How to tell if a verb is perfect or imperfect. One-aspect verbs and verbs with two forms

In Russian - its form.

Imperfect verb

Most of these units have opposing forms. For example, create - create, sign - sign, etc. If you compare the members of these pairs, you will notice that although the lexical meaning is similar, they have something different. This difference is the type of verb. The first member of these pairs represents the imperfect; the second has the form of a perfect variant.

A verb in its perfect form can answer the following questions: what to do? What did you do? what will he do?

Forms perfect form often they mean the completeness of the action, call limited processes, indicate the result of the action that has already happened. For example: the boy recovered.

The imperfective verb names an action that is developing, ongoing, unlimited, and also indicates the repetition and duration of the process. For example: the boy is recovering.

The category of type is in close relationship with the category of time. So, imperfect species The verb has forms of all three tenses, but the perfect has only forms in the future and past. Because the present tense characterizes a process that lasts at the moment of speech, developing and ongoing, and the perfect form represents an action limited in development.

Most often, Russian verbs are paired according to aspect. That is, two forms have one semantic meaning, but differ in grammatical form: train - train, curl - curl.

There are also single species. Unpaired ones carry the meaning of an action limited in its development: to wake up, to run away. The unpaired imperfections denote an action that is unlimited in its development: to sentence, to sympathize, to inhabit. There are also two-type verbs that combine the meanings of the perfect and imperfect categories: execute, examine, wound.

Imperfect participles

A verb form that has the meaning of an additional action, which combines the characteristics of a verb and an adverb, is a gerund. This part of speech comes in two types: perfect and imperfect. The second type almost always refers to a process that occurs at the same time as the action of the predicate verb. Rarely does such a gerund denote a preceding or subsequent action. For example: twice a year she visited the capital and, returning from there, spoke loudly about the miracle. And this part of speech in the perfect form usually means a previous action.

The unit of this part of speech of the imperfect form is formed using the suffix -a (-я) from the stem in the present tense. For example, they are watching - watching.

Not all verb groups have this form. Among them:

Verbs with a stem in the present tense, which consists of consonants (mint);

Verbs ending in -i (live) with a one-syllable stem;

Verbs with the suffix -nu (wither);

Verbs ending in -a (to call) with a one-syllable stem in the infinitive.

If the verb has the suffix -va-, then the gerund is formed from the infinitive stem: create - create - creating.

Verb aspect is one of the topics in school curriculum, which students forget or even “fly by.” Without a doubt, if you do not understand the easy rules of this section, you will not be able to understand the other, more complex ones. Students often confuse an imperfect verb with a perfect verb, but they have no idea how easy and simple everything is, you just need to clearly sort out what is what.

A form is a unit without which not a single verb in the Russian language can exist. It is worth remembering that it can always be determined! In some cases, the answer is on the surface, and in others you have to dig deeper. In our language there are two types of verbs: perfect (SV) and imperfect (NSV).

Perfect view

This is a type that denotes an already completed action; most often we use it in the past tense. If we draw a parallel with the English language, there a completed action can be indicated by tenses such as Past Simple And Present Perfect. We must take into account that SV verbs direct us to the result, the end of the action or its beginning. For example: “He read the book.” How can you tell that it is not an imperfective verb? You just need to ask the question: “What did you do?” Teachers give this hint to children in almost all schools, explaining that if the predicate in a question has the prefix “s”, then it is a perfective verb.

This type can also be used in the future tense, questions to check: “what will (will) do?” etc.

You should take into account the fact that SV completely lacks the present tense, so if you see a verb of this tense, know that it is NSV.

Imperfect species

An imperfect verb denotes the duration of an action without emphasizing the result. The process can be regular, that is, someone does something every day. Or simply repetitive, in other words, someone does something infrequently. IN English language There are also tenses denoting process, for example, Present Continuous. Adverbs in a sentence can also “give away” the imperfect form of the verb. Examples: constantly, often, always, regularly, usually, long - they all indicate the absence of an end to the action.

To easily identify an imperfective verb, you just have to ask it the question: “What to do?” (the question lacks the letter “c” indicating SV, therefore it is NSV). For example: Marina loves to sing (what to do?).

Verbs of this group can be either present tense (what is (am I doing) doing?, etc.), or future tense (what will be doing (will I be doing)?, etc.) and past tense (what did (do)?, etc.). d.).

One-aspect verbs and verbs with two forms

Many verbs in the Russian language have a pair of the opposite form (davit (SV) - davit (NSV)). They are formed by alternating vowels and consonants of letters and syllables:

  • o/a - late/late (SV/NSV);
  • o/s - sigh/sigh (SV/NSV);
  • I / them - raised / will raise (SV / NSV);
  • u/im - took out/took out (SV/NSV);
  • d/f - accompanied/sees off (SV/NSV);
  • t/h - answered/will answer (SV/NSV);
  • p/pl - strengthened/strengthened (SV/NSV);
  • st/sh - treated / will treat (SV/NSV).

