The form you normally find in a dictionary is known as the infinitive.
In English this
often has "to" before the actual verb. In Ukrainian it ends in -ти, for example:
Some verbs (and therefore their infinitives) have the letters -ся after the -ти ending.
This is the mark of a reflexive verb (where the action is done to oneself, on one's
own, or mutually by people to each other), for example:
Using the dictionary, find the meanings of (and then memorise!) the following verbs:
Commands and regulations
Requests
Advice
Rhetorical questions
Permission or possibility
Necessity
Wishing
Using verbs as nouns (the "-ing" form, or
gerund, in English)
Choice or conditionality
Preference or liking
Future imperfective
The future imperfective
To understand how the future imperfective works you
need to identify:
● the subject (a noun or pronoun which is the doer of the action)
● the future of the verb "to be" – бути
● the infinitive of the verb denoting the action.
Using the past imperfective
expressing:
● what was happening or used to happen
● any action which was not carried out or completed in a defined period of time
● an action which was happening at a given moment
● a repeated action
● a process
● a state in the past.
Form of the past imperfective
In Ukrainian this tense is very easy to form, and there are very few
exceptions. Here are a few examples of Ukrainian sentences in the
past imperfective:
From the above it can be seen that the endings for past
imperfective are:
● -в for masculine singular (agreeing with the subject Василь)
● -ла for feminine singular (agreeing with the subject адміністрація)
● -ло for neuter singular (agreeing with the subject місто)
● -ли for plural (agreeing with the subject ви).
This tense is formed on the basis of the infinitive (the dictionary form of the verb):
e.g. думати – to think. The infinitive ending -ти is removed, and the above endings
are added to the stem дума- :
Past imperfective continued
Points to note
1. There are several exceptions to the rule on formation of the past imperfective.
Two of the most frequently used verbs are їсти (to eat) and іти (to go on foot).
They have irregular stems to which the normal endings are added:
Other exceptions will not be covered at present
2. The verb "to be" follows the rule in the past tense:
3. In reflexive verbs the -ся/сь particle always stays at the end, so the past endings
need to be inserted before this, as in дивитися (to look, watch):
The past perfective
The past perfective expresses actions which:
● happened on one occasion and were completed
● were completed within a defined period.
For example: "Yesterday John visited his old school." "We
finished reading the book." "I've been offered the job!"
In most cases, but not exclusively, the perfective is formed by
adding a prefix (usually з-, про-, на-) to the imperfective form (of
the infinitive, past and future). For example:
Some imperfective verbs, including verbs of motion, can also
have prefixes. However, this topic will not be addressed at
present.
Dictionaries usually list verbs in the imperfective infinitive, but
normally also give the perfective (as a secondary form).
Once you know what the perfective infinitive is, forming the
perfective past is the same as for the imperfective. For example:
The conditional
Once you are familiar with the past imperfective and
perfective, the conditional is very easy to understand. As
its name suggests, this form of the verb expresses what
would happen if (on condition that) something else
happened.
Look at the following Ukrainian sentences:
By adding the particle би (or б) to a sentence, we express the conditional (mood),
i.e. the "would" form. "If" is expressed by якби (also якщо б, коли б).
We use б and би after the verb.
зробив би
зробила б
There is another way of expressing the future imperfective in
Ukrainian, and it has more or less the same meaning as the form
you've already met. If you've learnt the above endings (-у, -еш,
-е, -емо, -ете, -уть), you will have no difficulty recognising it in a
text. It consists of:
● the subject
● the verb, made up of the infinitive, plus the letter м, plus the above
endings.
