Задавать/задать
One other verb that is used to express “to ask” is задавать/задать, literally “to pose.” It is used in conjunction with the noun вопрос, which means question. It is conjugated like this:
| to pose (a question) | ||
| Imperfective | Perfective | |
| Infinitive | задавать | задать |
| Past | задавал задавала задавало задавали |
задал задала задало задали |
| Present | задаю задаёшь задаёт задаём задаёте задают |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
| Future |
буду задавать будешь задавать будет задавать будем задавать будете задавать будут задавать |
задам задашь задаст зададим зададите зададут |
| Imperative | задавай(те) | задай(те) |
The verb combines with the noun вопрос in the accusative case, and the person being queried shows up in the dative case:
| Милиционеры задали вопросы жертве грабежа. | The policeman asked the robbery victim questions. |
| Вчера мама задала мне очень интересный вопрос: если бы мы жили во Франции, какая у нас была бы жизнь? | Yesterday Mom asked me a very interesting question: if we lived in France, what would our life be like? |
| Джордж Беркли задал вопрос: «Издаёт ли падающее в лесу дерево звук, если его некому услышать?» | George Berkeley posed the question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” |
| Не задавай им вопросы о том, как они сидели при Брежневе. | Don't ask them questions about their imprisonment during Brezhnev's era. |
The quote by Berkeley is not very well known in Russia and does not yet have a generally accepted translation. It is so well known in the US that it spawns regular parodies, the most famous of which is “If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?” That one has become so iconic that it is reproduced on t-shirts regularly.
Note: the stress on the perfective past tense forms sometimes varies from the stress here indicated.
2 comments
Just after sending the comment I realized I wanted to ask about something else. Nevermind, it will be in separate comment.
Is it possible to say “сделать вопрос"? I think I’ve heard it somewhere and I’d probably used it instead of задать.
Don responds: No, Russians do not normally say «сделать вопрос» in the sense of “to ask a question.” If you ever see someone trying to use it that way, assume a foreign influence or an attempt at humor.
You do find вопрос as object of сделать in a very different context, e.g. «Топливный кризис семидесятых сделал вопрос аэродинамики особенно актуальным» “The fuel crisis of the seventies made the issue of aerodynamics particularly germane” (source).
я думаю, что в вашем тексту находится ошибка. Future tense of задавать is буду, будешь, итд. задавать not задать.
Don responds: Спасибо! Текст поправлен. Между прочим, по-русски мы говорим «в вашем тексте», а не «в вашем тексту».
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