The Russian Past Tense of Perfective Verbs: Formation and Meaning

In this post we’ll learn about the Russian past tense of perfective 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 perfective verbs is rather easy to form. Next, we’ll cover some key irregular verbs in the perfective past. Finally, we’ll cover the typical uses and meanings of the perfective past. Throughout, you’ll see clear explanations and everyday examples.

Russian Verbal Aspects: Imperfective and Perfective

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.

Perfective and Imperfective Aspects

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 sentence has the perfective прочитал, which presents the reading as a completed event.

In this lesson, we’ll focus on the Russian past tense of perfective verbs. We will learn how to form it and how to use it to talk about completed past actions and results, single “bounded” events in the past, changes of state, and actions completed within a specific timeframe.

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

Forming the Russian Past Tense of Perfective Verbs

Like the imperfective, the perfective past tense agrees with the subject in gender and number, not person. For most regular verbs, remove the infinitive ending –ть and add the appropriate past-tense ending. Let’s see examples with the perfective verb сделать (to do, make, complete)

Masculine singular	-л	сделал
Feminine singular	-ла	сделала
Neuter singular	-ло	сделало
Plural (all genders)	-ли	сделали

• Я сделал домашнее задание.
  I did/finished doing my homework. (male speaker)
• Она сделала торт.
  She made a cake.
• Это упражнение сделало меня сильнее.
  This exercise made me stronger.
• Мы сделали всё вовремя.
  We did/completed everything on time.
• Ты сделала домашнее задание?
  Did you do your homework? (addressing a female)
• Они не сделали работу.
  They didn’t do the work.

Notice that сделал, сделала, сделало, сделали all express a completed event. The endings are identical to the past tense of imperfective verbs, but the prefix с– indicates that the verb is perfective.

The Russian Past Tense of Perfective Verbs: Common Regular Verbs

Now let’s look at the past tense of several common perfective verbs. We’ll omit the neuter forms, since neuter subjects are less frequent than masculine or feminine, especially when talking about people. But of course, neuter subjects are possible, and the ending is –о: сделало, написало, прочитало, посмотрело, etc. We’ll include some examples with neuter subjects in this article.

	m. singular	f. singular	plural
сделать (do, make)	сделал	сделала	сделали
написать (write)	написал	написала	написали
прочитать (read)	прочитал	прочитала	прочитали
посмотреть (watch)	посмотрел	посмотрела	посмотрели
приготовить (prepare, cook)	приготовил	приготовила	приготовили
купить (buy)	купил	купила	купили
решить (decide, solve)	решил	решила	решили
открыть (open)	открыл	открыла	открыли
закрыть (close)	закрыл	закрыла	закрыли
закончить (finish)	закончил	закончила	закончили

• Вчера я купил новую книгу.
  Yesterday I bought a new book.
• Она написала письмо другу.
  She wrote a letter to a friend.
• Мы посмотрели интересный фильм.
  We watched an interesting movie.
• Ты уже прочитал эту книгу?
  Have you finished reading this book?
• Он не открыл дверь.
  He didn’t open the door.
• Окно открылось.
  The window opened. (neuter subject, reflexive verb.)
• Дети закончили домашнее задание.
  The children finished their homework.

How Perfective Verbs Are Formed

Russian often has two related verbs expressing the same basic action: one imperfective and one perfective. These are called aspectual pairs. Earlier in this post, you saw the aspectual pair читать – прочитать (to read).There are several common ways that perfective and imperfective verbs are related, and often – but not always! – the perfective is formed by altering the imperfective.

A. Adding a prefix to an imperfective verb

One of the most common ways to form a perfective verb is to add a prefix to an imperfective verb. For example:

• читать (to read, imperfective) – прочитать (to read, perfective)
• писать (to write, imperfective) → написать (to write, perfective)

The prefixes про- and на– create perfective verbs that present the action of reading or writing as a completed event. Here are some common examples:

Imperfective	Perfective	Meaning
писать	написать	write
читать	прочитать	read
делать	сделать	do, make
смотреть	посмотреть	watch, look
готовить	приготовить	prepare, cook
строить	построить	build
рисовать	нарисовать	draw
платить	заплатить	pay
мыть	помыть	wash
учить	выучить	learn, memorize

Some of the most common perfective-forming prefixes include по-, на-, с-, про-, за-, при-, вы-, and у-. However, there is no single prefix that can be added to every imperfective verb to create its perfective counterpart. The choice depends on the individual verb and its meaning.

