Russian verb conjugation… If you’re a beginner, you must be looking for your first conjugation tables to finally see what those proficient Russian learners have been intimidating you with. Or maybe you’re an intermediate learner who’s already mastered basic Russian conjugation rules and are now looking for more of a challenge. Maybe you’re an advanced learner who wouldn’t mind going over the basics again or learning new verb conjugation nuances you’ve never heard of? In any case, I’m happy to reveal some secrets to you that will help you tame the Russian verbs.

It’s not a secret that Russian grammar (and verb conjugation, in particular) are demanding. It’s a long and complicated adventure, but I’m happy to guide you through the dark forests of Russian verb conjugation tables and hold your hand while hiking up the peak of language mastery. 

What are we going to see on our way? I’ll tell you what conjugation is, what factors affect verb conjugation in Russian (tense, mood, aspect, etc.), show you some conjugation tables, and give you a handful of useful tools so that you can continue the journey alone. 

Ready for a big adventure?

Table of Contents

1. What is Conjugation?
2. Conjugation Examples
3. Irregular Verbs
4. Test Your Knowledge!
5. A Bonus from RussianPod101

1. What is Conjugation?

So what is conjugation? It sounds like a complicated linguistic term, but we face this phenomenon daily.  

Conjugation means changing the basic form of a verb. The basic form of the verb—the infinitive—is what you see in the dictionary. In many conjugation tables, you can find so-called “verb derivatives”: participles, verbal adverbs, etc. They are, indeed, derived from verbs, but behave differently. They either decline like adjectives or don’t change their form at all. So in this article, we will mainly focus on verbs.

To conjugate a verb in Russian, you need to keep several features in mind:

• Person
• Number
• Tense
• Conjugation group
• Aspect
• Mood
• Gender

As you can see, Russian verb conjugation differs significantly from the verb conjugation in English. I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with some of these features, but we will brush up on all of them!

1- Person and Number

1st person singular	я (ya)	“I”
2nd person singular	ты (ty)	“you” (casual)
3rd person singular	он, она, оно (on, ona, ono)	“he” / “she” / “it”
1st person plural	мы (my)	“we”
2nd person plural	вы (vy)	“you” (plural), “you” (formal)
“you” (plural), “you” (formal)	они (oni)	“they”

Russian verbs conjugate differently with each person.

For example: 

• Я рисую (Ya risuyu) — “I draw.”
• Мы рисуем (My risuyem) — “We draw.”

You can find the Russian conjugation table with the endings for each person a bit later in this article. Also, don’t hesitate to revisit the most common Russian pronouns!

2- Tense

As complicated as Russian conjugation and grammar seem overall, here’s a big relief. There are only three tenses in Russian: present, past, and future. Not difficult to guess what each of them represents!

The Present Tense

Have a look at this example:

• покупать (pokupat’) — “to buy”
• я покупаю (ya pokupayu) — “I buy”
• мы покупаем (my pokupayem) — “we buy”
  

Did you notice what happened? We’ve changed the ending of the verb. And I’d be happy to tell you that this is just what you need to do—remove the last letters of the infinitive, and you’re golden. But, unfortunately, it’s not that easy. So grab a cup of tea and some cookies, and get comfy.

There are two sets of endings for Russian verbs, and therefore, two conjugation groups. We didn’t come up with insanely complicated names for them; we just called them “Group 1” and “Group 2.” Quite often, you can predict which group a verb belongs to by looking at the ending of the infinitive.

Russian verbs: first and second conjugation groups

Group 1

Group 2

Endings -еть, -ать, -ять, -уть, -ти (-yet’, -at’, -yat’, -ut’, -ti) For example: Богатеть (bogatet’) — “to get richer” Играть (igrat’) — “to play” Гулять (gulyat’) — “to stroll” Гнуть (gnut’) — “to bend” Ползти (polzti) — “to crawl”

Most verbs ending with -ить (-it’) For example:  Говорить (govorit’) — “to speak” Учить (uchit’) — “to learn” / “to teach” + 11 exceptions, verbs that seemingly belong to Group 1: Дышать (dyshat’) — “to breathe” Держать (derzhat’) — “to hold” Гнать (gnat’) — “to drive fast” Ненавидеть (nenavidet’) — “to hate” Слышать (slyshat’) — “to hear” Вертеть (vertet’) — “to spin something” Смотреть (smotret’) — “to look” Видеть (videt’) — “to see” Обидеть (obidet’) — “to offend” Терпеть (terpet’) — “to tolerate” Зависеть (zaviset’) — “to depend”

• PRO TIPS: 

1. You can easily identify the group by keeping in mind that eleven exceptions, and most verbs ending with -ить, belong to Group 2. The rest belong to Group 1.

