Thread: the word 'remember'

Originally Posted by alexnoel

Despite learning russian for 5 years, still not sure how to translate the word 'remember'

pomnit (is perfect vspomit?)

is zapomnit 'memorise', like memorising an essay?

napomnish - is this remind? like 'will you remind me?'

alexnoel: I'm not a native speaker of Russian, but I think your translations are essentially correct.

помнить (imperfective) is the most basic and non-specific verb, and doesn't have a perfective with the same non-specific meaning
вспоминать/вспомнить suggests that you're making a concerted effort to pull up something from long-term memory, or possibly that you're nostalgically reflecting on something that happened long ago
запоминать/запомнить is "to memorize; commit to memory"
напоминать/напомнить is "to remind" (as in "Remind me about the meeting tomorrow"), but also "to be reminiscent of; to resemble" (as in "I don't know what this food is, but the flavor reminds me of bacon")

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

alexnoel: I'm not a native speaker of Russian, but I think your translations are essentially correct.

помнить (imperfective) is the most basic and non-specific verb, and doesn't have a perfective with the same non-specific meaning
вспоминать/вспомнить suggests that you're making a concerted effort to pull up something from long-term memory, or possibly that you're nostalgically reflecting on something that happened long ago
запоминать/запомнить is "to memorize; commit to memory"
напоминать/напомнить is "to remind" (as in "Remind me about the meeting tomorrow"), but also "to be reminiscent of; to resemble" (as in "I don't know what this food is, but the flavor reminds me of bacon")

This is what I was taught in class.

Alexnoel, I think you would use вспоминать/вспомнить for 'reminisce.'