The motion verbs so far have all been intransitive — the subject just moves. Russian has three more pairs where the subject moves something or someone else: you carry a bag, lead a child, transport passengers. These take a direct object in the accusative, and each multidirectional member has picked up an everyday idiomatic meaning that learners must know on sight — носи́ть ("wear"), води́ть маши́ну ("drive a car"), везёт ("be lucky"). This page conjugates all three pairs, exposes the 1sg homonym trap they conceal, and sorts the literal motion from the lexicalized senses.
The three pairs
| Unidirectional | Multidirectional | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| нести́ | носи́ть | carry (while on foot) |
| вести́ | води́ть | lead / take (a person); drive (a vehicle) |
| везти́ | вози́ть | transport / convey (by vehicle) |
The division of labour is precise: нести́ is to carry an object in your hands or on your person, on foot. вести́ is to lead a person or animal — to take them somewhere, walking beside or guiding them. везти́ is to convey someone or something by vehicle. So you carry a suitcase (нести́), lead a child by the hand (вести́), and drive your kids to school in the car (везти́). All take an accusative object.
Я несу́ тяжёлую су́мку.
I'm carrying a heavy bag. (object in hand, on foot → нести́)
Ма́ма ведёт ребёнка в де́тский сад.
Mum is taking the child to kindergarten. (leading a person on foot → вести́)
Такси́ везёт нас в аэропо́рт.
The taxi is taking us to the airport. (conveying by vehicle → везти́)
Conjugation
The unidirectional members are all stressed-ending consonant-stem verbs of the same type (несу́ / несёшь pattern), with characteristic vowel-zero pasts. The multidirectional members are all second-conjugation -ить verbs with a 1sg consonant mutation.
| нести́ | носи́ть | вести́ | води́ть | везти́ | вози́ть | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| я | несу́ | ношу́ | веду́ | вожу́ | везу́ | вожу́ |
| ты | несёшь | но́сишь | ведёшь | во́дишь | везёшь | во́зишь |
| он / она́ | несёт | но́сит | ведёт | во́дит | везёт | во́зит |
| мы | несём | но́сим | ведём | во́дим | везём | во́зим |
| вы | несёте | но́сите | ведёте | во́дите | везёте | во́зите |
| они́ | несу́т | но́сят | веду́т | во́дят | везу́т | во́зят |
| past m / f | нёс / несла́ | носи́л / носи́ла | вёл / вела́ | води́л / води́ла | вёз / везла́ | вози́л / вози́ла |
The pasts of the unidirectional members are the ones to drill: нёс / несла́, вёл / вела́, вёз / везла́ — masculine in -ё-, feminine (and neuter/plural) shifting to a stem with stress on the ending (несла́, несло́, несли́; вела́, вело́, вели́; везла́, везло́, везли́). They look irregular but follow the consonant-stem pattern consistently.
Он нёс цветы́ и улыба́лся.
He was carrying flowers and smiling. (past m of нести́ → нёс)
Она́ вела́ соба́ку на поводке́.
She was leading the dog on a leash. (past f of вести́ → вела́)
The 1sg homonym trap: вожу́
Look again at the table. Both води́ть and вози́ть have the 1sg вожу́ — spelled and pronounced identically. This is a genuine clash: я вожу́ on its own can mean either "I lead / I drive (a car)" or "I transport (by vehicle)". The two verbs only separate from the 2sg onward, where the vowel differs:
- води́ть → во́дишь, во́дит, во́дят (with -о-: "lead / drive a car")
- вози́ть → во́зишь, во́зит, во́зят (with -о- but -з-: "transport")
Я вожу́ маши́ну уже́ де́сять лет.
I've been driving for ten years. (here вожу́ = води́ть, 'drive a car as a skill')
Я вожу́ дете́й в шко́лу на маши́не.
I drive the children to school by car. (here вожу́ = вози́ть, 'transport by vehicle')
The lexicalized meanings — where the multidirectional member becomes an everyday verb
For all three pairs, the multidirectional member has acquired a fixed, idiomatic sense that is far more common in daily speech than the literal "carry around / lead around / transport around". This is the heart of the page.
