Questions & Answers about Я продолжаю учить новые слова каждый день.
Why is the verb продолжаю followed by the infinitive учить rather than using a present-tense form like учу?
In Russian, продолжать (“to continue”) acts like an auxiliary verb and must be followed by an infinitive describing the action you’re continuing.
- Я продолжаю учить новые слова literally means “I continue to learn new words.”
- If you said Я учу новые слова каждый день, it simply means “I learn new words every day,” without the nuance of “continuing” from a prior action.
Why is учить used here instead of the perfective выучить?
Russian verbs come in aspect pairs:
- Imperfective (учить) for ongoing, habitual or repeated actions.
- Perfective (выучить) for single, completed actions.
Since the sentence describes a repeated, ongoing process (“every day”), you use the imperfective учить. If you used выучу, you’d imply one complete event: “I will (successfully) learn all those words.”
Can I use изучать instead of учить in this sentence?
Yes. Both учить and изучать can translate as “to study/learn,” but they carry different shades:
- учить often focuses on memorization or the act of learning itself.
- изучать suggests a more systematic, in-depth study.
So Я продолжаю изучать новые слова каждый день is perfectly fine and just a bit more formal or methodical.