Imperfective and Perfective Pairs — Main Patterns
Hello! The Russian verb aspect system may look confusing in the beginning, but when you grab enough vocabulary, you will see that most of Russian verbs are distributed in patterns:
In the imperfective verb the suffix -ыва-/-ива- is added:
PERFECTIVE | IMPERFECTIVE
переписа́ть | перепи́сывать | to rewrite
установи́ть | устана́вливать | to install
The perfective verbs ends by -ить and in its imperfective pair this -ить is replaced with the stressed -а́ть/-я́ть:
PERFECTIVE | IMPERFECTIVE
реши́ть | реша́ть | to solve, decide
объясни́ть | объясня́ть | to explain
Here, certain consonant alternations occur, but they are regular and mostly predictable (б/бл, в/вл, п/пл, м/мл, с/ш, з/ж, ст/щ, т/ч or т/щ, д/ж or д/дж):
PERFECTIVE | IMPERFECTIVE
поздра́вить | поздравля́ть | to congratulate
заме́тить | замеча́ть | to notice
вы́разить | выража́ть | to express
прости́ть | проща́ть | to forgive
убеди́ть | убежда́ть | to convince
Some imperfective verbs take the stressed suffix -ва́-:
PERFECTIVE | IMPERFECTIVE
вы́жить | выжива́ть | to survive
сбрить | сбрива́ть | to shave off
нагре́ть | нагрева́ть | to heat
Sometimes you will have to memorize other less common matches, but normally, all verbs with the same root but different prefixes follow the same model. For example -нима-/-ня-:
IMPERFECTIVE | PERFECTIVE
понима́ть | поня́ть | to understand
занима́ть | заня́ть | to occupy
нанима́ть | наня́ть | to hire
принима́ть | приня́ть | to accept
So, the more Russian verbs you know, the more patterns you will see. If it were totally irregular, we could not be able to speak our native language. :) So, go ahead and good luck in learning Russian. :)
Best regards,
Yevgeni Yeliseyev
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