Learn Russian

what verbs are you talking about??

From:

Verbs of motion.

From:

give me an example, I am Russian and have no clue what you call verbs of motion. Oh God, it seems to be so complicated when it's not your mother tounge

From:

russiandude.livejournal.com

Seconding what the poster above had said.
Can you provide some examples of the situations in which you are uncertain, with some verbs?

Sadly those of us who never "learned" Russian properly have a very limited understanding of what is called what in english.

From:

Verbs of motion like идти/ходить, ехать/ездить, etc.

Let's take the prefix "при". When I add it to идти, it becomes perfective. When I add it to ходить, it stays imperfective. But, if I recall correctly (and I doubt that I am), there are certain specific meanings that arise when you add a prefix to a multidirectional verb, like сходить means to go there and back again quickly, or something like that.

From:

Sorry, I don't think that response was clear at all. I'm very tired! :)

Anyway, I just can't remember the rules surrounding adding prefixes to verbs of motion. That's basically what I'm looking for.

From:

I mean, I know what verbs of motion are, but I don't get which are undirectional and which are multidirectional...

From:

идти is unidirectional, ходить is multidirectional.

From:

wow
never knew that :)

well, as far as I can judge, you remember everything correctly...

From:

embers.livejournal.com

Oh god, I feel this. I have a presentation on Monday sans notes & a final a week later. I just want to hurt something!

From:

What happens with multidirectional verbs?
They become imperfective. The unidirectional/multidirectional distinction doesn't have its original meaning with prefixed verbs, it only indicates the aspect.

I seem to recall that there are special forms of prefixed verbs of motion which have specific meanings, like сходить.
Each prefix has a specific meaning. I've misplaced my notes on с- specifically, but I remember my instructor syaing that it denotes a "quick round trip," at least sometimes.

From:

Actually, I found my notes and I should clarify. сходить in that meaning is a weird one -- it's perfective. The imperfective of сойти is spelled the same but means something else.

From:

wolk-off.livejournal.com

Yes, сходить might be a perfective for a short roundtrip (давай сходим в кино? - нет, я уже сходил в театр четыре раза: let's go to see movies? - no, I've already visited a theatre, four times...) while сойти doesn't have this sense, it means "go down" (as in сойти по лестнице - do down the stairs) or "get away from a moving carriage" (сойти с трамвая - leave the streetcar (this is very colloquial, though.) But, on the other hand, сходить is a legitimate imperfective form of сойти in this second meaning: я схожу с трамвая на одну остановку раньше, чтобы пройтись (I leave the street car one stop earlier to take a walk.)

From:

salexey.livejournal.com

There's also "сойти с рук", but that's not a motion verb at all :)

From:

wolk-off.livejournal.com

Yes, this is a part of a set expression, as well as in "сойти за умного" -- it's closer to "pass for" than to "go".

From:

well, actually the c- prefix makes all verbs perfective.
in fact, when thought to distinguish between perfective and imperfective, kids in Russia are suggested to see if the verb 'responds' to что делать? (imperfective) or что сделать? (perfective)

From:

or it does not?
oh, guys, i wish you all good luck in learning Russian

сойти means go/come down (from), descend

From:

Well, my dictionary says that сходить is imperfective, in the meaning of "go/come down (from)." I've never actually seen it used that way, so I don't have an opinion of my own.

From:

Сoйти definitely means to come down from. As in "Сойди со второго этажа!"

But it also means to "go there and back", but I can't find the explanation for this in my notes.

From:

Yeah, it definitely means that, but I think only сходить means "to go there and back."

From:

NO, these are two different verbs!
Сойти (is a perfective of сходить in the sense to get/come down)
Cходить in the sense of going there and back is a perfective derived from the verb Идти (unidirectionary verb, as you call it).
BTW, съездить, сбегать, сплавать, слетать, свозить have the same 'there and back' meaning.

From:

Yeah, that's right, i.e. cходить с лестницы (to be in the process of walking down the stairs)

BUT: сходить в кино is perfective

From:

brocster.livejournal.com

Wow, I really wish I had more time so that I could respond to this one fully... but, alas, a "quick 'n' dirty" explanation will have to suffice for now.

Don't let verbs of motion (VoM) confuse you -- we have the EXACT same thing in English (unlike Russian, though, we maintain the distinction across almost all verbs, not just VoM). Here's an example:

1) I go to school.
2) I'm going to school.

