Thread: Could someone explain the use of PA with verbs in russian?

I am trying to get my little bit of russian I know in order for our soon to be trip to Moscow to pick up our new little daughter! I really want to be able to somewhat converse with her and other officials while we are there...
anyway....I am stumped by this "pa" suffix....would that be what it is called?

Example.....Mozhna PA gavarite c Olyah......

or I gavaryoo PA ruskie.....

What does this little pa do? will they understand with out it?

ALso...

I hear alot of russian talk between native russians and children and they alot repeat DA......like the child will say something and they will say....
Da Da Da........or just Da Da...

Can someone explain that to me? Is it just something endearing?

Thank you a million everyone!!! Sorry I haven't been here in a while, things are crazy!! We should actually be traveling in June or July!!!

Mozhna PA gavarite c Olyah......

Pa here is just a part on the verb "to talk": "поговорить", "по" is pronounced as "pa".

or I gavaryoo PA ruskie.....

Here "pa" is a preposition "по" which means "in" - "по-русски" = "in Russian".

I hear alot of russian talk between native russians and children and they alot repeat DA......like the child will say something and they will say....
Da Da Da........or just Da Da...

I believe this DA is just a word "yes" in Russian - "да". It is often repeated for stress, like "yes, yes, sure".

Good luck to you!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the "PA" sound on the verb "Pogovorit' " makes it the perfective form instead of imperfective, meaning a perfect (complete) action.
For instance,

Yo chital knigu (I read (part of) a book)
Yo prochital knigu (I finished reading a book)

-Fantom

Originally Posted by fantom605

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the "PA" sound on the verb "Pogovorit' " makes it the perfective form instead of imperfective, meaning a perfect (complete) action.
For instance,

Yo chital knigu (I read (part of) a book)
Yo prochital knigu (I finished reading a book)

-Fantom

Hmmm. let's see.... It's "pro" про-читал, про-говорил - put it in perfect. But "по-читал", "по-говорил" - for me it's closer to perfect continuouse in English; it means, that the action has been happening for some period of time. So "поговорить" means "to talk during some period of time", which is normally used in request or expression of desire or intention.

Who can add something? Guys?

I think that "поговорить" is closer to "have a discussion".

Originally Posted by DDT

I think that "поговорить" is closer to "have a discussion".

No, it also means just "to have talk".

Yes, because the perfective form of говорить is сказать. Adding по- sort of means "a little"

Я почитал - I had a little read. (I don't know if you can say pochital...)

Originally Posted by TATY

Yes, because the perfective form of говорить is сказать. Adding по- sort of means "a little"

Я почитал - I had a little read. (I don't know if you can say pochital...)

Yep, basically, "по-" has a meaning "do it for some time and then leave it". Я почитал книгу, она мне не понравилась и я ее бросил.

BUT! Just realized:

полюбить = to fall in love, perfective
поверить = to come believe in smth, perfective
поразить = to strike, perfective

... I guess, there are more...

So, there can be pochitat' AND prochitat' ??

What about a verb like "Pisat' " ?

Perfective = napisat'
and you can also have popisat' meaning a little writing??

-Fantom

Originally Posted by fantom605

So, there can be pochitat' AND prochitat' ??

What about a verb like "@@@@' " ?

Perfective = @@@@'
and you can also have @@@@' meaning a little writing??

-Fantom

пописать? Yes, exactly. For example, some writer person can say: "С утра я немного пописал, потом сходил в магазин, пообедал, поиграл с сыном, и только вечером вернулся к работе" (At the morning i have done a little writing,.... and only at the night I returned to my work).

прописать (прописывать - imperf.) = to prescribe
списать (списывать - imperf.) = to write down, write off

Originally Posted by Gerty

For example, some writer person can say: "С утра я немного пописал....

Or "I have a little wee-wee in the mornig..."
писать - wee-wee
писать - write

Originally Posted by JJ

Originally Posted by Gerty

For example, some writer person can say: "С утра я немного пописал....

Or "I have a little wee-wee in the mornig..."

Yep, and it has an intriguing sence of duration and incompleteness

Originally Posted by Gerty

пописать?

yes, that's the one, I accidently mis-spelled it in a form that would suggest a swear... Thanks for the explanation.
-Fantom

wow! Thank you everyone!! Wonderful explanations!!

what about...

pa stoy

pa obiedet

pa prehgheet

Basically this is a memorizational thing, correct?

Russkymama, why are you writing PA as a separate word?

With verbs it is a prefix, written together, with no hyphen. It can have various meanings, as mentioned already. With verbs of motion it adds the notion of "set off, start out." With others it can mean 'a little". When you call someone on the phone and another person answers, you say "Здравствуйте, можно поговорить с Машей?" Hello. May I speak with Masha?

With adjectives it means "a little" too. Дайте Х поменьше. Give me a little smaller X.

постой /pastoj/ Stop a sec! < verb постоять stand.
пообедать have a bite to eat.

With names of languages, it means ... I don't know how to translate it, but по- with hyphen followed by what looks like the adverbial form of a language, means just that.

Sometimes it has no meaning except to make a verb perfective. просить попросить ask/request. Just like the на in написать, where на usually means "on", but in this verb it has absolutely no meaning except to make the verb perfective. All other prefixes with писать change the meaning. See example above.

You really need to tackle the language through a Russian textbook. At least, the way I see it, asking questions about various elements of a language without a systematic approach will leave you more confused because you will miss the systemic nature of the language (I just showed you some of it, above). Plus, with a textbook you get an authoritative answer. Here, it's just hit or miss as far as correct answers go, mine included. Good luck, however you go about it.

yes, that makes sense. Thank you.

I do have many workbooks I use, but haven't come across that yet.

Thank you again.

I still am not familiar with all of the uses of по with nouns.
I know it has many meanings, and know some of them.