Thread: помолчав

Can somebody please explain the meaning of "помолчав" to me. I often find it in sentences like: Лена, снова помолчав сказала.....

I can't find this word in my dictionary and I could only imagine that it is derived from молчать, but that makes no sense to me in this context.

Im not quite sure of the gramatical term for it, but it translates to english as "have ... Verb". I think this is some form of participle.


For example Помалчать - To be silent.

помалчав - Having kept silent.

Other examples простившись (from простится) с прошлым - having said goodbye with the past

Or Забыв - (having forgotten) А подругу не забыв - having not forgotten about your girlfriend.

Лена, снова помолчав сказала.....

Lena, again having kept silent said....

Is it clear now ? It is just a participle (verb) ending

Thank you Dogboy182, now I have got it. I didn't realise that помолчав is past tense and I always tried to translate somehow in the line of
"Keeping silent Lena said", which really makes no sense.

BTW: My dictionary normally lists both forms of verbs (perfective and imperfective). But in the case of молчать it gives no perfective form.
Am I right that помолчать nevertheless is perfective?

And one more observation: Isn't it intersting that English has no verb for молчать?

Originally Posted by Старик

Am I right that помолчать nevertheless is perfective?

No, помолчать means to keep silence for a while

There's verb смолчать some kind perfective i guess
Он помолчал - he kept silence some period of time
Он смолчал - he hasn't said a word (perfective - the action is complete)

Originally Posted by Старик

And one more observation: Isn't it intersting that English has no verb for молчать?

Yes, I never noticed that before

Старик wrote:
And one more observation: Isn't it intersting that English has no verb for молчать?

oh hum ???

To be quite
To be silent
to keep quite

"нам надо помолчать! вижу врагов!" сказал капитан
"We need to keep quite ! I see the enemy" said the сaptian.

Молчите ! такие непослушные дети - Be quite! such naughty children!

it seems to me there are a few verbs in english...

Молча = quiet,keeping silent
помолчав= having hushed

To be quite
To be silent
to keep quite

None of your examples is a simple verb.
What I was wondering about is that there is no counterpart to the simple verb to speak like in Russian (говорить - молчать) or in German (reden - schweigen).

Originally Posted by Старик

in Russian (говорить - молчать) or in German (reden - schweigen).

are you sure that reden=говорить? i learnt that reden=болтать, беседовать...

Originally Posted by Старик

Thank you Dogboy182, now I have got it. I didn't realise that помолчав is past tense and I always tried to translate somehow in the line of
"Keeping silent Lena said", which really makes no sense.

Technically you almost had it right, it could be literally translated as "having kept silent for a while". Grammatically it is a past tense perfective active voice participle, not a verb.

But if you translate that literally into English or German it will be quite awkward, because it requires too many words for one. The whole sentence may be translated thusly:

"Lena paused again/briefly, and said".

are you sure that reden=говорить? i learnt that reden=болтать, беседовать

I think that all translations you have given (in addition to mine) are possible. It certainly depends on context. But I agree that if there is no context given "sprechen" might be a more suitable translation in most cases than "reden".