Dictionary of Spoken Russian/Russian-English/Section 28

§28. IRREGULAR INFINITIVE AND PAST

Some verbs whose inf stem has only one syllable (not counting preverbs) have shifting stress in the p forms. Some stress only the F ending: жить "to live," живу, живёт, p жил, жила, жило, жили. Mostly such verbs draw the stress back to a preverb in the other p forms: занять "to occupy," займу, займёт, p занял, заняла, заняло, заняли, and they similarly stress the ppp forms: занятый "occupied," sh занят, занята, занято, заняты. In the p refl forms they often stress the last syllable throughout, but in this there is much variation: занялся "occupied himself," занялась, занялось, занялись. A few draw the stress back to a preceding не "not": быть "to be," буду, будет, p был, была, было, были, but не был [nje b'l] "he was not," не была [nj' bila], не было, не были.

Some few verbs stress all the p endings: вёл "he led," вела, вело, вели.

Some irregular verbs make the ppp with [-t]: занять "to occupy," занятый; дуть "to blow" (otherwise regular: дую, дует, дуй, дул, дула), надутый "puffed up"; брить "to shave," брею, бреет, побритый; петь "to sing," пою, поёт (imv пой), петый "(one that has been) sung."

Some irregular verbs have the inf stem ending in a consonant. This consonant combines in various ways with the inf ending [-tj], which here sometimes has a stressed form [-tji]. In the p forms, final [d, t] drop before the [-l]; after other consonants the [-l] drops in the M form. After [r] the inf ends in [-etj]. The ppp, when not formed with [-t], is made with [-jonn], before which [g, k] are replaced by [ž, č]. The following are typical instances:

stem [vjod-] вести "to lead," веду, ведёт, p вёл, вела, вело, вели, поведённый

stem [strjig-] стричь "to shear," стригу, стрижёт, imv стриги, p стриг, стригла, стригло, -и, стриженный stem [žg-] жечь "to burn," жгу, жжёт [žjot], imv жги, p жёг, жгла, жгло, жгли, сожжённый
stem [pjok-] печь "to bake," пеку, печёт, p пёк, пекла пекло, пекли, печённый
stem [tjor-] тереть "to rub," тру, трёт, imv три, p тёр, тёрла, тёрло, тёрли, тёртый
stem [njos-] нести "to carry," несу, несёт, imv неси, p нёс, несла, несло, несли, понесённый
stem [vjoz] везти [vjistji] "to cart," везу, везёт, p вёз, везла, везло, везли, повезённый

The stem [id-] has p forms from a stem [šd-]: итти or идти [itjf] "to be going," иду, идёт, imv иди, p шёл, шла, шло, шли, pap шедший. After preverbs the stem is [yd-]: войти "to go in," войду, войдёт, imv войди, p вошёл, вошла, вошло, вошли, pap вошедший.

Some verbs in -нуть go by Class Three but drop [nu] in the p forms, гаснуть "to be extinguished," гасну, гаснет, p гас, гасла, гасло, гасли.