Imperfective and perfective
Level A2 · Unit 10: At the doctor · Lesson 3: Two kinds of verbs: aspect
- Imperfective verbs (pisati, brati, piti) describe an action in progress, a habit, or just the activity in general.
- Perfective verbs (napisati, prebrati, popiti) describe one complete action with a result.
Compare:
- Včeraj sem pisal pismo. Yesterday I was writing a letter. (maybe not finished)
- Včeraj sem napisal pismo. Yesterday I wrote the letter. (it's done)
Many perfectives just add a prefix (na-, pre-, po-). Others look quite different.
| imperfective (process, habit) | perfective (result) | English |
|---|---|---|
| pisati | napisati | write |
| brati | prebrati | read |
| piti | popiti | drink |
| jesti | pojesti | eat |
| delati | narediti | do; make |
| klicati | poklicati | call |
| učiti se | naučiti se | learn |
| kupovati | kupiti | buy |
| jemati | vzeti | take |
| dajati | dati | give |
| vstajati | vstati | get up |
Practise this in the free course
This explanation comes from Unit 10, Lesson 3 of Slovenim, a free Slovenian course with dialogues, audio and exercises that check your answers.