Thread: Првиет друзья (I think thats correct) :)

Originally Posted by ShakeyX

So quick question. Its changed from 'Dal' to 'podaril' to put it in the perfective?

It's more about the usage. When you say in Russian "I gave flowers" it sounds unspecific, because, ultimately, you made your girl a present with those flowers. So she's the end user. But when you just "gave", perhaps your intention was that the girl would do something with those flowers, like decorate your house, or give the flowers to somebody else.

Originally Posted by ShakeyX

I've always struggled with perfective and imperfective. So because it's a one off action, that probably happened in a particluar moment in time, you use perfective?

Exactly. Because, if you say "я дарил цветы" that would mean "I used to give". I know, the perfective/imperfective might be a struggle, but try to use the following rule: in a place where you can say "used to" in English, use imperfective in Russian; otherwise use perfective. In your sentence, you used "дал" and not "давал" correctly perfective-wise.