Thread: Figuring out verb stem at first glance

Роберт, ты пропустил он/она пишет, пьёт, печёт, ждёт, даёт, встаёт.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Роберт, ты пропустил он/она пишет, пьёт, печёт, ждёт, даёт, встаёт.

I left out the 3rd-person singular forms (as well as 1st-pl and 2nd pl) because I was trying to suggest a "minimum number" to be learned -- if you know ты печёшь, you can correctly deduce the forms он/она печёт, мы печём, вы печёте. However, if you only know the infinitive печь plus я пеку, you wouldn't necessarily guess ты печёшь and они пекут.

P.S. But I left out "он/она даёт" because the irregular verb дать has no such form -- the 3rd-singular is "он/она даст"! (For rebmaboss, there is such a verb form as "он/она даёт", but it belongs to the infinitive давать, not дать.)

P.S. The verb давать could be considered "semi-regular" or maybe "quasi-irregular" -- the conjugation is a bit odd, yet it's basically a normal "E-type" verb:

давать ("to give," imperfective)
он давал, она давала ("he/she was giving")
я даю ("I give")
ты даёшь ("you give")
он/она даёт ("he/she gives")
мы даём ("we give")
вы даёте ("you give")
они дают ("they give")
давай!

But дать is really and truly and weirdly irregular because it's neither a "Е"-type nor an "И"-type:

дать ("to give," perfective)
он дал, она дала ("he/she has given")
я дам ("I shall give")
ты дашь ("you will give")
он/она даст ("he/she will give")
мы дадим ("we will give")
вы дадите ("you will give")
они дадут ("they will give")
дай! ("give!")

Note: Given мы дадим and вы дадите, by every logical rule you would predict the 3rd plural to be они дадят -- but, nope, it's дадут. Furthermore, given the 3rd-plural form дадут, you would predict the imperative to be дади! -- but it's дай, just to fool you. And then the я, ты, он/она forms are just SUPER-bizarre. That's why this one is "truly irregular," while давать is just "sort of irregular."