Verbal Prefixes in Russian: an Introduction

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Verbal prefixes play a big part in the richness and subtlety of the Russian language. Going beyond the notion of completion in perfective verbs, they often add nuances that can only be expressed through paraphrasing in other languages. They can turn "write" into "finish writing what you'd started earlier," "wait" into "wait until the thing you're waiting for happens," or "read" into "get lost in your reading." A single well-chosen prefix can express "spilling" (from лить, to pour), "oversleeping" (from спать), "missing one's stop" (from ехать, to ride/drive).

In this introduction we'll go over the most important points about verbal prefixes. Keep in mind that there's more to know than we can cover here; in particular, for the nuances of prefixes with verbs of motion, see my mini-course at https://www.tips4russian.com/courses/... , which includes comprehension checks in the 15 videos, exercises, example sentences, and downloadable oral practice exercises. It's part of the Russian Grammar Library project at https://www.tips4russian.com.

For more on the basics of verbal aspect, see my playlist at    • Verbal Aspect  

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