Verbs of motion in Russian are special: each meaning has two imperfective forms.
The four key verbs
| Meaning | Unidirectional (going somewhere now) | Multidirectional (habitual, back-and-forth) |
|---|---|---|
| to go (on foot) | идти | ходить |
| to go (by vehicle) | ехать | ездить |
| to run | бежать | бегать |
| to fly | лететь | летать |
Examples
- Unidirectional (right now, one direction):
- Я иду в магазин (I'm going to the store right now).
-
Мы едем в Москву (We're traveling to Moscow).
-
Multidirectional (habitual, round trip):
- Я хожу в школу каждый день (I go to school every day).
- Вы ездите на работу на машине? (Do you drive to work?).
Past tense
- идти → шёл, шла, шло, шли (by foot, in progress)
- ходить → ходил (by foot, round trip or general ability)
Related Topics
Accusative Case
Prepositional Case
Genitive Case
Dative Case
Basic Instrumental Case
Verb Aspect: Imperfective and Perfective
Future Tense: Imperfective and Perfective
Basic Prefixed Motion Verbs
Reflexive Verbs
Modal Words: можно, нужно, надо, нельзя
Comparative Forms: лучше, хуже, больше, меньше
Complex Sentence Connectors: потому что, поэтому, когда, если