Russian Verb Conjugation: First vs. Second Conjugation Explained

Russian verbs look intimidating until you notice that almost all of them follow one of just two patterns. Learn those two and you can conjugate the vast majority of Russian verbs in the present tense. This split, into the first and second conjugation, is the single most useful thing to get straight early on, so let's make it simple.

The two conjugations

Every regular Russian verb belongs to one of two groups, told apart by the vowel running through its endings. The first conjugation uses an -е- / -ё- vowel; the second uses -и-. The pronouns are the same for both; only the endings change:

The model verbs are знать (znat, "to know") for the first conjugation and говорить (govorit, "to speak") for the second:

• знать: я знаю, ты знаешь, он знает, мы знаем, вы знаете, они знают
• говорить: я говорю, ты говоришь, он говорит, мы говорим, вы говорите, они говорят

Notice the only ending shared by both groups is the я form. Every other form carries the tell-tale vowel: -е- for the first conjugation, -и- for the second.

How to tell which conjugation a verb is

There are two ways, one foolproof and one fast.

The foolproof way: look at the ты-form. If it ends in -ешь / -ёшь, the verb is first conjugation; if it ends in -ишь, it's second. This is the definition, so it never lies. The catch is that you need to know one conjugated form already.

The fast guess: look at the infinitive. Most verbs ending in -ить are second conjugation (говорить, любить, просить). Almost everything else, the verbs in -ать, -ять, -еть, -овать, -нуть, -ти and -чь, is first conjugation (знать, читать, рисовать).

This guess is right most of the time, but it is only a guess, because a small set of verbs breaks it.

The verbs that break the pattern

A closed, memorizable group looks first-conjugation by its infinitive but conjugates as second. About a dozen base verbs do this, and Russian schoolchildren learn the core eleven as a rhyme:

Гнать, держать, смотреть и видеть, дышать, слышать, ненавидеть, и обидеть, и терпеть, и зависеть, и вертеть.

Seven end in -еть (смотреть, видеть, ненавидеть, обидеть, терпеть, вертеть, зависеть) and four in -ать (гнать, держать, слышать, дышать). A few more round out the group: спать, стоять and бояться. Because the list is short and closed, it pays to learn it by heart once, rather than second-guess each verb forever.

There are also two stragglers going the other way: брить and стелить end in -ить but are first conjugation.

Two spelling quirks

Two small things change the spelling of an ending without changing the grammar:

• After a husher (ж, ш, ч, щ), Russian never writes ю or я, so the ending switches to -у / -а: писать gives пишу, пишут, not *писаю.
• The я and они forms come in two spellings (-у/-ю and -ут/-ют or -ат/-ят). Which one a verb uses comes with the verb: говорю but несу. You pick it up as you learn the verb.

Both are spelled out, with examples, in the full grammar chapter.

Where to go next

Once the two patterns click, the rest of the present tense is just practice. The conjugation chapter walks through both patterns with full paradigms, the exception verbs, the husher rule, and built-in exercises. And every entry in the verb dictionary shows the verb's conjugation and its complete present-tense forms, so you can check yourself against any verb you meet.

Master these two patterns first. They unlock more of Russian than any vocabulary list will.