• Я написал(а) письмо.
  I wrote a letter.
• Она прочитала всю книгу.
  She read the entire book.
• Мы построили новый дом.
  We built a new house.
• Ты заплатил за кофе?
  Did you pay for the coffee?
• Он не выучил новые слова.
  He didn’t learn the new words.
• Девочка нарисовала кошку.
  The girl drew a cat.

A Note on Prefixes

Adding a prefix doesn’t always simply change the aspect. Sometimes it also changes the meaning.

• писать (to write)
• написать (to write, perfective)
• переписать (to rewrite, perfective)
• подписать (to sign, perfective)
• записать (to write down, record, perfective)

All four prefixed verbs are perfective, but they don’t all have exactly the same meaning as писать. They extend the basic meaning of writing in various ways.

The imperfective counterparts of переписать, подписать, and записать are переписывать, подписывать, and записывать, respectively. We’ll come back to the –сывать ending in a moment.

B. Changing a suffix or infinitive ending

Not all perfective verbs are formed by adding prefixes. Some aspectual pairs involve changes to the verb stem or suffix. A common pattern is an imperfective ending in –ать or –ять corresponding to a perfective ending in –ить. Notice that this also sometimes alters the final stem consonant.

Imperfective	Perfective	Meaning
решать	решить	decide, solve
получать	получить	receive
отвечать	ответить	answer
встречать	встретить	meet
возвращать	возвратить	return something

• Она решила задачу.
  She solved the problem.
• Я получил письмо вчера.
   I received a letter yesterday.
• Ты ответила на вопрос?
  Did you answer the question?
• Мы встретили друзей в городе.
  We met some friends in town.
• Он не возвратил книгу в библиотеку.
  He didn’t return the book to the library.

These are useful patterns to recognize, although they are not completely predictable rules.

C. Perfective verbs ending in -нуть

Another important group of perfective verbs ends in –нуть. Many of these verbs describe a single, brief, or sudden action. They are sometimes called semelfactive verbs, a linguistic term describing actions that happen “at once” or “instantaneously.”

Imperfective	Perfective	Meaning
прыгать	прыгнуть	jump
кричать	крикнуть	shout
стучать	стукнуть	knock, strike
махать	махнуть	wave
толкать	толкнуть	push
кашлять	кашлянуть	cough

• Кошка прыгнула на стол.
  The cat jumped onto the table.
• Он крикнул моё имя.
  He shouted my name.
• Кто-то стукнул в дверь.
  Someone knocked on the door.
• Она махнула рукой.
  She waved her hand.
• Мальчик толкнул дверь.
  The boy pushed the door.
• Он кашлянул и начал говорить.
  He coughed once and began speaking.

Notice that –нуть often occurs on verbs that present an action as a single or sudden occurrence, while the corresponding imperfective can describe repeated or ongoing activity.

Just keep in mind that not every verb ending in –нуть is perfective. For example, тянуть (to pull) is imperfective, and тонуть (to sink, drown) is also imperfective.

D. Perfective and imperfective verbs with different stems

Some aspectual pairs use verbs with substantially different stems. These must generally be learned individually.

Imperfective	Perfective	Meaning
брать	взять	take
класть	положить	put, place
ловить	поймать	catch
говорить	сказать	speak, say
находить	найти	find
садиться	сесть	sit down
ложиться	лечь	lie down
становиться	стать	become

• Я взял книгу со стола.
  I took the book from the table.
• Она положила ключи в сумку.
  She put the keys in her bag.
• Кошка поймала мышь.
  The cat caught a mouse.
• Что он сказал?
  What did he say?
• Мы наконец нашли ресторан.
  We finally found the restaurant.
• Она села на стул.
  She sat down.
• Он лёг спать рано.
  He went to bed early.
• Погода стала лучше.
  The weather got better.

