Thread: Intransitive Verbs

On one of my Russian workbook problems, I had the following problem using intransitive verbs...

Key:
(Verb to Translate) This verb goes here the sentence.

What I Put (Wrong Answer): (Кончиться) Когда Кончиться эта передача, мы сыграем в шахматы.

Right Answer (According to Another Student's Paper): (Кончиться) Когда Кончатся эта передача, мы сыграем в шахматы.


Ok, so I am a little lost here. All I really know about reflexive verbs is that you use "ся" if the last letter is a soft sign or has a hard last consonant and you use "сь" for any word with a soft last consonant. Can someone help me out here? I somehow have the impression there is a conjugation required in here that I am missing. Also, if you could explain reflexive verbs a little bit more in depth and more understandable than sketchy websites, it would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Wyrm

Когда кончится эта передача, мы сыграем в шахматы.

He was wrong (maybe laziness and not looking hard enough)!

Can you explain why the soft sign was dropped, though? Still need a more in depth explanation if possible.

Originally Posted by Wyrm

All I really know about reflexive verbs is that you use "ся" if the last letter is a soft sign or has a hard last consonant and you use "сь" for any word with a soft last consonant.

What? No, you use ся if the last letter is a consonant, and сь if the last letter is a vowel. (Well when forming participles you always use ся but you don't need to know this yet.) -> кончусь кончишься кончится кончимся кончитесь кончатся

There is no мягкий знак (ь) because in Russian you need to conjugate verbs, and they agree with the subject. Here the subject is передача, it is a third-person singular so it goes : кончится.

Originally Posted by Wyrm

Can you explain why the soft sign was dropped, though?

кончиться (and any verb with the -ть, -ться suffix) is an infinitive (that is "to finish", "to sing", "to sleep", in other words, a blank form which only means an action and doesn't indicate the one who is doing the action, like gender, number, person, and also tense).

Кончится, without the soft sign, is a concrete form which indicates the future tense, singular number, third person.
Кончатся means the same, only it's plural number.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooh, ok. Much appreciated.