Russian Grammar
Verbs
Aspect

Russian Verbs - Aspect

Fortunately the Russian language uses only three tenses; present, past and future. Unlike English which has far more. (Consider the English: “I have eaten”, “I ate”, “I have been eating”, “I was eating”, “I had eaten”, “I had been eating”, and that is just past tense.) So as a student of Russian, using verbs can be much easier than in English, especially once you have mastered conjugating verbs in the present tense.

However, to make up for such simplicity, Russian uses a thing called “aspects”. Each verb has 2 aspects. (Verbs of motion have 3). When you are talking in the present tense there is only one, the imperfective. You only need to think about aspects when you are speaking in the past or future tense.

Put simply, aspects are used to indicate if an action was completed successfully or is ongoing. To do this in English we use extra verbs like “had” and “have”. For example, in the phrase “I ate.”, the action is completed. However, in a phrase like “I have been eating”, it is implied that action is not yet completed. Aspects are used to illustrate this difference, however their use in Russian is much more defined.

The aspects are:
Imperfective - Incomplete, ongoing, or repeated actions
Perfective - Actions completed successfully.

If you are unsure which to use, then just use the imperfective. The perfective aspect is specifically for successfully completed actions.

Understand? I hope so! If not, there is a link to an external page at the bottom.

Here is a set of guidelines to help you choose which aspect to use.

Present Tense.
1. Always use the imperfective. (By definition, actions are not complete so there is no perfective)

Past Tense.
1. Is the action completed, completed successfully, and was not or will not be repeated?
Yes: Use the perfective aspect.
No: Use the imperfective.
Not sure: Use the imperfective.

Future Tense:
1. Will the action be completed, completed successfully, and will not be repeated.
Yes: Use the perfective aspect.
No: Use the imperfective.
Not sure: Use the imperfective.

External Links
The principals of verbal aspect [External Link] A very good, and detailed explaination of this concept is available at this page.

Conjugated Russian Verbs (Both Aspects)
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