The overview page introduced the verbal adverb (дееприча́стие, "verbal-participle") as an invariable word that names a second action by the same subject as the main verb. This page is the workshop: how to actually build each form from the verb you have, and how the choice between them is not a stylistic whim but a direct statement about time. The single idea that organises everything below is this — the imperfective verbal adverb (-я) means the two actions happen at the same time ("while doing"), and the perfective one (-в) means the second action came first ("having done"). Aspect is the tense relation. Once you see that, you also start noticing that some of the commonest connectives in Russian — мо́лча "silently", су́дя по "judging by", несмотря́ на "in spite of" — are frozen verbal adverbs hiding in plain sight.
Building the imperfective verbal adverb (-я / -а)
The imperfective form is built from the present-tense stem — specifically the они́ (3rd-person-plural) form, with its ending stripped off. To that bare stem you add -я, or -а after the hushing consonants ж, ч, ш, щ (where Russian spelling never writes я).
| Infinitive | они-form | Stem | Verbal adverb | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| чита́ть | чита́ют | чита́- | чита́я | while reading |
| говори́ть | говоря́т | говор- | говоря́ | while speaking |
| держа́ть | де́ржат | держ- | держа́ | while holding |
| спеши́ть | спеша́т | спеш- | спеша́ | while hurrying |
| слы́шать | слы́шат | слыш- | слы́ша | while hearing |
Reflexive verbs keep their particle, which after the vowel of -я surfaces as -сь: улыба́ться → улыба́ясь "smiling", наде́яться → наде́ясь "hoping", занима́ться → занима́ясь "while studying".
Гуля́я по па́рку, я ду́мал о рабо́те.
Walking through the park, I was thinking about work. — imperfective гуля́я: the strolling and the thinking are simultaneous.
Она́ говори́ла, не гля́дя на меня́.
She spoke without looking at me. — the main verb is говори́ла; the verbal adverb is гля́дя (from гляде́ть), negated by не.
Улыба́ясь, он протяну́л мне ру́ку.
Smiling, he held out his hand to me. — reflexive улыба́ясь (-сь after the -я vowel); the smiling accompanies the gesture.
The one irregular: бу́дучи
The verb быть "to be" has no ordinary present stem to build on, so its imperfective verbal adverb is the irregular бу́дучи "being". It is bookish and often carries a concessive or causal shade ("being / since one was…").
Бу́дучи ребёнком, я ча́сто гости́л у ба́бушки.
Being a child (when I was a child), I often stayed at my grandmother's. — the suppletive бу́дучи from быть.
When the imperfective form simply does not exist
Be honest with yourself here: many common imperfective verbs have no usable verbal adverb at all. There is no clean shortcut — you have to recognise the gaps and route around them. Verbs whose present stem ends in a consonant cluster or whose stem differs sharply from the infinitive typically lack a living form: писа́ть (пи́шут), ждать (ждут), пить (пьют), бить, лить, петь (пою́т), as well as бежа́ть, е́хать, хоте́ть, мочь. You will never hear пиша́ or ждя. When you need the meaning, you use a finite clause instead: not *Пиша́ письмо́…, but Когда́ я писа́л письмо́… "When I was writing the letter…".
Building the perfective verbal adverb (-в / -вши / -дя)
The perfective form is built from the past-tense stem — take the masculine past in -л and drop the -л. To that stem you normally add -в.
| Infinitive | Past (m.) | Verbal adverb | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| прочита́ть | прочита́л | прочита́в | having read |
| сказа́ть | сказа́л | сказа́в | having said |
| зако́нчить | зако́нчил | зако́нчив | having finished |
| уви́деть | уви́дел | уви́дев | having seen |
Three regular wrinkles cover almost everything else:
- Reflexive verbs take -вшись (because -в alone cannot host the particle): верну́ться → верну́вшись "having returned", умы́ться → умы́вшись "having washed", прости́ться → прости́вшись "having said goodbye".
- Verbs whose past stem ends in a consonant (no -л in the masculine) take -ши: принести́ → принёс → принёсши "having brought", запере́ть → за́пер → запе́рши "having locked".
- Prefixed verbs of motion built on -йти take a special -дя/-я: прийти́ → придя́ "having come", найти́ → найдя́ "having found", уйти́ → уйдя́ "having left", войти́ → войдя́ "having entered". (These look like the -я ending but are perfective; they are simply the historical forms that survived.)