2. Many infinitives end with -ть, but sometimes -ться can pop up. It’s a typical ending for reflexive verbs like одеваться (odevat’sya), meaning “to dress.”

“So, now I know about the conjugation groups. Can I finally see the endings?” 

I hope you still have some cookies left! Even though you can try to guess the Russian verb conjugation type by the infinitive endings (with a pretty high success rate!), the endings for the present tense are added onto the present tense verb stem. You can find the stem by cutting off the ending of its third person plural form (“they”). 

Confusing? Read it once again, your eyes are not deceiving you: to find the stem, you need a verb that is already conjugated. This is the only sure way to get the rest of your conjugations right. Does it seem like a lot of unnecessary steps? Spoiler: This stem will be used for other conjugations, such as the future and imperative forms. 

• Here’s a tool that will help you tackle verb conjugations and support you until you feel confident conjugating them yourself: Context Conjugator.

• What part of the verb do I add the endings to? 

• The present tense stem: Remove the last two letters in third person plural + add new endings

“To play”: играть (infinitive) > играют (third plural) > игра– (stem)
 

• The infinitive: Remove the last two letters from the infinitive (usually -ть or -ти)

“To learn”: учить (infinitive, Group 2) > учи– (stem)

Again, finding the stem from the third plural form is more reliable. 

Now, let’s have a look at the endings that we use for each conjugation group.

Group 1 играть (igrat’) — “to play” я играю* (ya igrayu) — “I play” ты играешь (ty igrayesh’) — “you play” (inf.) он играет (on igrayet) — “he plays” мы играем (my igrayem) — “we play” вы играете (vy igrayete) — “you play” (f./pl.) они играют* (oni igrayut) — “they play”	Group 2 учить (uchit’) — “to learn”, “to teach” я учу* (ya uchu) — “I learn” ты учишь (ty uchish’) — “you learn” она учит (ona uchit) — “she learns” мы учим (my uchim) — “we learn” вы учите (vy uchite) — “you learn” они учат* (oni uchat) — “they learn”
* Use the endings -ю, -ют after vowels or the soft sign (e.g.: я думаю, они читают). Use -у, -ут after consonants (e.g. я расту).	* Use the endings -у and -ат after the letters  Ж, Ш, Ч, Щ, and all hard consonants. Use -ю and -ят after soft consonants and vowels.

As you can see, the Russian verb conjugation endings are pretty similar. The biggest difference is that -е changes into -и, and -у/ю is replaced with -а/я. 

• Impatient to see all possible conjugations without getting into the details or the logic behind it? You can jump right to the Russian verb conjugation chart!

Also feel free to check this grammar section on RussianPod101.com about the conjugation of verb groups (logged-in users only).

Она учится или играет? (Ona uchitsya ili igrayet?)
“Is she learning or playing?”

The Past Tense

To form Russian verbs in past tense, you need to drop the infinitive endings -ть, -ти, -чь, and add the following endings:

• masculine: -л (-l)
• feminine: -ла (-la)
• neuter: -ло (-lo)
• plural: -ли (-li)

Examples:

• думать (dumat’) — “to think”
• он думал (on dumal) — “he thought”
• она думала (ona dumala) — “she thought”
• мы думали (my dumali) — “we thought”

• This is the only tense where gender plays a role.

The Future Tense

So far so good. The past tense was super-easy, wasn’t it? Back to the real business! There are two ways to create the future form in Russian:

Way 1: Appropriate form of the verb быть (byt’), meaning “to be,” + the infinitive 

писать (pisat’), meaning “to write.”

• я буду писать (ya budu pisat’) — “I will write”
• ты будешь писать (ty budesh’ pisat’) — “you will write” (inf.)
• он будет писать (on budet pisat’) — “he will write”
• мы будем писать (my budem pisat’) — “we will write”
• вы будете писать (vy budete pisat’) — “you will write” (f./pl.)
• они будут писать (oni budut pisat’) — “they will write”

Way 2: The perfective form of the verb + the present tense endings.

• писать (pisat’) — “to write”
• я напишу (ya napishu) — “I will write”

“Wait, what? What perfective form are you talking about? How do I know if I should choose Way 1 or Way 2?” 

These are really smart questions! Without further ado…the verb aspects!

