Thread: Very confused with the verb "run"

I'm confused with the verb бежать. Is it an irregular verb? I've seen the sentence девочка бежит in with the verb would be from the SECOND conjugation, and then, I saw the sentence девочки бегут in witch the verb, according to my limited knowledge, would be from the FIRST. So, what's going on?

Verbs of motion exist in many forms. Each verb of motion has a multidirectional and unidirectional form.

The imperfective forms are:
бегать is the multidirectional
бежать is unidirectional

The perfective forms are:
сбегать
сбежать

The most common verbs of motion are:

ходить / идти / пойти - to go on foor. (Imperfective Multidirectional / Imperfective unidirectional / perfective unidirectional)
ездить/ ехать / поехать - to go by transport. (Imperfective Multidirectional / Imperfective unidirectional / perfective unidirectional)

Perfective multidrectionals are rarely used.

So, you're saying that бежит and бегут are two different verbs, with different conjugations?

Originally Posted by omarsis

So, you're saying that бежит and бегут are two different verbs, with different conjugations?

No, it's the same verb "бежать". You may simply consider it irregular in the third person plural.

Originally Posted by omarsis

So, you're saying that бежит and бегут are two different verbs, with different conjugations?

бежать -- to run; unidirectional

я бегy
ты бежишь
он бежит
мы бежим
вы бежите
они бегут

Originally Posted by DDT

я бегю

я бегу

Oh, I better fix it!!

The perfective forms are:
сбегать
сбежать

Aren't the perfective forms пoбегать/побежать?

Notice that бежать is irregular in the both 1st pers. sg. and the 3rd p. pl.

хотеть is also irregular like this.

This is going to get complicated. Lingvo says:

Ушаков-
Б’ЕГАТЬ , бегаю, бегаешь, ·несовер. 1. Те же ·знач., что у бежать в 1 и 6 ·знач., с той разницей, что бежать обозначает движение в один прием и в одном направлении, а бегать - движение, повторяющееся и совершающееся в разное время, в разных направлениях. and a couple other definitions.

Лингво-
бегать; - побегать ; 1) - бежать run; ( туда-сюда ) run about; ( за кем-л. / чем-л. ) run (after), chase (after)

Ушаков-
БЕЖ’АТЬ , бегу, бежишь, бегут, д.н.в. не употр. [срн. бегать ]. 1. ·несовер. Быстро передвигаться, сильными толчками ног отделяясь от земли. Лошадь бежала рысью.

So, according to Lingvo бегаю = I'm running around, and бегу = I'm running (one direction).

There are also a handful of verbs that lack a perfective, and another bunch that has no imperfective.

You can add all kinds of prefixes to these verbs to make them perfectives, по- and с- are two of these prefixes. Usually there is a change in meaning.

Originally Posted by saibot

The perfective forms are:
сбегать
сбежать

Aren't the perfective forms пoбегать/побежать?

There are a million (+/- two) different perfective forms of бежать with different meanings. Yours mean to run a little.

here are some others
убегать/убежать = to run away
вбегать/вбежать = to run in
избегать/избежать = to avoid

You can add like tons of endings to motion verbs. It's just that in the dictionary, perfective forms are listed with the prefix по-. по also means "to set off".

они побежали домой. - They ran off home.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Originally Posted by saibot

The perfective forms are:
сбегать
сбежать

Aren't the perfective forms пoбегать/побежать?

There are a million (+/- two) different perfective forms of бежать with different meanings. Yours mean to run a little.

побегать - to run a little

побежать - to start running

Originally Posted by saibot

You can add like tons of endings to motion verbs. It's just that in the dictionary, perfective forms are listed with the prefix по-. по also means "to set off".

они побежали домой. - They ran off home.

Prefixes, not endings.


My dictionary says с- makes it perfective.

Prefixes! Of course! Thanks for catching that.

I think we are having a little dictionary conflict here. The "501 Russian Verbs" book says that побегать/побежать is perfective. Maybe someone else could post their opinions?

Ok. I have discovered the source of our confusion. We are thinking of two different verbs here.

I am talking about running in general. The perfective forms are побегать/побежать.

они побежали домой.

But I think you are thinking of "to run down". In that case it would be:

Imp Perf
сбегать/сбежать

они сбегают с горы.

они сбежали с горы.


Maybe this is what was getting us all screwed up.

Originally Posted by saibot

Ok. I have discovered the source of our confusion. We are thinking of two different verbs here.

I am talking about running in general. The perfective forms are побегать/побежать.

они побежали домой.

But I think you are thinking of "to run down". In that case it would be:

Imp Perf
сбегать/сбежать

они сбегают с горы.

они сбежали с горы.


Maybe this is what was getting us all screwed up.

Not necesarily.
But verbs can have more than one perfective form. And with verbs of motion they can have loads and loads.

My dictionary does only give one perfective form and that is c-
But I would have gone for по- anyway.

Do not forget the influence of emphasis.

Я сбе/гал за хлебом => perfect
Я сбега/л с горы => past continuous