# когда он часто гащивал у меня в деревне



## Bserra

What "гащивал у меня" means here? "he was used to pay a visit to me"? Many thanks!


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## gvozd

Yes, you are right. Гащивать is an outdated/colloquial form of гости́ть.


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## Maroseika

I don't think it is just a colloquial form of гостить, in many cases such forms on -ива/-ыва mean repeating actions:

гащивать - to pay visits from time to time
захаживать -  to use to visit
Also едать, пивать, лёживать, читывать.

Most of them are colloquial.


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## ({[|]})

Hello,


Bserra said:


> What "гащивал у меня" means here? "he was used to pay a visit to me"? Many thanks!


"pay a visit from time to time" would be "навещать".

Well, "гостить" might mean "навещать" too, but hardly in this context, because: a) the action takes place in the country, b) the verb form used is "гащивать", not "гостить", c) the word "часто" points that the visits repeat many times, therefore the unusual verb form points that every single visit takes a long time.

So I'd rather think that the person stays for a while in his host's home, using his host's food and lodging.

More likely the translation would be something like: "When he often used to stay with me in the country..."

("Quando stava spesso nella mia casa di campagna..." ?)

"he often used to stay" and "stava spesso" probably sound unusual, but so does "часто гащивал" (I mean the strange collocation of the adverb that means "often" and the verb that expresses a stable state of things). As for the Russian sentence, it is correct and beautiful.


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## Bserra

Many thanks!
So, perhaps the sentence could be translated: " when he was often my guest in my country home" (Quando era spesso mio ospite nella mia casa di campagna".
If I understand well "гащивать" can be translated "to be sb.’s guest", "essere ospite".


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## ({[|]})

Bserra said:


> Many thanks!
> So, perhaps the sentence could be translated: " when he was often my guest in my country home" (Quando era spesso mio ospite nella mia casa di campagna".
> If I understand well "гащивать" can be translated "to be sb.’s guest", "essere ospite".


Yes! (Many thanks for your Italian translation!)

Also an observation: the verb "гащивать"'s being colloqial means that it bears a certain heartiness shade. Very likely "he" was "желанный гость" ("welcome guest"); (though not necessarily, maybe the speaker just likes to remember those times, but didn't like the guest when he visited him).


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## Maroseika

({[|]});12230677 said:
			
		

> "he often used to stay" and "stava spesso" probably sound unusual, but so does "часто гащивал" (I mean the strange collocation of the adverb that means "often" and the verb that expresses a stable state of things). As for the Russian sentence, it is correct and beautiful.



Can't agree. In the word гащивать I cannot notice anything pointing to the duration of the action, but only to its repetition. 
Гащивать means as long visits as гостить, the only difference is that гостить means to stay with somebody once, while гаobdfnm means to stay regularly or many times.
Therefore гащивать = гостить время от времени, неоднократно.


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## ({[|]})

Maroseika said:


> Can't agree. In the word гащивать I cannot notice anything pointing to the duration of the action, but only to its repetition.
> Гащивать means as long visits as гостить, the only difference is that гостить means to stay with somebody once, while гаobdfnm means to stay regularly or many times.
> Therefore гащивать = гостить время от времени, неоднократно.


In the word itself — of course not. But I gave three reasons that act at the same time. At least, I do understand the title phrase so as the visits were long, and not otherwise.

My main reasons were that: (to put it shortly)
1) the action takes place in the country (therefore long visits are possible and expectable);
2) the meaning "время от времени", "неоднократно" is already completely expressed by "часто", therefore "гащивать" instead of "гостить" has to work partly in another direction. And it does so.

Why the 2) works the way it works? I don't know. Perhaps, you can understand it as though you are the guest in the host's house yet another time every other hour. Or, maybe, the heartiness degree that I perceive works this way (makes the visits not to be quick, not to be "payable", so to say). I think, it is both.


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## Enquiring Mind

I think гащивать is the _iterative_ (Latin: iterum = again) or _frequentative_ imperfective of гостить. You will sometimes see the term _durative_ imperfective too.  This form is not used much, but when it is, it describes an action that you do repeatedly, or often, or an action you tend to do, and in the durative imperfective, an action that was done over a long period of time.

With the verb быть, the iterative or frequentative imperfective form is бывать, so:  

он у нас бывает: he comes to see us from time to time/now and again/sometimes
это бывает: that sometimes happens, it tends to happen, it happens
Почему некоторым людям постоянно бывает холодно? Why do some people always feel cold?
Лyчше не бывaет. That's as good as it gets.
Чудес не бывaет. There are no such things as miracles, (or: things don't happen by magic) 

Maroseika in post #3 gave more examples of these infinitive forms.


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## ({[|]})

Enquiring Mind said:


> Maroseika in post #3 gave more examples of these infinitive forms.


Yes. In fact you can make such form from every verb, except those who already have the suffix "ива"/"ыва" (like "бывать", "намывать", "склеивать", "намыливать", "воспитывать").


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## ({[|]})

Maroseika said:


> Can't agree. In the word гащивать I cannot notice anything pointing to the duration of the action, but only to its repetition.


I don't see either and I've never said that it refers to the duration. What I said was "a stable state of things". "Stability" might refer both to duration and repetition.


