Variable verbs: what are they?

Every day we hear different pronunciations of words. For example, one person may say “we want”, and another person may say “we want”. And each speaker considers his own option to be the only correct one, but not everyone can argue for the chosen position.

Let's try to figure out why in spoken language there are several variants of pronunciation of the same word. And let's find out which one is correct. This article will be useful for both students and adults who are trying to improve their literacy levels.

Verb conjugations

The reason for variations in pronunciation is differently conjugated verbs. But before we understand what it is, let's review the basics.

Conjugation is a change in the form of a verb according to numbers, tenses, genders and persons. How the word will sound directly depends on it. Conjugation is determined by the ending of the verb. There are only two key types. Let's look at the endings that appear in each of them:

As can be seen from the table, the endings characteristic of the first conjugation are: -у/-у, -еж/-еть, -ет/-ет, -ем/-ем, -ете/-еte, -yut/-ut. For II - -у/-yu, -ish, -it, -im, -ite, -yat/-at.

Determining which specific type a verb is classified as is quite simple. It is enough to follow the algorithm:

1. We remember from the table the vowels that can appear in endings of both types.
2. Let's look at whether the end of the word is stressed or not.
3. If the vowel in the ending is stressed, then we simply remember what type of verbs ending in it are.
4. In order to determine the conjugation of a word with an unstressed letter, we put it in the infinitive.
5. We look at the vowel that comes before the suffix -т. The second type includes verbs ending in -it and eleven exception words, the first includes all the others and “shave”, “lay”.
6. If you want to make sure that your conclusions are correct, change the word by person and compare the endings with the table.

Variably conjugated verbs

Sometimes, changing a word by person, you will see endings characteristic of both type I and type II at once. And then confusion immediately arises. “How to determine the conjugation in this situation? What type of verb is this?” you ask yourself.

The answer is simple: such words do not refer to either I or II. They are classified into a special group of “variably conjugated verbs.” Features of sound in different genders and numbers determine their specificity.

In the personal forms of these verbs, endings of both types occur. That's where the self-explanatory name comes from.

Sometimes differently conjugated verbs are confused with words that have an atypical system of endings. In fact, this is another separate group of these parts of speech. In order to understand how they differ, let’s try to answer the question: “Is the verb “give” heterogeneously conjugated?”

The endings in the plural forms coincide with those found in the I and II conjugations. But what about the rest? Everything is different here. There are no similar forms in the modern Russian language system. Such words have retained archaic endings. This means that these verbs are classified as a different type: “special conjugated”. In addition to “give,” this same small group includes “is,” and all prefix derivatives of these words.

How to find out a differently conjugated verb?

A word that uses the endings of the I and II conjugations at once is easy to recognize: just change it by persons and numbers. However, such efforts are useless, because the heterogeneous group refers only to “run” and “want.” It's worth remembering what the different forms of these words look like to avoid mistakes.

Variable verbs: examples of change

The table shows that both words use endings from two groups. All derivatives of “want” and “run” are classified as heteroconjugates. Verbs that have several pronunciation options are often mistakenly included in this group. For example: they honor / honor, pour / pour.

Most people do not have problems forming different forms of verbs. They do it intuitively and are not mistaken. But some try to change all the words according to the same rules, and then we get the options: “we want”, “we run” and the like. Naturally, such options cannot be considered correct. After all, these words do not change according to the model of the first or second type.

It is quite easy to remember how to write and pronounce different conjugated verbs. The examples in the table will help those who have difficulties. If you learn the endings by heart, you will never go wrong.