Поить/напоить

by Don  

Back in 1988 or so I was in Moscow at «Дом книги» with a former student. He was thirsty. I asked a saleswoman whether there was any place he could get a drink of water. I figured the woman would say to one of her coworkers something like «Покажи нашему гостю, где попить» “Show our guest where to get a drink.” Instead she said, «Надь, напои этого мальчика» “Nadya, water this boy.”

Wow, talk about a learning moment. Once again a Russian had shown me her ability to compress what was a multiword phrase in English into a single Russian verb: поить/напоить. The verb means “to give [something] [to someone] to drink,” and it's conjugated like this:

to give (something to someone) to drink
Imperfective Perfective
Infinitive поить напоить
Past поил
поила
поило
поил
напоил
напоила
напоило
напоил
Present пою
поишь
поит
поим
поите
поят
No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future буду поить
будешь поить
будет поить
будем поить
будете поить
будут поить
напою
напоишь
напоит
напоим
напоите
напоит
Imperative пои(те) напои(те)

The person or animal that will be drinking shows up in the accusative case. The thing you give them to drink shows up in the instrumental case:

Я напоил сына и положил его спать. I gave my son a drink of water and then put him to bed.
Напоите меня, а то сдохну! Give me something to drink or else I'll die like a dog!
Я напоил иностранных гостей водкой, и нам не задавали никаких неуместных вопросов. I gave our foreign guests vodka to drink, and they didn't ask us any awkward questions.
— Чем ты напоил Машу? Онa спит уже спокойно.
— Имбирным чаем. Он успокаивает живот.
“What did you give Mary to drink? She's sleeping peacefully now.”
“Ginger tea. It soothes the stomach.”
Я коней напою. I'll water the horses.
Тимошенко в Японии напоили чаем. (source) Timoshenko was given tea to drink in Japan.
Грузины поят иностранцев вином перед посольством РФ в Тбилиси. (source) The Georgians are giving foreigners wine to drink in front of the Russian Federation's embassy in Tbilisi.

Note: standard dictionaries describe the stress pattern of this verb as either shifting-stress or end-stressed. All the native speakers I have consulted prefer the shifting stress pattern shown here.

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