Thread: Необычные глаголы

Watching a Russian film, a strange verb caught my attention: пойдемте!
And immediately after that, yet another, equally strange one: ждемте!
What's going on here?! My grammar book says nothing about this phenomenon. Dictionaries won't help either. I even doubt if I've heard it correctly.
So please give a few examples, and the grammatical subtleties, if there are any.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by Misha Tal

Watching a Russian film, a strange verb caught my attention: пойдемте!
And immediately after that, yet another, equally strange one: ждемте!
What's going on here?! My grammar book says nothing about this phenomenon. Dictionaries won't help either. I even doubt if I've heard it correctly.
So please give a few examples, and the grammatical subtleties, if there are any.
Thanks.

пойдемте This is a kind of imperative form of the verb "пойти" in plural, first person. It means "let us go". I don't know if it is literal or colloquial form.

The regular imperative is second-person, so it is: пойди (single) / пойдите (plural/polite), which means "Go" or "Let you go." Now the verbs in future first person plural can be used as a first person imperative: "пойдем" can mean "Let us go"

Then to be polite (or to emphasize the imperativeness) one can add "-те" as if it was a regular second-person imperative.

Ждемте is the same for the verb ждать. Second person imperative is жди/ждите.

One more example.
WAys to say "Let us sit down":

- Присядем?
This is a question "Will us sit down?"

Давай(те) приcядем.
"Let us sit down."

- Присядем.
- Присядемте.
"Let us sit down."

Again this is not quite literal so it is better to avoid this form and use "давай(те)".

пойдёмте, ждёмте, присядемте - gramatically incorrect forms, even for colloquial speach. Movie director used them to show a character as an uneducated person or to create comic effect.

Originally Posted by Misha Tal

Watching a Russian film, a strange verb caught my attention: пойдемте!
So please give a few examples, and the grammatical subtleties, if there are any.
Thanks.

You can also use Идёмте!

Originally Posted by LuxDefensor

пойдёмте, ждёмте, присядемте - gramatically incorrect forms, even for colloquial speach. Movie director used them to show a character as an uneducated person or to create comic effect.

That's wrong (except "ждёмте" is in fact incorrect, I think). See for example http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/buro/s...E4%E5%EC%F2%E5 (in Russian). It says they're completely correct except trey're gradually becoming obsolete being pushed by the forms like "давай пойдём", "давай присядем". I think: 1. they can be used without "давай" as well, and 2. "Xте" is a complete equivalent to "давайте X' ", not "давай X' " (where X' is the perfective form of X), however the latter is also possible sometimes.

I thought before I've seen this question and the answer by gramora.ru that -те forms are used when you appeal to someone grammatically plural like someone you are "на вы" or a group of people. And the forms without -те to those who're grammatically singular.

And it seems there's some thuth in that view. For example, it's impolite to say "Давай сядем" to a person you're "на вы", it's only for "на ты" (at least I feel it that way). But it's ok to say "присядем", while "присядемте" sounds a bit old-fashioned. "Пойдёмте" doesn't sound old-fashioned to me, the rule from the last paragraph seems to aplly to it.

Out of the words mentioned in the gramota.ru's answer
normal to slightly unusual: давайте, пойдёмте, идёмте, поедемте, плывёмте
old-fashioned to slightly unusual: споёмте, умрёмте, станемте, летимте

(Corrections are appreciated.)

Originally Posted by AKAK

See for example http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/buro/s...E4%E5%EC%F2%E5

Here is the name of this form: "форма повелительного наклонения совместного действия." In English it should be "Imperative cooperative".