Kilo Lingo

Ch 1 · Lesson 9

The present tense: two patterns and a missing verb

Six endings, two patterns, and the verb to be disappears entirely: is a whole sentence.

The short version

Russian has no verb to be in the present

. (Ya zdes.)

I am here.
Why?

Byt exists in the past and the future, and in the present it disappears as a link verb (only est, there is, survives). So a sentence with no verb in it is complete and perfectly normal. English speakers find the gap uncomfortable for about a fortnight and then stop noticing it entirely.

Russian verb conjugation is, for once, a modest amount of work. Six forms in the present, two patterns to learn them by, and one of the commonest verbs in the language does not appear at all.

Two patterns

Almost every Russian verb belongs to one of two conjugation classes. The difference is the vowel running through the present-tense endings: -е- in the first, -и- in the second. Here are знать (to know) and говорить (to speak):

1st conjugation (-е-)2nd conjugation (-и-)changed lettermasculinefeminineneuterpluralWhat do the colours mean?
Person1st: знать2nd: говорить
/

Read the middle four rows and the vowel is the whole difference. The ends differ once more: takes -ют in the first and -ят in the second, while the form ends in -ю in both.

RussianEnglish
?Do you know?
.You speak fast.
.They know.
.They are speaking.

Which class a verb belongs to is largely predictable from the infinitive. Most -ать verbs are first, most -ить verbs are second:

  • . ? - I think. Do you think? (, first)
  • . . - He speaks. We speak. (, second)

A short list of verbs breaks the infinitive rule, and the commonest are -еть verbs that go second:

  • ? - Do you see? ()
  • . - We are watching a film. ()

Two spelling details. Under stress, the first-conjugation -е- is written -ё-: ?, are you going? And second-conjugation verbs often change the last consonant of the stem in the form only:

  • . . - I see. You see. (д becomes for )

The verb that is not there

Быть means to be. In the past and the future it behaves normally. In the present it simply does not appear, and its slot stays empty:

To be: an empty slot in the present
Subject
to be
The rest
empty
empty
empty

I am here. He is at home. He is a doctor. I was at home (said by a man).

RussianWord for wordEnglish
.I hereI am here.
.he homeHe is at home.
.he doctorHe is a doctor.
.this my houseThis is my house.
Four people in their work clothes: a woman doctor with long hair and a bow, in a white coat with a stethoscope; a man teacher with glasses, a moustache and a tie, pointing at a board and holding a book; a man cook with a moustache, in a chef's hat and apron, holding a frying pan with an egg; a man police officer with a moustache, in a blue uniform and cap.
  1. .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. .

She is a doctor, he is a teacher, he is a cook, he is a police officer: no word for is in any of them. Врач stays врач for a woman.

These are not shorthand or slang. They are the ordinary, complete way to say those things, and putting a form of in would be wrong. The past brings it back: . - I was at home.

has a separate job, there is or there are, which you meet first in having:

  • . - I have a brother. (literally: by me there is a brother)

Going further: The irregulars you need first and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.

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Practice

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Lesson 9 of 43 in this chapter

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