Спрашивать/спросить
The verb pair спрашивать/спросить means “to ask” in the sense of “to ask (a question).” It never means “to ask someone for something.” It is conjugated like this:
| to ask (a question) | ||
| Imperfective | Perfective | |
| Infinitive | спрашивать | спросить |
| Past | спрашивал спрашивала спрашивало спрашивали |
спросил спросила спросило спросили |
| Present | спрашиваю спрашиваешь спрашивает спрашиваем спрашиваете спрашивают |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
| Future |
буду спрашивать будешь спрашивать будет спрашивать будем спрашивать будете спрашивать будут спрашивать |
спрошу спросишь спросит спросим спросите спросят |
| Imperative | спрашивай(те) | спроси(те) |
The person who is asked the question shows up in the accusative case. The question that is asked most commonly shows up as indirect speech in a separate clause introduced by a comma:
| Папа спросил, где туфли. | Dad asked where his shoes were. |
| Дети постоянно спрашивают, что готовит мама на ужин. | The children always ask what Mom is making for dinner. |
| Никогда не спрашивай женщин, сколько им лет. | Never ask women how old they are. |
| Если Боря спросит меня, выйду ли я замуж за него, не знаю, как отвечу. | If Boris asks me whether I will marry him, I don't know how I will answer. |
But of course the question clause may also contain direct speech:
| Боря спросил: «Ты будешь моей женой?» | Boris asked, “Will you be my wife?” |
The verb is also used if a person answers the phone and wants to know who the caller wants to speak with. Although the phrase essentially means “Who is asking for him/her/them,” in a good translation we will paraphrase it with the standard polite equivalents in English:
| — Мне, пожалуйста, Богомолова Алексея. — Кто его спрашивает? |
“May I speak with Alexei Bogomolov?” “May I tell him who is calling?” |
| — Позовите, пожалуйста, Аллу Борисовну. — Кто её спрашивает? |
“I'd like to speak with Alla Borisovna.” “Who may I say is calling?” |
One warning about this verb: it cannot be used in conjunction with the noun вопрос, which means a question. That is you cannot say «Он спросил вопрос» in the sense of “He asked a question.” For that you must use the verb задавать/задать, which we will discuss tomorrow.
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