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Russian Grammar 1 Gerunds
Russian Grammar 1 Gerunds
Lesson 1
Gerunds (verbal adverbs) – деепричастия
Introduction
As you can see, -ing and –ed often indicate in English the
presence of a gerund or participle. The second thing to notice is
that you never have to use a gerund or participle – there is always
a way out. For example, the sentences above can all be rewritten,
as follows:
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Russian grammar: gerunds
Gerunds
(Note however that the term ‘gerund’ in Russian does not refer to
the same grammatical construction as it does in English; in English
‘gerund’ means ‘verbal noun’, as in the sentence ‘smoking is not
permitted here’).
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Russian grammar: gerunds
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Russian grammar: gerunds
but:
The subject of the gerund MUST also be the subject of the main
verb—you CANNOT use a gerund to translate a sentence such as
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Russian grammar: gerunds
‘while she reads out the text, I write out the words I don’t
understand’ (for this, you would have to use: пока она читает
текст, я выписываю незнакомые слова).
Note that you can always replace a gerund with a clause. For
example:
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Russian grammar: gerunds
УПРАЖНЕНИЯ
4. Мы шли не спеша.
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Russian grammar: gerunds
Verbs that do not end in –ть are very often verbs of motion and
form their perfective gerund in the same way as the imperfective
gerund (i.e. take the third person present plural, remove the final
two letters and add –я):
Verbs not ending in –ть can also form their perfective gerund by
taking the masculine past tense and adding –ши. For example:
The most important thing is, of course, that you should be able to
recognise these forms and translate them correctly.
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Russian grammar: gerunds
The main verb does not necessarily have to be in the past—it can
be in any tense:
УПРАЖНЕНИЯ
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Russian grammar: gerunds
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Russian grammar: gerunds
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