3- Aspect

Due to the simplicity of the tense system in Russian, we had to come up with the idea of aspects. There are two verb aspects in Russian: imperfective and perfective. Aspects are only used when talking about the past and the future; we don’t differentiate the verbs by their aspect in the present tense!

Aspects are used to indicate the difference between an ongoing / repeating action (the imperfective aspect) and an action that was completed successfully (the perfective aspect). Doesn’t it remind you of anything? That’s right, the continuous / simple tenses in English versus the perfect tenses. The only difference is that the English present perfect is going to be considered past in Russian.

Compare:

• я ел (ya yel) — “I was eating”
• я поел (ya poyel) — “I’ve eaten”

What is the difference in English? What form of the verb is perfective? Which one is imperfective? I’m pretty sure you can answer these questions yourself!

Please look at those two phrases again. Have you noticed what happened to the Russian verb? We added a prefix to the verb! A prefix is a set combination of letters added before the stem of the verb. So, outfitting Russian verbs with prefixes is the most frequent way of making perfective forms. In some cases, we can make them with a suffix instead, but it’s not as common. 

The good news is that you can easily spot a perfective form by its prefix (with some minor exceptions). The bad news is that there are many prefixes to remember, and sometimes they change the meaning of the verb completely. I suggest that you memorize the prefix of the verb together with the meaning it brings.

Compare:

• он шёл (on shel) — “he was going”
• он пришёл (on prishel) — “he has arrived”
• он ушёл (on ushel) — “he has gone”
• он отошёл (on otoshel) — “he has left, but will come back soon”

• Again, we don’t use the perfective form in the present, only in the past or in the future. So, depending on what idea you want to convey, you choose the appropriate form. 

Look at these two verbs in the past tense:

• я видел (ya videl) — “I saw”
• я увидел (ya uvidel) — “I have seen” / “I had seen”

And now check out these two verbs in the future:

• я буду петь (ya budu pet’) — “I will sing” (regularly)
• я спою (ya spoyu) — “I will sing” (once, like a promise)

Can you see the difference? The perfective form usually carries the idea of a one-time action. The imperfective form indicates that the process is ongoing or that the action repeats.

4- Mood

Just in case, this section is going to be about the grammatical mood (and not about how your mood affects the verb conjugation). Well, people tend to use more imperatives when they’re angry!

We define the mood by the intention of what we say. Do we want to talk about something that’s happening in reality? Are we imagining a hypothetical situation? Do we want to give an order to another person?

Mood	Example	Intention
Indicative	Я говорю (Ya govoryu) — “I speak”	Expressing facts and reality
Imperative	Говори! (Govori!) — “Speak!” (informal) Говорите! (Govorite!) — “Speak!” (formal)	Giving orders or instructions
Conditional	Я бы сказал (Ya by skazal) — “I would say”	Talking about a condition or a possibility

The Indicative Mood 

This is what beginners start learning first. This is by far the most common mood in Russian. The indicative mood is usually combined with three tenses, and that creates a specific set of endings for each verb group.

The Imperative Mood

In an informal situation, the imperative form usually ends in -и, -ай, or -ь.

• The verbs ending in -ать in the infinitive mainly take -ай. For example: играть (igrat’) >> играй (igray) — “Play!” 
• The verbs ending in -ить mainly take -и. For example: говорить (govorit’) >> говори (govori) — “Speak!” 

In a formal situation, or when we speak to more than one person, we take the informal imperative form and add -те. For example: играть (igrat’) >> играйте (igrayte) — “Play!” (formal / plural).

You can learn more about the imperative mood from our relevant article (logged-in users only). 

Conditional Mood 

We use бы (by) + the past tense of the verb.

Example: 

• я бы подумал (ya by podumal) — “I would think”
• он бы написал (on by napisal) — “he would write”

Бы doesn’t have a fixed place in the sentence. I would say it’s pretty common to place it closer to the subject (noun or pronoun) rather than the verb.

• Curious about the conditional mood? Log in to check this lesson on RussianPod101.com (logged-in users only).

• The imperative and conditional moods do not have tenses.

Сначала написал, потом подумал. (Snachala napisal, potom podumal.)
“First wrote, then thought.”

2. Conjugation Examples

Now let’s try to summarize everything we’ve learned and put it into practice. Again, four main features to keep in mind:

⇨

⇨

⇨

Let’s finally dive into the Russian conjugation charts! You’ll notice that some cells have the abbreviations (m) and (f). They stand for “male” and “female” respectively.

