Categories: "Grammar"

И (часть вторая)

by Don  

As students advance in their study of Russian, they eventually encounter the words тоже and также, both of which can be translated as “also.” The difference between the two is complex.¹ But if you are a really sneaky Russian student, then you can sometimes avoid both words by using и. For instance:

Мама любит говорить по-русски. И папа любит говорить по-русски. Mom loves to speak Russian. Papa also loves to speak Russian.
Мама ест рыбу. Она ест и курицу. Mom eats fish. She also eats chicken.

¹ The best description of the difference between the two words I've seen for beginners is in Richard Robins's first-year textbook Голоса, pp. 123-124. For a more complete description look at Nakhimovsky and Leed's “Advanced Russian,” which gets to the essence of the topic in terms of theme-rheme.

Как долго идти

by Don  

Today we'll learn about asking “How long does it take to get to such-and-such a place.” Probably the easiest way is to use the phrase «как долго» “how long” followed by a unidirectional infinitive and the prepositions от/до. (От and до are usually used to mean “from” and “to” when talking about distances or times.) Of course, you will want to change the verb depending on the mode of transport:

— Как долго идти от почты до аптеки?
— Недолго. Минут пять.
“How long does it take to walk from the post office to the pharmacy?”
“Not long. About five minutes.”
— Как долго ехать от Москвы до Петербурга?
— На скором поезде туда ехать всего восемь часов.
“How long does it take to get from Moscow to St. Petersburg?”
“On the express train it takes only eight hours.”
— Как долго плыть от Хельсинки до Стокгольма?
— На пароходе семнадцать часов.
“How long does it take to get from Helsinki to Stockholm?”
“By boat seventeen hours.”
— Как долго лететь из Москвы в Париж?
— Только три часа.
“How long does it take to get from Moscow to Paris.”
“Only three hours.”

If you want to ask about how long it will take on a particular occasion, then of course you can use either the past or future as well:

— Как долго будем ехать от Москвы до Петербурга?
— Часов восемь.
“How long will it take to get from Moscow to Petersburg?”
“About eight hours.”
— Как долго вы ехали от Москвы до Петербурга?
— Шестнадцать часов. Не было билетов на скорый поезд.
“How long did it take to get from Moscow to Petersburg?”
“Sixteen hours. There weren't any tickets for the express train.”

The phrase «сколько времени» can replace «как долго» in all those sentences and will mean the same thing.

И (часть первая)

by Don  

After their first week of class all Russian students know that и means “and”:

Мама и папа собирали картошку в колхозе. Mom and Dad harvested potatoes at the collective farm.
Ксюша создала веб-сайт для русских невест и американских женихов. Kseniya created a web-site for Russian brides and American grooms.

It's so simple, why the heck would anyone bother to blog about it? Listen carefully, my children: the word и will save you grief in learning Russian. For instance, once you have learned the word и, you never have to learn a separate word for both! For instance…

И мама, и папа говорят по-русски. Both Mom and Dad speak Russian.

See how easy that is! And what's wonderful is that it's not only nouns that can be coordinated that way, but also verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases:

Папа и говорит, и пишет по-русски. Dad both speaks and writes Russian.
Я говорю и по-русски, и по-испански. I speak both Russian and Spanish.
Мой брат был и в Египте, и на Аляске. My brother has been in both Egypt and Alaska.

Actually the и can connect more than two words. In English, theoretically, we should only use “both” when coordinating two items, but sometimes when we are not thinking too carefully about what we are saying, we use it in constructions where more than two items are coordinated:

Я говорю и по-русски, и по-испански, и по-английски. I speak both Russian and Spanish and English.

In Russian it's perfectly fine to coordinate more than two items with и, whereas in English if you use “both” in the context, rude pedants will correct you. I say “rude” because Mama taught us that we shouldn't correct the speech of other people unless they specifically ask us to.

Пойти

by Don  

The next generic verb of motion is пойти. Note especially its irregular past tense forms.

to go
Perfective
Infinitive пойти
Past пошёл
пошла
пошло
пошли
Present No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future пойду
пойдёшь
пойдёт
пойдём
пойдёте
пойдут
Imperative пойди(те)

Пойти is more specialized than ходить in that it always talks about motion in one particular direction; since it is perfective it also focuses on some result of the action:

Я пошёл в аптеку и купил аспирин. I went to the pharmacy and bought aspirin.

In that sentence, the result is that I arrived at the pharmacy and thus could make my purchase.

Пойти can also be used to describe each leg of a multileg journey:

Я пошёл в аптеку, потом я пошёл на рынок, и потом я пошёл домой. I went to the pharmacy, then I went to the market, and then I went home.

Of course you can do the same thing in the future tense:

Я пойду в аптеку, потом я пойду на рынок, и потом я пойду домой. I'll go to the pharmacy, then I'll go to the market, and then I'll go home.

Now here's something amusing... let's think about this English dialog:

“Where's Mom?”
“She went to the store.” ¹

Does the second sentence imply that Mom got to the store? No, it doesn't. Here it emphasizes absence from the point of departure while mentioning her intended destination. Likewise in Russian a perfective verb of motion can be used with meaning of “absence from point of departure”:

— Где мама?
— Она пошла в магазин.

The sentence does not say whether Mom has necessarily reached the store, just that she is no longer here.


¹ In terms of the classical description of English grammar, this sentence should be, “She has gone to the store.” For some English speakers that is still the best version of the sentence, but the English present perfect is slowly being replaced by the simple past, so “She went to the store” sounds perfectly normal for many speakers of American English.

Идти

by Don  

The next generic verb of motion is идти. Note especially its irregular past tense forms.

to go
Imperfective
Infinitive идти
Past шёл
шла
шло
шли
Present иду
идёшь
идёт
идём
идёте
идут
Future буду идти
будешь идти
будет идти
будем идти
будете идти
будут идти
Imperative иди(те)

Идти is more specialized than ходить in that it always talks about motion in progress toward a particular place. Because of that “in progress” bit, we can often translate it as “heading to” or “on the way to”:

— Куда ты идёшь? “Where are you going?
— Иду в библиотеку. “I'm going to the library.”
“I'm on my way to the library.”
“I'm heading to the library.”

Although adverbs of frequency and phrases of frequency (like часто and каждый день) usually trigger an indeterminate verb, if the situation describes something that happens regularly on the way to a place, then you use the determinate verb идти:

Каждое утро, когда я шёл мимо газетного киоска, Нина Петровна здоровалась со мной. Every morning, when I passed by the newspaper stand, Nina Petrovna said ‘hello’ to me.
Когда я иду в библиотеку, по пути я всегда покупаю мороженое у Лены. Whenеver I go to the library, I always by ice cream from Lena on the way.
Когда ты будешь идти по улице Плеханова, ты увидишь справа электростанцию. When you walk down Plekhanov street, you will spot a power plant on the right.

One of the curious uses of determinate verbs is that they can be used to say how long it takes to get to a place. From the English-speaking point of view, that is rather odd. After all, getting to the place implies a completed action, so we should use a perfective verb, right? But from the Russian point of view in these sentences they are indicating how long the process takes, so the imperfective works:

Я шёл до института двадцать минут. It took me twenty minutes to get to the institute.
Как долго будем идти от дома до почты? How long will it take us to get to the post office from home?
— Долго идти от школы до парка?
— Нет, недолго, всего минут десять.
“Does it take long to get from the school from the park?”
“No, not too long, only about ten minutes.”

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