Whether to use the perfective "справиться" or the imperfective "справляться"?

Question

In conversation, I just said:>Чтобы ты **управляла** лодкой? Еще чего! Ты еще не в силах **справиться** с ней в одиночку!Looking back on it, I guess I picked the perfective "справиться", thinking that steering a boat (**even once**) was beyond her. But given that I used the imperfective "управлять", I wonder if the imperfective "справляться" might have been a better fit?Then again, "управлять" doesn't have its perfective counterpart to begin with, I suppose. So it might not affect the choice of "справиться" vs "справляться". I haven't learnt Russian grammar methodically, so I might be missing out on some ground rules for verb aspects that I'm not aware of here.

Answer 1

Your interpretation is correct and appropriate.

Answer 2

If we teach English speakers studying Russian, where to put «справляться» or «справиться» « Ты не справишься с лодкой « - isn’t a good example. In general, where we use one form “ справляться» and where - the other form “ справиться»?

It’s well known that foreigners translate from their language into Russian word by word or phrase by phrase. In English «Ты не справишься с лодкой» will be “ You can’t handle the boat” or “ You can’t control the boat “ or “ You can’t cope the boat”. There are three different verbs and what you do with this boat everyone would explain differently. Back to Russian language. The verbs “справляться” and «справиться» both have one joint root “справ” , and both words have one meaning “to do something under pressure “. The difference is only one: « справляться» we use in general ( Ты не справляешься с уроками. Ты не справляешься с работой и пр) “ справиться»- we use in exact moment describing past or future actions.

( Ты не смог справиться с уроками. Ты не смог справиться с работой). First example has equivalent of the Simple Present or the Present Perfect. Second one has equivalent of Simple Past, Past Perfect Continues or Future Perfect Continuous.

In Russian we perform with “вид глагола” -совершенный или несовершенный - perfective or imperfective, in English we use different tenses - to describe time of action.

Answer 3

Excellent! You have chosen the correct type of the verb. Now, I will try to briefly explain why.

The verb type (Вид глагола) in the Russian language is a permanent grammar characteristic of verbs that shows how the action develops in time. Simply put, the action that the verb describes can either be an action that has completed, and is now over or an action that has not, and is still continuing. For example, съел vs. ел; пришел vs. шел. So, it is perfect vs. imperfect. E.g., I have eaten vs. I ate or I was eating or I am eating. Now look at the future – I will have eaten vs. I will eat, etc.

Verbs of the perfect type in the infinitive will correspond to the question что сделать? They can be either in the past or in the simple future tenses.

Examples of perfect verbs:

·      Что сделал? Присел - past tense, the action is completed and it happened only once, i.e. did not repeat.

·      Что сделают? Поговорят – simple future, the action will be completed and will not repeat.

·      Что сделать? закрыть, оплатить, выступить

·      Что сделать? обозначить, ответить, упростить.

Verbs of the imperfect type in the infinitive will correspond to the question что делать? They can be in the past, present and in the future perfect tenses. But in either tense form, they denote a recurring or ongoing action, without indicating whether the action has been completed.

Examples of imperfect verbs:

· Что делал? прыгал – past tense, the action could repeat a number of times, and you can’t tell whether any result was achieved.

· Что делают? смотрят – present tense, the action is ongoing, and you won’t know how long it has been going on or how long it will be going on.

· Что буду делать? буду танцевать – future indefinite or future continuous tense, the action may repeat, and there are no indications that it will ever be completed.

· Что делать? говорить, красить, бегать.

· Что то делать? тащить, идти.

Now, back to your example. Чтобы ты управляла лодкой? Еще чего! Ты еще не в силах справиться с ней в одиночку! The first verb управляла is an imperfect verb is the past tense (Что делала? Управляла). The second verb справиться is а perfect verb in the infinitive (Что сделать? Справиться).

 

This topic is certainly much wider, but I hope this helps you a bit.

Answer 4

Справиться is referring to an effort with an end result, one time deal. Справлятся refers to continual task and effort. In English the equality to that will be something like I Did it/ I Made it vs I have been doing it. Does it make sense?

Answer 5

Your interpretation is correct. "Управлять лодкой" is a basic skill that you have in your life while "справиться с лодкой" refers to a particular situation, so in that case you have to use the imperfective form.