A verb, like any independent part of speech, has a number of morphological features. One of these constant features of the verb is the aspect.
In general, the presence of the aspect category is typical for Slavic languages. The specific forms of verbs denote the logical connection of an action with the time of its completion. In other words, the meaning of the aspect of the verb is completeness or incompleteness.
In Russian, verbs can be either perfective or imperfective. The perfective indicates an action that has either already happened or will be completed:
Dmitry (what did he do?) found out that soon (what will they do?) a house will be built in this microdistrict.
The imperfect aspect differs in that it denotes the process of the action itself, and not the fact of its completion:
They (what were they doing?) were running towards each other. Children (what are they doing?) behave directly.
Verbs of this type are often used in speech to denote recurring events:
Evgenia daily (what does she do?) reads books in English.
Peter walks to work every morning (what does he do?)
Specific forms of verbs in Russian differ in morphemic composition. Non-derivative verbs in which there is no prefix, as a rule, belong to the imperfective form, and words derived from them - to the perfect. Moreover, the transition from one type to another is in most cases accompanied by a change in lexical meaning.
Compare:
Cut - what to do? - carry. in. Cut - what to do? - owls. c.;
Change - what to do? - carry. in. Change - what to do? - owls. c.
But not always the type of a verb can be determined by the presence or absence of word-forming morphemes (prefixes and suffixes). For example, some prefixed verbs retain their imperfect form:
(what to do?) walk - leave - come - cross.
Verbs form an aspect pair if they have the same lexical meaning:
- illustrate - illustrate;
- combine - combine;
- construct - build.
In most cases, these are single-root forms.
Verbs with different roots in the same aspect pair are very few in Russian:
- to say - to say;
- take - take.
Even less common are the aspectual forms of verbs that make up a pair, differing only in stress:
cut off - cut off
Many verbs do not have a pair at all, they are usually called single-species:
- shout (owl.);
- sleep (owls. in.);
- be present (incomplete in.).
If both questions fit the word: “what to do?” and “what to do?” means we have a two-part verb. Such forms of verbs convey the semantic shades characteristic of their species, precisely in the context of the sentence:
A person (what does he do?) does not use all the possibilities of his brain.
To test knowledge, the teacher tomorrow (what will he do?) uses tests.
As we can see, from such homonyms, aspect-temporal forms of verbs are obtained: their differences lie not only in aspect, but also in relation to the time of the event.
Both types of verbs have a number of grammatical differences. For example, in the perfect form there is no present tense, and in the imperfect form the future tense consists of two words.
So, knowledge of the semantic and grammatical differences of aspectual forms is necessary for the accuracy and expressiveness of speech, since the incorrect use of verbs can lead not only to distortion of meaning, but also to stylistic errors.
