Russian: Verb Conjugation VII -2nd Conjugation Peculiarity-

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!

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.

ятыон/она/ономывыони
юишьитимитеят

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

готовить
[to cook; to prepare]
ending: –ить | stem: готов
готовлюготовим
готовишьготовите
готовитготовят
любить
[to love]
ending: -ить | stem: люб
люблюлюбим
любишьлюбите
любитлюбят
купить*
[to buy]
ending: –ить | stem: куп
*perfective
куплюкупим
купишькупите
купиткупят
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.
*perfective
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.

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

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