The Russian Past Tense of Imperfective Verbs: Formation and Meaning

In this post we’ll learn about the Russian past tense of imperfective verbs. First, we’ll start with an introduction to a key part of Russian verbal grammar: aspect. After that, you’ll see that the Russian past tense of imperfective verbs is rather easy to form. Next, we’ll cover some key irregular verbs in the imperfective past. Finally, we’ll cover the typical uses and meanings of the imperfective past. Throughout, you’ll see clear explanations and everyday examples.

Russian Verbal Aspects

One important feature of Russian verbs is aspect. Aspect is not the same thing as tense. Tense is purely about time – past, present, or future. Aspect, on the other hand, is about how the speaker views an action, regardless of when it took place. Aspect typically deals with things like: is/was the action ongoing? is/was the action repeated or habitual? is/was the action completed or incomplete?

Think of verbal aspect as adding an additional “flavoring” to a verb, telling you more than simply when the action happened. To give you a more familiar example, in English, we can describe past actions in a few different ways: I went, I was going, and I have gone. These forms all describe events that happened in the past, but they express different ways of viewing an event and its relationship to time.

Imperfective and Perfective

Most Russian verbs belong to one of two aspects: imperfective or perfective. Both can be used in the past tense, but they express different ways of viewing an action.

• Imperfective verbs (несовершенный вид) focus on an action as an activity, process, habit, or ongoing situation, without necessarily emphasizing its completion.
• Perfective verbs (совершенный вид) present an action as a complete, bounded event, often emphasizing its result.

The perfective is often formed by adding a prefix to an imperfective verb, although other patterns exist. Let’s look at a pair of examples to illustrate the different forms and meanings.

• Я читал книгу.
  I was reading a book. / I read a book.
• Я прочитал книгу.
  I read the book (and finished it).

In the first sentence, the imperfective читал focuses on the activity of reading. The second example has the perfective прочитал, which presents the reading as a completed event.

In this lesson, we’ll focus on the imperfective past tense, learning how to form it and use it to talk about past activities, habits, experiences, and situations.

You can compare the imperfective aspect to the perfective aspect, covered in this post.

The Russian Imperfective Past of Regular Verbs

The past tense in Russian is relatively straightforward to form. Unlike the present tense, Russian past-tense verbs do not change according to the person (I, you, he, she, etc.). Instead, they change according to gender and number: masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural.

Formation: -л, -ла, -ло, -ли

Most Russian verbs form the past tense by removing the infinitive ending –ть and adding a past-tense ending. The ending depends on the gender and number of the subject.

Subject	Ending	Example: читать (to read)
masculine singular	-л	читал
feminine singular	-ла	читала
neuter singular	-ло	читало
plural (all genders)	-ли	читали

Notice that Russian uses the same past-tense form for all persons of the same gender and number.

• Я читал.
  I read / I was reading. (male speaker)
• Я читала.
  I read / I was reading. (female speaker)
• Ты читал.
  You read / You were reading. (to a male)
• Ты читала.
  You read / You were reading. (to a female)
• Она читала.
  She read / She was reading.
• Он читал.
  He read / He was reading.

The plural ending –ли is the same regardless of gender. This includes when you are addressing one person with the polite pronoun вы.

• Мы читали.
  We read / We were reading.
• Вы читали.
  You read / You were reading.(to one person, or a group of people)
• Они читали.
  They read / They were reading.

Examples

Let’s see a few example sentences of regular verbs in the imperfective past. Notice that negation and question formation proceed in the past exactly as they do in the present.

• Вчера я работал дома.
  Yesterday I worked at home.
• Я не работала вчера.
   I didn’t work yesterday.
• Маша, ты работала вчера?
  Did you work yesterday, Masha?
• Она читала интересную книгу.
  She was reading an interesting book.
• Мы смотрели фильм вечером.
  We watched a movie in the evening.
• Дети играли в парке.
  The children were playing in the park.
• Он говорил по телефону.
  He was talking on the phone.
• Вчера Анна готовила ужин.
  Yesterday Anna was cooking dinner.
• Раньше они жили в Москве.
  They used to live in Moscow.
• Летом мы часто гуляли в лесу.
  In the summer, we often walked in the forest.
• Он жил в Москве?
  Did he live in Moscow?
• Почему он не спал?
  Why wasn’t he sleeping?
• Как вы изучали русский язык?
  How did you study Russian?

The Russian Imperfective Past of Common Irregular Verbs

Although most Russian verbs follow the regular pattern, some common verbs have irregular past-tense forms. These irregularities often involve changes to the verb stem or the disappearance of -л in the masculine singular.

Быть — to be

The forms of Быть (to be) are regular, but it’s still worth highlighting this verb. In the present, to be is generally omitted, but the forms of был are not omitted in the past.

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
был	была	было	были

• Я был дома вчера.
  I (m.) was at home yesterday.
• Она была очень уставшей.
  She was very tired.
• Вчера было холодно.
  It was cold yesterday.
• Мы были в ресторане.
  We were at a restaurant.

Идти — to go (on foot, in one direction)

Идти (to go, on foot/in one direction) uses an entirely irregular stem in the past.

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
шёл	шла	шло	шли

• Я шёл домой, когда начался дождь.
  I was walking home when it started to rain.
• Она шла в магазин.
  She was walking to the store.
• Мы шли по улице.
  We were walking along the street.

Есть — to eat

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
ел	ела	ело	ели

• Вчера я ела пиццу.
  Yesterday I (f.) ate pizza.
• Животное ело траву.
  The animal was eating grass.
• Она ела салат на обед.
  She ate a salad for lunch.
• Мы ели в ресторане.
  We ate at a restaurant.