In addition to such verbs, there are also single-type verbs, which in no case can have a pair; they have only one of two forms: imperfect or perfect. Among them: to be, to be present, to be absent, to be inactive (NSV only), and also: to scream, to be needed, to gush, to find yourself (SV only).

Examples of imperfect and perfect verbs

As it turned out, NSV and SV are quite easy to find on a question, but most often students begin to understand the topic only after the teacher explains it with examples.

Imperfect view: boils, takes, cares, will play, cut, looked for, sawed, interfered, will sleep, etc.

Perfect form: water, kill, put away, bought, disappeared, moved, opened, sat down, etc.

These are just some examples of perfective and imperfective verbs.

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Slide captions:

Types of verb

Dear Guys! Today in class we will get acquainted with a new grammatical category- type of verb. You will learn that verbs can be perfective or imperfective, and you will learn to identify the aspect of a verb.

How to sign pictures? Grandma was knitting a scarf. Grandma knitted a scarf. B

From the sentence Grandmother knitted a scarf, we learn that the scarf is ready. The sentence Grandma knitted a scarf does not tell us whether Grandma finished her work or not. Perfective verbs indicate that the action has been completed, has reached (will reach) its limit: tied. Imperfective verbs denote an action in its flow: knitted.

Linguistic scientists use a special term - the limit of action. The limit of action is any moment, any point from which the action must stop. For example: to arrive - “to finish the flight”, to wake up - “to stop sleeping”.

How to determine the type of a verb? The first way is a question. Imperfective verbs answer the questions what to do? what is he doing? what they were doing? etc. Fly, draw, chose Perfect verbs answer the questions what to do? what will he do? what did you do? etc. Return, write, come

How to determine the type of a verb? The second way is the word “I will”. You can substitute the word “will” for imperfective verbs, for example: sing - I will sing (imperfective). The word will not be substituted for perfective verbs, for example: sing - you cannot say will sing (perfective).

We learn by playing. Question with prefix. It’s easy to remember: perfective verbs answer only those questions that have the prefix s-.

Club of experts. Accidental shot. Compare two sentences and determine in which of them the shot was accidental. The boy pulled the slingshot and fired. The boy pulled the slingshot and fired.

Tense and aspect Guys, look at the table very carefully to understand in what tense perfective and imperfective verbs can be used. What kind of verbs have only two tenses - past and future? Why?

Types of verb Question Time Attended classes Attended classes Past I attend classes - Present I will attend classes I will attend classes Future

So, perfective verbs can only be used in the past and future tenses; they do not have a present tense form. This is due to the fact that perfective verbs denote an action that has already happened, achieved a result (drew, came), or will definitely happen, i.e. will have a result in the future (will draw, will come). It is impossible to put such verbs in the present tense form, because in the present tense verbs denote an action taking place in this moment, which has not yet achieved a result (I’m drawing, I’m walking - it looks unbearable).

The tense of a verb does not matter in determining its aspect. For example, in the phrase taught yesterday, the action ended, and the verb taught (what did?) is imperfect. We don't know if he has finished teaching or is still teaching. In the phrase I will learn tomorrow there is no action yet, but the verb I will learn (what will I do?) is perfective. We know that tomorrow the action will definitely end.

Fun break. Have you ever tried playing with words? Just recently, my friend and I were walking in the park. stood last days summer, but it was cool like autumn. A friend says: “But autumn has already arrived!” “I don’t know about autumn, but you definitely stepped on my foot,” I answer.

Club of experts. Is it possible to fall but not fall? The imperfect verb fall means “to fly from top to bottom under the influence of one’s own gravity.” It will be paired with the verb to fall, that is, “to find yourself at the bottom.” The verb to fall denotes an action that must eventually cease: that which falls must eventually fall. It turns out that this is not always the case. There is a building in Italy, in the city of Pisa, that has been “falling” for more than seven hundred years. Many of you know its name - the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The fact is that back in 1173, when construction began, the foundation of the tower was laid unevenly. And since then the tower has been “falling”, leaning to the south

Training apparatus. Types of verb What type of action do the pictures represent? Imperfect Perfect

Imperfect Perfect

Fun break. Pancakes. Pavlik is honored everywhere: Pavlik bakes pancakes. He had a conversation at school - He said, opening his notebook, How much soda, how much salt, How much butter to take. He proved that you can use margarine instead of butter. Resolved unanimously: He spoke beautifully. Whoever said such a speech can bake pancakes! But, comrades, hurry up - We need to save the house quickly! Where is your fire extinguisher? Smoke is pouring out from under the doors! And the neighbors say: “These pancakes are on fire!” Oh, when it came down to it, our hero was disgraced - Nine pancakes burned, And the tenth was raw! It's not difficult to speak, but it's hard to bake pancakes! (A. Barto)

Check yourself. How to determine the type of a verb Write questions next to the verbs. crawling (?) brought (?) will fly out (?) are under construction (?)

