My Slavic Studies

I’m back with another lesson on Russian verb conjugation. We’ve gone through the first- and second-conjugation groups already.

Please look at those posts before reading this one.

Already sufficiently familiar with those key verb groups? If so, let’s begin!

As I had mentioned in my post concerning second-conjugation verbs, this group is indeed more challenging.

This rule applies to second-conjugation verbs only!

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Addition of л

In second-conjugation verbs whose stem ends in: б, в, м or п, the letter л is added into the conjugation of я, yet the remaining conjugations are unaffected.

For reference, and as a refresher, here’s a table with the usual second-conjugation endings.

я	ты	он/она/оно	мы	вы	они
–ю	–ишь	–ит	–им	–ите	–ят

Let’s look at some verbs affected by this rule.

готовить [to cook; to prepare]

ending: –ить | stem: готов–

готовлю	готовим
готовишь	готовите
готовит	готовят

любить [to love]

ending: -ить | stem: люб–

люблю	любим
любишь	любите
любит	любят

купить* [to buy]

ending: –ить | stem: куп–

куплю	купим
купишь	купите
купит	купят

Я готовлю самые лучшие блюда. I cook the best dishes.

Я люблю всех, кто уважает меня. I love all those who respect me.

Я куплю ей бутылку вина и коробку конфет. I’ll buy her a bottle of wine and a box of candy.

Additional verbs following this pattern are:

храпеть [to snore], ловить [to fish], ставить [to put], добавить* [to add], спать [to sleep], etc.

Я сплю примерно 8 часов каждую ночь. I sleep approximately 8 hours every night.

Ты знаешь, что я громко храплю. You know that I snore loudly.

Я ловлю рыбу по воскресным утрам. I fish on Sunday mornings.

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And that concludes today’s post. See you in the next!