Archives for: February 2010, 10

Побежать

February 10th, 2010 by Don

Побежать is the perfective form of the verb бегать “to run.” It incorporates one of the four most irregular verb stems in the Russian language:

to run
Perfective
Infinitive побежать
Past побежал
побежала
побежало
побежали
Present No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future побегу
побежишь
побежит
побежим
побежите
побегут
Imperative побеги(те)

Побежать literally means “to run”:

Ваня побежал по дороге. Ivan ran down the road.

Although the verb does mean “to run,” it's actually used in conversation more often to mean “to take a quick trip” or “to be moving quickly” instead of literally running. The same is true for the English verb “to run” as well, of course.

— Где мама?
— Она побежала в магазин.		 “Where is Mom?”
“She ran to the store.”

On the colloquial level the verb can almost mean the equivalent of the English “I'm out of here/I'm gone”:

— Серёжа, не уходи. Останься, пока не напишем доклад.
— Нет, я побежал. Моя девушка ждёт меня.		 “Sergei, don't leave. Stay until we finish writing the report.”
“No, I'm out of here. My girlfriend is waiting for me.”
Я не могу здесь остаться. Я побежал. I can't stay here any more. I'm gone.

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