GROUP 1: Part 1
думать (dumat’) “to think”	Indicative
		Present	Past (imperfective / perfective)		Future (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	думаю*	(m) думал  (f) думала	(m) подумал  (f) подумала	буду думать	подумаю*
ты “you” informal	думаешь	(m) думал  (f) думала	(m) подумал  (f) подумала	будешь думать	подумаешь
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	думает	думал  думала думало	подумал  подумала подумало	будет думать	подумает
мы  “we”	думаем	думали	думали	будем думать	подумаем
вы  “you” formal / plural	думаете	думали	подумали	подумали	подумаете
они  “they”	думают*	думали	подумалnmjh	будут думать	подумают*

GROUP 1: Part 2
думать (dumat’) “to think”	Imperative (imperfective / perfective)		Conditional (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	–	–	(m) бы думал  (f) бы думала	(m) бы подумал  (f) бы подумала
ты “you” informal	думай	подумай	(m) бы думал  (f) бы думала	(m) бы подумал  (f) бы подумала
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	–	–	бы думал  бы думала бы думало	бы подумал  бы подумала бы подумало
мы  “we”	–	–	бы думали	бы подумали
вы  “you” formal / plural	думайте	подумайте	бы думали	бы подумали
они  “they”	–	–	бы думали	бы подумали

* Use the endings -ю, -ют after vowels or the soft sign (e.g.: я думаю, они читают)     Use -у, -ут after consonants (e.g. я расту).

• Still confused about these perfective and imperfective forms? Not sure which one to choose? Please refer to the “Aspect” section once again.

Carefully analyze the table. Do you see the similarities between some forms? Try to remember the Russian conjugation patterns.

What verb would you use to describe her:
подумала? думает? будет думать?
(podumala? dumayet? budet dumat’?)

Let’s have a look at how other verbs behave.

GROUP 2: Part 1
говорить (govorit’) “to talk”	Indicative
	Present	Past (imperfective / perfective)		Future (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	говорю*	(m) говорил  (f) говорила	(m) поговорил  (f) поговорила	буду говорить	поговорю*
ты “you” informal	говоришь	(m) говорил  (f) говорила	(m) поговорил  (f) поговорила	будешь говорить	поговоришь
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	говорит	говорил  говорила говорило	поговорил  поговорила  поговорило	будет говорить	поговорит
мы  “we”	говорим	говорили	поговорили	будем говорить	поговорим
вы  “you” formal / plural	говорите	говорили	поговорили	будете говорить	поговорите
они  “they”	говорят*	говорили	поговорили	будут говорить	поговорят*

GROUP 2: Part 2
говорить (govorit’) “to talk”	Imperative (imperfective / perfective)		Conditional (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	–	–	(m) бы говорил  (f) бы говорила	(m) бы поговорил  (f) бы поговорила
ты “you” informal	говори	поговори	(m) бы говорил  (f) бы говорила	(m) бы поговорил  (f) бы поговорила
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	–	–	бы говорил  бы говорила бы говорило	бы поговорил  бы поговорила  бы поговорило
мы  “we”	–	–	бы говорили	бы поговорили
вы  “you” formal / plural	говорите	поговорите	бы говорили	бы поговорили
они  “they”	–	–	бы говорили	бы поговорили

* The endings -у and -ат are used after the letters Ж, Ш, Ч, Щ, and all hard consonants  -ю and -ят are used after soft consonants and vowels.

Now let’s have a look at how reflexive verbs conjugate (pay special attention to their form in the past tense).

I have chosen a verb that takes a suffix to create a perfective form, not a prefix. Can you spot it?
REFLEXIVE VERB GROUP 1: Part 1
улыбаться (ulybat’sya) “to smile”	Indicative
	Present	Past (imperfective / perfective)		Future (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	улыбаюсь	(m) улыбался  (f) улыбалась	(m) улыбнулся  (f) улыбнулась	буду улыбаться	улыбнусь
ты “you” informal	улыбаешься	(m) улыбался  (f) улыбалась	(m) улыбнулся  (f) улыбнулась	будешь улыбаться	улыбнёшься
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	улыбается	улыбался  улыбалась улыбалось	улыбнулся  улыбнулась улыбнулось	будет улыбаться	улыбнётся
мы  “we”	улыбаемся	улыбались	улыбнулись	будем улыбаться	улыбнёмся
вы  “you” formal / plural	улыбаетесь	улыбались	улыбнулись	будете улыбаться	улыбнётесь
они  “they”	улыбаются	улыбались	улыбнулись	будут улыбаться	улыбнутся

