# Past tense for ответить/отвечать



## ashushenya

Hello everyone!

I'm studying russian on my own (I studied russian for 3 years about 6 years ago) and now I would like to go over it again and be able to actually speak it, so I have no teacher with me now and I have a question.
In one of the exercises they ask me to put into past the following, really simple, sentence:
Then he asked questions (teacher) and we answered (them):
потом преподаватель спросил а мы ответили/отвечали.

I don't know which of the two is correct, and what is the difference between them!

Thank you so very much in advance

Ash.


----------



## Gerasim

It's possible to use both
But
ответили=answered
отвечали=were answering (continous)

o que mas cercano para ti
ответили=contestamos
отвечали=contestabamos, estabamos contestando.


----------



## Soroka

_Ответили_ - это законченное действие (совершенный вид глагола). Каждый ответил на вопрос и всё.  Конец.
_Отвечали _- это* процесс *(несовершенный вид глагола).  Точно неизвестно, закончили ли студенты отвечать.  В общем, главное, что это был процесс (process, procedure).


----------



## Q-cumber

ashushenya said:


> Hello everyone!
> 
> I'm studying russian on my own (I studied russian for 3 years about 6 years ago) and now I would like to go over it again and be able to actually speak it, so I have no teacher with me now and I have a question.
> In one of the exercises they ask me to put into past the following, really simple, sentence:
> Then he asked questions (teacher) and we answered (them):
> потом преподаватель спросил а мы ответили/отвечали.
> 
> I don't know which of the two is correct, and what is the difference between them!
> 
> Thank you so very much in advance
> 
> Ash.


Hi !   Ответили is a perfective verb, whilst отвечали is imperfective.


----------



## discipulus11

Ответили means completed action, that is the teacher did get the answer
Отвечали means duration it refers more on the action itself not the result.


----------



## bibax

From the Czech perspective,

"преподаватель спросил а мы ответили" sounds like we answered in unison (хором, единогласно)

whereas

"преподаватель спросил а мы отвечали" suggests that we were answering individually, one by one (самостоятельно, поочерёдно).


----------



## discipulus11

bibax said:


> From the Czech perspective,
> 
> "преподаватель спросил а мы ответили" sounds like we answered in unison (хором, единогласно)
> 
> whereas
> 
> "преподаватель спросил а мы отвечали" suggests that we were answering individually, one by one (самостоятельно, поочерёдно).


Not necessarily. "Отвечали по очереди", "отвечали по одному". Я отвечал, но так и не ответил.


----------



## Sobakus

discipulus11 said:


> Not necessarily. "Отвечали по очереди", "отвечали по одному".



But that's what *bibax* said, isn't it?

As for the question itself, the concept of perfectiveness is the single most important, and also the most difficult grammatical topic for a non-Slavic speaker to learn when studying Russian. It's been discussed on this forum many times, so investing some time in reading the search results should prove productive, but ideally you should find a comprehensive grammar lesson with examples and tests to even start to grasp the two aspects and their interplay in the language.


----------



## bibax

I meant: we "discipuli" can answer either in unison "мы ответили (хором)" or one by one "мы отвечали (по одному)". Without any context I feel it this way.

It's clear that it has nothing to do with the perfective and imperfective aspect in general.


----------



## discipulus11

"Мы отвечали хором", "Мы ответили по одному" - both are grammatically correct and make sense.


----------



## ashushenya

Thank you all so very much! I think it's quite clear to me that  basically the difference lays in wether we're talking about a finished  or non finished action. In my case (Then he asked and we answered), I  think it's clear it's a finished action so it should be ответили.
Thank you all again!!!

Ash.


----------



## Sobakus

ashushenya said:


> Thank you all so very much! I think it's quite clear to me that  basically the difference lays in wether we're talking about a finished  or non finished action. In my case (Then he asked and we answered), I  think it's clear it's a finished action so it should be ответили.
> Thank you all again!!!
> 
> Ash.



The imperfective aspect doesn't specify whether the action is finished or unfinished. It's not about some objective property of the action, but about your subjective perspective on it. Again, you will be struggling with the aspects for as long as you learn Russian, so it's best to at least get the hold of the basics as soon as you can.


----------



## Soroka

Sobakus said:


> ... Again, you will be struggling with the aspects for as long as you learn Russian, so it's best to at least get the hold of the basics as soon as you can.


Легко сказать! Подобная проблема с _the Perfect tenses in English_ часто преследует многих русскоязычных.


----------



## ashushenya

Thank you Sobakus, I know it's something that can be tricky but I think I'll get it with time because it's pretty similar to Spanish in that sense. Thankfully I studied three years of Russian in the Official Languages School here in Barcelona, they did a great job and even though it was like 6 years ago I'm happily surprised to see how fast I'm catching up, I owe it all to the amazing teachers I had there.

Thank you all again!!!!


----------



## discipulus11

ashushenya said:


> Thank you Sobakus, I know it's something that can be tricky but I think I'll get it with time because it's pretty similar to Spanish in that sense. Thankfully I studied three years of Russian in the Official Languages School here in Barcelona, they did a great job and even though it was like 6 years ago I'm happily surprised to see how fast I'm catching up, I owe it all to the amazing teachers I had there.


Do you mean that the difference between perfective and imperfective in Russian is roughly the same as between pretérito indefinido and pretérito imperfecto in Spanish?


----------



## ashushenya

Yes, that's what I mean, they are somewhat similar concepts (finished, continous actions). I know it's not the same but it does help the fact that in Spanish we have so many differences in past temps (perfecto, imperfecto, pluscuamperfecto etc).


----------

