Просить/попросить
The verb pair просить/попросить can mean either “to ask (someone for something)” or “to ask (someone to do something).” It never means “to ask a question.” It is conjugated like this:
| to ask (someone for something); to ask (someone to do something); |
||
| Imperfective | Perfective | |
| Infinitive | просить | попросить |
| Past | просил просила просило просили |
попросил попросила попросило попросили |
| Present | прошу просишь просит просим просите просят |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
| Future |
буду просить будешь просить будет просить будем просить будете просить будут просить |
попрошу попросишь попросит попросим попросите попросят |
| Imperative | проси(те) | попроси(те) |
When you ask someone for something, the person asked appears in the genitive case after the preposition у, and the thing for which you ask appears in the accusative case:
| Я попросил у друга сигарету. | I asked my friend for a cigarette. |
If you ask someone to do something, there are two different ways of putting the words together. The first way is just like English: the person you ask is the direct object (accusative case) and the thing you ask them to do is expressed as an infinitive phrase:
| Я попросил папу подвезти меня к метро. | I asked Dad to drop me off at the subway station. |
The other way is to use a чтобы phrase, which actually can be put together one of two different ways:
| Я попросил, чтобы папа подвёз меня к метро. | I asked Dad to drop me off at the subway station. |
| Я попросил папу, чтобы он подвёз меня к метро. | I asked Dad to drop me off at the subway station. |
These sentences are slightly different in meaning. The second one specifies that the speaker asked his father to drop him off. The first one doesn't specify that. In other words, in the first sentence the speaker might have asked his mother to have his father drop him off.
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