perfect tense

[Terry Moran]

Frank -

It's fine, but as a fully paid-up pedant I can't resist pointing out that
(a) я устал is the (only) past tense of a perfective verb, not the perfect
tense (which doesn't exist in Russian); and (b) none of the ways I can
think of to say вчера вечером я устал in English is in the perfect tense
either: *I was tired* (imperfect of *to be*), *I got tired *(simple
past/preterite of *to get*). You can contrive a perfect tense, but only in
more complex contexts: *I've been as tired as this before, but only once*
(perfect tense of *to be*).

I'm not even trying to get out more ...

Terry Moran

On 11 September 2014 06:49, Gladney, Frank Y <gladney at illinois.edu> wrote:

>  Dear Russian speakers,
>
> Is this sentence okay: Včera večerom ja ustal.
>
> Spasibo zaranee,
>
> Frank
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
> http://seelangs.wix.com/seelangs
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                        http://seelangs.wix.com/seelangs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/seelang/attachments/20140911/47341913/attachment.html>