Irregular Present-Tense Verbs (хотеть, бежать, есть, дать)

Russian has two regular conjugations, and once you know them you can conjugate the vast majority of verbs. But a handful of the most frequent verbs in the whole language — the words for want, eat, give, run, be able — break the pattern. They are irregular not because the language is being capricious, but because they are old: they preserve endings from an earlier stage of Russian that the regular conjugations later smoothed away. These few verbs carry an outsized share of everyday speech, so you cannot route around them. This page gives you every form, explains why each one is shaped the way it is, and tells you honestly which ones you simply have to memorize.

The big picture: two regular conjugations, then these

Before the irregulars make sense, recall the regular endings. The first conjugation takes -у/-ю, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ут/-ют; the second conjugation takes -у/-ю, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ат/-ят. The vowel in the middle (е vs и) is the signature: it tells you which conjugation a verb belongs to.

The irregular verbs below misbehave in two different ways:

• Mixed-conjugation verbs (хоте́ть, бежа́ть) take singular endings from one conjugation and plural endings from the other — a pattern that exists for almost no other verbs.
• Athematic verbs (есть, дать) have no theme vowel at all in the singular: their endings (ем, ешь, ест) come straight out of ancient Russian and look like nothing else in the modern language.

хоте́ть — "to want" (the classic mixed verb)

хоте́ть (khotét', to want) is the textbook mixed-conjugation verb. In the singular it conjugates like a first-conjugation verb (note the е and the consonant change т → ч); in the plural it switches to second-conjugation endings (note the и and я).

Notice two things at once. First, the stem consonant changes only in the singular: хоч- (with ч) in the singular, хот- (with т) in the plural. Second, the stress jumps: хочу́ is end-stressed, but хо́чешь, хо́чет are stem-stressed, then it moves back to the ending in хоти́м, хоти́те, хотя́т. That stress dance is part of the word; learn it together with the spelling.

бежа́ть — "to run" (also mixed)

бежа́ть (bezhát', to run, as a one-directional motion) follows the same mixed logic as хоте́ть, but with one twist: the very last form, они́ бегу́т, swings back to a first-conjugation ending. Everything in between is second-conjugation.

The consonant alternation here is г → ж: the г of бегу́/бегу́т softens to ж everywhere in between (бежи́шь, бежи́т...). The trap for learners is the third-person plural: by analogy with the rest of the paradigm you expect бежа́т, but the real form is *бегу́т, with г and -ут. This single form is what makes бежа́ть irregular rather than just a regular second-conjugation verb.

есть — "to eat" (athematic, from ancient Russian)

есть (yest', to eat) is one of only two truly athematic verbs left in modern Russian. "Athematic" means it adds the personal ending directly to the root with no theme vowel (no е or и linking them), so the singular forms look strikingly short and strange. These endings have come down almost unchanged from Old Russian; they cannot be derived and must be learned as a unit.

Two cautions. First, do not confuse есть "to eat" with the unrelated word есть "there is / exists" (the present of быть); they are spelled identically but the eating verb is the one that conjugates. Second, watch the eat → eed shift: a д appears in the plural (еди́м, еди́те, едя́т) that is absent in the singular (ем, ешь, ест). The perfective съесть (eat up) conjugates identically with the prefix: съем, съешь, съест, съеди́м, съеди́те, съедя́т.

дать — "to give" (athematic, and perfective)

дать (dat', to give) is the second athematic verb, and it pairs neatly with есть: the same endings, just with a д at the start. There is one crucial difference, though — дать is perfective, so the forms below are not a present tense at all but a future: дам means "I will give," not "I give." (For the present "I give," Russian uses the imperfective partner дава́ть: даю́, даёшь, даёт — a regular verb; see давать-дать.)

Compare the two athematic paradigms side by side and the family resemblance is obvious: ем / дам, ешь / дашь, ест / даст, then еди́м / дади́м. The only surprise is the third-person plural: есть has едя́т but дать has даду́т (with -ут, like бегу́т). Learn that one exception and the rest falls into place.

This same paradigm carries over to the prefixed relatives of дать, which are extremely common: прода́ть "to sell" (прода́м, прода́шь, прода́ст, продади́м, продади́те, продаду́т) and созда́ть "to create" (созда́м, созда́шь, созда́ст, создади́м, создади́те, создаду́т). Learn дать and you get these for free.

мочь and печь — the -чь verbs

Verbs whose infinitive ends in -чь (мочь, печь, бере́чь, лечь, помо́чь) form a small irregular group of their own. They conjugate with a consonant alternation between г/к and ж/ч: the velar г or к shows up in the first-person singular and the third-person plural, while the soft ж or ч appears everywhere in between.

The alternation is regular within the group: г ↔ ж for мочь (могу́ → мо́жешь), к ↔ ч for печь (пеку́ → печёшь). The endings themselves are first-conjugation (-у, -ешь, -ут), so once you know which consonant goes where, these are predictable.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• These verbs are irregular because they are old, not random — there is no rule to derive them, so they must be memorized. But there are only a few, and they are everyday words you will use immediately.
• хоте́ть and бежа́ть are mixed: singular endings from one conjugation, plural from the other (хочу́/хо́чешь but хоти́м/хотя́т; бегу́/бежи́шь but бегу́т).
• есть and дать are athematic: their singular forms (ем, ешь, ест / дам, дашь, даст) add endings straight to the root and look like nothing else in modern Russian.
• The two athematic verbs share endings; the only difference is the 3pl: едя́т vs даду́т.
• дать is perfective, so дам = "I will give"; for "I give" use the regular imperfective дава́ть (даю́).
• -чь verbs (мочь, печь) alternate г/к with ж/ч: могу́/мо́жешь/мо́гут, пеку́/печёшь/пеку́т.
• быть has no ordinary present tense at all — see быть.