Breakdown of Сонные студенты встают и не узнают друг друга.
и
and
не
not
студент
student (m)
вставать
to get up
Questions & Answers about Сонные студенты встают и не узнают друг друга.
Why are the verbs spelled встают and узнают instead of "вставают" and "узнавают"?
Both verbs belong to a special group of infinitives: вставать (to get up) and узнавать (to recognize). Verbs ending in -ставать, -знавать, and -давать drop the -ва- suffix entirely when conjugated in the present tense. Therefore, for "they" (the students), we drop the -ва- and add the standard endings to get встают and узнают.
The spelling узнают can mean both "they recognize" (present) and "they will recognize" (future). How do we tell which one is used here?
In written Russian without stress marks, you look at the context—here, the other verb встают is in the present tense. In spoken Russian, the difference is all in the stress! The present imperfective form (from узнавать) stresses the ending: узнаю́т. The future perfective form (from узнать) stresses the root: узна́ют.
Why does the phrase друг друга repeat the word for "friend"?
This is the standard Russian idiom for "each other." Even though друг literally means "friend," the phrase друг друга is used for any people or objects interacting, regardless of their actual relationship. The first друг always stays frozen in its base form, while the second changes to the required case. Here, it takes the accusative form друга because it is the direct object.