In Russian, verbs can show two main types of actions: perfective and imperfective. Understanding these differences is important for clearly expressing actions.

1. Perfective Verbs

• What They Are: Perfective verbs describe actions that are completed. They center around the result of an action.
• When to Use: Use perfective verbs for actions that are done or will be finished in the future.
• Examples:
  • "сделать" (to do/make), like saying "Я сделал домашнее задание" (I finished my homework).
  • "купить" (to buy), like saying "Он купит машину" (He will buy a car).

2. Imperfective Verbs

• What They Are: Imperfective verbs explain actions that are happening now, are repeated, or usually take place. They do not focus on whether the action is finished.
• When to Use: Use imperfective verbs for actions happening at the moment or that occur often.
• Examples:
  • "делать" (to do/make), like saying "Я делаю домашнее задание" (I am doing my homework).
  • "покупать" (to buy), like saying "Он покупает продукты" (He is buying groceries).

3. Creating Verbs

• You can pair an imperfective verb with its perfective form. For example, "читать" (to read) can change to "прочитать" (to read completely).

4. Choosing the Right Verb

• Choose the verb type based on what you want to emphasize: the action itself (imperfective) or that it has been completed (perfective).

Practice Changing Sentences:

• Change "Я пишу письмо" (I am writing a letter) to "Я напишу письмо" (I will write a letter).

Getting comfortable with these verb types is really important if you want to speak Russian well!