Participles
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:05 am
I must preface this post with the fact that I am actually English, but since trying to learn another language I realise I fall short with a lot of the grammatical terms that are being explained to me.
So far I've been using wikipedia but it constantly switches between the word progressive and continuous and says perfective when it means perfect and its blowing my mind so I was wondering if anyone could lay it out to me.
Okay so I'm learning Russian and unlike Russians who use the normal "Present Tense" to say what they are doing currently (i.e. Я ем - literally; "I eat" however translates to "I am eating") I have come to learn that we use the present participle (I am eating). So in English what are the technical names for these two uses;
I am eating (now/fish/cheese/rapidly)
I eat (everyday/fish/cheese)
In my mind I can of course imagine when I would use them but have no way of describing why. I might say I eat for a living... but I am eating now so I can't answer the phone. I just want justification for the use of the participle rather than the flat out verb like other languages use, do we have something that other languages don't?
Also I am getting mixed messages on this topic, as far as I know, English does not use Perfective and Imperfective aspect such as Russian language however we have something called "THE PERFECT" which can be formed by using the past participle... apparently. Anyone care to give me help with that?
So far I've been using wikipedia but it constantly switches between the word progressive and continuous and says perfective when it means perfect and its blowing my mind so I was wondering if anyone could lay it out to me.
Okay so I'm learning Russian and unlike Russians who use the normal "Present Tense" to say what they are doing currently (i.e. Я ем - literally; "I eat" however translates to "I am eating") I have come to learn that we use the present participle (I am eating). So in English what are the technical names for these two uses;
I am eating (now/fish/cheese/rapidly)
I eat (everyday/fish/cheese)
In my mind I can of course imagine when I would use them but have no way of describing why. I might say I eat for a living... but I am eating now so I can't answer the phone. I just want justification for the use of the participle rather than the flat out verb like other languages use, do we have something that other languages don't?
Also I am getting mixed messages on this topic, as far as I know, English does not use Perfective and Imperfective aspect such as Russian language however we have something called "THE PERFECT" which can be formed by using the past participle... apparently. Anyone care to give me help with that?