Thread: Тысячелетие дней?

Originally Posted by blind pew

"я жду не дождусь", "они ждут не дождутся", "ты ждешь не дождешься"-
is used only in colloquial language in the Present Tense only. It emphesizes impatience as waiting for something good or pleasant.

дождусь is cleary the Future Tense. Something's not right here.

@xXHoax

The idiom is ultimately the same as "can't wait" as in I can't wait to see you.

Жду не дождусь тебя - I can't wait for you to come (or whatever depending on context). I don't know if you can cut out the 'to come part' and just say I can't wait for you. Your input on the latter would be much appreciated.

Also you can definitely say ждал, не дождался or буду ждать, не дождусь. Although the но conjuction is much needed in both cases in most cases Then it'll lose its idiomatic meaning and must be understood literally.

Я ждал, (но) не дождался тебя. Ты где был, а? - I waited for you but you didn't come. Where the heck were you?

Я буду ждать, но не дождусь своей любви - Somewhat poetic

Ah, last thing. The verb дождаться doesn't really translate to English, so it might be difficult for you to fully understand it. Well, the verb means to have a successful wait after a bit of waiting (this last bit is important), as in the following example:

You're waiting for your friend near a shopping mall, for example. You've agreed to meet up there at 5 p.m. Now it's 5:20 and your friend hasn't come yet. You're getting impatient from all the waiting and finally your friend shows up. Then you just say to your friend: Дождался тебя

Now the tricky part, although you can technically tell your friend the same phrase if he shows up on time (5 p.m. in our example) or just a few minutes later (like 5:05). But you will most likely offend them in that case and they'll probably reply: Я пришел/пришла вовремя or я только немного опоздал(а). Why? Because as I mentioned the verb дождаться implies that you have already waited for someone or something for sometime until you finally get what you wanted.

Hate to make it even longer, but a translation example of the verb I spotted in a BBC documentary about a Russian prison. One prisoner just got an official paper stating that he has served his long sentence and is a free man from now on. He turned to his friend, his face in tears and then shouted excitedly: Наконец-то дождался! The translation for that bit was "I've finally waited long enough!"

Originally Posted by iCake

дождусь is cleary the Future Tense. Something's not right here.

дождусь is clearly the Future Tense, but the whole fixed expression "Жду не дождусь" can only be used in the present tense in grammatical sense, but can refer to events in the past.