Dictionary of Spoken Russian/Russian-English/Section 30
§30. DURATIVE AND PUNCTUAL ASPECT
Russian verbs are divided into durative (dur, or imperfective) and punctual (pct, or perfective); each verb has one or the other of these two aspects.
Dur verbs are more general in their meaning, which is two-fold: actual and iterative (iter).
The actual durative means an action which covers a stretch of time during which other things may happen: я писал письмо. "I was writing a letter" (as, "when someone knocked at the door"). It means also actions which cover an appreciable stretcb of time: он жил в Москве "he lived in Moscow," как вы спали? "how did you sleep?"
The iterative durative means a repeated, habitual, or general action or a complex action (moving in more than one direction, back and forth, or the like): я часто писал "I often wrote," вы ему писали? "have you ever written to him?" он пишет хорошо "he writes well."
Most dur verbs are used in both actual and iterative meanings, but some verbs of motion have by their side a special iterative verb. Thus, итти "to be going" is used only in actual meaning: куда вы идёте? "where are you going?" я иду в театр "I'm going to the theater"; the iter is ходить, as я ходил по улицам "I walked along the streets" (in more than one direction); я часто хожу в театр "I often go to the theater." The dictionary, for a verb like итти, adds between slanted lines/ iter: ходить/; a verb like ходить is described as iter of итти.
The pr of durative verb is the only verb form that states an action in present time. A future action of a dur verb is expressed by a combination of a pct present, usually буду, будет, with the dur inf: я буду писать "I shall be writing; I shall write (repeatedly)." A few dur verbs also have future meaning in the pr form: сегодня вечером мы идё в театр "this evening we're going to the theater."
Punctual verbs are more specialized in meaning. They denote a simple action which comes to an end, without regard to any time covered or any repetition: я написал письмо "I wrote (or have written) a letter"; вы ему написал? "have you written to him (now)?" он пошёл в театр "he went to the theater." The pr forms of pct verbs mean a simple future action: я ему напишу "I'll write to him," я напишу письмо "I'll write a letter."
Nearly all simple verbs are dur: писать "to write," спать "to sleep." Compounds of a simple verb with a preverb are pct: подписать "to describe," выписать "to copy out."
Some few simple verbs are pct; for instance, дать "to give," бросить "to throw," and a number in -нуть meaning a single stroke of action: стукнуть "to give a knock." These, like all other pct verbs, are marked pct in the dictionary; any verb not marked as pct in the dictionary is dur.
In most, but not all instances, there are pairs of verbs, one dur and one pct, which differ only in aspect, and otherwise have quite the same meaning. Among the compounds of a simple dur verb there is often such a pct verb; most usually it is formed with the preverb по-, as терять "to lose" pct потерять. If a simple dur verb has no such pct verb by its side, or if this pct verb is made with по-, the dictionary makes no comment: спать "to sleep" (no corresponding pct), думать "to think" (a pct is made with по-). Under the pct verb reference is made to the dur: подумать (pct. of думать).
Many simple 'dur of verbs have an exactly corresponding pct compound with some preverb other than по-; for these pairs the dictionary makes cross-references: писать "to write" (pct: на-); делать "to do, to make" (pct: с-) and написать; pct of писать; сделать; pct of делать. Some simple dur verbs have a corresponding simple pct verb: давать "to give" (pct: дать); стучать "to knock" (pct: стукнуть). Here too the dictionary gives cross-references.
Most pct compounds of simple verbs differ in meaning, beyond the mere difference of aspect, from the simple dur verb; as подписать "to sign" differs from писать "to write." Almost always there is then a compound durative verb, witch consists of a longer stem (the compound durative stem) with the same preverb. Thus, the compounding durative stem of писать is -писывать, used in forming подписывать "to sign," dur of подписать. Thus on says я подпишу письмо "I'll sign the letter," but я подписываюю письма "I sign (or am signing) the letters." Similarly, compound duratives приписывать "to prescribe," выписывать "to copy out," and so on.
Most compounding duratives are regular verbs, made from the inf stem of the simple verb suffixes [-va, -ja, -a, -iva], разбить pct "to smash," dur разбивать; измерить pct "to measure out," dur измерять. There are only a few irregular compounding duratives, as итти, -ходить (same as the iterative): войти pct "to go in," dur входить. In some instances the pairing of dur and pct verbs is quite odd: dur говорить "to speak, to say," pct сказать; dur ловить "to catch," pct поймать; dur покупать "to buy," pct купить; dur брать "to take," pct взять; dur класть "to put," pct положить.
The preverb вы- is stressed in pct verbs, but not in compound duratives: вынуть "to take out" pct, but dur вынимать.
In addition to compound duratives, some other verbs that contain preverbs are durative: надеяться "to hope." Compounds with без and не are not pct: беспокоить "to disturb," pct обеспокоить; ненавидеть "to hate," compare the pct compound verb возненавидеть "to conceive a hatred of."
A few verbs are both dur and pct: жениться "to get married" (of a man), телеграфировать "to telegraph."