It is imperative for everyone to learn to be happy about the smaller things in life. An example of a small thing that can (and should!) bring happiness into everyone’s life is the fact that Russian verbs only have «три времена» [three tenses]: «настоящее время» [present tense], «прошедшее время» [past tense] and «будущее время» [future tense]. When it comes to asking «когда?» [when?] something took place in Russian language, all you really need to differ between is «сегодня» [today], «вчера» [yesterday] and «завтра» [tomorrow]. You don’t have to be anymore specific than that (this is after all not a post «о видах русского глагола» [about the aspects of the Russian verb] so wipe that frown off your face!). Now feel happy about this tiny fact of Russian grammar at its most simple for a while!
Okay, so have you felt happy for a little while now? And are you now ready to face some harsher facts of Russian grammar? Let’s go then!
When speaking about the three tenses of Russian verbs one must always first and foremost pay specific attention to one verb that breaks this simple flow of otherwise oh-so-easy-to-learn rules. This is the seemingly harmless verb «быть» [to be, exist]. The thing is that this verb has ‘lost’ its form in the present tense (and thus also place in such a sentence). There’s just no way of putting «быть» into a sentence with the present tense. «Сегодня» [today] one cannot use «быть» [to be, exist]. Don’t even try! Not even in the privacy of your own home! Of course, some of you might argue that the present tense form «есть» of it still remains in Russian language today, and that it is sometimes used by Russian themselves in phrases like «это не есть хорошо» [this is no good]. But I would not recommend that you go around saying that anyway – even if the Russians sometimes do it – learn to be more frank about things and name them by their proper names by firmly stating: «это плохо» [this is bad]. The present tense form can be found in the construction ‘to have something’ which can be directly translated as ‘at my place (or disposal) I have something’. That’s found in sentences like «у меня есть личный самолёт» [I have a private airplane] or «у меня есть четыре двоюродных брата» [I have four (male) cousins]. Also in more formal language you can find this form of the verb used in present tense with the meaning of ‘to be’ – but that’s it! That’s as far as the present tense of «быть» goes. What does one do then in Russian language, if you cannot use this form? Well, the easy answer does prove to be the correct one: leave it out of the sentence altogether!
Present tense: «Свежие следы на новом снегу» [Fresh steps in the new snow]. Past tense:
«Свежие следы были на новом снегу» [There were fresh steps in the new snow]. Future tense: «Свежие следы будут на новом снегу» [There will be fresh steps in the new snow].
At first it will be strange to speak without using any verb whatsoever. Trust me, you’ll get used to it. And you’ll even come to like it. I bet you’ll start liking it so much that you will wonder why other languages haven’t done this as well. Leaving out the verb in a lot of what is said and written on a daily basis does save a lot of time. But before we go any further, we should get a bit acquainted with the forms of this verb in past and future tenses. As we all know (or should at least have heard about by now) the Russian verb changes according to the person performing a task, or – as is the case with «быть» – simply ‘is’ or ‘exists’. To keep things comprehensible we’ll focus first on what «я» [I] does to the verb (everybody likes to mostly talk about themselves anyway). The future tense of «быть» is «я буду» [I will, I will be]. The past tense of «быть» is «я был» [I was (if you're a man)] and «я была» [I was (if you're a woman)].
Usually you should put the noun following this verb in everybody’s favorite «творительный падеж» [instrumental case], but you don’t always have to. You can make up your own mind as to whether you want to describe that hot guy you met in the bar last Saturday with the instrumental case: «он был красавцем» [he was good-looker, handsome], or use the nominative instead: «он был красавец» [he was a good-looker, handsome]. The same goes, naturally, for that fascinating girl you danced at the disco with two weeks ago – either say «она была красавицей» [she was a beauty, a pretty woman] or «она была красавица» [she was a beauty, a pretty woman]. Back in the 19th century Russian literature using the nominative case in past tense together with «быть» meant the quality the noun described was a long-lasting one. Using instrumental case, however, meant that the quality was transitory, brief, fleeting and could thus easy cease ‘to be’ in the near future. Nowadays there is no difference between using these two cases after «быть», even though it is clearly more common in everyday Russian speech to use the instrumental case.
Present tense: «Она – исследовательница и литературовед» [She's a researcher and a specialist in literature]. Past tense: «Она была исследовательницей и литературоведом» [She was a researcher and a specialist in literature]. Future tense: «Она будет исследовательницей и литературоведом» [She will be a researcher and a specialist in literature]. The male form for ‘researcher’ in Russian is «исследователь». There is, however, no female version of «литературовед».
Instead of using a verb in present tense in Russian you simplye put « – » in its place. In Russian this is called «тире» [dash, blank]. It is quite easy to use. All you need to do is put it between the pronoun and the noun and hope for the best. When speaking you’ll make a short pause between these two words, as if you were you’re in fact busy during this pause with putting an imaginary «тире» between them. Here’s an example of what happens to the verb «быть» in all three tenses. I’ve chosen the popular profession «космонавт» [astronaut, cosmonaut, spaceman, person trained to travel in a spacecraft] to illustrate it:
Future tense: «я буду космонавтом» [I will be an astronaut].
Past tense: «мой отец был космонавтом» [My father was an astronaut].
Present tense: «Алексей – космонавт» [Aleksey is an astronaut].
The same thing happens to any profession that you pair up with «быть». To illustrate this further we’ll use two other professions, one male «буфетчик» [person who works behind a counter] and one female «лаборантка» [laboratory assistant, person who helps out in a laboratory]. The female and male versions of these professions are «буфетчица» and «лаборант». Just so you know. Not all professions in Russian have both female and male versions, and that’s why we should find the time to rejoice when we find those that have both! Yay!
Future tense: «ты будешь буфетчиком?» [will you be a person who works behind the counter?]
Past tense: «дядя Фома был буфетчиком сорок лет» [uncle Foma (was a person who) worked behind the counter for forty years].
Present tense: «он – буфетчик в крупном магазине» [he works behind the counter at a large store].
Future tense: «мы тоже будем лаборантками!» [we will also be (female) laboratory assistants!]
Past tense: «тётя Люба была лаборанткой во время Великой отечественной войны» [aunt Lyuba was a laboratory assistant during the World War II].
Present tense: «она – лаборантка на химическом заводе» [she is a laboratory assistant at a chemical plant].
Present tense: «На стене фотографии Ленина и Сталина» [On the wall there are photographs of Lenin and Stalin]. Past tense: «На стене были фотографии Ленина и Сталина» [On the wall there were photographs of Lenin and Stalin]. Future tense: «На стене будут фотографии Ленина и Сталина» [On the wall there will be photographs of Lenin and Stalin]. (I took this picture in the summer of 2009 – it is from an office in some remote Russian factory…)
