Thread: Need help about tenses and their usage compared with English

здравсвуйте фсе.

меня зовут утку, я из станбуле и я фармацевт. я узичал по-русски 5-6 годом назад только 3 ме́сяцы. сеичас я начу изучать сам.

I prepared a table for myself about tenses and their usage. Thus I will understand it easier. I need some help to fill it and have some quesitons

1) Does this table (below) make sense?

2) Does скажу́ and говорю́ sit true place? This Perfective/Imperfective things works same in English and Russian?

3) Can anybody help me to fill rest of other Russian translates?

Simple Present: I speak
Simple Past: I spoke
Simple Future: I will speak

Present Progressive (Imperfective): I am speaking, я скажу́
Past Progressive (Imperfective): I was speaking
Future Progressive (Imperfective): I will be speaking

Present Perfect (Perfective): I have spoke, я говорю́
Past Perfect (Perfective): I had speak
Future Perfect (Perfective): I will have speak

Thanks in advance,

утку

Hello and welcome!

Originally Posted by utku

This Perfective/Imperfective things works same in English and Russian?

No, Russian Perfective and English Perfect are completely different things. There cannot be any direct mapping between them.

You can find detaled explanations on Russian verb aspect here:
Perfective and Imperfective Verbs - The Complete Guide
On Aspect of Russian Verbs
Remebering 'rule' for choosing aspect with negated verbs

Hope it helps.

I will begin here...... здравсвуйте все. (Actually you probably should say всем there anyway) It took me a while to figure out what you meant to say. I haven't got a clue what you are trying to say after that.



Simple Present: I speak ------- я говорю
Simple Past: I spoke ------- я говорил
Simple Future: I will speak ---- я буду говорить

Originally Posted by DDT

(Actually you probably should say всем there anyway)

Здравствуйте + всем is less common than все, and some people can find it ungrammatical too. This is because здравствуйте, in its original meaning, is a verb in imperative. So все is an обращение (not sure how to say it in English) and requires nominative. "Здравствуйте, все!" is similar to "Извините, молодой человек!", "Подай мне карандаш, Ира!" and so on.

On the other hand, привет should be used with всем, not все. "Всем привет!" This expression can be considered as a shortened form of "Я всем говорю (посылаю etc) привет", so dative sounds good here.

We could say that все is a direct address, as in vocative constructions, while всем is the indirect object.