REFLEXIVE VERB GROUP 1: Part 2
улыбаться (ulybat’sya) “to smile”	Imperative (imperfective / perfective)		Conditional (imperfective / perfective)
я “I”	–	–	(m) бы улыбался  (f) бы улыбалась	(m) бы улыбнулся  (f) бы улыбнулась
ты “you” informal	улыбайся	улыбнись	(m) бы улыбался  (f) бы улыбалась	(m) бы улыбнулся  (f) бы улыбнулась
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	–	–	бы улыбался  бы улыбалась бы улыбалось	бы улыбнулся  бы улыбнулась бы улыбнулось
мы  “we”	–	–	бы улыбались	бы улыбнулись
вы  “you” formal / plural	улыбайтесь	улыбнитесь	бы улыбались	бы улыбнулись
они  “they”	–	–	бы улыбались	бы улыбнулись

My face when I’ve finally understood how to conjugate verbs!

3. Irregular Verbs

I believe you were hoping not to see this section in the article. Nobody likes exceptions. But irregular verbs are featured in many languages, including English, and Russian is not an exception. The curse of irregular verbs is that the most common verbs usually fall into this category. But if you just pay close attention to how they conjugate, you might see the pattern to follow as well. 

So, how are they irregular? It really depends on the verb. Sometimes they might insert an extra vowel in the stem:

• брать (brat’) — “to take”
• The present tense: я беру, ты берёшь, мы берём (ya beru, ty beryosh’, my beryom) — “I take, you take, we take”

However, the same verb behaves normally in the past tense:

• я брал, мы брали, она брала (ya bral, my brali, ona brala) — “I was taking, we were taking, she was taking”

As long as it keeps its imperfective form! The verb in its perfective form changes beyond recognition! 

• я взял, он взял, ты взяла (ya vzyal, on vzyal, ty vzyala) — “I’ve taken, he’s taken, you’ve taken (f)”

You can find similar examples in English: “go — went — gone.” The middle word is totally different!

Sometimes, irregular verbs can “misbehave” only in first person singular (“I”). 

Compare: я люблю, ты любишь, мы любим (ya lyublyu, ty lyubish’, my lyubim) — “I love, you love, we love.”

This happens when the infinitive of a verb has features of a Group 2 verb and its stem ends in Б, В, Д, З, П, С, Т, or СТ. In this case, it undergoes a spelling change for the first person singular (“I”) in the present.

Similar verbs:

• готовить (gotovit’) — “to cook” >> я готовлю (ya gotovlyu) — “I cook”
• летать (letat’) — “to fly” >> я лечу (ya lechu) — “I fly”
• терпеть (terpet’) — “to tolerate” >> я терплю (ya terplyu) — “I tolerate” etc.

This is not an exhaustive list of tricks that irregular verbs use to stand out. And while learning how to spot them, or remembering all the exceptions, can indeed be exhausting, seeing irregular verbs as a challenging adventure can be motivating! Every language is a secret code that you’re about to decipher, and this is just an extra layer of security. But a true detective should know how to solve this mystery!

• Again, here’s a tool that will help you tackle complicated verb conjugations and support you until you feel confident conjugating them yourself: Context Conjugator.

Now let’s try to unscramble the behavior of an irregular verb.

IRREGULAR VERB
давать (davat’) “to give”	Indicative					Imperative (imperf / perf)		Conditional (imperf / perf)
	Present	Past (imperf / perf)		Future (imperf / perf)
я “I”	даю	(m) давал  (f) давала	дал дала	буду давать	дам	–	–	(m) бы давал  (f) бы давала	дал дала
ты “you” informal	даёшь	(m) давал   (f) давала	дал  дала	будешь давать	дашь	давай	дай	(m) бы давал  (f) бы давала	дал дала
он “he” она “she” оно “it”	даёт	давал  давала давало	дал  дала   дало	будет давать	даст	–	–	бы давал  бы давала  бы давало	дал дала  дало
мы  “we”	даём	давали	дали	будем давать	дадим	–	–	бы давали	дали
вы  “you” formal / plural	даёте	давали	дали	будете давать	дадите	–	–	бы давали	дали
они  “they”	дают	давали	дали	будут давать	дадут	–	–	бы давали	дали

Have a look at this table and try to analyze it: Does the conjugation of this irregular verb have anything in common with how regular verbs conjugate? What is it? And what exactly is different? 