носи́ть = "to wear"
The multidirectional "carry on one's person, habitually" naturally became "wear (clothes, glasses, a beard)". This is an ongoing state, not a single trip — so it is always носи́ть, never нести́.
Она́ но́сит очки́.
She wears glasses. (a habitual state → носи́ть)
Зимо́й я ношу́ тёплое пальто́.
In winter I wear a warm coat.
води́ть маши́ну = "to drive (a car), to have the skill"
Multidirectional "lead around, take regularly" extended to operating a vehicle — having the ability to drive. "Can you drive?" is Ты уме́ешь води́ть маши́ну? (ability → multidirectional, dovetailing with the rule from the other pairs page).
Ты уме́ешь води́ть маши́ну?
Can you drive (a car)? (skill → води́ть)
Он во́дит о́чень аккура́тно.
He drives very carefully.
(Не)везёт = "to be (un)lucky" — impersonal
The unidirectional 3sg везёт, used impersonally with a dative experiencer, means "to be lucky". The logic is "luck is being brought to someone". Negated, не везёт = "to be out of luck".
Мне сего́дня везёт!
I'm lucky today! (impersonal везёт + dative мне)
Ему́ всегда́ не везёт в карта́х.
He's always unlucky at cards. (не везёт = 'be unlucky')
In the past this idiom uses the neuter: Мне повезло́! ("I got lucky!", perfective повезти́). More of these extended senses are gathered on figurative motion.
Literal motion versus the idioms — keep them apart
The trick at B1 is to hear which sense is intended. The same verb does both jobs:
Подожди́, я несу́ ча́й!
Wait, I'm bringing the tea! (literal carry, in progress → нести́)
Что ты обы́чно но́сишь на рабо́ту?
What do you usually wear to work? (the 'wear' idiom → носи́ть)
When a literal carrying is habitual or there-and-back, you still use the multidirectional — Я ка́ждый день ношу́ ноутбу́к на рабо́ту ("I carry my laptop to work every day") is a habitual carrying, not "wearing". Context, not the verb, decides.
Prefixed perfectives
Like every motion pair, these three build perfectives with prefixes, and the prefixed imperfective shifts to the multidirectional stem: принести́ / приноси́ть ("bring on foot"), привезти́ / привози́ть ("bring by vehicle"), привести́ / приводи́ть ("bring a person"). The mechanism is on prefixed verbs of motion.
Он принёс нам пода́рок.
He brought us a present. (perfective принести́, from нести́)
Common Mistakes
❌ Она́ несёт очки́.
Incorrect for 'wears glasses' — несёт is literal 'is carrying [them] somewhere now'; 'wear' is носи́ть.
✅ Она́ но́сит очки́.
She wears glasses. ('wear' → носи́ть)
❌ Ты уме́ешь везти́ маши́ну?
Incorrect — 'to drive a car (skill)' is води́ть маши́ну; везти́/вози́ть is to transport cargo or passengers.
✅ Ты уме́ешь води́ть маши́ну?
Can you drive a car? (skill → води́ть)
❌ Я везу́ маши́ну.
Incorrect if you mean 'I drive' — this means 'I'm transporting a car' (e.g. on a trailer). 'I drive (a car)' is я вожу́ маши́ну.
✅ Я вожу́ маши́ну.
I drive (a car). (води́ть маши́ну = the skill)
❌ Сего́дня мне ведёт.
Incorrect — the luck idiom uses везёт (from везти́), not ведёт.
✅ Сего́дня мне везёт.
I'm lucky today. (impersonal везёт + dative)
❌ Она́ несла́... — нет, он нёсла домо́й кни́ги.
Incorrect — the masculine past of нести́ is нёс; the feminine нёс-form *нёсла does not exist (it's несла́).
✅ Он нёс кни́ги домо́й, а она́ несла́ су́мки.
