Homework help

[dezelina.livejournal.com]

Hi Everyone, 
I received a homework assignment, and I have no clue what I am supposed to do.  I know I am supposed to pick from two verb choices, all of them have the same stems, but vary in prefixes, either по  or при.  We did not cover this in class, and it is not in our books.  So when do I use по, and when do I use при?

Here is an example question from one of the exercises:  

Я не делал гимнастику, только немного ... по парку. 
Мы ... по парку целых два часа и опоздали на обед.

Select either, "побегать or пробегать"

 

Comments

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

1. побегать
2. пробегать

по- in this usage means "to do something for a while"
про- = "to spend a specified amount of time doing something"

[zlozone.livejournal.com]

hm... actually it is hard for me to just give you "a magic pill" that will allow you to complete all the homework.
for me as russian-speaker there is no rule for this and it is just... well you know.. logicaly =)
but maybe I can give a clue based on the example below.
"Я не делал гимнастику, только немного побегал по парку."
"Мы пробегали по парку целых два часа и опоздали на обед."
You can use побегал when you want to describe some action that wasn't fully done or was done but in a light version. Like in this example - he has just spent some time running in the park, but he didn't run a whole marathon. And in the second sentence they spent two hours running around. You can consider this action пробегали here as completed one.

Well.. hope that will help =)

[rpocc.livejournal.com]

If i'm right, побегал is past perfect while пробегал is past perfect continuous. Russian time forms are differ from english.
I can't explain formally difference between usage of this words, but побегал is usually accented and пробегал is not:
Я чуть побегал, и пошел домой.
Вася побегал немного и попрыгал немного.
Пробегал я немного, но устал неимоверно.
Да десять минут всего пробегал, конечно футболка сухая!
Also, in second case, action had been happened quite defined amount of time.

[ad3pt.livejournal.com]

First of all, the prefix that you need to use in your exercise is not "при" but "про". The prefix "при" is usually used with the verb when you have to describe complete situation. For example "Я прибежал" can be translated as "I have come running".

The word "побегать" can be translated as "easy running", or "jogging". However the word "пробегать" with the context of your sentence can be translated as "We've spent time running...".

I hope that my answer, will help you to solve this exercise, and good luck!

[rainman-rocks.livejournal.com]

Usually "про-" means that certain activity took a reasonably LONG time, in speaker's opinion (word "целых" clearly points to that) - but can be used for short periods too.
But "по-" always means that activity took a little time or left unfinished.

So:

пробегали целых два часа - valid
побегали целых два часа - invalid

пробегали полчаса - valid
побегали полчаса - valid

пробегали всего пять минут - valid, but rarely used
побегали всего пять минут - valid

[zespri.livejournal.com]

From Cambridge "Using Russian" by Derek Offord. (The text in italic is my opinion and not a part of the quote)

по-

(a) in many perfective verbs, to indicate action of short duration or limited extent; it may be attached to indeterminate verbs of motion in this meaning; very common:
поговорить - to have a talk, talk for a bit
погулять - to take a stroll
поесть - to have a bite to eat (in this case I don't agree with the book. поесть doesn't give any meaning of short or limited action, it's gives pure perfective meaning, and that's it)
поработать - to do a bit of work
походить - to walk about for a bit

(b) + infix -ыва or -ива, to form imperfective verbs with iterative meaning (ie action repeated off and on for some time) eg
поглядывать - to look at from time to time
поговаривать - to talk about every so often
покашливать - to cough from time to time
посвистывать - to whistle off and on

про-

(a) movement by or past, eg
пробегать/пробежать - to run past
проходить/пройти - to go past (on foot)
(b) movement through, eg
проедать/проесть - to eat through, corrode
пропускать/пропустить - To let through, admit, omit
(c) as a perfective prefix, in many simple verbs when the duration of the action or the distance covered by it is defined, eg
просидеть два часа - to sit for two hours
пробежать десять километров - to run ten kilometers
(d) thorough action, eg
продумывать/продумать - to think over
прожаривать/прожарить - to roast thoroughly

[k48.livejournal.com]

You've already got the correct variants, but I just wanted to point out one more thing.

We actually have two words, пробегать with the stress on second syllable, and the one with the stress on the last syllable.

пробЕгать just suits the second example which you mentioned (=to run about for a certain time), while пробегАть is another thing, something like "to run by/near/along/through", e.g. Он пробежал мимо меня и исчез за углом. (He ran past/near me and vanished round the corner. Полицейский спросил меня, не пробегАли ли здесь преступники. (the policeman asked me whether any criminals ran here)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

+1

[k48.livejournal.com]

I doubt that English speakers know what "plus one" is in Russian internet slang :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

We have successfully taught them this profound wisdom here :)

[k48.livejournal.com]

Great! Here's another confirmation of the well-known truth that Russian is the superiorest, bestest, beatifulest language in the Universe :) cheers :)