Russian Word of the Day

Previously we discussed выходить/выйти in the sense of ‘to exit, walk out of, step out of.’ Today we want to focus on a subset of those meanings. The past tense of the verb is often used to mean “to leave a place with the intention of returning shortly.” When used this way, it is often accompanied by the preposition на followed by a time phrase in the accusative:

The Russian verb that means ‘to exit, walk out of, step out of’ is выходить/выйти:

The verb is most often used with the preposition из and the genitive case to indicate the place from which the subject is leaving. Although the essential meaning of the verb is 'to exit,' it often sounds stiff to use 'exit' in translation. A good translation will substitute other phrases that capture the same idea but flow better:

The determinate verb for “to carry” in Russian is нести:

This is a determinate imperfective verb which means it is used to describe motion heading in a single direction. Although it means “to carry,” it is often best translated with variations on ‘take’ and ‘bring’:

The most generic verb for “to carry” in Russian is носить. Note the consonant mutation in the я form:

This is an indeterminate imperfective verb which means it can be used with the preposition по + dative to indicated carrying something here and there, all over the place:

Most indeterminate imperfective verbs can bear the meaning of “go there and back.” Носить is a bit odd in that it really isn't considered good style to use the verb that way. You will find it used conversationally, though, in that sense:

Notice that the translation of the last sentence doesn't contain the word “carry” in it. It is often the case that the Russian verbs of carrying (носить, нести, возить, везти, and the dozens of words derived from them) are best translate with “bring” or “take” in English.

Носить can also be used to take something to a particularly place on multiple occasions:

The most generic perfective verb for travelling by air in Russian is полететь “to fly”:

Perfective verbs like полететь have several different uses. The nature of the perfective verb is to put focus on the result of an action, so полететь can mean “to head off somewhere by air and actually arrive there.” Thus it can be used to describe a series of flights, each one complete:

The verb can also mean “to go and arrive” on a single trip; we see it in that meaning in a headline from Guy Laliberté's recent flight into space. (He is the founder of Cirque du Soleil).

One last use is a colloquial one. It can also mean “I'm gone,” just as побежал and пошёл can.