Мочь — to be able to, can

Мочь uses a past stem with г(л). Notice that the masculine form мог has no –л.

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
мог	могла	могло	могли

• Я не мог спать.
  I (m.) couldn’t sleep.
• Она могла говорить по-русски.
  She could speak Russian.
• Мы не могли найти ключи.
  We couldn’t find the keys.

Нести — to carry (in one direction)

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
нёс	несла	несло	несли

• Он нёс тяжёлую сумку.
  He was carrying a heavy bag.
• Она несла книги в библиотеку.
  She was carrying books to the library.
• Мы несли продукты домой.
  We were carrying groceries home.

Расти — to grow

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
рос	росла	росло	росли

• Мальчик быстро рос.
  The boy was growing quickly.
• Дерево росло в саду.
  The tree was growing in the garden.
• Цветы росли возле дома.
  The flowers were growing near the house.

Вести — to lead

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
вёл	вела	вело	вели

• Учитель вёл учеников в музей.
  The teacher was leading the students to the museum.
• Мать вела ребёнка в школу.
  The mother was taking her child to school.
• Гиды вели туристов по городу.
  The guides were leading the tourists around the city.

Везти — to transport, convey

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
вёз	везла	везло	везли

• Отец вёз детей в школу на машине.
  The father was driving the children to school.
• Она везла чемодан в аэропорт.
  She was taking a suitcase to the airport.
• Грузовики везли продукты в город.
  The trucks were transporting food to the city.

Common Uses of the Imperfective Past Tense

The imperfective past tense has several important uses. Although these uses overlap, they all share a general characteristic: the speaker does not present the action primarily as a single, completed event with a result.

A. Describing past activities

One of the most common uses of the imperfective past tense is to describe what someone was doing at a particular time. The emphasis is on the activity itself, rather than its completion.

• Вчера я читал книгу.
  Yesterday I was reading a book.
• Она готовила ужин.
  She was cooking dinner.
• Мы смотрели телевизор.
  We were watching/watched television.
• Дети играли в саду.
  The children were playing/played in the garden.
• Он слушал музыку.
  He was listening/listened to music.

In English, these sentences can often be translated using the past progressive (was reading, were watching), although a simple past translation is also possible depending on context.

B. Describing habitual or repeated actions in the past

The imperfective is also used for activities that happened regularly or repeatedly in the past. Often, such examples include adverbs such as:

• часто (often)
• обычно (usually)
• всегда (always)
• каждый день (every day)
• иногда (sometimes)
• раньше (formerly, in the past)

In English, these sentences can often be translated using used to or would to describe past habits, but the simple past is also possible.

• Когда я был ребёнком, я часто играл в футбол.
  When I was a child, I often played soccer.
• Мы каждый день ходили в школу.
  We went to school every day.
• Она обычно пила кофе утром.
  She usually drank coffee in the morning.
• Раньше я жил в Санкт-Петербурге.
  I used to live in Saint Petersburg.
• Они всегда ужинали вместе.
  They always ate dinner together.

C. Describing ongoing actions interrupted by another event

The imperfective is frequently used to describe an action that was in progress when something else happened.

• Я читал книгу, когда зазвонил телефон.
  I was reading a book when the phone rang.
• Она готовила ужин, когда пришёл муж.
  She was cooking dinner when her husband arrived.
• Мы смотрели фильм, когда выключился свет.
  We were watching a movie when the lights went out.
• Он спал, когда я позвонил.
  He was sleeping when I called.

Notice that the ongoing action is expressed with an imperfective verb (читал, готовила, смотрели, спал), while the interrupting event is often expressed with a perfective verb (зазвонил, пришёл, выключился, позвонил). This is parallel to English constructions using the past progressive interrupted by the simple past.

D. Describing past situations, states, and conditions

The imperfective is also used to describe situations, conditions, feelings, and states that existed in the past. These sentences describe ongoing situations or conditions rather than discrete completed events.

• Она жила в маленькой квартире.
  She lived in a small apartment.
• Он хорошо знал этот город.
  He knew this city well.
• Мы хотели поехать в Италию.
  We wanted to go to Italy.
• Я любил эту книгу в детстве.
  I loved this book as a child.
• Вчера весь день шёл дождь.
  It rained all day yesterday.
• Она чувствовала себя плохо.
  She wasn’t feeling well.

E. Stating that an activity took place

An especially important use of the imperfective is to state whether an action took place at all, without focusing on its outcome.

• Ты смотрел этот фильм?
  Have you seen this movie?
• Ты читал эту книгу?
  Have you read this book?
• Ты когда-нибудь пробовал борщ?
  Have you ever tried borscht?
• Вы были в России?
  Have you been to Russia?
• Кто открывал окно?
  Who opened the window?

In these examples, the speaker is primarily interested in whether the activity occurred, not necessarily in its completion or result. Often, these correspond to the English present perfect (have seen, have read, etc.).

F. Describing how long an activity lasted

The imperfective can describe activities that continued over a period of time, especially when the focus is on the duration rather than a completed result.

• Я работал весь день.
  I worked all day.
• Она читала два часа.
  She read for two hours.
• Мы гуляли весь вечер.
  We walked all evening.
• Он долго ждал автобуса.
  He waited a long time for the bus.
• Они разговаривали всю ночь.
  They talked all night.

These sentences emphasize how long an activity continued, without necessarily presenting it as a completed achievement.

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