isn't moving yet)! Don't come here (the person is already moving)!"

I translated it as "Иди сюда! Не иди сюда! Не ходи сюда!".

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Well, it's kinda hard to guess what your teacher'd like to hear as a "correct" answer, but both "не иди сюда" and "не ходи сюда" sound pretty damn unnatural to me (and I'm a native speaker).

I can imagine two real life situations in which I would say something like that (but not exactly that). One situation is that there's someone who tries to approach me and I don't want that. In this case I'd say "не подходи!" or "не подходите!" (in case of "Вы" distance). The other situation is that, say, I'm inside a room (e.g., a bathroom or a shower), and there's someone outside it who wants to come in. Then, I'd say "не заходи!" (sometimes even "не входи!"). In both cases it wouldn't matter whether the person to whom I'm talking is moving already, is about to move, or is just thinking of moving.

"Не ходи сюда" means very general inacceptance. That is, you would say that to your friend who got so drunk at your party last night that he ate your cat, and you don't want him to come to your place any more, ever.

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

However, those are motion verbs, which have an extra layer of complications regarding the aspect. With verbs in general, it can be reduced to "напейся"/"не напивайся" and "съешь кота"/"не ешь кота", to use your nice example.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

But then, again, would it matter if the person you address is already eating the cat or is just staring at it ravenously? I don't think so...

I should be possible to come up with an example where is does matter, but it's not as easy as it seems.

[oryx_and_crake]

"не ходи сюда" sounds perfectly OK to my ear. "не иди сюда" is indeed somewhat unnatural.

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

: "не иди сюда" and "не ходи сюда" sound pretty damn unnatural
May I quote the classic:

"Не ходи туда, не надо"
from Белое Солнце Пустыни

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

"Туда не ходи, сюда ходи. А то снег башка попадёт, совсем мёртвый будешь". (с) "Джентльмены удачи"
In both cases, the usage of this form highlighted that this was a non-native Russian speaker who said that (Saheed in "White Sun Of The Desert," Vassily Ali-Babayevich in "Gentlemen of Fortune.")

[gera.livejournal.com]

If it's like "don't come over" (to my place) then: "Не приходи (ко мне)".
If someone is moving towards you and you want him to stop, a native speaker would most likely say: Стой(те)!
Or "Не подходи!" - Don't come any closer! (may sound threatening).

[platonicus.livejournal.com]

Or simply "Не стоит" (var. "Не стоит того").

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

The choice of imperfective/perfective imperative depends generally on the meaning; however, with negative imperatives, you use the imperfective. Закрой дверь, but не закрывай дверь.

It is somewhat similar to the Spanish "cierra la puerta" vs. "no cierres la puerta".

[swiggett.livejournal.com]

Imperfective verbs are usually used for general or repeated actions. Perfective verbs are usually for one time events [or focusing on one specific happening], or completion. As with anything, there are always nuances, that depends on your meaning, intention and emphasis. I still 'misread' situations in textbook exercises, and use the 'wrong' aspect, but you can sometimes make a case for either aspect if there is no context.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

Or «это того не стóит».