| Past | Present | Future |
| First Conjugation | Second Conjugation |
| Verb conjugation, спряжение глаголов, plays a key role in just about every Indo-European language. Russian is no exception! |
Concerning this topic, there is both good news and bad news I have to share with you.
| Good news! Russian verb conjugation is rather simple – most verbs fall into one of two groups: first conjugation and second conjugation. Each has their own set of endings. |
| There are only three tenses – present, past and future. Unlike in English, there are no subcategories such as present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, present progressive, etc. |
Let’s start conjugating!
| Formation |
First, we must identify the infinitive. The infinitive is the non-conjugated verb.
| Most Russian verbs end in –ть, for example: быть [to be], жить [to live], пить [to drink]. A small group ends in –чь, for example: мочь [to be able], лечь [to lie down], жечь [to burn]. |
How do we identify a first-conjugation verb? It’s quite easy.
| The majority of first-conjugation verbs end in either –ать or –ять. |
Once we find a verb matching the description above, we remove the infinitive ending and replace it with the following conjugations. Verb endings change depending on the subject. This is called subject-verb agreement.
| First-Conjugation Endings |
| я | ты | он|она|оно | мы | вы | они |
| –ю | –ешь | –ет | –ем | –ете | –ют |
| Not sure what personal pronouns are or how they are used in Russian? Click here to find out. |
Let’s dissect a sample verb. We’ll start with читать [to read].
How do we conjugate this verb? Simple! Take off the infinitive ending –ть, now we have the stem: чита-. With the stem found, we can add on the proper endings, according to the personal pronoun. See below:
| я | ты | он|она|оно | мы | вы | они |
| читаю | читаешь | читает | читаем | читаете | читают |
Use this table as a reference for conjugating these verbs:
| First-Conjugation Endings |
| я | ты | он|она|оно | мы | вы | они |
| –ю | –ешь | –ет | –ем | –ете | –ют |
Do you notice the stress didn’t change? It’s on the а and it doesn’t change. It remains the same throughout the conjugation. Keep this in mind, because verbs of this group don’t change their stress. That’s a good thing!
…The conjugation for ты, regardless of conjugation type will always end in –шь. And there is no need for ь – it has no effect on the preceding consonant! The letter is only here for historical preservation. If you’re already familiar with Russian phonology, you’ll have learned that ш is always hard. Don’t try to soften this consonant!
And since seeing grammar used in real-life contexts is so key in understanding how it works, here are some examples:
| В свободное время я читаю статьи в интернете. In my free time I read articles on the Internet. |
| Она читает обо всём: о науке, об исскустве, о политике, и т.д. She reads about everything: science, art, politics, etc. |
| Вы читаете газету «Правда» за завтраком. You read the newspaper Pravda at breakfast. |
Additional verbs following this pattern are:
| делать [to do, to make], слушать [to listen], играть [to play], изучать [to study], терять [to lose], работать [to work], показывать [to show], выбирать [to choose], спрашивать [to ask], покупать [to buy], знать [to know], решать [to decide], принимать [to take], посылать [to send], собирать [to collect], гулять [to walk around], начинать [to start], сажать [to plant], помогать [to help], думать [to think], добалять [to add], удивлять [to surprise], опаздывать [to be late], бросать [to throw], отдыхать [to relax], открывать [to open], заткрывать [to close], завтракать [to have breakfast], обедать [to have lunch], ужинать [to have dinner], etc. |
Examples of a more advanced usage:
| Нас удивляет, что она теперь служит полицейской. It surprises us that she is now working as a police officer. |
| Преподаватель спрашивает студента, понимает ли он материал. The professor is asking the student if he understands the material. |
| Клаудия играет с эмоциями мужчин. Claudia plays with men’s emotions. |
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In the large clump of verbs above, notice the infinitive ending is light blue. To conjugate those verbs, as stated above, remove the ending, which will give you the stem, then add the proper conjugations.
делать [stem: дела-]
| я | ты | он|она|оно | мы | вы | они |
| делаю | делаешь | делает | делаем | делаете | делают |
слушать [stem: слуша-]
| я | ты | он|она|оно | мы | вы | они |
| слушаю | слушаешь | слушает | слушаем | слушаете | слушают |
…Notice, once again [I’ve stated this above] the stress doesn’t move. It stays in the same spot.
It’s that simple! Follow the pattern and there’s nothing else to it!
And here are some examples utilizing conjugated verbs in proper contexts.
| Я делаю уборку каждый день. I do the tidying up every day. |
| Они не знают, что делать. They don’t know what to do. |
| Бабушка сажает цветы в саду. Grandma is planting flowers in the garden. |
| Мы с друзьями играем в волейбал. My friends and I play volleyball. |
| Ты слушаешь новости по радио? Do you listen to the news on the radio? |
And there you have it! You can properly conjugate regular first-conjugation verba. What’s next? Learn the second-conjugation verbs.
| Last Edit: 11/26/2025. |
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