Stems of Russian verbs

**Marcus** · January 24th, 2011, 06:00 AM

Russian verbs have two stems: the stem of the infinitive (the past tense and past participles are formed from it) and the stem of the present tense (the present tense, the future simple tense, imperative and present participles are formed from it). The forms based on the present tense stem depend on conjugation and past forms depend on the infinitive only.

**Seraph** · January 24th, 2011, 04:19 PM

Learning system presented in Lipson, one stem generates all forms. Need to know the generative patterns/rules.

вёд'+ => вести веду' ведёшь и т. д. вёл вела' и т. д. веди' ... веду'щий и т. д. ве'дший и т. д. ведённый и т. д. (reflexive also)

Working backwards to deduce stem is often easy, but for some verbs need to know some of conjugations to deduce stem.

**Marcus** · January 24th, 2011, 05:02 PM

Жить - живу, шить - шью

**Seraph** · January 24th, 2011, 05:36 PM

Жить - живу, шить - шью

stems бий+ вий+ лий+ пий+ ший+ =>present tense бьй+ вьй+ льй+ пьй+ шьй+ normal first conjugation verbs,
add ending and proper spelling => бью бьёшь бьёт бьём бьёте бьют
infinitive add normal ending with spelling rules. => бить
imperative: бей,
past: бил etc.

stems мый+ рый+ вый+ ный+ крый+ => present tense мо'й+ ро'й+ во'й+ но'й+ кро'й+ add normal first conjugation endings with spelling rules
мою моешь моет моем моете моют
infinitive add normal ending to stem мыть
past, normal from stem мыл etc.
imperative: мой
Normal spelling rules for reflexive.
etc.

Most verbs are easier than these.

Stem for жить is жив+ all normal spelling rules for adding consonant and vowel endings work fine. Consonant ending root/stem stress pattern (that is not й or н), with the stress shift sign for feminine past, that I could not add from this computer.

One stem is usually enough to do complete conjugation for all forms.

Of course, non-Russians have to learn all the rules about consonant mutation, and a few other things. If you want two stems, you can have two stems. The fraction of verbs with complications is small.

**it-ogo** · January 25th, 2011, 10:53 AM

Жать - жну... эээ... жму... эээ...

**Seraph** · January 25th, 2011, 04:41 PM

This is a good thread to get all the complications and exceptions posted!

"Жать - жну... эээ... жму... эээ..." Lipson shows the stem for this as simply жм+ , seems like it follows all the rules to get past and infinitive.

Even жечь seems to follow the rules. жг+ with spelling rule (can't have жгё, shift to жжё) and other things to get present, past, infinitive, etc. Doesn't seem very exceptional.

I'll try to get the rules copied here so you can see them. Seems like for almost all verbs, one stem allows complete conjugation by following rules. This seems to be intermediate or advanced, not for beginners.

The book I'm using is Alexander Lipson, A Russian Course, 1981 ed.

**Marcus** · January 25th, 2011, 05:17 PM

All the forms which are based on the present stem depend on the conjugation, others depend only on the infinitive.

**Seraph** · January 28th, 2011, 01:15 AM

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