Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
Honestly, I don't see much advantage (for foreigners at the beginning level) in trying to memorize something as "abstract" as verb stems. I mean, you're not writing a graduate-level paper on comparative morphology of East Slavic verbs, you're just trying to speak Russian without sounding like Tarzan!
Oops, I forgot to mention that I'm not a beginner, I've been learning and studying the language for three years. So you're right, I am realizing the conjugational patterns by heart, I just hoped that there was an easier way-- a way to know that a verb conjugates like "видеть" simply by looking at the infinitive. So I'm guessing that there's not?