написать vs списать

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I have just joined this community, and it seems the right place to ask a grammar question. I’ve been trying to learn Russian prefixed verbs and encountered a problem with the prefixes на‑ and c‑. Both have what is called a perfective meaning, i.e. denote the completeness of an action:

написать: to write up, i.e. to have written something (opposed to писать which means to write)

сделать: to have done something, to complete (ex.: Я сделал задание “I have completed the assignment”)

The verb списать means “to copy”.

So the question is whether the verb списать besides its main meaning may have the same grammatical meaning as сделать, i.e. “to write something up, to complete writing something” and is the synonym to написать

Спасибо!

UPD. Thanks everybody! I seem to have grasped my mistake. I thought the prefixes с-, на- only modify the grammatical meaning making verbs perfective. In fact, they do this but additionally they may modify the lexical meaning as well, which is the case with списать.

списать = писать + perfective meaning (completed action)  + new lexical meaning (i.e. 'to write making a copy').

Ah, sorry for these complications! :-))

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Yes, I think at this stage you would be better off if you just learn what each verb means, prefix and all. Besides, there are complicated cases like бегать - сбЕгать - сбегАть (this one is not even perfective), бежать - сбежать etc.