Russian Word of the Day

We previously noted the use of the word чтобы in sentences like:

In the Russian version of that sentence the чтобы clause contains a perfective verb to express a one-time action with result to the point of discourse:

That's all well and good, but what happens if the opposite is the case? In other words, we want to say:

In this case the verb in the чтобы clause must be expressed in the imperfective:

Alternatively, one could put the не right in front of писала instead of in front of хочу:

For beginners the rule of thumb is this: a negated verb will be expressed in the imperfective. In these sentences the scope of negation seems to include not only хочу but also the complement of хочу, i.e. the чтобы clause. Here are some other examples. Notice all the sentences in blue have a perfective чтобы clause. All the sentences in yellow are negative and thus must have an imperfective чтобы clause:

Consider the following two sentences in English:

Both sentences use an infinitive construction in the second part of the sentence. If the implied subject in the second part is the same as the subject in the first part, the subject is not repeated in the second part. If the subject in the second part is different from the subject in the first part, it is specified in the second part. Russian uses an infinitive construction for sentences like #1, but it uses чтобы + past tense for sentences like #2:

This чтобы + past tense construction is sometimes referred to as the “subjunctive mood” because it is equivalent to similar subjunctive uses in Spanish, French, German, and some other languages. It is used not only with the verb хотеть “to want,” but also with many other verbs where one person ask/tell/order another person to do something, especially просить/попросить to request/ask, говорить/сказать to tell, приказывать/приказать to order, and прелагать/предложить to suggest.

One of the uses of the word чтобы is to indicate the purpose for which an object or action is designated. It is often translated into English as “to” or “so that”:

Notice that in those sentences чтобы was followed by an infinitive phrase. That's not always the case:

So what's the difference? The difference is who the “doer” is in the чтобы portion of the sentence. If the doer implied by the чтобы portion is the same as the doer in the main clause, then it is followed by an infinitive. If the doer is different, then you use чтобы to introduce a clause with a past tense verb. Note, however, that even though the form of the verb is past tense, the meaning is not necessarily past tense. It's just indicating the purpose of the action. Here are a couple more examples.

The word но means but. In grammatical terms it is a conjunction which usually introduces a clause that is contrary to previously established expectiations. For instance:

The word но rarely produces confusion for English speakers. Bummer. That means I have to think of some clever example sentences.

Crud. I guess my sentences weren't so clever after all.

Previously we discussed the particle ли in its function of making yes-no questions. It has another function as the equivalent of the English word ‘whether.’ In English ‘whether’ always occurs as the first word in its subordinate clause; ли must always be the second item in its clause:

If the subordinate clause contains words like должен, надо or нужно, they usually come before ли. The next most likely word to come before ли is a conjugated verb:

Any other word/phrase can occur before ли if it bears the focus of the question:

Clever students will have noticed that this use of ли is a part of what we call “indirect speech.” Indirect speech in Russian and English behave somewhat differently. In English, when changing from direct speech to indirect speech, the tense of the subordinate clause undergoes fairly complex changes. For instance, considering the following sentences.

Note the tense of the verbs in the subordinate clause in the corresponding indirect speech sentences:

This change is called “sequence of tenses” by linguists. Russian does not have a sequence of tenses rule like that. Whatever the tense of a verb is in the original direct speech is the same tense that occurs in the indirect speech. In other words, in direct speech we will have:

Rule of thumb: when switching from direct speech to indirect speech in Russian, keep the tense of the original verb.