Learn Hardcore Russian: Новая грамматическая тема: приставка «по-» у глаголов совершенного вида, которая означает «сделать немного, недолго». - New grammar topic: the prefix “по-” on perfective verbs, which means “to do something a little, for a short time.”

In the phrase приставка по- у глаголов совершенного вида, does the prefix по- make a verb perfective, or is it only used with verbs that are already perfective?

Here по- is understood as a prefix that forms a perfective verb from an imperfective base.

You start with an imperfective verb:
- читать – to read (imperfective)
- работать – to work (imperfective)
You add по- and get a perfective verb with the meaning “do a bit / for a while”:
- почитать – to read for a while (perfective)
- поработать – to work for a while (perfective)

So when the sentence says приставка по- у глаголов совершенного вида, it means:
“the prefix по-, as used in perfective verbs (i.e. verbs that become perfective when you add по-).”

Why is по- written with a hyphen in the sentence? Do we also write a hyphen in real verbs like почитать?

The hyphen here is only a way to show the prefix as an item of grammar, not how it is written in normal words.

In grammar explanations, Russian often writes prefixes as:
по-, при-, вы-, etc., just to make clear “this bit goes in front of the word”.
In actual verbs, the prefix is written together with the verb, without a hyphen:
- по-
  - читать → почитать
- по-
  - работать → поработать

So: in the sentence it has a hyphen because we are talking about the prefix itself; in normal usage you write the whole verb as one word.

What does у mean in у глаголов совершенного вида, and why is глаголов in the genitive case?

Here у + genitive means roughly “with / in the case of / in”.

у глаголов совершенного вида literally:
“at / with verbs of perfective aspect”

A more natural English paraphrase of the whole phrase is:
“the prefix по- in perfective verbs” or “as used with perfective verbs”.

Глаголов is genitive plural because у in this sense (“at, with, in the case of”) governs the genitive case.

Why is the relative pronoun которая feminine here? What is it referring to?

Которая is feminine singular because it agrees with the feminine noun приставка.

приставка – feminine singular noun
которая – feminine singular relative pronoun (“which / that”)

Grammatically the clause is:

приставка по- … которая означает …
“the prefix по- … which means …”

So которая refers to приставка, not to по- by itself and not to глаголов.

Does по- always mean “do something a little / for a short time”, or does it have other meanings too?

No, по- has several different meanings in Russian; the sentence is talking about just one of them.

Relevant meaning here (the one in your sentence):

Delimitative по-: “do for a while / do a bit”
- почитать – read for a while
- поработать – work for a while
- поспать – sleep for a while

Other common meanings of по- (not the focus of this sentence):

Inchoative / inceptive (“start doing, set off”):
- поехать – set off, start going (by vehicle)
- побежать – start running
Various lexical meanings where you can’t easily guess it as “a little”:
- победить – to defeat
- получить – to receive
- попасть – to get into / hit a target

So when you learn по-, it’s important to know which meaning is being discussed. Here it’s specifically the “a bit / for a while” use.

Can I add по- to any verb to get the “do a bit / for a short time” meaning?

No. You cannot safely add по- to just any verb and expect it to work.

Rough rules:

It’s very common and natural with many activity verbs:
- читать → почитать
- работать → поработать
- спать → поспать
- гулять → погулять
It’s often OK with many other “do something” verbs, but not universal:
- играть → поиграть – play for a while
- искать → поискать – look/search for a while
With some verbs, adding по- is:
- unnatural or doesn’t exist in that sense, or
- changes the meaning in a way you can’t predict from “a bit”.

For example, you can’t just make up forms like *попонять from понять and expect them to be valid.

So: learn the common, high‑frequency verbs where по- gives the “for a while” meaning, and be cautious about creating new ones until you’ve seen them used by natives.

What is the aspect difference between читать and почитать?