Some of these perfective verbs also have irregular past-tense forms, which we’ll examine next.

E. Perfective verbs with -ва- and -ыва-/-ива- imperfective counterparts

Sometimes the perfective verb is the shorter or simpler form, and the imperfective is formed by adding a syllable. This is especially common with –ва-, –ыва-, and –ива-. (Note that the order of perfective and imperfective is reversed in the following table.)

Perfective	Imperfective	Meaning
открыть	открывать	open
закрыть	закрывать	close
забыть	забывать	forget
дать	давать	give
встать	вставать	stand up, get up
рассказать	рассказывать	tell, narrate
показать	показывать	show
подписать	подписывать	sign
записать	записывать	write down, record

• Она открыла окно.
  She opened the window.
• Я забыл его имя.
  I forgot his name.
• Он дал мне книгу.
  He gave me a book.
• Мы встали рано.
  We got up early.
• Дедушка рассказал интересную историю.
  Grandfather told an interesting story.
• Ты показал ей фотографию?
  Did you show her the photograph?

These examples are particularly useful because they demonstrate that the perfective isn’t always formed by adding something to the imperfective. Sometimes the imperfective is the longer form.

F. Verbs that are inherently perfective

Some Russian verbs are perfective-only, meaning they do not have a conventional imperfective counterpart with the same meaning. You may come across the linguistic term perfectiva tantum to describe these verbs. If you consider the meanings, these are all typically perfective: they describe sudden, all-at-once point actions rather than processes, or they describe completed end-points of processes rather than the processes themselves.

Perfective verb	Meaning
очутиться	find oneself somewhere unexpectedly
хлынуть	gush, surge suddenly
грянуть	burst out, suddenly begin
спохватиться	suddenly realize or remember
опомниться	come to one’s senses

• Мы неожиданно очутились в лесу.
  We unexpectedly found ourselves in the forest.
• Вода хлынула в комнату.
  Water suddenly gushed into the room.
• Вдруг грянул гром.
  Suddenly thunder crashed.
• Он спохватился слишком поздно.
  He realized his mistake too late.
• Она наконец опомнилась.
  She finally came to her senses.

These verbs are less common than ordinary aspectual pairs, but they illustrate that not every Russian verb has a straightforward counterpart in the other aspect.

The Russian Past Tense of Perfective Verbs: Common Irregulars

Most perfective verbs form the past tense regularly, but several important verbs have irregular stems or endings. We’ll divide irregular perfective verbs into three main categories so that you can see the patterns.

1. Verbs with Substantial Stem Changes

First, let’s look at some common verbs that show substantial stem changes.

Пойти — to set off, to go on foot

All of the perfective verbs of movement ending in –йти follow the pattern –шёл, -шла, -шло, -шли. (Note that вышел in the table below is a slight variation.)

These verbs are all prefixed derivatives of идти, the imperfective verb meaning to go, to move in one direction (typically on foot). The prefixes specify direction, destination, or other aspects of that movement, but you can think of them as all being derivations of the same basic verb of movement.

Verb	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
пойти (set off, go)	пошёл	пошла	пошло	пошли
уйти (leave, go away)	ушёл	ушла	ушло	ушли
подойти (approach, come up to)	подошёл	подошла	подошло	подошли
прийти (come, arrive)	пришёл	пришла	пришло	пришли
войти (enter)	вошёл	вошла	вошло	вошли
выйти (go out, exit)	вышел	вышла	вышло	вышли
дойти (reach, get as far as)	дошёл	дошла	дошло	дошли
перейти (cross)	перешёл	перешла	перешло	перешли

• Вчера я пошёл в магазин.
  Yesterday I went to the store. (male speaker)
• Мария пришла домой поздно.
  Maria came home late.
• Дети ушли из школы в три часа.
  The children left school at three o’clock.
• Солнце вышло из-за облаков.
  The sun came out from behind the clouds. (neuter subject)
• Ты дошла до станции?
  Did you make it to the station? (addressing a female)
• Мужчины перешли улицу.
  The men crossed the street.

