Russian Verbs

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Привет! My friend "Марисса" recently found 501 Russian Verbs in a free book bin and snagged it for me. As I flip through, I notice that it is structured differently from my 501 Verb books for French and Spanish. For starters, the verbs themselves seem to be different. Every verb has two forms like — *flips to random page* — курить / покурить [kurit' / pokurit'] (which means "to smoke, burn"). What are the different forms? Also, some say ся [sja] after the verb in parenthesis, for instance купать (ся) / выкупать (ся) [kupat' (sja) / vykupat' (sja)] which means "to bathe, give a bath (bath, go swimming). Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Also — can anyone recommend a good book that teaches basic vocab and grammar? Right now all I can do is read Cyrillic and say a *few* words.

Comments

Re:

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll keep this entry in mind. There are actually two separate sets of Russian lessons going on right now, and when they get to verbs I'll bring this entry to the attention of the teachers.