Perfective And Imperfective Aspects Of Russian Verbs

Here we will speak about perfective and imperfective aspects of Russian verbs.

In Russian, there are three tenses: past (прошедшее), present (настоящее), and future (будущее). We use tenses to show when exactly (in the present, past, or future) an action took place.

But, as you may have guessed, everything is not that simple. Here is where the most interesting part starts: aspects!

There are two verbal aspects in Russian: the perfective aspect and the imperfective aspect. They are translated as совершенный вид глагола and несовершенный вид глагола, respectively. I do not know what your native language is, but it is quite possible that you don’t have verbal aspects in your language. They do not exist in English, at least.

Why do we need aspects?

Verbal aspects are used to describe the character of an action, to show if it is completed or still in progress. It helps us, for example, to understand if we are still in the process of cooking dinner and still haven’t finished or whether we have already cooked our dinner, and are ready to feed our hungry husband.

Do not mix up aspects with tenses. For example, in English all these peculiarities are shown through the use of tenses. For instance, in the English sentence “I have been washing the dishes all evening,” we understand that the action is not over and that the action lasted for a long time. In this sentence we can’t understand if we have washed all the dishes or if there is still something left. In the sentence, “I washed the dishes yesterday,” we understand that the action is over and we have a result.

In Russian, the difference between two sentences will be underlined by using perfective and imperfective verbal aspects.

Я мыла посуду весь вечер.
Я помыла посуду вчера.

In other words, aspects are a system of verb pairs, which sometimes have the same translation in English, but often have some shade of difference in their meaning.

Comparing perfective and imperfective aspects

Look at the photos and try to analyze what the difference is:

Девушка готовила японскую еду.
Девушка приготовила целый таз японской еды.

Подруга Вероники строила башню из кубиков.
Подруга Вероники построила башню из кубиков.

Дочь складывала вещи в чемодан.
Дочь сложила вещи в чемодан.

Сестра долго рисовала картину.
Сестра нарисовала очень красивую картину.

The Rules

Part 1

The imperfective aspect is a process. The perfective aspect is a result.

The imperfective aspect is used to show the process of doing something. It does not only mean that you are doing it right now. You could be in the process of doing something yesterday, maybe today, or maybe tomorrow. The duration is emphasized here.

It is quite often used with the following words:

Весь день (вечер, год) (all day, throughout the evening, all year round)
Всю неделю (during the whole week)
Три часа (дня, года) (three hours, days, years)
Долго (for a long time)

Let’s go through some examples:

Вчера моя дочь два часа пела одну и ту же песню (My daughter was singing the same song for three hours yesterday): She was in the middle of a process.
Я сейчас готовлю спагетти (I’m cooking spaghetti right now): I’m in the middle of a process right now.
Завтра я буду весь вечер поливать свой огород (I’ll be watering my garden tomorrow throughout the whole evening): I will be in the middle of a process.

The perfective aspect is used to show the borders of an action. We understand that the action is over. We use the perfect aspect to point at the result of the action.

Examples:

Я уже приготовила вкусный пирог. Мы можем пить чай (I’ve already cooked a tasty cake. We can drink tea): The action is over. I have a result right now.
Позавчера я помыла машину. Ты можешь ехать на ней к родителям (I washed my car the day before yesterday. You can drive to your parents in it): The action was over in the past and I had my result.
Завтра к трём часам я приеду в аэропорт (I will have arrived at the airport by three o’clock tomorrow): I will have a finished action and have a result in the future.

Part 2

The imperfective aspect is a habitual action. The perfective aspect is a one time action.

The imperfective aspect is used for the events that take place in our life with some consistency.

The following adverbs may be signals for the usage of an imperfective verb:

Всегда (always)
Иногда (sometimes)
Время от времени (from time to time)
Часто (often)
Редко (rarely)
Обычно (usually)
Еще раз (again)
Каждый год, месяц, день (every year, every month, every day)

Examples:

Я обычно готовлю спагетти по выходным (I usually cook spaghetti on weekends): Regularity of an action in present.
Раньше моя дочь всегда пела песню «Я на солнышке лежу (Before, my daughter always used to sing the song ‘I’m lying under the sun’): Regularity of an action in the past.
Я буду время от времени поливать свой огород, так как это лето очень жаркое (I’m going to water my garden from time to time as the summer is very hot this year): The supposed regularity in the future.

The perfective aspect is used for an action that took place only once.

The following adverbs can help us:

быстро (quickly)
сразу (at once)
вдруг (suddenly)
наконец (finally)

Examples:

Вдруг я услышал странный звук (Suddenly I heard a strange sound): One time action.
Я быстро оделся и ушёл (I put on my clothes quickly and went out): One time action

Now let’s compare the sentences with the verbs of perfective and imperfective aspects.

Готовить - приготовить
Есть - съесть
Делать - сделать

Examples:

Обычно я готовлю булочки с корицей (I usually cook buns with cinnamon).
Сегодня я приготовила хлеб (Today I cooked bread).

Мой муж ест борщ два раза в неделю (My husband eats borsch twice a week).
Он уже съел весь борщ. Придётся опять готовить (He has already eaten all the borsch. I’ll have to cook it again).

Каждый месяц я делаю видео о русском языке (Every month, I make videos about the Russian language).
Я наконец сделала видео про идиомы русского языка. Вы можете посмотреть его на моём канале (Finally, I have made a video about Russian idioms. You can watch it on my channel).

There are a lot of word pairs from the perfect and imperfect infinitives of the same word.

Also, some perfect infinitives can be formed out of imperfect ones with the help of prefixes:

Писать - написать

Завтра в три часа мы будем писать сочинение по русскому языку.
Мы напишем сочинение и всем классом пойдём в кафе.

Читать - прочитать

Я каждый день читаю книгу «Как выучить русский язык за месяц».
Надеюсь, что я прочитаю эту книгу и буду очень хорошо говорить по-русски.

Смотреть - посмотреть

На следующей неделе мы с друзьями будем смотреть футбол. Нужно купить побольше пива.
Дедушка посмотрел футбол и потом долго еще не давал всем спать и кричал: «Спартак чемпион!».

Терять - потерять