He was carrying books home, and she was carrying the bags. (past m нёс, f несла́)
Key Takeaways
- Three transitive pairs take an accusative object: нести́/носи́ть (carry on foot), вести́/води́ть (lead a person; drive), везти́/вози́ть (transport by vehicle).
- Pasts to drill: нёс / несла́, вёл / вела́, вёз / везла́ (masculine -ё-, feminine stress on the ending).
- 1sg trap: both води́ть and вози́ть give вожу́ — tell them apart by во́дишь (lead/drive) vs во́зишь (transport) and by the object.
- The multidirectional member is often the everyday lexical verb: носи́ть = "wear", води́ть маши́ну = "drive (skill)", and impersonal (не)везёт = "be (un)lucky".
- The unidirectional member describes one literal transport-in-progress (Я несу́ ча́й; Такси́ везёт нас в аэропо́рт).
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- Verbs of Motion: OverviewA2 — Russia's most distinctive verb subsystem. A handful of motion meanings come not as aspect pairs but as pairs of IMPERFECTIVE verbs split by directionality: unidirectional (one trip, one direction, in progress — идти́, е́хать) vs multidirectional (round trips, habits, general ability — ходи́ть, е́здить). Я иду́ в шко́лу (I'm on my way) vs Я хожу́ в шко́лу (I go / attend). The eight core pairs, why both members are imperfective, and how prefixes later build the perfective system.
- Other Motion Pairs: Бежать/Бегать, Лететь/Летать, Плыть/ПлаватьB1 — The intransitive motion pairs beyond go-on-foot and go-by-vehicle: бежа́ть/бе́гать (run), лете́ть/лета́ть (fly), плыть/пла́вать (swim, sail, float), плюс ползти́/по́лзать (crawl), лезть/ла́зить (climb) and a few more. Same unidirectional/multidirectional logic, with one key generalization: general truths and abilities — 'birds fly', 'fish swim', 'I can swim' — take the MULTIDIRECTIONAL verb.
- Идти vs Ходить (Going on Foot)A2 — The single most frequent motion pair in Russian. ИДТИ́ (unidirectional) is a trip on foot in progress toward one goal — Я иду́ домо́й ('I'm on my way home') — and covers the planned near future (За́втра я иду́ в теа́тр). ХОДИ́ТЬ (multidirectional) covers habits, round trips, general walking ability, and 'attend' — Я хожу́ в спортза́л три ра́за в неде́лю. Plus the idioms идёт carries: Дождь идёт, Вре́мя идёт, Фильм идёт.
- Prefixed Verbs of Motion: How the System WorksB1 — The second half of the motion system. Adding a directional prefix (при-, у-, в-, вы-, под-, от-, до-, пере-, про-, за-, об-) does two things at once: it specifies a spatial direction AND converts the verb into an ordinary aspect pair. Prefix + UNIDIRECTIONAL stem = PERFECTIVE (прийти́ 'arrive'); prefix + MULTIDIRECTIONAL stem = its IMPERFECTIVE partner (приходи́ть). The unidirectional/multidirectional contrast is replaced by perfective/imperfective — the structural pivot that makes the whole prefixed system tractable.
- Figurative and Idiomatic Uses of Motion VerbsB2 — Russian's motion verbs are massively idiomatic. Дождь идёт ('it's raining'), Речь идёт о… ('we're talking about'), Тебе́ идёт ('it suits you'), Мне везёт ('I'm lucky'), нести́ чушь ('talk nonsense'), доро́га ведёт ('the road leads'). Grouped by verb, these high-frequency idioms where the motion verb has bleached into abstract meaning.
- Motion-Verb ErrorsB1 — The three deadliest motion-verb mistakes English speakers make: using идти́ (on foot) for a trip you'd take by vehicle (Я иду́ в Москву́ → е́ду/лечу́), using идти́ for a daily routine instead of multidirectional хожу́ (ка́ждый день), and using the perfective пошёл for an ordinary round-trip outing where Russian wants ходи́л. Plus the imperative trap: е́хать has no *Е́хай — say Поезжа́й!