• You can find a pretty detailed list of Russian irregular verbs here. Conjugation tables will keep you good company at first, but learn not to rely on them too much. Practice makes perfect!

4. Test Your Knowledge!

Now I feel like you’re ready to impress me with your newly acquired skills! Prepare your conjugation tables, your irregular verbs table, your attentiveness, and your desire to succeed!

For this Russian conjugation quiz, please conjugate the verbs in parentheses. Don’t worry if you can’t find all the answers. I will help you!

1. Я (жить) _______ в Екатеринбурге. Где вы (жить) _______?
   I live in Ekaterinburg. Where do you live?”

2. (Рассказывать)______ мне о своих увлечениях.
   “Tell me about your hobbies.”

3. Мы с друзьями (любить)______ (путешествовать)_______ и (изучать) _____ иностранные языки.
   “My friends and I, we love to travel and learn new languages.”

4. Если бы я больше времени (проводить)______ дома, я бы с радостью (взять) ______ кошку или собаку.
   “If I spent more time at home, I would gladly take a cat or a dog.”

5.  В следующем году мои друзья (ехать) _____ в Японию. 
   Конечно же, я тоже (хотеть) _____ !
   “Next year, my friends are going to Japan. Of course, I want to go too!”

Alright, let’s analyze each of them.

1. Я живу в Екатеринбурге. Где вы живёте?
   “I live in Ekaterinburg. Where do you live?”

First, it’s an irregular verb in the indicative mood (it’s just a fact), the present tense, the first person. And even though this is an irregular verb, and it’s hard to guess that another letter is going to appear in the stem, the endings are standard.

2. Расскажи / расскажите мне о своих увлечениях.
   “Tell me about your hobbies.”

Both options are possible depending on who you’re addressing (informal or formal interaction), and it’s the imperative mood because we ask somebody to give us some information.

3. Мы с друзьями любим путешествовать и изучать иностранные языки.
   “My friends and I, we love to travel and learn new languages.”

Here, we can see the indicative mood, the present tense, and the third person plural for the first verb (also irregular, by the way). Unlike in English, where you should decide if a gerund or an infinitive should go after the verb, in Russian, it’s always the infinitive. This is why the next two verbs are in their initial form. 

4. Если бы я больше времени проводил / проводила дома, я бы с радостью взял / взяла кошку или собаку.
   “If I spent more time at home, I would gladly take a cat or a dog.”

Finally, some conditional! It’s pretty common to use the word если (yesli), meaning “if,” in conditional sentences. So, the verb проводить (provodit’), meaning “to spend (time),” is also irregular, but behaves normally in the past tense (Group 2, imperfective form). Why the past tense? Because conditional is just бы + past tense. It also means that we can choose between the masculine (проводил) and the feminine form (проводила). The same goes for the verb брать (brat’), meaning “to take.” It’s irregular, and I’ve mentioned it before, in Irregular Verbs. 

Do you know why the verb “to take” is in its perfective form? (Think before reading next!) Because perfective forms usually convey a one-time action. It means I would take a cat or a dog once. If I were to keep taking a new dog every week, it would be imperfective: брала бы.

5.  В следующем году мои друзья поедут в Японию. Конечно же, я тоже хочу !
   “Next year, my friends are going to Japan. Of course, I want to go too!”

So, the verb “to go” (for travel in general) is in the future tense, indicative mood, perfective form. I’m sure now you can explain why! The verb хотеть (khotet’), meaning “to want,” is irregular (oh, not again!), so it has changed one consonant in the middle. By the way, you may wonder why the conjugation table says the ending for “I” is -ю, and here it’s -у. If you forgot, please get back to the comment right under the table. ;)

After the journey to the land of verb conjugation

5. A Bonus from RussianPod101

In this guide, you’ve learned everything about Russian verb conjugation, endings, aspect, mood, tenses… Ah, so many new linguistic terms! Maybe you’ve learned something new about the English language as well? Bookmark this guide to refer to it from time to time—learning everything at once is hard, which is why you should get back to it sometimes to review and learn something new. Are you sure you haven’t skipped any piece of information? ;)

Good job! RussianPod101 is offering you a bonus: a free list of Must-Know Verbs! Make sure to check it out! Remember that you can also use our premium service, MyTeacher. You’ll  get personal one-on-one coaching to practice verb conjugation and more with a private teacher, using assignments, grammar and vocabulary exercises, and voice recordings to improve your pronunciation! Happy learning with RussianPod101!