Breakdown of Почему ты продолжаешь отказываться? Ты хочешь сдаться?
ты
you (singular)
почему
why
хотеть
to want
продолжать
to continue
отказываться
to refuse (impf)
сдаться
to give up (pf)
Questions & Answers about Почему ты продолжаешь отказываться? Ты хочешь сдаться?
Why is отказываться in the imperfective aspect here?
After verbs of beginning, continuing, and ending (like продолжаешь), Russian grammar requires you to use the imperfective aspect for the following infinitive. Because continuing inherently describes an ongoing process, the perfective form отказаться cannot be used here.
Then why is сдаться in the perfective aspect after хочешь?
Unlike verbs of continuing, хотеть (to want) can be followed by either aspect. Here, the speaker is asking about a single, final result of giving up completely, so the perfective сдаться is the natural choice. If the focus were on the ongoing process of giving up, you would use the imperfective сдаваться.
Both infinitive verbs end in -ться rather than -тся. What is the rule for that soft sign?
The soft sign is used because these verbs are in the infinitive form. A classic rule of thumb is to look at the question the verb answers: if the question is что делать? or что сделать? (with a soft sign at the end of the question verb), you use -ться. If it is a conjugated form answering что делает? (what is he doing?), it gets no soft sign.
Does the verb сдаться have the same root as сдать (to pass an exam)?
Yes! The base verb сдать generally means to hand over (which is why it is used for handing in an exam). When you add the reflexive ending -ся to make сдаться, it literally implies handing oneself over, which gives us the meaning to surrender or to give up.
Learn Почему ты продолжаешь отказываться? Ты хочешь сдаться and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free