Proverb: Век живи́ — век учи́сь

This four-word proverb is the Russian "live and learn", and it is an ideal text for an intermediate learner because every single word teaches something. The repeated word век ("century, lifetime") is a bare accusative of duration — a noun marking how long with no preposition at all. The two verbs живи́ and учи́сь are imperfective imperatives, the form Russian uses for open-ended life-advice. And учи́сь is reflexive (учи́ться, "to learn / study"), one of those -ся verbs that trips up learners who confuse it with учи́ть ("to teach / to memorise"). We'll give the proverb whole, then take it apart piece by piece.

The proverb

Literally: "(For) a lifetime live — (for) a lifetime learn." The repetition of век on both sides yokes living and learning together: for as long as you are alive, you should keep learning. There is no end to it — which is the whole point.

Word by word

век — the bare accusative of duration

The word век means "a century" and, by extension, "a lifetime, an age". In this proverb it is in the accusative case measuring duration — how long the action lasts. The startling thing for an English speaker is that there is no preposition: Russian marks "for [a length of time]" with the bare accusative alone. век here = "for a whole lifetime".

This is a general rule, not a quirk of this proverb. To say how long an action continues, Russian uses the accusative with no preposition: рабо́тать всю ночь ("to work all night"), ждать час ("to wait for an hour"), жить год в Москве́ ("to live in Moscow for a year"). English needs "for"; Russian needs nothing. And because век is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative is identical to its nominative (век = век), so the case is invisible — but it is genuinely the accusative of duration that is doing the work.

живи́ and учи́сь — the imperfective imperatives

Both verbs are in the imperative (the command/advice form), 2nd-person singular: живи́ ("live!") from жить, and учи́сь ("learn!") from учи́ться. They address a generic "you" — anyone, everyone — in the familiar singular, the natural register for a piece of folk wisdom.

The key aspectual point: both are imperfective. Russian chooses the imperfective imperative for general, open-ended, repeated, or lifelong advice — exactly the case here. Living and learning are not single bounded actions to be completed once; they are ongoing processes meant to fill a whole life. A perfective imperative (проживи́, научи́сь) would imply "do it once and finish it", which is the opposite of the proverb's meaning. The imperfective живи́ / учи́сь says "keep on living, keep on learning, indefinitely" — and the duration word век ("a lifetime") reinforces that open-endedness.

учи́сь — the reflexive verb учи́ться

The second verb deserves special attention because it is a classic learner trap. учи́сь is the imperative of учи́ться, a -ся (reflexive) verb meaning "to learn, to study (oneself)". It contrasts sharply with its non-reflexive partner учи́ть:

• учи́ть (no -ся) = "to teach (someone)" or "to memorise / study (something)" — it takes an object: учи́ть слова́ "to memorise words", учи́ть дете́й "to teach children".
• учи́ться (with -ся) = "to learn, to study, to be a student" — the subject is the one doing the learning, on themselves: учи́ться в шко́ле "to study at school", учи́ться пла́вать "to learn to swim".

In the proverb, учи́сь means "learn / educate yourself" — the subject is improving their own knowledge. The -ся here is the reflexive "self" marker: the action turns back on the doer. Note the form of the ending: -ся contracts to -сь after a vowel (учи́сь, not *учи́ся), which is a regular spelling rule for -ся verbs.

The parallel structure and the dash

The proverb is built as a parallel: век живи́ // век учи́сь — two halves of identical shape (duration-word + imperative), set against each other. There is no conjunction: Russian does not say "and" between them. The two commands simply stand side by side, and the parallelism itself links them. The repeated век at the head of each half hammers the parallel home rhythmically.

The two halves are joined in writing by a dash (—). Russian uses the dash, not a comma or "and", to mark exactly this kind of balanced, contrastive or summarising juxtaposition between two equal parts — it signals "and here's the matching/answering half". (Compare Де́лу вре́мя, поте́хе час, which uses a comma; both are conjunctionless parallels, but the dash gives this one a more pointed, "and therefore" feel.) Reading aloud, you pause at the dash, then deliver the second half as the punchline.

Meaning and when to use it

The proverb means: you never stop learning — keep educating yourself your whole life long. It is the Russian "live and learn", used both as gentle self-deprecation ("well, you learn something new every day") and as earnest encouragement to stay curious.

You use it to:

• comment on learning something new and surprising, especially at an age or stage where you thought you knew it all ("I never knew that — век живи́, век учи́сь!");
• encourage a learner (of any subject, at any age) to keep going — there's always more to learn;
• shrug off a mistake philosophically: you've learned from it, and that's life.

The register is neutral — at home in casual conversation, in writing, and in a teacher's or parent's encouragement. The first half alone (Век живи́…) is rarely used on its own; the proverb needs both halves to make its point.

Using it in context

Vocabulary gloss

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• век is a bare accusative of duration ("for a lifetime") — Russian marks "how long" with the accusative and no preposition; for masculine inanimates the form looks like the nominative.
• живи́ and учи́сь are imperfective imperatives — the aspect for general, open-ended, lifelong advice; a perfective (проживи́, научи́сь) would wrongly imply a one-off completed action.
• учи́сь is the reflexive учи́ться ("learn / study yourself"), not учи́ть ("teach someone / memorise"); the suffix is spelled -сь after a vowel.
• The two halves form a conjunctionless parallel joined by a dash — the parallelism is the link; don't insert "и".
• Meaning: never stop learning, all your life — the Russian "live and learn"; neutral in register, always quoted in full.