Найти — to find

Найти follows the same pattern and is historically connected to movement – much like English come upon. But it simply means find, so we’ll give it its own section.

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
нашёл	нашла	нашло	нашли

• Я нашёл свои ключи.
  I found my keys.
• Она нашла хорошую работу.
  She found a good job.
• Вы нашли нужный адрес?
  Did you find the correct address?

Лечь — to lie down

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
лёг	легла	легло	легли

• Я лёг спать в десять часов.
  I went to bed at ten o’clock. (male speaker)
• Она легла на кровать.
  She lay down on the bed.
• Дети легли спать рано.
  The children went to bed early.

Сесть — to sit down

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
сел	села	село	сели

• Он сел на диван.
  He sat down on the sofa.
• Она села рядом со мной.
  She sat down next to me.
• Мы сели за стол.
  We sat down at the table.

Съесть — to eat up, to finish eating

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
съел	съела	съело	съели

• Она съела яблоко на завтрак.
  She ate an apple for breakfast.
• Животное съело всю траву.
  The animal ate all the grass.
• Дети съели всю пиццу.
  The children ate all the pizza.
• Ты съел мой бутерброд?
  Did you eat my sandwich? (addressing a male)

2. Verbs With “Fleeting -л”                                              

Now let’s turn to a few verbs that lose –л in the masculine singular.

Принести — to bring

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
принёс	принесла	принесло	принесли

• Он принёс цветы своей жене.
  He brought flowers to his wife.
• Она принесла торт на вечеринку.
  She brought a cake to the party.
• Это решение принесло хорошие результаты.
  This decision brought good results.
• Дети принесли подарки учителю.
  The children brought presents to the teacher.

Спасти — to save, to rescue

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
спас	спасла	спасло	спасли

• Пожарный спас ребёнка из горящего дома.
  The firefighter rescued a child from a burning house.
• Она спасла собаку из реки.
  She rescued a dog from the river.
• Лекарство спасло ему жизнь.
  The medicine saved his life.
• Спасатели спасли туристов в горах.
  The rescuers saved the tourists in the mountains.

Умереть — to die

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
умер	умерла	умерло	умерли

• Её бабушка умерла десять лет назад.
  Her grandmother died ten years ago.
• Растение умерло от недостатка воды.
  The plant died from lack of water.
• Когда умер этот писатель?
  When did this writer die?

3. Verbs that Lose -ну-

Third, we’ll see verbs that lose –ну– in all forms.

Исчезнуть — to disappear

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
исчез	исчезла	исчезло	исчезли

• Мой телефон исчез со стола.
  My phone disappeared from the table.
• Кошка исчезла в лесу.
  The cat disappeared into the forest.
• Солнце исчезло за облаками.
  The sun disappeared behind the clouds.
• Все мои проблемы исчезли.
  All my problems disappeared.

Привыкнуть — to get used to

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
привык	привыкла	привыкло	привыкли

• Он быстро привык к новой работе.
  He quickly got used to his new job.
• Она привыкла к холодной погоде.
  She got used to the cold weather.
• Животное привыкло к людям.
  The animal got used to people.
• Мы привыкли жить в большом городе.
  We got used to living in a big city.

Common Uses of The Russian Past Tense of Perfective Verbs

The perfective past tense presents an action as a complete, bounded event. It is particularly common when describing what was accomplished or what changed. In this section we’ll break the principal uses into a few simple categories.

A. Completed actions and results

One of the most common uses of the perfective past is to describe an action that was completed, often with an identifiable result.

• Я написал письмо.
  I wrote a letter.
• Она приготовила ужин.
  She prepared dinner.
• Мы купили новую машину.
  We bought a new car.
• Он прочитал всю книгу.
  He read the entire book.
• Ты сделал домашнее задание?
  Did you do your homework?
• Они не закончили работу.
  They didn’t finish the work.

If you compare the same sentence in versions with an imperfective and perfective verb, you’ll better understand the differences.

