Duo Russian Grammar

13) Verbs Present 1

Е- and И- conjugation

The verbs in Russian change according to person and number. Each form has a different ending. There are only two patterns (apart from some phonetic changes).

endings Е- / И- examples
я -ю (у) чита́ю, пишу́ / говорю́, ви́жу
ты -ешь / -ишь чита́ешь, пи́шешь / говори́шь, ви́дишь
он/она́ -ет / -ит чита́ет, пи́шет / говори́т, ви́дит
мы -ем / -им чита́ем, пи́шем / говори́м, ви́дим
вы -ете / -ите чита́ете, пи́шете / говори́те, ви́дите
они́ -ют(ут) / -ят (ат) чита́ют, пи́шут / говоря́т, ви́дят

We will learn these one by one. There are only four stems with irregular conjugation. The verbs хоте́ть, дать, есть, бежа́ть and all their derivatives do not strictly follow any of the 2.

Note that if the endings are stressed, Ё replaces Е. Fortunately, a non-past form has only 2 options:

  • fixed stress – on the stem (чита́ю, чита́ете, ви́жу, ви́дит) or on the ending (стою́, стои́т, стои́шь)
  • "я"-form is has a stressed ending (Я пишу́). The stress is on the stem in the other forms (ты пи́шешь, она пи́шет..)

A verb uses one stem to form Infinitive and Past tense forms. It uses the 2nd one, similar, for non-past and imperative. Thus, as a rule you cannot predict all forms from the infinitive. You can make a guess, though.

Meals

In this course we use the American English definitions:

  • за́втрак = breakfast, a morning meal
  • обе́д = lunch, a midday meal
  • у́жин = dinner, an evening meal

Levels

  1. 1) Alphabet 1
  2. 2) Basics 1
  3. 3) Phrases 1
  4. 4) Единственное число
  5. 5) Name and polite "You"
  6. 6) Plurals
  7. 7) Where is it?
  8. 8) Animals 1
  9. 9) Genitive Case - 1
  10. 10) Possessive Modifiers 1
  11. 11) Partitive
  12. 12) Accusative Case: the direct object
  13. 13) Verbs Present 1
  14. 14) Infinitive, Likes and Dislikes
  15. 15) Food
  16. 16) Adjectives Introduction
  17. 17) Conjunctions
  18. 18) There is
  19. 19) Questions
  20. 20) People 1
  21. 21) Around you
  22. 22) Prepositions and Places
  23. 23) Verbs Present 2
  24. 24) Time and Numbers
  25. 25) Family
  26. 26) People 1
  27. 27) Weather and Nature
  28. 28) Sport
  29. 29) Adjectives 1
  30. 30) Past & Infinitive
  31. 31) VLAD
  32. 32) Dative and Plurals
  33. 33) Reported speech
  34. 34) Perfective Verbs
  35. 35) I
  36. 36) Body and Health
  37. 37) Genitive Plural
  38. 38) Adjectives 2
  39. 39) Short and Long
  40. 40) Perfective verbs
  41. 41) Countries and Places
  42. 42) House
  43. 43) Reflexive
  44. 44) Time expressions 2
  45. 45) Imperative and Adverbs
  46. 46) Образовние
  47. 47) City and People
  48. 48) Imperative2
  49. 49) That Which
  50. 50) Technics
  51. 51) Future Simple
  52. 52) Being Instrumental
  53. 53) Placing Objects
  54. 54) Kitchen and Food
  55. 55) Speaking
  56. 56) Subjunctive
  57. 57) Compound Future
  58. 58) Prefixed Verbs of Motion
  59. 59) Arts & Entertainment
  60. 60) Together
  61. 61) Numbers 2
  62. 62) Adjectives 3
  63. 63) Plans
  64. 64) Prepositions 2
  65. 65) The Same
  66. 66) Fleeting Vowels
  67. 67) Measure
  68. 68) Business
  69. 69) Morphology
  70. 70) History & Fantasy
  71. 71) Participles
  72. 72) Computers & Internet
  73. 73) Adverbial Participles
  74. 74) Science
  75. 75) Politics
  76. 76) Spiritual
  77. 77) Some Spoken Patterns
  78. 78) Nothing Left
  79. 79) Crime and Justice