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### Describing Simultaneous Actions

When you want to say that you are doing two things at once—like "listening to a podcast while working"—use an **imperfective verbal adverb** (деепричастие несовершенного вида). 

In English, this usually translates to "while doing" or simply an "-ing" word (like "listening" or "reading"). These words act like adverbs because they never change their endings to match gender, number, or case.

### Formation (-я and -а)

To form an imperfective verbal adverb, take the present tense "they" form of an imperfective verb, drop the final **-ут / -ют** or **-ат / -ят**, and add **-я**.
- **слушать** (to listen) -> они слуша-ют -> **слушая** (listening)
- **работать** (to work) -> они работа-ют -> **работая** (working)
- **читать** (to read) -> они чита-ют -> **читая** (reading)

*(Note: if the stem ends in a sibilant consonant like **ж, ш, ч**, or **щ**, you add **-а** instead).*

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### The Same-Subject Rule

In Russian, the verbal adverb and the main verb of the sentence **must have the same subject**. The person doing the main action must also be the one doing the background action.

This rule applies to commands too, where the subject "you" is implied.

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### Punctuation Matters

Unlike in English, verbal adverbs and the phrases attached to them are **always separated by commas** in Russian, no matter where they appear in the sentence—at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end.

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### Impersonal Statements

You can also use verbal adverbs in general statements with impersonal words like **полезно** (it is useful) or **нельзя** (one must not), where the implied general subject applies to both actions. 

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Imperfective verbal adverbs (-а, -я)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

predicative

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Presentative (это)

Noun gender

Soft-sign nouns (-ь)

Subject pronouns (я, ты, он...)

Yes/no questions (да / нет)

Basic interrogatives (кто / что)

Basic negation (не)

Coordinating conjunctions (и / а)

Possessive pronouns (мой, твой, наш, ваш)

Demonstrative pronouns (этот, эта, это)

Adjective agreement

Which and whose (какой, чей)

First conjugation verbs, singular (-ать)

First conjugation verbs, plural (-ать)

Second conjugation verbs (-ить)

Irregular present tense verbs

Adverbs of manner (как, очень)

Locations in prepositional case (в / на)

Prepositional case modifiers (-ом, -ой)

Topics of speech (о, об)

Direct objects (-у, -ю)

Direct object pronouns (меня, тебя)

Verbs of motion (идти, ехать)

Destination (куда, в, на)

Plural nouns (-ы, -и, -а, -я)

Irregular plural nouns (друзья, дети)

Plural adjectives and pronouns (-ые, -ие)

Numbers 1 to 10 (один, два, три)

Possession with pronouns (у меня есть)

Possession with nouns (-а, -я, -ы, -и)

Genitive of negation (нет)

Numbers 2, 3, and 4

Quantities with mass nouns (сколько, много, мало)

Animate direct objects

The past tense of to be (был, была, было, были)

Regular past tense verbs

Time sequence expressions (вчера, завтра, раньше, потом)

Verb aspect in the past tense

Dative personal pronouns (мне, тебе, ему)

Expressing likes (нравится, нравятся)

Absence (нет)

Expressing age (год, года, лет)

Indirect objects (-у, -ю, -е)

Modal verbs (хотеть, мочь)

Reason and contrast (поэтому, но)

Double negation (ничего, никогда)

Reflexive verbs (-ся, -сь)

Polite requests and instructions (-ите, -йте)

Days of the week (в + Accusative)

Compound future tense (буду...)

Simple future tense

Accompaniment (с)

Multidirectional verbs of motion (ходить, ездить)

Greetings and goodbyes (здравствуйте, привет)

Thank you and sorry (спасибо, извините)

Countries and languages (русский, английский)

Meeting people (меня зовут, как дела)

Public transport (трамвай, остановка)

Left, right and the compass (слева, справа)

Places in the city (цирк, зоопарк)

Fruit and vegetables (помидор, огурец)

Post and travel (открытка, чемодан)

Family and relatives (внук, родственник)

Jobs and professions (инженер, продавец)

Sport and games (футбол, теннис)

Describing people (умный, сильный)

Health and the body (болен, здоровье)

The months of the year (январь, февраль)

Accusative feminine and inanimate adjectives (-ую, -юю)

Accusative animate masculine adjectives (-ого, -его)

Short-form adjectives (готов, занят)

Personal obligation (должен, должна)

Professions in the instrumental case

Genitive singular adjectives and possessives

Prepositions of absence and purpose (без, для)

Dative singular adjectives and possessives

Impersonal states (мне холодно)

Impersonal obligation (надо, нужно)

Impersonal permission (можно / нельзя)

Instrumental adjectives and pronouns

Reciprocal verbs (с + Instrumental)

Reflexive possessive pronouns (свой)

Reflexive pronouns (себя)

Specific indefinite pronouns (-то)

Non-specific indefinite pronouns (-нибудь)

Negative pronouns (никто / ничто)

Numbers 11 to 20

Question	Answer
the audio	аудио
the subtitles	субтитры
Listening to this audio, I always read the subtitles.	Слушая это аудио, я всегда читаю субтитры.
the podcast	подкаст
My brother often listens to podcasts or audio while working.	Мой брат часто слушает подкасты или аудио, работая.
to get distracted	отвлекаться
While listening to the podcast, try not to get distracted.	Слушая подкаст, старайся не отвлекаться.
to write out	выписывать
unknown	неизвестный
While reading the text, we write out unknown words into the notebook.	Читая текст, мы выписываем неизвестные слова в тетрадь.
the note	заметка
While watching the film, the student (f) wrote out phrases and made notes.	Смотря фильм, студентка выписывала фразы и делала заметки.
the exercise	упражнение
to pronounce	произносить
aloud	вслух
While doing the exercise, pronounce all the words aloud.	Делая упражнение, произноси все слова вслух.
While reading this text, he understood that it was very difficult for me.	Читая этот текст, он понимал, что мне было очень трудно.
I sat in front of the screen while reading the subtitles.	Я сидел перед экраном, читая субтитры.
One must not get distracted while doing this exercise.	Нельзя отвлекаться, делая это упражнение.
It is useful to write notes while listening to podcasts.	Полезно писать заметки, слушая подкасты.
Write out unknown words while reading this text.	Выписывай неизвестные слова, читая этот текст.
While studying a foreign language, it is useful to read aloud, pronouncing the phrases slowly.	Изучая иностранный язык, полезно читать вслух, произнося фразы медленно.