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Questions & Answers about Я пишу заметку.
What tense and person is пишу?
The form пишу is first-person singular present tense of the verb писать. It literally means “I write,” but in English we usually translate it as “I am writing.”
What aspect of the verb писать is used here, and why?
Here писать is imperfective. Imperfective verbs describe ongoing, habitual, or repeated actions. Since you’re in the middle of writing the note right now (an ongoing action), you use the imperfective пишу. If you wanted to say “I will (have) written a note” as a completed action, you’d use the perfective я напишу заметку.
Why is заметку in the accusative case?
Russian direct objects take the accusative case. Заметка is feminine, singular. Its accusative singular form is заметку. In English “note” is the object of “write,” so in Russian you mark it with accusative.
Why are there no articles like “a” or “the” in the Russian sentence?
Russian has no articles. Context and word order usually show definiteness or indefiniteness. Я пишу заметку can mean “I’m writing a note” in general, without specifying “a” or “the.”
What exactly does заметка mean? How is it different from записка?
Заметка is “a note” in the sense of a short remark, memo, or journal entry. Записка usually means a written message or memo left for someone (like a post-it or little letter). So я пишу заметку suggests you’re drafting a note or remark, not leaving someone a quick message.
Could you change the word order in Я пишу заметку?
Yes, Russian is relatively flexible. You could say Заметку пишу я to emphasize that it’s a note you’m writing (contrast with something else). The neutral order, especially in writing or plain speech, is Я пишу заметку.
How would you express the future action “I will write a note”?
With the perfective verb написать you form the future: Я напишу заметку (I will write a note as a completed action). If you use the imperfective писать, you get a compound future: Я буду писать заметку (I will be writing a note over some period of time).
Is there any change in meaning if you say я записываю заметку instead?
Записывать заметку (imperf. of записать) stresses the process of “jotting down” or “taking down” information, often from another source. Писать заметку is more general “to write a note,” possibly drafting your own thoughts. In many contexts they’re close, but записывать hints at recording something you hear or read.