The Infinitive | Russian Grammar

The infinitive (инфинити́в, "infinitive") is the form you find when you look a verb up in a dictionary. It names the action in the abstract — to read, to speak, to go — without telling you who does it, when, or how many people are involved. Every Russian verb has one, and it is always a single word: there is nothing corresponding to the English particle to. When you say хочу́ чита́ть ("I want to read"), the to is built into the verb itself; there is no separate word for it. Learning to recognise the three infinitive endings and the handful of slots where the infinitive is required gives you a huge amount of mileage before you have conjugated a single verb.

The three infinitive endings

Russian infinitives end in one of three ways. By far the most common is -ть; a small group ends in -ти; and a closed set ends in -чь. The ending you see also signals where the stress tends to fall and which consonants the verb will produce when conjugated, so it is worth distinguishing them from the start.

-ть (the default)

The overwhelming majority of verbs end in -ть, attached to a vowel. This is the ending you will meet thousands of times.

Infinitive	Meaning
чита́ть	to read
говори́ть	to speak, to say
де́лать	to do, to make
рабо́тать	to work
люби́ть	to love, to like
знать	to know

Я хочу́ научи́ться хорошо́ говори́ть по-ру́сски.

I want to learn to speak Russian well. — научи́ться 'to learn' + the bare infinitive говори́ть 'to speak'.

Что ты лю́бишь де́лать в выходны́е?

What do you like to do on weekends? — лю́бишь 'you like' + the infinitive де́лать 'to do'.

-ти (stressed, after a consonant)

A smaller group of verbs ends in -ти. The defining trait is that -ти follows a consonant and the ending is almost always stressed. These are mostly verbs of motion and a few others.

Infinitive	Meaning
идти́	to go (on foot)
нести́	to carry
везти́	to carry/transport (by vehicle)
вести́	to lead
пасти́	to graze, to herd

На́до идти́, а то опозда́ем на по́езд.

We have to go, or we'll be late for the train. — на́до 'it is necessary' + идти́ 'to go'.

Помоги́ мне нести́ э́ти су́мки, пожа́луйста.

Help me carry these bags, please. — помоги́ 'help' + нести́ 'to carry'.

-чь (a small closed set)

A few dozen verbs end in -чь. This is not a separate ending tacked onto a stem so much as the result of an old sound change, and these verbs all show a к/г → ч alternation when conjugated. You will mostly meet them as fixed vocabulary items.

Infinitive	Meaning
мочь	to be able to, can
помо́чь	to help
печь	to bake
бере́чь	to take care of, to protect
лечь	to lie down

Я могу́ помо́чь тебе́ с перее́здом в суббо́ту.

I can help you with the move on Saturday. — могу́ 'I can' + помо́чь 'to help'.

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The infinitive ending tells you almost nothing about the conjugation class on its own — that is decided by the present-tense vowel, covered on the two conjugations page. What the ending does hint at is stress (-ти verbs stress the ending) and the consonant you can expect when conjugating (-чь verbs alternate к/г → ч). Treat the ending as a clue, not a rule.

Where the infinitive is required

The infinitive is not just a citation form sitting in the dictionary — it appears constantly in real sentences. There are four main slots, and three of them trip up English speakers because English handles them differently.

Modal words and impersonal necessity expressions are followed by a bare infinitive. The most frequent are хоте́ть ("to want"), мочь ("can"), уме́ть ("to know how to"), and the impersonal predicates на́до / ну́жно ("it is necessary"), мо́жно ("it is allowed / one may"), and нельзя́ ("it is forbidden / one must not").

Я хочу́ есть, у нас есть что-нибу́дь в холоди́льнике?

I'm hungry (lit. I want to eat) — is there anything in the fridge? — хочу́ 'I want' + есть 'to eat'.

Здесь мо́жно кури́ть?

Is it allowed to smoke here? — мо́жно 'one may' + кури́ть 'to smoke'.

Уже́ по́здно, нам пора́ идти́ домо́й.

It's late, it's time for us to go home. — пора́ 'it's time' + идти́ 'to go'.

The crucial point for English speakers: there is no что-clause here. English has want to read with a to, but it also has constructions like want him to read; learners sometimes reach for a что ("that") clause by analogy. In Russian, when the wanter and the doer are the same person, you simply use the bare infinitive. Я хочу́ чита́ть — never хочу́ что чита́ть. (A что-clause appears only when the subjects differ — Я хочу́, что́бы ты чита́л, "I want you to read" — and even then it uses что́бы, not a plain infinitive; that is a separate construction.)

After phase verbs (begin, continue, finish, stop)

Verbs that describe the phase of an action — starting, continuing, finishing, stopping — take an infinitive directly. The common ones are начина́ть ("to begin"), продолжа́ть ("to continue"), конча́ть / зака́нчивать ("to finish"), and перестава́ть ("to stop").

Я то́лько начина́ю понима́ть, как э́то рабо́тает.

I'm only beginning to understand how this works. — начина́ю 'I begin' + понима́ть 'to understand'.

Переста́нь жа́ловаться и начни́ что-то де́лать.

Stop complaining and start doing something. — переста́нь 'stop' + жа́ловаться 'to complain'; начни́ 'start' + де́лать 'to do'.

A grammatical detail worth flagging early: phase verbs require the imperfective infinitive. You say начина́ю чита́ть, never начина́ю прочита́ть. The logic is that "beginning to do" something focuses on the process, which is what the imperfective marks. This is one of the aspect rules you will meet again on the aspect in the infinitive page.