• Я писал письмо.
  I was writing a letter. (focus on the activity, not the result)
• Я написал письмо.
  I wrote the letter (and completed it).
• Я читал книгу.
  I was reading a book. (focus on the activity, not the completion)
• Я прочитал книгу.
  I finished reading the book.
• Она ела яблоко. She was eating an apple. (focus on the activity, not the completion)
• Она съела яблоко.
  She finished eating the apple.

The imperfective emphasizes the activity itself, while the perfective presents it as a completed event with a beginning, an end, and a result.

B. Single, bounded events

The perfective is frequently used to describe an event that happened all at once and is presented as a whole.

• Он открыл дверь.
  He opened the door.
• Она упала на улице.
  She fell in the street.
• Я встретил друга вчера.
  I met a friend yesterday.
• Кошка прыгнула на кровать.
  The cat jumped onto the bed.
• Кто разбил стакан?
  Who broke the glass?

However, a single occurrence does not automatically require the perfective. The imperfective can also describe a one-time event when the speaker is focusing on the activity or simply establishing that it occurred.

C. Sequences of completed actions

The perfective is especially common when narrating a series of events that happened one after another.

• Я проснулся, встал и приготовил завтрак.
  I woke up, got up, and prepared breakfast.
• Она открыла дверь, вошла в комнату и села.
  She opened the door, entered the room, and sat down.
• Мы купили билеты, сели в поезд и поехали в Москву.
  We bought tickets, boarded the train, and set off for Moscow.
• Он прочитал письмо и ответил на него.
  He read the letter and replied to it.

Each perfective verb advances the narrative by presenting another completed event. Compare that to:

• Я готовил завтрак, когда она пришла.
  I was preparing breakfast when she arrived.

Here, the imperfective готовил describes the ongoing background activity, while the perfective пришла introduces a completed event that interrupted the background activity.

D. Changes of state or condition

Perfective verbs are frequently used to describe a transition from one state to another.

• Погода изменилась.
  The weather changed.
• Ребёнок заснул.
  The child fell asleep.
• Она заболела.
  She became ill.
• Он устал.
  He got tired.
• Вода замёрзла.
  The water froze.
• Молоко испортилось.
  The milk went bad.

These verbs describe the occurrence of a change rather than an ongoing state. Compare the use of the imperfective to express ongoing states or actions.

• Ребёнок спал.
  The child was sleeping.
• Ребёнок заснул.
  The child fell asleep.

The imperfective describes the state of sleeping, while the perfective describes the completed transition into that state.

E. Actions completed within a specific period of time

Perfective verbs can describe an action completed within a particular amount of time. A common construction to use in these cases is за + accusative, meaning in a certain amount of time.

• Я прочитал книгу за два дня.
  I read the book in two days.
• Она написала письмо за десять минут.
  She wrote the letter in ten minutes.
• Мы построили дом за год.
  We built the house in a year.
• Он решил задачу за пять минут.
  He solved the problem in five minutes.

Compare these two sentences:

• Я читал книгу два часа.
  I read / was reading a book for two hours.
• Я прочитал книгу за два часа.
  I read the entire book in two hours.

The first sentence emphasizes the duration of the activity. The second emphasizes that the book was completed within that period.

F. Successful achievement or failure to achieve a result

The perfective is also common when describing whether someone succeeded in accomplishing something.

• Я нашёл свои ключи.
  I found my keys.
• Она решила проблему.
  She solved the problem.
• Мы успели на поезд.
  We caught the train in time.
• Он не смог открыть дверь.
  He couldn’t open the door.
• Я не понял вопрос.
  I didn’t understand the question.
• Они не нашли дорогу.
  They didn’t find the way.

In negative sentences, the perfective often emphasizes that an expected or desired result was not achieved.

• Я не писал письмо.
  I wasn’t writing a letter / I didn’t write a letter.
• Я не написал письмо.
  I didn’t get the letter written / I didn’t manage to finish writing the letter.

The negative imperfective denies that the activity occurred (or was in progress), while the negative perfective emphasizes the absence of a completed result. The exact distinction depends on context.

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