Russian verbs with more than one perfective form?
Hi all new here.

All verbs in Russian come in an imperfective & perfective version, usually when you look one up, there's just one perfective form, it's dead simple. Some verbs when you look them up have more than one perfective counterpart. One example; есть съесть, поесть. Of course this is a very irregular verb (one of the most irregular in the language I hear). This isn't the only example.

So, the question is, how should I approach verbs that have more than one perfective form? There's probably no magic bullet, but any advice or input, as well as 'must know' examples would be much appreciated.

спасибо

Question

Russian verbs with more than one perfective form?
Hi all new here.

All verbs in Russian come in an imperfective & perfective version, usually when you look one up, there's just one perfective form, it's dead simple. Some verbs when you look them up have more than one perfective counterpart. One example;  есть> съесть, поесть. Of course this is a very irregular verb (one of the most irregular in the language I hear). This isn't the only example.

So, the question is, how should I approach verbs that have more than one perfective form? There's probably no magic bullet, but any advice or input, as well as 'must know' examples would be much appreciated.

спасибо

Answer

I'd say most of the verbs have the main perfective counterpart, so at first it's better to focus only on that one. Later, pay attention to the context and the prefix (many prefixes have their meaning and therefore can be put into a kind of system - I think that's what Aud says about them being similar to prepositions of the phrasal verbs). Try to learn a prefixed perfective verb just one at a time, in context. This usually work for most cases.

Answer

I think they all can be translated into English as phrasel verbs or verbs with prepositions. You just need to learn them.

Answer

The use of the Perfective depends on the context, just like Tati said. 
You asked "how should I approach verbs that have more than one perfective form? " 
 1) You approach them just like any other aspectual pair,  one by one as you study your functions of the Perfective.
2) Then, the contexts for the Infinitive, Imperative,  Past , and Future are different and should be approached separately.  
3) Also, Perfective of Verbs of Motion should not mingle with the regular verbs.

your example, ЕСТЬ - поесть / съесть is a great example. The choice is clear in both Infinitive( я хочу есть or я хочу поесть) use,past (я поел or я ел ), Imperative (съешь, поешь),and the Future (Я поем/ я съем). Unfortunately, it's not as obvious for all the verbs, as the semantics of the verb itself also plays its part.  
Have fun!

Answer

Matthew, coolconjugator is correct.both поесть and съесть are  considered to be a perfective of есть . Съесть specifies  the result( я съел 2 тарелки супа), and поесть denotes the end of the prossess(я поел и могу идти). They will be used in different contexts. 
Съедать is so called a secondary imperfect formed by imperfectivizaion. There are a lot of verbs like that( пить-выпить- выпивать; слабеть-ослабеть-ослабевать; болеть -заболеть-заболевать) 
You are right , most of the perfectives add the prefix, but not all. The change on suffix is also very common(изучать-изучить; опаздывать -опоздать).

Answer

Actually, the imperfective form of съесть is съедать, and the imperfective form of поесть is поедать https://cooljugator.com/ru/%D1%81%D1%8A%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C, https://cooljugator.com/ru/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C. However, since the word есть doesn't have a perfective counterpart per se, you can consider съесть and поесть its perfective counterparts.