perfect tense

[Terry Moran]

Another thought on устал. Are both these questions OK?

Вы устали?

Вы усталы?


If not, why not? If so, is there a scintilla of difference between them
(and, obviously, what is it) or are they absolutely identical? In theory, I
suppose, one focuses on the process and the other on the condition, but is
there any difference in practice? Both would surely be *Are you tired?* in
English.

And another one: are there any other words with parallel origins, i.e. an
adjectival form that appears to come from a verbal past tense? I can't
think of any offhand. Is there a special grammatical term that defines them
(or it)?

Incidentally он был уставшим sounds to me less like something anybody would
ever say than something Акакий Акакиевич might have written in a report -
but maybe my Sprachgefühl is letting me down. Any thoughts? Linguee only
comes up with a couple of hits.

Best -

Terry

On 12 September 2014 08:55, Gasan Gusejnov <gusejnov at gmail.com> wrote:

> It is a very good sentence for an excersise: please add the best context.
>
> - что ж ты не пришел?
> - я вчера устал.
>
> In any language, I guess, sentences excerpted from a dialogue
> sometimes look incomplete, don't they. And that is what make them correct,
> real and alive.
> Best
> gg
>
>
> On Thursday, 11 September 2014, Sentinel76 Astrakhan <
> thysentinel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It doesn't quite work like that.  Basically the sentence sounds
>> incomplete.  You have to explain WHY you became tired:
>>
>> Я вчера засиделся на работе и немного устал.
>>
>> Also, for some reason, I don't remember ever hearing the word "устал" by
>> itself.  It usually comes with an adverb:  "сильно", "немного", etc. or
>> as part of a complex clause:
>>
>> Караул устал и ушел с поста.
>>
>> If used by itself, it's in the present tense:
>>
>> Я устал!
>>
>> Something like that.
>>
>> Vadim
>>
>> > Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:31:15 -0400
>> > From: paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM
>> > Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] perfect tense
>> > To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
>> >
>> > Sentinel76 Astrakhan wrote:
>> >
>> > > To me "вчера вечером я устал" sounds completely unnatural. The
>> > > proper way is "Вчера вечером я был усталым" or, colloquially, "вчера
>> > > вечером я был усталый".
>> >
>> > I took the past perfective to denote a change in state (from fresh to
>> > tired): "I became tired." This transition was complete at the stated
>> > time. No?
>> >
>> > The options you offer clearly denote an ongoing (imperfective) state of
>> > affairs, not the same thing.
>> >
>> > --
>> > War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
>> > --
>> > Paul B. Gallagher
>> > pbg translations, inc.
>> > "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
>> > http://pbg-translations.com
>> >
>> >
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