53 



Preliminary Remarks fcr Lists III, IV, V and VI 



In coping with forms of Russian verbs the beginning student finds himself at a great 

 disadvantage because of the economy of statement typical of the usual dictionary. If the 

 student is able to identify a particular form as a 3rd. sg. , present tense, for example, 

 and if he is able to determine the appropriate infinitive, then the dictionary will supply 

 the general verbal meaning; if the verb form in question is such that its relationship to 

 an infinitive is not obvious, the average dictionary will then be of little, if any, help. 



There are hundreds of Russian verbs which do not have an "obvious" relationship 

 between the infinitive and the other forms. This number can be greatly reduced, if one 

 "strips away" the verbal prefixes and considers only the underlying simple verb. If, for 

 example, a student is trying to identify the past form npoHSseji , he can remove the pre- 

 fixes npo and h3 . A glance at the past tense forms on List IV will show the student 

 that b'^ji is the masc. form of the infinitive BecTM and he may then go to the dictionary and 

 determine the meaning of npo-M3-BecTM . 



The following simple procedure is basic to the use of the lists in identifying present 

 tense forms(List III), past tense forms(List IV), past active participles and past gerunds 

 (ListV), and past passive participles(List VI). 



1. Detach the reflexive ending (-CH/-Cb), if it occurs on the form in question. 



2. Detach any of the prefixes(listed below) which may enter into 

 the constitution of the form. 



3. Locate the simplex on the appropriate list and note the infinitive 

 form listed after it. 



4. Attach the prefix(es) and the reflexive ending, if required, to the 

 infinitive. Occasionally the resultant infinitive uses a prefix variant, 

 as noted below. 



5. Obtain the meaning for the derived infinitive from the dictionary. 



Prefixes 



6e3-/de30- ot-/oto- 



b-/bo- nepe- 



bo3-/b3-/b30-/boc-/bc- no- 



BH- noji-/nojio- 



flo- npe- 



3a- npefl-/npeji,o- 



m3-/h30-/wc- npw- 



Ha- npo- 



Hafl-/Haflo- pa3-/pa30-/pac- 



H1I3-/hK30-/hMC- C-/cO- 



0-/06-/060- y- 



