Unit 20: Siberia 289
Some verbs have a perfective gerund ending in -я. It is formed in
the same way as an imperfective gerund but from the perfective verb.
These verbs include prefixed forms of нести�, везти�, вести� and
идти�: принести� – принесу�т – принеся� ‘having brought’; прийти� –
приду�т – придя� ‘having arrived’; привести� – приведу�т – приведя�
‘having brought’.
Use of the perfective gerund
The perfective gerund is used to describe actions performed by the
same subject as the main verb but which have taken place prior to the
action of the main verb: Написа�в письмо�, Пи�тер пошёл на по�чту
‘Having written the letter, Peter went to the post office’. The perfective
gerund написа�в ‘having written’ is used instead of the clause по�сле
того�, как он написа�л ‘after he had written’.
Provided the action of the gerund takes place prior to the action of
the main verb, a gerund is used, whatever the tense of the main verb:
Написа�в письмо�, Пи�тер пойдёт на по�чту ‘Having written the letter,
Peter will go to the post office’; Написа�в письмо�, Пи�тер идёт на
по�чту ‘Having written the letter, Peter is going to the post office’.
Perfective gerunds can also be used to replace causal clauses:
Прочита�в мно�го о Сиби�ри, Пи�тер реши�л пое�хать туда� ‘Having
read (since he had read) a lot about Siberia, Peter decided to go there’.
A perfective gerund can be used to replace one of two main verbs,
provided the gerund is used for the action which takes place first: Он
оде�лся и пошёл на рабо�ту/Оде�вшись, он пошёл на рабо�ту ‘‘He
dressed and went to work/Having dressed, he went to work’. The sub-
ject of a gerund must always be the same as the subject of the main
clause. For example it is impossible to translate the following sentence
into Russian using a gerund: ‘Peter, having written the letter, we went
to the post office’. In Russian, this can only be expressed as: ‘When
(or after) Peter had written the letter, we went to the post office’ Когда�
(по�сле того�, как) Пи�тер написа�л письмо�, мы пошли� на по�чту.
Упражне�ние 1
Form the imperfective gerund of the following verbs.
рабо�тать, создава�ть, путеше�ствовать, люби�ть, жить, отправ-
ля�ться, сади�ться, выходи�ть, находи�ться.