(no subject)

[wondershot.livejournal.com]

I said to my Russian friend today on ICQ:

меня мучит вселенкая лень.
("a general laziness torments me")

However, my friend corrected me, and told me to say мучает.

When I looked up мучать in the dictionary to figure out why I should use this verb instead of the other, it referred me to мучить. Multitran.ru didn't help either.

As far as I can tell, мучить isn't the perfective, so it can't be a modality thing. What's the beef here?

Comments

[evermore-spb.livejournal.com]

It's just that "мучит" is rarely used now and sounds archaic. Otherwise, I think, they are perfectly interchangeable.

[brat-pushkin.livejournal.com]

it's not a mistake.

[123marinka456.livejournal.com]

"Мучит" don't sound correctly there,imho - it is something like local idiom.People make words little shorter to make them more usefull. For example,word "Тут" people in some regions of Ukraine may transform into "тута" - it's simply sounds better in oral speak - and there are a lot of such examples.

It's simply right to said "мучает" in such situation - it would sound more better then "Мучит".

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

Hello there! Local idiom? "Мучит" is as old-fashioned, hypercorrect Russian as it gets.

[zoa-mel-gustar.livejournal.com]

"Мучит" is just a little obsolete and pompous version of "мучает".

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Pompious is okay for "вселенская лень".

[gulidar.livejournal.com]

Well, i guess multitran fails here because it is right to write "мучить" which is just infinitive for "torture"(or torture someone - its "мучить" too), but in case its someone torturing someone else its "мучает".

[krl-pgh.livejournal.com]

"Мучит" is fine in this context, it is slightly poetic (vs. everyday) word, maybe just too poetic for your friend. "Вселенкая" needs to be "вселенская" though.

[gera.livejournal.com]

+1
Мучит actually makes more sense in this context.

[wondershot.livejournal.com]

thanks you guys, you're great. I knew you could give me a good answer.

[surasure.livejournal.com]

i would like to agree - мучит applies better to such poetic cases, while мучает applies to people or more pragmatic feelings (that is, меня мучит вселенская лень //стыд but меня мучает боль меня мучают комары, ты меня мучаешь etc)
не мучь меня! has a dramatic tinge to it and is used to emphasize the drama of the moment, though used in every day life quite widely (moms say that to kids.. wherever people make out a drama or a joke out of this phrase, while мучай is more simple and general, in modern language)

[alamar.livejournal.com]

And it's вселенская not вселенкая.

The latter can be even misread as веселенькая, which is certainly not what you want.

[wondershot.livejournal.com]

oh wow, good call. thanks for that.

[alexzzzzz.livejournal.com]

There are two forms of the verb: "мучать" and "мучить" - both are correct. "Мучать" sounds better and is used more often.

1) Покупать:
я покупаю, мы покупаем,
ты покупаешь, вы покупаете
он покупает, они покупают

Мучать:
я мучаю, мы мучаем
ты мучаешь, вы мучаете
он мучает, они мучают

2) Курить:
я курю, мы курим
ты куришь, вы курите
он курит, они курят

Мучить:
я мучу, мы мучим
ты мучишь, вы мучите
он мучит, они мучат