italki - Why «как напьётся» аnd not «когда направился»? Here's the bit of dialog I am asking about:

neofight78

Why «как напьётся» аnd not «когда направился»? Here's the bit of dialog I am asking about: – Это кто тебя так? – А, муж. Как напьётся... I would translate the first part as: – Who did this to you? – My husband. And then "When he was drunk", but it looks like the future tense is used? What does that last line mean, how does the grammar work?

Sep 28, 2015 10:57 PM

Answers · 10

This means that her husband beats her each time he gets drunk (repeated action) Напиваться (to get drunk) is a perfective verb. Perfective verbs don't have a present tense and use the future form to describe repeated or habitual actions.

September 28, 2015

In addition to Denis' answer - Russian has absolute and relative tenses (There are five absolute tenses in Russian - two past tenses, two future tenses and one present tense). The present tense can express any tenses (present, past and future). The past tenses can express past and future tenses. The future tenses can express future, present and past tenses. I think it is the higher level of the Russian grammar.

September 29, 2015

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