Зако́нчив рабо́ту, он сра́зу ушёл домо́й.
Having finished the work, he left for home right away. — perfective зако́нчив: first he finished, then he left.
Верну́вшись из о́тпуска, она́ нашла́ на столе́ ку́чу пи́сем.
Having returned from vacation, she found a heap of letters on the desk. — reflexive perfective верну́вшись (-вшись).
Придя́ домо́й, я сра́зу же лёг спать.
Having come home, I went straight to bed. — придя́, the special -дя form from прийти́; still perfective (prior action).
The core insight: aspect maps onto time
Now put the two halves together, because this is the payoff. The imperfective verbal adverb answers "doing what at the same time?" and the perfective one answers "having done what first?" You never have to think about a separate tense rule — the aspect you already chose for the verb tells you the temporal relation automatically.
| Imperfective -я | Perfective -в | |
|---|---|---|
| Time relation | simultaneous | prior (then main action) |
| English | "while V-ing" | "having V-ed", "after V-ing" |
| Replaces | когда́ + imperfective | когда́/после того́ как + perfective, так как |
| Example | Чита́я, он ел. | Прочита́в, он встал. |
Watch the same event told two ways:
Чита́я газе́ту, он пил ко́фе.
Reading the newspaper, he drank coffee. — both at once: he reads and drinks in the same stretch of time.
Прочита́в газе́ту, он вы́бросил её в му́сор.
Having read the newspaper, he threw it in the trash. — the reading finished first, then he threw it out.
Beyond pure timing, the perfective form often carries a cause or condition — exactly because the prior action sets up the result:
Не зна́я а́дреса, я так и не нашёл их дом.
Not knowing the address, I never did find their house. — imperfective causal: 'because I didn't know'; same subject я throughout.
Same subject — the rule you can never relax
Because the verbal adverb has no subject of its own, it borrows the subject of the main clause, and Russian enforces this strictly. The doer of the -я/-в action must be the same person as the grammatical subject of the main verb. If the subjects differ, you cannot use a verbal adverb — you rewrite with когда́, так как, по́сле того́ как, or a plain finite clause. This is the famous "dangling deepríchastie" trap, and it is tested ruthlessly in Russian schools.
✅ Подходя́ к до́му, я уви́дел свет в окне́.
Approaching the house, I saw a light in the window. — I both approach and see; one subject, so the verbal adverb is fine.
❌ Подходя́ к до́му, в окне́ горе́л свет.
Dangling — the main subject is свет ('light'), and a light cannot approach a house; the subjects don't match.
The full inventory of stylistic traps lives on the dedicated style and pitfalls page; the rule above is the one you must internalise before producing a single verbal adverb of your own.
Frozen verbal adverbs hiding in everyday Russian
Here is a quiet reward for learning the formation rules: several of the most common little words in Russian are lexicalised verbal adverbs — forms that froze into adverbs and prepositions and now run far beyond the bookish register. Recognising their origin lets you both parse them and deploy them naturally.
| Frozen form | From | Now means | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| мо́лча | молча́ть "be silent" | silently, without a word | neutral |
| не́хотя | хоте́ть "want" | reluctantly, grudgingly | neutral |
| су́дя по | суди́ть "judge" | judging by, to go by | neutral |
| начина́я с | начина́ть "begin" | starting from | neutral |
| несмотря́ на | смотре́ть "look" | in spite of, despite | neutral |
| спустя́ | спусти́ть "let down" | (some time) later | neutral |
These behave like ordinary function words: су́дя по and начина́я с govern a following noun, несмотря́ на is a full-blown concessive preposition, and мо́лча and не́хотя are plain manner adverbs that no longer demand a same-subject clause.
Су́дя по всему́, за́втра бу́дет дождь.
By all appearances, it'll rain tomorrow. — су́дя по 'judging by', a frozen verbal adverb now used as a connective.
Несмотря́ на дождь, мы пошли́ гуля́ть.
In spite of the rain, we went for a walk. — несмотря́ на behaves as a single preposition + accusative.
Он мо́лча кивну́л и вы́шел.
He nodded silently and went out. — frozen мо́лча used as a bare manner adverb.
Common Mistakes
❌ Прочита́я письмо́, она́ запла́кала.
Wrong form for a completed prior action — perfective needs -в (прочита́в); -я is the imperfective 'while' form.
✅ Прочита́в письмо́, она́ запла́кала.
Having read the letter, she burst into tears.