After verbs that govern an infinitive

Beyond phase verbs, many ordinary verbs take an infinitive as their complement: люби́ть ("to love/like"), уме́ть ("to know how to"), учи́ться ("to learn"), реши́ть ("to decide"), забы́ть ("to forget"), обеща́ть ("to promise").

Мы реши́ли уе́хать на мо́ре в а́вгусте.

We've decided to go away to the seaside in August. — реши́ли 'decided' + уе́хать 'to go away'.

Она́ уме́ет води́ть маши́ну, но не лю́бит.

She knows how to drive a car but doesn't like to. — уме́ет 'knows how' + води́ть 'to drive'.

As subject or in impersonal sentences

The infinitive can also stand on its own as the grammatical subject of a sentence — Кури́ть вре́дно ("Smoking is harmful"). English usually needs the -ing form (a gerund) here; Russian uses the plain infinitive. And a bare infinitive by itself, with no subject at all, functions as a blunt rule, command, or rhetorical question, where English needs a longer phrase.

Кури́ть вре́дно для здоро́вья.

Smoking is harmful to your health. — the infinitive кури́ть is the subject of the sentence.

Не входи́ть! Иду́т ремо́нтные рабо́ты.

Do not enter! Repair work in progress. — a bare infinitive as a posted prohibition; English needs 'Do not...'.

Что де́лать? Я совсе́м не зна́ю, как ему́ помо́чь.

What is to be done? I have no idea how to help him. — Что де́лать?, a fixed infinitive question; помо́чь after зна́ю как.

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The bare-infinitive command is everywhere in Russian public signage and rules: Не кури́ть ("No smoking"), Не входи́ть ("No entry"), Соблюда́ть тишину́ ("Keep quiet"). It sounds impersonal and authoritative — exactly right for a regulation. Used at a person, though, it can sound curt, so for ordinary requests Russians use the imperative (Не кури́ здесь) rather than the bare infinitive.

The infinitive carries aspect

Every Russian verb belongs to one of two aspects, imperfective or perfective, and the difference shows up already in the infinitive. Aspect pairs are even cited by their two infinitives: dictionaries list де́лать / сде́лать ("to do"), чита́ть / прочита́ть ("to read"), писа́ть / написа́ть ("to write"). The first member describes the action as a process or a repeated event; the second presents it as a single completed whole.

Я люблю́ чита́ть пе́ред сном.

I like to read before bed. — imperfective чита́ть: reading as an ongoing habit.

Я хочу́ прочита́ть э́ту кни́гу до конца́ ме́сяца.

I want to read (finish) this book by the end of the month. — perfective прочита́ть: reading through to completion.

Choosing the right aspect in the infinitive is a real skill, and it gets a page of its own — see aspect in the infinitive and the aspect overview. For now, just register that the infinitive is not aspect-neutral: when you learn a verb, you learn it as one half of a pair.

How this differs from English

English speakers carry over three habits that produce ungrammatical Russian:

There is no separate word for to. The infinitive is one word. To read = чита́ть, full stop. Do not insert anything before it.
No что-clause for "want to / like to / need to." When the subject of the wanting and the subject of the doing are the same, use the bare infinitive: хочу́ спать ("I want to sleep"), на́до рабо́тать ("I need to work"). Reaching for что here is the classic transfer error.
The infinitive, not the -ing form, is the verbal noun. Smoking is harmful → Кури́ть вре́дно, with an infinitive, not a gerund.

Common Mistakes

❌ Я хочу́ что чита́ть э́ту кни́гу.

Wrong — there is no что-clause when the wanter and the reader are the same person. Use the bare infinitive.

✅ Я хочу́ чита́ть э́ту кни́гу.

I want to read this book.

❌ На́до идёт домо́й.

Wrong — на́до 'it is necessary' must be followed by an infinitive, not a conjugated form. идёт is 'he/she goes'.

✅ На́до идти́ домо́й.

We need to go home.

❌ Я начина́ю прочита́ть кни́гу.

Wrong aspect — phase verbs like начина́ть require the imperfective infinitive. прочита́ть is perfective.

✅ Я начина́ю чита́ть кни́гу.

I'm starting to read the book.

❌ Куре́ние вре́дно — saying it the English way with a noun where Russian uses the infinitive as subject.

Куре́ние (a noun, 'smoking') is possible but bookish; the everyday subject form is the infinitive.

✅ Кури́ть вре́дно.

Smoking is harmful. — the infinitive as the natural subject.

❌ Я могу́ помога́ю тебе́.

Wrong — after the modal могу́ 'I can' you need an infinitive, not another conjugated verb.

✅ Я могу́ помо́чь тебе́.

I can help you. — могу́ + the infinitive помо́чь.

Key Takeaways

The infinitive is the dictionary form and a single word — there is no Russian equivalent of to.
Three endings: -ть (the default: чита́ть, де́лать), -ти (stressed, after a consonant: идти́, нести́), and -чь (a small set with к/г → ч: мочь, помо́чь).
The infinitive is required after modal/necessity words (хочу́, мо́жно, на́до, нельзя́), phase verbs (начина́ть, продолжа́ть — imperfective only), infinitive-governing verbs (люби́ть, уме́ть, реши́ть), and as a subject (Кури́ть вре́дно) or standalone rule/command (Не входи́ть!).
When the wanter and the doer are the same, use the bare infinitive, never a что-clause: Я хочу́ спать.
The infinitive carries aspect — verbs are cited as pairs (де́лать / сде́лать); choosing between them is covered on the aspect pages.

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