multidirectional (indeterminate) | unidirectional (determinate) | perfective | |
to go | ходить | идти | пойти |
to go (veh.) | ездить | ехать | поехать |
to run | бегать | бежать | побежать |
to fly | летать | лететь | полететь |
to swim/sail | плавать | плыть | поплыть |
to lead | водить | вести | повести |
to carry | носить | нести | понести |
to carry (veh.) | возить | везти | повезти |
to go slowly | бродить | брести | побрести |
to climb | лазать or лазить | лезть | полезть |
to crawl | ползать | ползти | поползти |
to carry with significant effort | таскать | тащить | потащить |
to herd | гонять | гнать | погнать |
to roll (trans.) | катать | катить | покатить |
to roll (intrans.) | кататься | катиться | покатиться |
I label these the verbs of locomotion because they drive us Americans crazy.
Okay, that's not the real reason. A retired professor of Russian, Sanford Couch, put together a set of textual materials back in the seventies in which he referred to these verbs as the “verbs of locomotion.” These are not the only verbs of motion in Russian, but they are the only ones that we sometimes teach as verb triplets instead of verb pairs. It is sensible to have a phrase that unambiguously identifies this specific set of verbs; I suggest Prof. Couch's phrase fills the bill admirably.
Rev. February 12, 2014