_________________________________

Remember in Lesson 9 we examined how the suffixes of Russian adjectives change according to the gender of the noun, but the stem always stays the same. If you were able to grasp this concept then you shouldn't have too much trouble with verbs because it's the same deal. The stem of the verb is constant, but the suffix changes according to the pronoun it describes.

For example, the verb "to understand" in Russian is понимать.

The stem of понимать is "понима-", and the suffix will change according to who is doing the understanding!

Here is a summary of Type 1 verb suffixes organised by pronoun:

Pronoun	Type 1 Verb Suffix
I	-ю
You (informal)	-ешь
He / she / it	-ет
We	-ем
You (formal or plural)	-ете
They	-ют

_________________________________

Therefore, the conjugation of the verb понимать is written as follows:

Russian	English
Я понимаю	I understand
Ты понимаешь	You understand
Он/ Она/ Оно понимает	He/ She/ It understands
Мы понимаем	We understand
Вы понимаете	You understand
Они понимают	They understand

_________________________________

We believe the easiest way to learn these suffixes is to pick a pronoun, for example "I", and then practice all the verbs you know using only the "ю" suffix.

For example,

I understand

Я понимаю (stem понима-, suffix -ю)

Pronounced:

ya pa-ni-mA-yu

Listen:

(Lena)

I know

Я знаю (stem зна-, suffix -ю)

Pronounced:

ya znA-yu

Listen:

(Lena)

I work

Я работаю (stem работа-, suffix -ю)

Pronounced:

ya ra-bOt-yu

Listen:

(Lena)

Then once the process of associating Я with -ю becomes natural, proceed to the next pronoun, Ты.

For example,

You understand

ты понимаешь (stem понима-, suffix -ешь)

Pronounced:

tih pa-ni-mA-yesh

Listen:

(Lena)

You know

ты знаешь (stem зна-, suffix -ешь)

Pronounced:

tih znA-yesh

Listen:

(Lena)

You work

Ты работаешь (stem работа-, suffix -ешь)

Pronounced:

tih ra-bO-tesh

Listen:

(Lena)

We won't present the verbs in this pronoun specific format as we want to keep the conjugation of each verb grouped together, but you might want to start a Word document and organise it in 2 ways. The first by verb, and the second by pronoun.

You should be able to learn these Type 1 verb suffixes in about 2 weeks if you use this method.

** Please note that the conjugation system presented above is only one of five conjugation systems.

There are in fact 5 types of verbs that vary their suffixes slightly. However, even across these five types of verbs the suffixes sound very similar (for example, -ю and -у), so don't be discouraged.