In Russian certain verbs have two imperfective forms. These verbs are called the "verbs of motion", because they state the basic types of motion — going on foot, going by vehicle, flying, swimming, crawling, etc.
There are only thirteen of these verbs, but they play a large role in both the spoken and written language. For our purposes, only the verbs of going, carrying, and leading are used. If you are curious, all of the verbs of motion are listed in the Appendix page in the back.
The two imperfective forms of these verbs present alternate views of going, carrying, swimming, etc. In general, a Russian needs only two verbs to express all possibilities of a verbal idea — the imperfective and the perfective.
| verbal idea "writing" | |
|
imperfective писать |
perfective написать |
To express a verbal idea in all possible ways for a verb of motion you need three verbs — the perfective verb and two imperfective verbs called the indeterminate and the determinate.
| verbal idea "going on foot" | |
| imperfective | |
|
indeterminate ходить |
determinate идти |
Now look at the card that comes with this booklet. This card is titled CONJUGATION PATTERNS OF THE VERBS OF LOCOMOTION AND CONVEYANCE. (page )
These are the five verbs used throughout this text for examples, practice exercises, and tests. You may use this card anytime you wish as a reference, "cheat sheet", or bookmark. Of course, if you going to learn Russian you will eventually have to memorize them, but in this text it is not obligatory.
There are in Russian two verb-pairs with the general meaning of "to go", "to come", or "to travel", The verbs ходить-идти mean "to go on foot", and the verbs ездить-ехать mean "to go by vehicle or some means of conveyance".
In English we use the verb "to go" much more generally than the Russians. The English sentence "I am going to town" has two counterparts in Russian.
Я иду в город. I am going to town (on foot).
Я еду в город. I am going to town (by vehicle).
A similar distinction is made for носить-нести "to carry on foot" and возить-везти , "to carry by vehicle, to transport".
| On Foot | By Vehicle | |
|---|---|---|
| to go | ходить -- идти | ездить -- ехать |
| to carry | носить -- нести | возить -- везти |
This is a simple exercise to help you start to discriminate between "going on foot" and "going by vehicle". Place a check beside the correct response.
| On Foot | By Vehicle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. |
going across the room | ||
|
2. |
going to Florida | ||
|
з. |
carrying my friend to the movies | ||
|
4. |
going into the kitchen | ||
|
5. |
carrying the book upstairs | ||
|
6. |
carrying the refrigerator back to town | ||
|
7. |
going to the country | ||
|
8. |
carrying the newspaper next door | ||
|
9. |
carrying the family home | ||
|
10. |
going through the library |
Answer:
| On Foot | By Vehicle | |
|---|---|---|
|
1. |
X |
- |
|
2. |
- |
X |
|
з. |
- |
X |
|
4. |
X |
- |
|
5. |
X |
- |
|
6. |
- |
X |
|
7. |
- |
X |
|
8. |
X |
- |
|
9. |
- |
X |
|
10. |
X | - |
Now with the aid of your card translate the two sentences into English.
Я несу книгу в класс.
Я везу деньги (money) в банк.
Answer:
I am carrying the book to class (on foot).
I am carrying the money to the bank (by car).
The verbs of motion have two imperfective forms. They are called the _____________ and the _____________.