Thread: Progressive Tenses

Originally Posted by G2Ident89

Present: I read a book
and
Present Progressive: I am reading a book
are both
я читаю книгу

Yes, if it is iterative or progressive should be understood from context.

in Russian, but how would you translate something like the past progressive, as in 'They were going to go shopping'

Они собирались пойти по магазинам. ('They were going to start shopping')
or
Они собирались походить по магазинам. ('They were going to spend some time for shopping')

In Russian verbs of motion can be either iterative or progressive. That is we have separate verbs for iterative motion (like "ходить") and progressive one (like "идти").

or the past perfect progressive as in, 'They had been shopping for a long time'?

Они долго ходили по магазинам.

Actually, I don't understand why perfect is needed here. It is past and it means that action is over anyway. Why don't you say just "They shopped for a long time?"

Also, if you have 'у меня книга' for 'I have a book' how do you express possession in the future tense, as in, 'I will have a book'?

У меня будет книга.
"I have a book." = "У меня [есть] книга." where "есть" can be skipped.
Literally: "A book is at me."

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Они долго ходили по магазинам.

Actually, I don't understand why past perfect is needed here. It is past and it means that action is over anyway. Why don't you say just "They shopped for a long time?"

These are two different things. Without any context you wouldn't usually say "they had been shopping for a long time". The past perfect tense can only be used in relation to a point in time you are talking about. Anything prior to that point is past perfect. English sees it fit to distinguish between something which is past in relation to the present, and something which is past in relation to a point in time which is also in the past. Yes, this is actually helpful.

So, if I see a sentence like "They had been shopping for a long time" I immediately know that the speaker is actually talking about a point in time which lies after the whole shopping event, but still in the past. I know to expect something like "and when they came home (which is the moment he is actually talking about) they were utterly exhausted".

Russian does a similar thing using adverbial participles like this: сделав уроки, он отдыхал. The adverbial participle tells you that one action is in the past of the other action. It's not as versatile as having a full-fledged tense because it can only apply to the subject of a connected expression.

As for the original question of the thread, it is important not to mistake the English distinction of progressive vs. simple tenses for the same thing as the distinction of perfective and imperfective aspects in Russian. They share some similarities, but they are not the same thing. Grammatical features present in one language do not automatically have a counterpart in another language, just as words cannot always be translated 1:1. I'm coming from a native language (German) which has neither progressive nor perfective aspects and still works well. We use other means, words rather than grammar, to mark something as continuing or finished.

Different features in different languages engender different ways of thinking. Learning a language is mostly trying to come to terms with these different ways of thinking and expressing thought, not about mere translation.