The endings of verbs change to match the subject of the sentence. To learn to conjugation a verb you must memorize its stem and the endings for the conjugation to which it belongs.
1st Conjugation | 2nd Conjugation | Remarks | |
Infinitive | чита́ть | говори́ть | dictionary form |
Stem | читай- | говор- | aid to memorizing conjugations |
Imperative (command form) | |||
Ты implied |
чита́й (stem+nothing) | говори́ (stem+и) | to one person |
Вы implied |
чита́йте (stem+те) | говори́те (stem+ите) | to a group or formal |
Present Tense (of imperfective verbs such as these) | |||
Я (I) |
чита́ю (stem+у) | говорю́ (stem+ю) |
Form depends on person:
and number
|
Мы (We) |
чита́ем (stem+ем) | говори́м (stem+им) | |
Ты (Thou) |
чита́ешь (stem+ешь) | говори́шь (stem+ишь) | |
Вы (You) |
чита́ете (stem+те) | говори́те (stem+ите) | |
Он/Она/Оно (He/She/It) |
чита́ет (stem+ет) | говори́т (stem +ит) | |
Они (They) |
чита́ют (stem+ут) | говоря́т (stem+ят) | |
Past Tense | |||
Stem |
чита- | говори- | Remove -ть from infinitive |
Он |
чита́л (stem+л) | говори́л (stem+л) |
Singular form matches gender of grammatical subject. There is only one plural form. |
Она |
чита́ла (stem+ла) | говори́ла (stem+ла) | |
Оно |
чита́ло (stem+ло) | говори́ло (stem+ло) | |
Они |
чита́ли (stem+ли) | говори́ли (stem+ли) |
Though it does not happen with either of the verbs shown above, with some verbs the final consonant (or consonant cluster) of the stem changes as endings are added. When this happens it follows this pattern:
Stem Ends With | Changes to |
These changes occur:
|
г, д, з | ж | |
т, ст, ск | щ | |
с, х | ш | |
к, т | ч | |
б | бл | |
в | вл | |
м | мл | |
п | пл |
The first vowel in the ending will sometimes change as described in Alphabet 4—Phonetic Rules Reference.