Determine the type of verb. stopped cutting overslept doing dyeing lying down blooming help loves loved disappearing buy came up with

Important conclusion. Perfective verbs indicate that the action has been completed, has reached (will reach) its limit: arrived, thrown away. Imperfective verbs denote an action in its flow: knitting, walking, etc. Imperfective verbs answer the questions what to do? what is he doing? what they were doing? etc. Run, looks, raised. Perfective verbs answer the questions what to do? what will he do? what did you do? etc. Wash, buy, win.


One of the points in learning the Russian language is learning such a part of speech as a verb. The verb has several forms, types, and conjugations. In this article we will dwell in detail on how you can determine the type of a verb. There are only two of them: perfect and imperfect.

Determine the type of verb using a question

This is the simplest and most reliable option that does not require large quantity time and additional knowledge.

Perfective verbs answer the question “What to do (does, did, did)?”, and for imperfective verbs we ask the question “What to do (does, did, did)?”.

Determine the type of verb by the nature of the action

Perfect verbs denote an action that, at the time of using this verb, has already been completed or will be completed by a certain time (or upon reaching a certain point). specific purpose). They also indicate actions that do not need to be repeated. They can indicate actions in the future; the main limit is the very implementation of this action. That is, the action is always limited by some framework.

Imperfect verbs are not limited by time and can occur in currently, denote long-term actions, actions that require repetition.

Example. The verb "to wash" means that something must be completely washed by a certain point. The action will end when it reaches desired result, means a perfective verb.

The verb "to wash" means that something must be washed in an unspecified period of time. Due to the fact that the duration of action is not limited, we can conclude that the verb is imperfective.

However, you should not determine the type of a verb only by its meaning. It would be safer to ask an additional question, as we did in the first paragraph. This way you can avoid accidental mistakes.


Determine the type of verb by parsing the word

Each type of verb has some certain features in word formation. These signs can also tell you what type of verb you are dealing with.

Perfective verbs have the following characteristics:

  • prefixes “with”, “you”, “by”, “on”, “pro”, etc.,
  • suffix "well".

The following features are characteristic of imperfective verbs:

  • prefixes “with”, “you”, “by”, “on”, “pro”, etc.,
  • suffix “iva”, “yva”, “va”, etc.


After reading this article, you may notice that you can determine the form of a verb very quickly and without much difficulty. You just need to know a few important rules and features, for example, what question is answered by this or that type of verb or what suffix is ​​characteristic of it.

All verbs are divided into two categories: perfective and imperfective verbs. Perfective verbs denote those actions that already have or will have a result in the future. Such verbs answer the question: what to do?

Perfect verbs include the following actions:

Actions that ended with a certain result: draw, learn;

Actions that will begin in the future and will have a result: to sing, to play;

An action that happened once: jump, stomp.

Verbs that denote actions that do not have temporal and spatial boundaries, and also do not provide results, are called imperfect verbs. Imperfect verbs answer the question: what to do? For example: scream, draw, teach, sing, dance.

Aspect pairs of verbs

Perfective and imperfective verbs often form aspectual pairs. Aspect pairs are verbs different types, which have the same lexical meaning. For example: cross out (perfective) – cross out (imperfect); reach (perfective) – reach (imperfect); double (perfective) – double (imperfect).

Most verbs that form pairs have same root. Exceptions are such species pairs as: take (perfective) – take (imperfect); find (perfective) – seek (imperfect); catch (perfective) – catch (imperfect).

Bi-aspect verbs

Verbs that combine features of both the perfective and imperfective forms are called bi-aspect verbs. The type of such verbs can be determined using semantic analysis offers.

Formation of verb types

Imperfective verbs are formed using suffixes on the basis of perfective verbs. For example:

Suffixes - willow, - willow: question - question, consider - consider, sign, sign;

Suffix - va: give - give, open - open, put on shoes;

Suffixes - a, -ya: grow up - grow up, save - save.

With the help of the suffix - and the prefixes s-, na -, po-, pro-, which are added before imperfective verbs, perfective verbs are formed. For example:

Suffix - well: nod - nod, get used to - get used to, jump - jump;

You should know that if a perfective verb, formed using a prefix from a perfective verb, does not have a meaning identical to the source, then such verbs cannot form species pair. For example: read ( imperfect verb) – reread, read out, subtract, report.