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## beakman

Maroseika said:


> Can't agree. In the word гащивать I cannot notice anything pointing to the duration of the action, but only to its repetition.


It can even imply duration: "он *подолгу *_гащивал_ у Великого Князя..." as you see in this example-



Maroseika said:


> Гащивать means as long visits as гостить, the only difference is that гостить means to stay with somebody once, while гаobdfnm means to stay regularly or many times.
> Therefore гащивать = гостить время от времени, неоднократно.


I wouldn't be so categoric: "дядя Сэм не долго гостил на хуторе Михайловском..."


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## Maroseika

beakman said:


> It can even imply duration: "он *подолгу *_гащивал_ у Великого Князя..." as you see in this example-
> 
> 
> I wouldn't be so categoric: "дядя Сэм не долго гостил на хуторе Михайловском..."



Are we discussing the sense of the words гостить and гащивать or what they can mean in combination with other words?


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## beakman

Maroseika said:


> Are we discussing the sense of the words *гостить *and *гащивать *or what they can mean in combination with other words?


Yes, Maroseika, we're discussing the *meaning *of the aforesaid words.  You will agree with me that sometimes it's necessary to explore  syntagmatic sense relations which could tell us more about the word;  it's necessary to get more information about it and clarify its meanings  in different contexts...My example (_он *подолгу *гащивал у Великого Князя..._") shows that *гащивать * doesn't at least *exclude *the possibility of a long stay.



Maroseika said:


> I  don't think it is just a colloquial form of гостить, in many cases such  forms on -ива/-ыва mean repeating actions...


 Yes, *"гащивать"* implies in a certain degree repeating actions while "*гостить" *doesn't explicitly point to it. 
I think, the aforesaid verbs have the similar imperfective meaning with some subtle stylistic difference: *"гащивать" *is colloquial, obsolete and less used (at least, this is my humble perception). I hope, guys, we can reach a consesnus


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## Maroseika

beakman said:


> My example (_он *подолгу *гащивал у Великого Князя..._") shows that *гащивать * doesn't at least *exclude *the possibility of a long stay.


Yes, exactly so. And exactly due to this гащивать doesn't contain any sense of duration per se. It's indifferent in regard to duration.




> I think, the aforesaid verbs have the similar imperfective meaning with some subtle stylistic difference: *"гащивать" *is colloquial, obsolete and less used (at least, this is my humble perception).


Sure. And this has been stated here above long ago. But this colloquial or obsolete status has nothing to do with the sense of the verb, or better say with the sense, implied to it by suffix -ива/-ыва.


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## beakman

Maroseika said:


> Sure. And this has been stated here above long  ago. But this colloquial  or obsolete status has nothing to do with the  sense of the verb, or  better say with the sense, implied to it by  suffix -ива/-ыва.


Thank you, Maroseika, for pointing it to me, but I wasn't trying to be original   Mea culpa! I apologize for being repetitive... I've just dared to  clarify this (how I dared?) in order there were more converging/divergin  opinions 
So, *everybody *agrees that this colloquial or obsolete status has nothing to do with the sense of "a long stay". I'm happy


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## ({[|]})

Maroseika said:


> Yes, exactly so. And exactly due to this гащивать doesn't contain any sense of duration per se. It's indifferent in regard to duration.


Yes. In the general case (that kind of case that never exists but mirrors some really existing cases) — yes. And it might be as simple as that... but language doesn't follow the normal logic! It follows the female logic, which is somewhat different... (maybe that's why it is said that women generally better speak foreign languages than men!) So — every rule has exceptions.

To the point. "Когда он часто гостил у меня в деревне" for me gives a lesser opportunity that the visits were long, than "Когда он часто гащивал у меня в деревне". Why? I tried to answer earlier. In fact, I still hold those explanations, but now I would paraphrase them to get the thing even simpler: "гащивать" here points at the speaker's feeling that he has used to the visits, accustomed to them. They were habitual and usual for him. Therefore — probably long.


beakman said:


> So, *everybody *agrees that this colloquial or obsolete status has nothing to do with the sense of "a long stay". I'm happy


"Everybody" doesn't, as I've already written.  The chain is possible: "colloquial" (only here, the word "colloquial" is in fact too vast in meaning) => "cordial"; "cordial" (might imply) => "the visits were cordial"; "the visits were cordial" (might imply) => "the visits were long".

Cheers!


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## beakman

({[|]});12233288 said:
			
		

> language doesn't follow the normal logic! It follows the female logic, which is somewhat different... (maybe that's why it is said that women generally better speak foreign languages than men!) So — every rule has exceptions.
> Cheers!


  Great observation, {[|]}! Does it have to do with pragmatics? Remember Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean..neither more, nor less"...



			
				({[|]});12233288 said:
			
		

> "Когда он часто гостил у меня в деревне" for me gives a lesser opportunity that the visits were long, than "Когда он часто гащивал у меня в деревне" Why? I tried to answer earlier. In fact, I still hold those explanations, but now I would paraphrase them to get the thing even simpler: "гащивать" here points at the speaker's feeling that he has used to the visits, accustomed to them. They were habitual and usual for him. Therefore — probably long.


I agree with you, it's absolutely possible. Then, Humpty Dumpty is right! However, let's wait for more opinions 

Best regards!


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