Thread: ой :-(

Stupid question alert

Man..I totally must not be studying enough...im drawing a blank on this one.

When you receive my letter, call me. - "когда ты получаешь моё письмо..." или "когда ты получишь моё письмо..."?

Originally Posted by saibot

Stupid question alert

Man..I totally must not be studying enough...im drawing a blank on this one.

When you receive my letter, call me. - "когда ты получаешь моё письмо..." или "когда ты получишь моё письмо..."?

Nothing stupid in this question. I think perfective/imperfective is the most annoying thing in Russian. "Когда ты получишь". You will already have got the letter, mission accomplished, so - perfective.

Woot! I can always count on you!

спасибо

It's difficult for non-native speakers to know when to use perfective or imperfective form...sometimes

I'd go for "получишь"...
"Когда получаешь.." would refer to repeated actions in future, like "everytime you get my mail"...

Yeah, 'получишь' is right here.

Originally Posted by krobatshov

"Когда получаешь.." would refer to repeated actions in future, like "everytime you get my mail"...

I'd say not exactly.

Every time you get my mail call me.

Каждый раз, когда будешь получать мои письма, звони мне. - Person A is going to write letters to person B.

Когда получаешь мои письма, звони мне. - Person A already writes letters to person B and is going to do it in the future.

You use the perfective, becuase it is actually a future event.

In English we say things like

"When I am 20, I will live in Spain"

when what we are actually saying is "When I will be 20, I will live in Spain".

Both clauses are referring to future events. But English confusingly uses the present tense for the former.

Another example is:

"When we arrive, we will go to bed"
"When we arrive" refers to a future event, but the present tense is used, becuase English is illogical like that.


In most other languages, including Russian, the future tense is used, when english will use the present tense.

English "When I am 20..."
Russian "Когда мне будет 20 лет...."

So in your example, you mean "When you will receive my letter..."
and in Russian, the simple future tense uses the perfective aspect.

Originally Posted by TATY

English "When I am 20..."
Russian "Когда мне будут 20 лет...."

Когда мне будет 20 лет...

Originally Posted by Al Polonski

Originally Posted by TATY

English "When I am 20..."
Russian "Когда мне будут 20 лет...."

Когда мне будет 20 лет...

Bah, I thought it was plural cos it was 20 years. Sometimes I am too logical for my own good.

:P

So would it be Мне было 20 лет in the past?

Originally Posted by TATY

So would it be Мне было 20 лет in the past?

Yep

Don't ask me why, since there are few Russians who can explain why they say like that

Originally Posted by Al Polonski

Originally Posted by TATY

So would it be Мне было 20 лет in the past?

Yep

Don't ask me why, since there are few Russians who can explain why they say like that

It is that way because we consider "20 лет" to be singular, not plural. It's an event. A singular event, of being 20.