читать – imperfective
- Focuses on the action as a process, something ongoing, repeated, or habitual.
- Answers “What are you doing?” / “What did you do (in general)?”
почитать – perfective, with the “for a while / a bit” nuance
- One completed episode of reading, limited in time/amount.
- Answers “What did you (manage to) do?” / “What will you do (at least once)?”

Examples:

Я читал весь день. – I was reading / I read (on and off) all day.
Я почитал и лёг спать. – I read for a while and went to bed.

So по- here both changes the aspect to perfective and adds the idea of a limited, bounded period of the activity.

In сделать немного, недолго, do немного and недолго both always apply? Does по- mean “not much” and “not for long” at the same time?

The explanation «сделать немного, недолго» is giving you two closely related ways to think about the meaning:

немного – “a little (in quantity/intensity)”
недолго – “not for long (in time)”

In real usage:

Sometimes the focus feels more like time (“for a while”):
- Я поспал. – I slept for a while (duration).
Sometimes it feels more like amount / intensity (“a bit, not too much”):
- Я поел. – I ate a bit (not necessarily very long).

Very often, both ideas overlap: a short time usually implies not much result, and a small amount usually takes a short time. That’s why teachers often give both adverbs in the explanation. Think of it as:

do the action in a limited way – limited time, limited amount, or both.

Could I just say немного читать or недолго читать instead of using по-, e.g. instead of почитать? Is there a difference?

You can say things like немного читать or недолго читать, but they are not identical to using по-.

Compare:

Я немного читал. – I read a bit / for a while.
- Verb: imperfective (читал)
- Aspectually it behaves like other imperfectives: can emphasize process, context, duration.
Я почитал. – I read for a while.
- Verb: perfective (почитал)
- Presents the reading as one completed, limited episode.

Typical differences:

With почитал you can very naturally chain events:
- Я почитал и лёг спать. – I read for a while and went to bed.
With немного читал, you’re describing what was happening, not so cleanly as one completed chunk:
- Я немного читал, потом решил лечь спать. – I read a bit, then decided to go to bed.
  (Grammatically fine, but aspectually slightly different.)

So, adverbs like немного / недолго give a similar meaning, but по- also changes the aspect and often sounds more natural when you talk about a single, limited action in a sequence.

Are verbs with this по- always perfective, and how does that affect their “present” and future forms?

With the “a bit / for a while” meaning, verbs with по- are perfective.

For perfective verbs in Russian:

What looks like a present tense form actually expresses the simple future:
- я поработаю – I will work for a while
- я почитаю – I will read for a while
You usually don’t use perfective verbs to describe ongoing processes in the present (“I am reading right now”) – that’s what the imperfective is for:
- я читаю – I am reading / I read

So for this по-:

поработал – worked a bit (past, completed episode)
поработаю – will work a bit (future, one episode)
There is no true present‑progressive meaning like “am working a bit right now”; you would switch to imperfective (работаю) or add context.

How is this по- (meaning “for a while / a bit”) different from по- in verbs like поехать or побежать, where it seems to mean “start doing / set off”?

These are two different uses of the same prefix:

Delimitative по- – “for a while, a bit” (the one in your sentence)
- Common with many activity verbs (читать, работать, спать, etc.).
- Emphasizes a limited amount or duration of an activity.
- почитать, поработать, поспать, погулять.
Inchoative / inceptive по- – “start doing, set off”
- Especially common with verbs of motion:
  - ехать → поехать – set off (by vehicle)
  - бежать → побежать – start running
- Focuses on the beginning of the action.

Sometimes context is the only way to tell which по- is meant, but with motion verbs like поехать, the usual meaning is “start going”, not “go for a short time”.

Is there an English equivalent of this по- meaning “do a little / for a short time”?

English doesn’t have a prefix that does this, but we get very similar meanings with adverbs or short phrases:

поспать – sleep for a bit / sleep for a while
поработать – work a little / work for a bit
почитать – read for a while / do some reading
поесть – eat a bit / have something to eat

So, you can think of this по- as “packaging” those English adverbs/phrases into the verb itself: a built‑in “for a bit / for a short time”.