Sequence of tenses in Russian
There is no sequence of tenses in Russian whatsoever.
The information in a subordinate sentence is understood to be relative to the main clause:
- Он сказа́л, что не зна́ет. = He said he didn’t know.
So if the piece of information is simply about where things are or what someone does, use present tense in the subordinate clause.
ли
Use the particle “ли” in reported questions or situations when you don’t know which option is true:
- Я спроси́л, зна́ет ли он Москву́. = I asked him if he knew Moscow.
- Мы не зна́ем, бу́дет ли он в о́фисе. = We don’t know whether he is going to show up in the office.
The particle is attached to the word that is in doubt. It needn’t be a verb, for instance, «Я не зна́ю, в Москве́ ли он» (i.e. whether he is in Moscow or in some other city). «Ли» generally attaches to the first stressed word of the clause.
Talk or say?
The verb говори́ть is used both as “to say, to tell” and as “to talk, to speak”. When you report someone’s words, obviously, the 2nd meaning is in action:
- Она говори́т, что хо́чет спать. = She says that she wants to sleep.
Russian has a whole set of perfective verbs. Usually you arrange verbs neatly into closely matching pairs of imperfective + perfective. And these are different for the two meanings of «говори́ть»:
- to say → говори́ть / сказ́ать
- to speak → говори́ть / поговори́ть
Remember «Скажи́те, пожа́луйста … » ?
Rather than referring to ongoing actions or past(future) actions in general, perfective verbs refer to actions in a point-wise manner, ignoring the action’s inner structure. That is, such “singular” actions happen at some particular “moment” and can be conveniently arranged in a sequence when telling a story. This distinction is about to come into focus in one of the following skills.
Morphology
Being too lazy to make up many different verbs, we usually make new ones based on the old ones. The vast majority of unprefixed verbs are imperfective.
- Prefixation is the main method to create a perfective verb: писа́ть→написа́ть, идти́→пойти́.
- a different suffix is sometimes used: опа́здывать←опозда́ть
- occasionally, the stress changes: нареза́ть→наре́зать
- different stems are used for a few verbs: говори́ть→сказа́ть
The last phenomenon is known as suppletion and only happens for a limited number of verbs and their derivatives. The English verb “to go” is another example of such behavior (its past form is “went”).
Note that suffixation is very popular for secondary imperfectives. Usually only one prefixed verb is considered an “ideal match” for an imperfective verb. Others are somewhat different in meaning (or a lot different). But you need imperfective partners for these, too, so Russian uses suffixes for that:
- чита́ть = to read (imperf.)
- перечита́ть = to reread (perf.) → cannot be considered a “natural” perfective for this verb
- перечи́тывать = to reread (imperf.)
can
The verb «мочь» is used to talk about the general possibility of something, and also, very often—about your ability to perform something and reach some result. Perfectives are used in this second meaning:
- Я могу́ написа́ть кни́гу за ме́сяц = I can write a book in a month.
- Она́ мо́жет посмотре́ть? = Can she take a look?
We do not use мочь for skills. Russian has уметь for this.
опять / снова
Both mean “again” and are largely interchangeable when they mean that an action from the past has occurred again.
«Опять» is more popular but it’s focused on staying “the same as before”. «Снова» (cf. «новый») can also mean action performed “anew, from the beginning”.
Only «опять» is used in «опять же» (~”besides”).
When asking someone to repeat, use «ещё раз».
What else is there to it?
imperfective verbs
- name the action as a whole (“I can swim”)
- describe prolonged states and processes, regular actions
Perfective verbs describe events: singular, definite actions that are viewed as localized in time. They “happened” at some moment (“I made a video”, “I slept for some time and then went outside”). Or they describe a certain change of state at some “turning point” (not yet eaten→eaten, not slept enough→slept enough and ready to get up).
It is argued in a few works that “a natural” perfective is just a prefixed verb where a prefix’s metaphorical meaning so conveniently overlaps the verb’s own meaning, that you cannot feel any change. So don’t be surprised if some vague actions have several perfective matches for a single imperfective verb.
That also means that sometimes you’d better memorize a pair even if it is technically a “poor” match. After all, in some contexts it will come in handy:
- есть → съе́сть (to consume something, completely)
- есть → пое́сть (to have a meal, to spend some time eating—regardless of whether you finish your meal or decide you’ve had enough half-way)