Thread: Understanding - дать подать давать подавать

Hi, would somebody be able assist my learning with these verbs. How they are used, and their differences
дать подать давать подавать


Some examples in english and russian please.
. Many thanks

Well, дать and давать are a imperfective and perfective pair. Same meaning. As for other prefixed versions, usually they equate to English give, followed by a preposition/adverb. Дать--Give...Выдать--Give out. (вы- carries the meaning of out). If you understand what the word по means, you'll probably learn what подать means. по often is used just to turn imperfective verbs into their perfective counterpart. As a prefix focuses usually on the absolute start of actions. (though the preposition has to do with "dispersion").https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B...B0%D1%82%D1%8C (links to подавать as well)

I very nearly understand this. If давать is perfective and so is подать and подавать, how are these verbs used? What do they e express?

Подавать is imperfective. Подать and Подавать are a pair. And дать(per)+давать(imp) are a pair. По creates a new pair, with a new meaning in this case. The wikipedia page explains all the meanings of verbs, and gives their counterparts, and gives other prefixed forms related to the verb youre looking at. Prefixes don't always change the meaning in a 100% clear way, sometimes theyre just used to create a sort of word "descendant". For instance издать (из meaning "out from", "out of"), "give out from" doesn't exactly paint an obvious picture of what it means: to publish. Just look at that link for the actual meaning of подать/подавать.

A whole lot of verbs (though certainly not all) come in a pair that is exactly the same except for the last 3 letters. Imperfective ending in ать and conjugating аю аешь ает аем and so on, while the perfective ending in ить and conjugating ишь ит им ите, and the я form having a consonant mutation, like ответить --> отвечу
Sometimes a syllable is added дать + ва = давать .
Prefixes can make an imperfective verb into its perfective counterpart, or the other way around. купить (perf) --> покупать (imp) (the ить also changes to a ать) Buying usually happens once, so the imperfective word for "to buy", is sort of the secondary, prefixed word.

Is подавать to give in the sense of to give advice, to give a smile, to give (a non tangable object) and давать is to give a document, to give a (object)?

correct me if im wrong.

Originally Posted by CloudAngel

Is подавать to give in the sense of to give advice, to give a smile, to give (a non tangable object) and давать is to give a document, to give a (object)?

No. Hm... It is difficut for me to express meaning of "по-" in this case... Maybe it is case of memorizing.
There are some rules here: https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BF%D0%BE- , and (3) is fitting, but not completely.

P.S.
Maybe there is some non-restrict rule: "пода(ва)ть" is preferable if object (slightly) goes up and down during process of transfer. For example "подать нищему (милостыню)" (get coins and drop them), "подать мяч" (in the game), "подать документ" (get it up from one table and put down to another table), "подать руку" (hand goes up for handshake or goes down if you help somebody to get up from ground). Maybe it makes sense. But it doesn't cover all cases.