What's the difference (in English... or Russian even)? With sentence #1, we're talking about a regular, repeated, habitual activity -- it's the same thing as saying "I'm a student". With sentence #2, though, all we know is that I am currently on my way to school -- I might be a student or a teacher or the principal... or even some cafeteria inspector going to check out the kitchen area. The point is, we differentiate regular, repeated, habitual actions (with no specific direction [hence the term "multi-directional]) and one-time (and thus one-direction [hence "uni-directional"]) actions.

In Russian, the first (#1) is expressed by verbs such as xодить, ездить, летать, плавать, бегать, носить, водить, возить (and a few others), whereas the second (#2) is expressed by the (unidirectional) "partner" verbs идти, еxать, лететь, плыть, бежать, нести, вести, везти (and a few others). Note that ALL of the above unidirectional verbs are "type I" conjugation (just like, say, читать), whereas the majority of the multidirectional verbs are "type II" conjugation (like, say, говорить).

Тhe other key point to keep in mind is that, just like in the example sentences above (#1 and #2), BOTH xодить and идти are IMPERFECTIVE verbs, which is why both of them can exist in the present tense.

Now, as far as what happens when these guys are prefixed, just think back to their (unprefixed) original (base) meanings and compare those to what you know about imperfective and perfective verbs in Russian:

1) regular, repeated, habitual actions (multidirectional) -- this would be typical of IMPERFECTIVE verbs (i.e., звонить, писать, делать... каждый день, регулярно, обычно, etc.)

2) one-time actions (unidirectional) -- this would be (more) typical of PERFECTIVE verbs (i.e., позвонить, написать, сделать).

So, when you prefix a multidirectional verb, the "habitual" nature remains... and so you get an imperfective verb as the result (приxодить, уезжать, выбегать, относить, etc.).

When you prefix a unidirectional verb, the "one-time action" nature remains... so you get a perfective verb (прийти, уеxать, выбежать, отнести, etc.).

Does that make sense?

...continued in next post...

From:

brocster.livejournal.com

Then, as you noted, there are those "special" prefixes that can, indeed, be added to multidirectional verb forms to make them PERFECTIVE. Here are a few examples:

-with C:
---> cxодить в магазин за xлебом -- to make a quick round trip to the store (there and back -- note the "round-trip action" inherent in the multidirectional verb xодить is still present) for bread. So Я сxожу в магазин за xлебом is the FUTURE tense = I will go to the store (and back) for bread. (Тhere's no imperfective partner in this case.)

---> сойти с дерева -- to climb down from the tree. In this case, the prefix no longer has the "quick round trip" meaning -- that was reserved for use with the multidirectional verb. The "bad news" here is that the imperfective partner of сойти is (as you would expect with prefixed verbs of motion) сxодить. Yep, it looks just like the first verb above, but this time this сxодить is IMPERFECTIVE, so Я сxожу с дерева would be PRESENT tense (I'm climbing down from the tree).

(The same holds true for съездить -- as a PERFECTIVE verb (with no imperfective partner) -- meaning to make a quick round trip by vehicle, and the PAIR съездить/съеxать (imperfective/perfective), meaning to ride/drive DOWN from some place or OFF of/from some place.)

- with ПО:
---> поxодить -- as a PERFECTIVE verb meaning "to walk around [multidirectionally] for a little while" (compare other по- forms, like поговорить (to talk for a little while), посидеть, попить чай, etc.)

---> пойти -- аs a PERFECTIVE verb as well. Here, the по- prefix simply "delimits" the initially imperfective идти (just as it did with xодить in the case just above). So я пойду в банк would simply be "I will go to the bank" -- it's just your basic (unidirectional) future form. If you wanted to imply repeated/habitual/regular (round-trip) action to and from the bank, then you would need to use the multidirectional xодить and form the future using быть -- я буду xодить в банк [всю неделю] (I will be going to the bank [and back home] (all week)).

Well, I hope that made at least a little sense -- it ended up just a "little" longer than I had expected :0). Just try to think about VoM with respect to how they're used in English. I think Russian textbooks (and some teachers) make them out to be much more complicated than they really are -- as if we didn't have anything like them in English.

Good luck on your final! I'm sure you'll do fine. : )

- Andrew : )

From: