# Aspects across Slavic languages



## jazyk

Although the formation and uses of aspects in different Slavic languages has a great deal of similarity, I have detected cases in which an imperfective in Russian does not necessarily mean an imperfective in Czech or Polish or a perfective in Russian would not be the case in Czech and Polish. I'll give a few examples based on what I have observed. Please correct me in case I am mistaken.

The imperfective in negative past statements in Russian means that the speaker had no intention to perform the action expressed by the main verb:
Russian: Студенты не писали эти упражнения. (The students didn't do these exercises [and didn't plan to do them].)
Polish: Studenci nie zrobili tych zadań.
Czech: Studenti neudělali ta cvičení.

In Russian, when a question is asked with the imperfect, the questioner is not concerned about the result of an action, but simply wants to know whether an action took place:
Russian: Дети писали письмо?
Polish: Czy dzieci napisały list?
Сzech: Napsaly děti dopis?


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## Jana337

The Czech ones are fine.

The first sentence means that the speaker kind of expected the students to do (or to have done) the exercises.

We could say: Studenti nedělali ta cvičení. That would mean that they did not spend any time doing them (and instead, they probably did something else).

What exactly does the Russian sentence emphasize?

The second sentence is similar.

***

There is a thread about aspects in OL.

Jana


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## Marga H

Jazyk,you have given in Czech and Russian examples in the imperfective aspect(I guess ) but in Polish in the perfective one and it is wrong(if you want the same meaning)It should be:
Studenci nie *robili *tych zadań.
Czy dzieci *pisały *list?
If you say :zrobili,napisały ,you are interested of the result of the action.
Regards.


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## Jana337

Hi Marga,

Czech is perfective, like Polish. The question is whether Russians would use imperfective to express the same. 



Jana


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## Mirynka

You can say in Russian "Студенты не написали эти упражнения" and that means that the students have not written the exercises. 
You can also say "Дети написали письмо?", which means if the kids have written the letter.

Jazyk used imperfective for Russian and perfective for Polish and Czech.


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## Mirynka

Jana337 said:


> Hi Marga,
> 
> Czech is perfective, like Polish. The question is whether Russians would use imperfective to express the same.
> 
> 
> 
> Jana


 
If the question is that, so then the Russian variant of Студенты не писали упражнений means that the students did not write the exercises, or in other words that the action of writing the exercises did not take place.


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## jazyk

> Jazyk used imperfective for Russian and perfective for Polish and Czech.


Yes, that was exactly my intention to prove my point.


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## papillon

jazyk said:


> The imperfective in negative past statements in Russian means that the speaker had no intention to perform the action expressed by the main verb:
> Russian: Студенты не писали эти упражнения. (The students didn't do these exercises [and didn't plan to do them].)
> Polish: Studenci nie zrobili tych zadań.
> Czech: Studenti neudělali ta cvičení.


Jazyk, could you try to clarify your question a little bit?

I understand the Russian example, and I see that you chose to use perfective for Polish and Czech. I am not able to appreciate the nuances of Polish and Czech, so could you explain what would happen in those languages if we used an imperfective verb in your examples? How would the meaning change then?

Specifically, how does
Studenci nie robili tych zadań...
change the meaning in this case?


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## Marga H

Hi Papillon,
studenci nie zrobili tych zadań - means they haven't done their tasks(maybe they were doing but haven't finished)
studenci nie robili tych zadań-means that students didn't spend any time doing them.
Hope it helps.


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## papillon

Marga H said:


> Hi Papillon,
> studenci nie zrobili tych zadań - means they haven't done their tasks(maybe they were doing but haven't finished)
> studenci nie robili tych zadań-means that students didn't spend any time doing them.


Thanks, Marga. This is what I would have guessed, since it's the same in Russian.

But then, what are trying to figure out?


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## Thomas1

jazyk said:


> Although the formation and uses of aspects in different Slavic languages has a great deal of similarity, I have detected cases in which an imperfective in Russian does not necessarily mean an imperfective in Czech or Polish or a perfective in Russian would not be the case in Czech and Polish. I'll give a few examples based on what I have observed. Please correct me in case I am mistaken.
> 
> The imperfective in negative past statements in Russian means that the speaker had no intention to perform the action expressed by the main verb:
> Russian: Студенты не писали эти упражнения. (The students didn't do these exercises [and didn't plan to do them].)
> Polish: Studenci nie zrobili tych zadań.
> Czech: Studenti neudělali ta cvičení.
> 
> In Russian, when a question is asked with the imperfect, the questioner is not concerned about the result of an action, but simply wants to know whether an action took place:
> Russian: Дети писали письмо?
> Polish: Czy dzieci napisały list?
> Сzech: Napsaly děti dopis?


Hi Jazyk,

As far as I can see what other forer@s wrote you aren't exactly on the money.

Taking your first example:
Russian: Студенты не писали эти упражнения. 
It indeed translates in imperfective aspect into Polish (and I guess into Czech too).

The same holds true for your second example.

Although, I didn't delve much into Russian as far as I could see the aspects perfective/imperfective were always consistent in both langauages. Maybe there are some points of doubt you came across while reading texts in either of the languages--if you have any particular examples, please, don't leave us in uncertainity; I would be curious to find out some nuances. 

Tom


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## Jana337

One case of mismatch I can recall is the modal verb "can".

English: I will unfortunately not be able to drop in tonight.
Russian: К сожаленю *несмогу* прийти вечером. (correct me if I am wrong)
Czech: Večer *nebudu moci* přijít.

In this context, we cannot use the perfective verb; there is none available, in fact. But Russians have one.

And Polish and other languages?

Jana


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## Marga H

Hi Jana,
In Polish you can say:
Nie będę mógł *przyjść* dziś wieczorem (once)-only perfective ,but:
Nie będę mógł *przychodzić* wieczorem(wieczorami) repeated action-imperfective aspect
Nie będę mógł *napisać *listu (you are thinking about completed action)
Nie będę mógł *pisać *listu (rare but possible,you say it emphatically because you have a lot of another work,your computer doesn't work etc)
Pozdrowienia.


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## Jana337

Marga H said:


> Hi Jana,
> In Polish you can say:
> Nie będę mógł *przyjść* dziś wieczorem (once)-only perfective ,but:
> Nie będę mógł *przychodzić* wieczorem(wieczorami) repeated action-imperfective aspect
> Nie będę mógł *napisać *listu (you are thinking about completed action)
> Nie będę mógł *pisać *listu (rare but possible,you say it emphatically because you have a lot of another work,your computer doesn't work etc)
> Pozdrowienia.


Actually, my question was about "będę mógł", not about the verb after that. But you indirectly confirmed that Polish is like Czech. 

Jana


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## papillon

Jana337 said:


> Russian: К сожалению, не смогу прийти вечером...
> Czech: Večer *nebudu moci* přijít.


I hope you don't mind a small correction.
It's interesting that in Russian the infinitive мочь (moch) is used very sparingly...


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## Marga H

Hi Jana,
I'm afraid I have read your post too quickly 
The example is very interesting however;the verb *móc *hasn't got perfective version(also has only one future imperfective, you can't say :"będę móc" like most of verbs "będę pisać","będę czytać").
But *móc*  has got a kind of perfective "partner"which isn't cognate(like can and be able in English)It is the verb *zdołać.*For example:
Nie zdołam przyjść wieczorem.(I won't be able to come tonight)
Nie zdołam napisać listu.(I won't be able to write a letter)
It is a bit outdated but still used.
Maybe it will be interesting to compare in three languages verbs which are *only* in imperfective aspects.In Polish I can remember for example:
uważać,sądzić(meaning think that..)
Regards.


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## Thomas1

Jana337 said:


> One case of mismatch I can recall is the modal verb "can".
> 
> English: I will unfortunately not be able to drop in tonight.
> Russian: К сожаленю *несмогу* прийти вечером. (correct me if I am wrong)
> Czech: Večer *nebudu moci* přijít.
> 
> In this context, we cannot use the perfective verb; there is none available, in fact. But Russians have one.
> 
> And Polish and other languages?
> 
> Jana


 

I think that the counterpart of the Russian verb in question is, as Marga said, _zdołać _(we have _zmóc_ but it means something different from the Russian verb). 
You can also say: Niestety, nie mogę wpaść dziś wieczorem. = К сожалению, не смогу прийти вечером. = Unfortunately, I can't come tonight.

I also have a hunch that you used future tense in Czech as a translation of present Russian tense. Is there really not anything in Czech to translate that using a present tense in Czech too?

Tom


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## Jana337

Thomas1 said:


> I also have a hunch that you used future tense in Czech as a translation of present Russian tense. Is there really not anything in Czech to translate that using a present tense in Czech too?


Yes, I did use the future tense. Actually, you could use the present tense as well (because you are absolutely sure your plans for tonight): Večer nemohu přijít.

But in other contexts, the future tense would have to be used and we cannot do it with a perfective verb.

Jana


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## polaco

In Russian, when a question is asked with the imperfect, the questioner is not concerned about the result of an action, but simply wants to know whether an action took place:
Russian: Дети писали письмо?
Polish: Czy dzieci napisały list?
Сzech: Napsaly děti dopis?[/quote]

Now you have made a mistake.
Corect phrase in polish is:
Czy dzieci pisały list?
So it is quite similar to russian.

greetings


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