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Verbs of Motion is one of the most complicated subjects in the Russian language (and in any Slavic language that has them), according to multiple opinions of Russian Language learners. In this article, we’re going to break down this grammatical subject and explain it in an easily comprehensible way.

In order to understand everything that this lesson is going to teach you, you should know what are imperfective and perfective Russian verbs and how to use prefixes for the perfective form.

What are the Verbs of Motion

Obviously, Verbs of motion are the verbs that describe a motion. To go, to run, to swim, to crawl, to fly, and others. They are basically average verbs, but there is one grammatical obstacle with them – unlike all other verbs, they have two imperfective forms: I call them repeatable form and one-time form.

Not all verbs that describe a motion fall under this rule. These are rather exceptional verbs. Everything that you learn in this lesson, you can fo

Main logical statement of the Verbs of Motion

A verb of motion may describe either repeatable action or an action that happens only in a moment, i.e. one-time. All other hints and explanations come from this conclusion. Read this statement again. 

First of all, let’s look at these complicated verbs. There are really not many of them, therefore you can memorize all of them for one day if you need to. At the end of these lessons, you can see the conjugation tables for each of them.

 Verbs of Motion in Imperfective form

The logic of the usage of verbs of motion in imperfective form is quite simple

Я бегаю – I run (Бегать, repeatable)

Я бегу – I am running (Бежать, one-time)

Мы ездили в Москву – We went to Moscow (Ездить, repeatable)

Мы ехали в Москву – We were going to Moscow (Ехать, one-time)

Он будет носить пакеты из машины – He will be carrying packs from the car (носить, repeatable)

О будет нести пакеты из машины – He will carry pack from the car (нести, one-time)

This is a straight analog of English simple and progressive tenses, i.e. in English one can say “I go”(repeatable form) and “I am going” (continuous, one-time form). As you probably already know – there are no progressive tenses in the Russian language, however, now I can say that there are, but only with verbs of Motion. If you have a doubt here – scroll back to the subtitle Main logical statement of the Verbs of Motion.

Verbs of Motion in Perfective form

Unlike the imperfective form, Verbs of Motion in Perfective form have the analogy of English simple and perfect tenses.

Let’s consider some examples:

Прибегать / прибежать – to come (by running)

Я прибегал сюда часто – I came here often (прибегать, repeatable)

Я прибежал сюда пять минут назад – I’ve come here five minutes ago (прибежать, one-time)

Приводить / привести – to bring (by leading)

Кто приводил вас сюда раньше? – Who brought you here before? (приводить, repeatable)

Кто привёл вас сюда сегодня? – Who has brought you here today? (привести, one-time)

More examples:

Мы часто ездим на дачу – We go to country house often

Мы сейчас едем на дачу – We’re going to the country house now

Вчера я бегал в парке – Yesterday I jogged* in the park (бегать/бежать – to run/to jog)

Вчера я бежал от собаки, когда бегал в парке – Yesterday I ran away from a dog when jogged in the park (Pay attention at this sentence and figure out why we use two forms in the same sentence)

Принеси мне кофе, пожалуйста – Bring me a coffee, please

Не приноси мне больше эти газеты! – Don’t bring me these newspapers anymore!

Автобус везёт сто пассажиров – The bus is carrying 100 passengers

Автобус возит сто пассажиров каждый день – The bus carries 100 passengers every day

Вертолёт летит медленно – The helicopter is flying slowly

Вертолёт летает медленно – The helicopter flies slowly

Женя плавает в море – Zhenya swims in the sea

Женя плывёт к берегу – Zhenya is swimming to the shore

Сколько раз вы ездили на этот фестиваль? – How many times did you go to this festival?

Как вы ехали на этот фестиваль? – How were you going to this festival?

Аня боится летать на самолёте – Anya is afraid to go/fly by airplane

Аня должна лететь в Новосибирск на самолёте – Anya has to go/fly to Novosibirsk by airplane

Зачем мы ходим по этой дороге каждый день? – Why do we walk by this road every day?

Зачем мы идём по этой дороге? – Why are we going by this road?

Почему они не полетели с нами в Сочи? – Why they have not gone with us to Sochi?

Почему они никогда не летали в Сочи летом? – Why they have never gone to Sochi at summer?

Conjugation table of Verbs of motion (one-time form)