Russian Verb Conjugator - Conjugate Any Verb

How Russian conjugation works

Russian verbs carry a lot of information in their endings, but the system is smaller than it looks. Three ideas unlock almost everything: aspect, conjugation class, and the fact that the past tense behaves differently from the present and future.

Aspect is the big one. Almost every Russian verb is either imperfective (an ongoing, repeated or general action - «читать», to be reading) or perfective (a single, completed action - «прочитать», to read through). They come in pairs. The crucial consequence: an imperfective verb conjugated in the non-past is PRESENT tense, but a perfective verb conjugated in the same endings is FUTURE. So «я читаю» means "I am reading" while «я прочитаю» means "I will read (it through)."

Conjugation class tells you which set of present/future endings a verb takes. 1st-conjugation verbs (the большинство, the majority) use -ешь / -ет / -ем / -ете with -ут/-ют in the «они» form. 2nd-conjugation verbs use -ишь / -ит / -им / -ите with -ат/-ят in the «они» form. A handful of high-frequency verbs - быть, хотеть, мочь, есть, дать, идти - are irregular and simply have to be learned (they are in the tool above).

The present and future (non-past) endings

Russian fuses the present and the simple future into one set of personal endings - which one you get depends on the verb's aspect. There are two ending patterns.

1st conjugation (e.g. делать -> делаю): я -ю/-у, ты -ешь, он/она -ет, мы -ем, вы -ете, они -ют/-ут. 2nd conjugation (e.g. говорить -> говорю): я -ю/-у, ты -ишь, он/она -ит, мы -им, вы -ите, они -ят/-ат. The «я» and «они» forms often trigger a consonant mutation in 2nd-conjugation verbs (видеть -> вижу, любить -> люблю) - the tool flags these.

Remember the spelling rule that hides behind a lot of "irregular-looking" forms: after ж, ч, ш, щ, г, к, х you write -у/-а instead of -ю/-я, and -и instead of -ы. That is why слышать (2nd conj.) gives слышу, not слышю.

The past tense agrees in gender, not person

The Russian past tense is refreshingly simple - and it works unlike the present. You do not conjugate it by person (я / ты / он). Instead you take the infinitive, drop -ть, and add a gender/number ending: -л for a masculine subject, -ла for feminine, -ло for neuter, and -ли for plural (and for the polite «вы»).

So «я работал» / «я работала» both mean "I worked" - the ending follows the speaker's gender, not the pronoun. «Они работали» is plural regardless of gender. A few common verbs have an irregular past stem (идти -> шёл, шла, шло, шли; мочь -> мог, могла), which the tool shows in full.

Forming the imperative

The imperative (commands and requests) has an informal singular form for «ты» and a plural/polite form for «вы» (just add -те). To build it, take the «они» present-tense stem: if it ends in a vowel, add -й (читают -> читай, читайте); if it ends in a consonant and the «я» form is stressed on the ending, add -и (говорят -> говори, говорите); otherwise add -ь (-ьте).

A handful of everyday verbs have irregular imperatives - есть -> ешь(те), пить -> пей(те), ехать -> поезжай(те) - so it is worth learning the common ones as fixed forms. They are all in the tool above.

Worked examples from the tool

делать (1st conj., imperfective): я делаю, ты делаешь, они делают; past делал / делала / делали; imperative делай(те). A textbook-regular 1st-conjugation verb.

говорить (2nd conj., imperfective): я говорю, ты говоришь, они говорят; past говорил / говорила; imperative говори(те). Its perfective partner for "say" is the suppletive сказать (я скажу - future).

идти (irregular): я иду, ты идёшь, они идут - but the past uses a different stem entirely: шёл / шла / шло / шли. A perfect example of why the high-frequency verbs must be memorized.

хотеть (irregular, mixed): the singular is 1st-conjugation with a т->ч change (хочу, хочешь, хочет) and the plural is 2nd-conjugation (хотим, хотите, хотят). One of the few truly mixed verbs in the language.