Russian verbs of motion

We are going to have a look at the Russian verbs that mean "to go", "to run", "to fly",... that is, Russian verbs of motion.

For each English verb of motion, we have two verbs in Russian. Look here at these two meanings of the verb "to go":

• I usually go to the cinema with Pedro --> Here we express a routine, a movement that we usually/frequently do. We make a "multidirectional motion" (return trip), which is going from home to the cinema and back home.
• I'm going to the cinema with Pedro --> Here we express that we are "on our way" to the cinema. We make a "unidirectional motion" (one-way trip), which is going from home to the cinema.

As you can see in both cases we use the same English verb (to go), but in Russian we use two different verbs:

• I usually go to the cinema = Я хожу́ в кино́ (verb ходи́ть).
• I'm going to the cinema = Я иду́ в кино́ (verb идти́).

• ходи́ть: means "to go regularly, to go there and return". It's a multidireccional verb of motion.
• идт́и: means "to be going there, to go on a single direction". It's a unidireccional verb of movement.

Multidirectional and unidirectional verbs of motion

As you can see, we have two kind of verbs of motion:

1. Multidirectional verbs of motion, which mean "to go often/regularly/frequently, to go and return".
2. Unidirectional verbs of motion, which mean "to be going somewhere".

We take another example: "Mark flies to Madrid". If we want to say...

...Mark usually/regularly flies to Madrid, we would use the multidirectional verb лета́ть = "Марк лета́ет в Мадри́д"

...Mark is flying to Madrid, we would use the unidireccional verb лете́ть = "Марк лети́т в Мадри́д"

Russian verbs of motion in the past

Have a look at these two sentences and how we translate them into Russian:

...We used to go to the cinema. Many times we did the trip home-->cinema-->home. That's a multidirectional motion.

In this case we use the multidirectional verb of motion ходи́ть and we say in Russian "Мы ходи́ли в кино́".

...We were going to the cinema. We were doing the trip home-->cinema, we were on our way to the cinema.

That's a unidireccional motion. We use the unidirectional verb of motion идти́ and we say in Russian "Мы шли в кино́".

Remember that the verb идти́ has irregular past forms: шёл (masculine), шла (feminine), шли (plural).

Pay attention: This is important

If we want to say a very common phrase like "We went to the cinema (only once)", we will use the same verb as in "we used to go to the cinema (regularly). We only have to add context to the phrase:

• Мы ходи́ли в кино́ вчера́ = We went to the cinema yesterday / We were in the cinema yesterday.
• Мы ходи́ли в кино́, когда́ мы жи́ли в Москве́ = We used to go to the cinema when we were living in Moscow.

This means that Мы ходи́ли в кино́ means always that we did the trip home-->cinema-->home.

The rest of the sentences (вчера́ / когда́ мы жи́ли в Москве́) will let us know if the trip was done once or many times.

On the other hand, a sentence like Мы шли в кино́ means always that we were doing the trip home-->cinema.

As you can see, it is easy to understand why they call them multidirectional and unidirectional verbs of motion.

Summary

As you have seen, for each English verb of motion (to go, to run, to fly,...) there are two Russian verbs:

1. Multidirectional verb of motion: This verb means "to make regularly a movement" (usually to go to a place and back).
• If the verb is in the present, we talk about a movement that we usually do.
• If the verb is in the past, we talk about a movement that we used to do.
• If the verb is in the past, it also means that we have been in a place (only once) / we went there and came back.
2. Unidirectional verb of motion: This verb means "to be moving in a single direction"
• If the verb is in the present, we talk about the movement that we are doing right now.
• If the verb is in the past, we talk about that movement that we were doing in that moment.

Russian verbs of motion conjugated

Multidirectional verbs of motion

The following verbs express motion in different directions (usually "go there and back" / "return trip" / "round-trip").

• In the present: they express that you usually go (and come back) regularly to a place.
• In the past: they express that you used to go (and come back) regularly to a place.

Unidirectional verbs of motion

The following verbs express motion in a single direction (that is, the direction you are moving towards).

• In the present: they express that you are moving (going to a place) now.
• In the past: they express that you were moving (going to a place) in the past.

Perfective verbs of motion

Every verb of motion that you have seen in the tables above are imperfective (no matter if they are multidirectional or unidirectional). If we take a unidirectional verb and we add the prefix -по, we get a perfective verb. But, the same will not happen with a multidirectional verb: if we add -по, the verb is still imperfective.

In the dialogues section we have seen some examples of these perfective verbs highlighted.

The perfective verbs of motion that you have seen in the lesson are:

• пойти́ (to go on foot)
• пое́хать (to travel / to move using a vehicle)
• полете́ть (to fly)

to conjugate these verbs, you one have to take the verb from the table above and add -по.

What happens when there is not a final destination?

In all the examples we have studied we talk about "to go to the cinema" o "to fly to Madrid". That is, we talked about going to a precise destination.

But we could also talk about movements as in "I'm walking on the park" or "I'm running on the beach". That is, we would talk about moving without any particular destination. In these cases we use multidirectional verbs:

• Я хожу́ по па́рку: I'm walking in the park (unidirectional: Я иду́ в парк: I'm walking to the park)
• Я бе́гаю на стадио́не: I'm running in the stadium (unidirectional: Я бегу́ на стадио́н: I'm running to the stadium)