Perfective of быть?

[david-us.livejournal.com]

I am helping a college student who is in his first year of studying Russian. They have just started addressing verbal aspects. He was asking to explain the difference between the use of the imperfective verb and the perfective.

In the process, he wanted me to use an example of the perfective for of the verb быть - which I never even knew existed. Apparently побыть is the perfective.

I don't think I have ever seen that verb used. Is it? How would it be used?

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[hellga.livejournal.com]

Побыть is not strictly a perfective of быть - it means "to have been someone/something for a limited period of time", and its closest imperfective is побывать. Examples of sentences using the word побыть:

Ты бы хотел побыть королем? Would you like to be a king for a little while?
А она побудет дома сегодня. And she will stay home today.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Я побывал в гостях doesn't sound imperfective to me, you can't say я побывал там с 3-х до 5-ти, but you can say я был там с 3-х до 5-ти. побывал is quite perfective.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

You are right, побывать is perfective.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

I'm puzzled. Looking forward to somebody's answer.

I'd say, whenever "быть" becomes perfective, I'll use another verb, like if I was in France [last summer], then for perfective I'll say that I returned from France [by the time the semester started].

[hellga.livejournal.com]

Unrelated question: how you do put two-language entries with the languages side-by-side? That's a skill I would like to master for my bilingual entries.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

By using tables. For every paragraph, I make a two-column one-row table.

Here's a template I use. Feel free to borrow and to modify it to your needs:

<table WIDTH=89%><tbody valign="top"><tr><td width="50%"><font size="2">

Language 1, paragraph 1

</font></td><td width="50%"><font size="2">

Language 2, paragraph 2

</font></td></tr></tbody></table><br>

[hellga.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I will try and play with it sometime...

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Oops, there was supposed to be the same paragraph on both languages. :) But you got it, yes? :)

[sithoid.livejournal.com]

Maybe you can use "бывать" - it is used for repeated actions or for making up some kind of Present Perfect. "Вы бывали в Париже?" - "Have you ever been to Paris?" "Да, я часто там бываю" - "Yes, I often go there", "Yes, I'm used to go there". "И часто такое бывает?" - "Does this kind of things happen all the time?"

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

For repetitive, yes. But. Is it really as perfective as it seems? What about "побывать" then - "have you been to Paris by the time the semester started"?

[sithoid.livejournal.com]

Yes, it fits. "Вы успели побывать в Париже, прежде чем начался семестр?"

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Exactly! As if побывать was perfective of бывать.

[tintagil.livejournal.com]

In some cases the verb "стать" may be the perfective for "быть"... What do you think?

[tintagil.livejournal.com]

Though for this verb there's also "становиться" as an imperfective...

[agewa.livejournal.com]

Быть is a very special verb (the way it's redundant in sentences and all) and a really awkward one to use as an example of how verbs work.
Perfective of быть is just that - быть :)
Что ты делал? - Я был дома. (What did you do? - I was [stayed] at home.)
Что ты сделал? - Я был самим собой. (What did you do? - I was my usual self.)

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

'Быть' may have perfective prefixed derivatives but as such it can't have any just perfective pair. It's a stative verb, while verbal aspect is about the difference between resultive and non-resultive action. 'Быть' in the terms of result can correlate to perfective 'прибыть' meaning 'to arrive', 'побыть' - stay for a while, 'сбыться' - to come true and lots and lots more. The closest pair with resultive action is indeed 'стать'.

Actually, not so many verbs have perfective-imperfective pairs. More often they aren't just pairs but related words with additinal lexical meaning. In the process of word-building one can switch from imperfective to perfective and back: читать-перечитать-перечитывать, говорить-отговорить-отговаривать

[ex-desbaraj.livejournal.com]

Some state verbs don´t have aspect pairs:
лежать, сидеть, стоять, висеть, учиться, стоить (cost), иметь, помнить, жить...

You can add prefixes, but it will change the meaning, not anly the aspect.


In the past "быть"+Prepositive case (visit some place) seems to be perfective itself.
e.g.:
Я был в театре.
1. I went to the theater, i visited the theater
2. I was in the theater (when sth. happened)

[ex-desbaraj.livejournal.com]

only