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In this manual an attempt has been made to simplify the statement of present tense ; 

 infinitive relationships, since it is assumed that the user is not a career student of the 

 Russian language. To this end the REFERENCE section contains lists of present tense 

 forms which do not accord with the statements below. 



Present Tense 



Set I 



1) -a-e- , -a-io- 

 -H-e- , -fl-io- 



OH 3HaeT OHM 3HaK)T 



OH TepflBT OHH TepfllOT 



2) -e-e , -e-K)- 



dejieoT fieJieioT 



HMeeT HMBIOT 



3) -H-e- , -H-y- 



TOHBT TOHyT 

 HHHeT HHHyT 



4) -y-e- , -y-K- 



odpasyeT ofipasyioT 

 naKyeT naKyioT 



OdpaSOSaTb "to form" 

 naKOBaTb "to pack" 



Set II (only one type; all others in 

 REFERENCE listing) 



-H- , -a/n- 



roBopHT 



yUMT 



rOBOpHT 



rOBOpMTb 

 y^IHTb 



"to speak" 

 "to teach" 



VERBAL ASPECT 



A beginning student, casually inspecting a Russian dictionary, may well be sur- 

 prised to note that two Russian infinitives are cited as equivalents of one English verb, 

 e.g. 



"to write" - HMCaTb, HaOMCaTb 



"to read" - UHTaTb, npO^HTaTb 



The basic meaning, of writing or reading, is the same for each member of the pair, but 

 there is a meaning distinction in that the second memberf HanncaTb , npogHTaxb ) also 

 implies a completion or limitation of the verbal action. For example, 



fl nucaji nwcbMO. 

 fl Hanwcaji nncbMO. 



"I wrote/was writing a letter." 



"I wrote[=finished writing] a letter. 



Use of the first member nwcaji establishes the idea of an on-going action or state, which 

 may or may not have been eventually brought to a stage of completion; use of the second 

 member of the pair nanHcaji ^however , makes a definite commitment as to the completion 

 of the verbal action. 



This phenomenon is called "aspect", that is, the way a speaker or writer "views" 

 verbal action. It is a characteristic of the Russian verbal system and must be considered 

 when translating from Russian to English. 



In aspectual pairs the first member, which signifies enduring action, is tradition- 

 ally referred to as a verb of imperfective(impf,) aspect, while the second member with 

 its added meaning of completion is called a verb of perfective(pf . ) aspect. 