❌ Верну́вши домо́й, я лёг спать.
Missing the particle — a reflexive verb keeps -ся, so the form is верну́вшись, not верну́вши.
✅ Верну́вшись домо́й, я лёг спать.
Having returned home, I went to bed.
❌ Пиша́ письмо́, я слу́шал ра́дио.
No such form — писа́ть has no living verbal adverb; rephrase with когда́.
✅ Когда́ я писа́л письмо́, я слу́шал ра́дио.
While I was writing the letter, I listened to the radio.
❌ Подъезжа́я к до́му, начался́ дождь.
Dangling — the subject of 'began' is дождь ('rain'), and rain doesn't drive up to a house; the subjects clash.
✅ Когда́ мы подъезжа́ли к до́му, начался́ дождь.
As we were driving up to the house, it started to rain. — different subjects, so no verbal adverb; use когда́.
Key Takeaways
- Imperfective verbal adverb = они-stem + -я (-а after ж/ч/ш/щ): чита́я, говоря́, держа́, спеша́, слы́ша; reflexive adds -сь (улыба́ясь). It marks a simultaneous action — "while V-ing." See imperfective meaning.
- Perfective verbal adverb = past stem + -в (прочита́в, сказа́в, уви́дев); reflexive -вшись (верну́вшись); consonant stems -ши (принёсши); motion verbs -дя (придя́, найдя́). It marks a prior action — "having V-ed." See perfective meaning.
- The choice is not stylistic: aspect maps straight onto time — -я = same time, -в = before.
- Many imperfectives (писа́ть, ждать, пить, петь, е́хать, хоте́ть) have no usable form; rephrase with когда́/так как clauses.
- быть → the irregular бу́дучи "being".
- The same-subject rule is absolute; a mismatch is the dangling-deepríchastie error, covered with the other traps on style and pitfalls.
- Several everyday words (мо́лча, не́хотя, су́дя по, начина́я с, несмотря́ на, спустя́) are frozen verbal adverbs now used as adverbs and prepositions.
Now practice Russian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- Verbal Adverbs (Деепричастия): OverviewB2 — A verbal adverb (дееприча́стие) is an indeclinable form expressing an accompanying or prior action by the SAME subject as the main verb — чита́я 'while reading', прочита́в 'having read'. It compresses a when/because-clause into one word and must share its subject with the main clause.
- Verbal Adverbs: Style and the Dangling TrapC1 — Verbal adverbs (-я/-в) compress a same-subject adverbial clause and are a mark of polished writing, but their same-subject rule is a HARD grammaticality constraint, not a style guideline — break it and you get the famous Chekhov dangling-deeprichastie joke (Подъезжа́я к ста́нции, у меня́ слете́ла шля́па). This page covers the absolute rule, the impersonal-clause ban, the -я/-в simultaneity-vs-anteriority choice, the register limits, comma rules, and the frozen connectives (несмотря́ на, су́дя по, начина́я с) that have escaped the rule entirely.
- The Perfective: Completion, Result, Single EventB1 — The perfective is the aspect of the action viewed from the outside as a single completed whole — finished, with a result that stands. This page maps its uses: completion-with-result, chains of events in narration, single momentary acts, and the simple future. The key insight: result-now means perfective (Я уже́ пое́л).
- The Imperfective: Process, Repetition, General FactB1 — The imperfective is the aspect of the action viewed from the inside: in progress, habitual, simply named, attempted, or undone again. This page maps its full range — including the experience reading that often matches English present perfect, and the annulled-result use that has no clean English counterpart.
- The Verb Быть (To Be)A1 — Russian's verb 'to be' is unusual: in the present it is simply omitted (Я студе́нт, Она́ до́ма — no verb at all), with есть surviving only for emphatic existence/possession. The past agrees by gender (был/была́/бы́ло/бы́ли) and the future conjugates normally (бу́ду, бу́дешь, бу́дет…), doubling as the imperfective-future auxiliary. After past/future быть, a predicate noun goes into the instrumental: Он был врачо́м.
- Subordinate Clauses and Sentence LinkingB1 — A map of the Russian subordinate clause: object clauses (что/что́бы), time (когда́, пока́, как то́лько…), reason (потому́ что, так как), condition (е́сли), concession (хотя́), purpose (что́бы), and result (так что). Two iron rules cut across all of them — a comma before every subordinator, and the future tense (not the present) inside time and conditional clauses about the future.