ABOUT BOOK

Russian aspect is complex in all of its dimensions—verbs are marked for aspect by an array of prefixes and suffixes, and the usage of perfective and imperfective verbs can be mysterious even for those who have learned Russian for years. Russian Aspect in Conversation is aimed at demystifying some important uses of imperfective verbs for learners of Russian at the intermediate level and above. It focuses on patterns of imperfective usage in infinitives, imperatives and the past tense that involve single completed actions and that are difficult for foreign learners to grasp. Each of the core modules consists of an introductory exercise, followed by more passive exercises focusing on interpretations of aspectual forms and then active exercise in which the student must choose the correct aspect in a context. The language material consists almost exclusively of conversational dialogues based on attestations in the Russian National Corpus and Russian fiction, films and online content, which utilize verbs typical of most intermediate- and advanced-level Russian textbooks.