Водить

by Don  

There is a subset of verbs in Russian that in the US are sometimes taught as verb triplets instead of pairs. You can find a list of those verbs here, and a rough summary of how those verbs are used here. Among them is the multidirectional verb водить, which conjugates like this:

Imperfective
Infinitive водить
Past водил
водила
водило
водии
Present вожу
водишь
водит
водим
водите
водят
Future буду водить
будешь водить
будет водить
будем водить
будете водить
будут водить
Imperative води(те)

We can say that the verb means ‘to lead [someone somewhere by your own power].’ But to be honest we normally translate it as ‘to take’ in English. For instance...

Я вожу дочку в школу каждое утро. I take my daughter to school every day.
Каждый вечер папа водит соседа в кафе. Там играют в шахматы. Every evening dad takes the our neighbor to a cafe where they play chess.

Generally speaking the verb means that you are taking someone somewhere but not using a vehicle to get there. It can also be used if a vehicle is involved but the vehicle is not germane to the discussion. For instance, in the following sentence, the person speaking may live near the Kremlin Armory (so they can walk there with their guests), or they may just live somewhere within the city limits, but the fact that they will take the subway to get to the armory is simply not relevant to the story.

Мы часто водим гостей в Оружейную палату. We often take guests to the Kremlin Armory.

Водить can also mean to lead people around a place (random motion inside a prescribed area). In this meaning the preposition по + the dative case is used. For instance:

Моя сестра — доцент. Она водит посетителей на эксурсии по Третьяковской галерее. My sister is a docent. She takes visitors on excursions around the Tretyakovsky Galery.
Мой брат был эксурсоводом. Он водил туристов по городу. My brother was a tour guide. He used to show people around the city.

In the past tense the verb can also mean to take someone somewhere, and the implication is that they are no longer located at the location you mentioned.

Я вчера водил бабшуку на почту. Yesterday I took grandma to the post office
Я вчера водил своих девушек на престижную дискотеку. Вау, как им там понравилось! Я произвёл на них неизгладимое впечатление. Yesterday I took my ladies to a classy club. Wow, they really liked it! I made a huge impression on them.

1 comment

Comment from: Sahyd_arc [Visitor]

“Я вчера водил своих девушек на престижную дискотеку. Ахти, как им там понравилось!” → “Ахти” should not be used here. First, it has a negative connotation “alas". Second, it is downright archaic and used only in “не ахти как"(~"not really good").

“И как им там понравилось!” would work just fine.

Don responds: Sahyd, thanks for your comment. I’ve decided to change the ахти to вау, which I’ve heard from the lips of a 22-year old kid who always seems to have beautiful girls around him. He originally inspired the sentence. Like many twenty-somethings (and thousands of Muscovites) he occasionally throws in anglicisms. BTW, I enjoyed the discusion of вау and other interjections here.

02/28/14 @ 02:12


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