By Kelly Virginia Phelan Last updated: July 5, 2024

Russian Verbs of Motion: How to Express Direction and Mode of Transportation

Russian verbs of motion indicate movement from one place to another, just like the English “go,” “walk,” “run” and so forth. Unlike their English counterparts, however, Russian motion verbs also account for the direction of movement, method of movement and their grammatical form.

Learn all the Russian verbs of motion and their forms, and master their use to convey where you’re going and how you’re getting there. 

Contents

• The 14 Russian Verbs of Motion
• Unidirectional and Multidirectional Verbs
• • Unidirectional Verbs
  • Multidirectional Verbs
• How to Use Russian Verbs of Motion
• A Closer Look at Russian Verbs of Motion
• • The 2 Main Russian Verbs of Motion
  • • Expressing mode of transportation
    • Expressing movement toward a destination
  • “Going” by Other Methods of Movement
  • “Carrying,” “Leading” and “Taking’” Russian Verbs of Motion
• Perfective and Imperfective Verbs of Motion 
• • Perfective Verbs
  • Imperfective Verbs
• Prepositions and Russian Verbs of Motion
• Prefixes for Russian Verbs of Motion
• And One More Thing...

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The 14 Russian Verbs of Motion

There are 14 main Russian verbs of motion. Each of these has two forms. We’ll get into more detail about these forms in a moment, but for now all you need to know is:

• The unidirectional form is used for motion that happens only once, movement in one direction or movement that’s happening in the present.
• The multidirectional form is used for recurring or habitual motion, movement in multiple direction and movement in general.

However, there are many situations where both a unidirectional and a multidirectional verb can be used interchangeably.

Later in this post, we’ll get into the details of how to use each type of verb and its forms. But before we get into the nitty gritty of things, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the verbs themselves.

Here’s an overview of all the Russian verbs of motion:

Unidirectional and Multidirectional Verbs

Direction is critical when determining which verb form to use. Each Russian verb of motion has a unidirectional and multidirectional form.

Unidirectional Verbs

Unidirectional verbs are used for actions that:

• occur one time
• describe movement in only one direction
• talk about movement happening in the present moment

Here are some examples of unidirectional sentences:

Unidirectional verbs are also used to discuss figurative or idiomatic topics:

Since unidirectional verbs may be used to indicate an action happening at the present moment, сейчас (now) is often used to clarify that detail.

Multidirectional Verbs

By contrast, multidirectional verbs describe:

• repeated or habitual actions
• movement in multiple directions
• movement in general (including describing an individual’s ability to move)

Here are some sample sentences that use multidirectional verbs:

Adverbs may be used to showcase frequency or repeated actions with multidirectional verbs, such as:

How to Use Russian Verbs of Motion

When you’re first starting out, it may be useful to take a formulaic approach to using verbs of motion. That way, you can easily remember and implement the abovementioned rules.

Here’s one basic formula you can use:

• Frequency word/phrase to clarify whether the action is uni- or multi-directional

• Subject + verb

• HA + transport method in prepositional case (if necessary)

• B/HA + destination in accusative case

Many of the sentences presented here use variations of this formula. Here’s an example sentence using the full formula:

Каждый день дети ездят на велосипедах в школу. (Every day the kids ride their bikes to school.)

Let’s break that down:

A Closer Look at Russian Verbs of Motion

The 2 Main Russian Verbs of Motion

Here are the main Russian verbs of motion you’ll encounter depending on the method of movement:

These two verbs are used to express both movement by a mode of transportation and movement toward something.

Expressing mode of transportation

Since ехать and ездить verb forms involve transportation, you should also make it a point to become familiar with different types of transportation and how to express them correctly.

Quite simply, use HA + the type of transport in the prepositional case. For instance:

Expressing movement toward a destination

To show that you’re going to somewhere, you typically use B or HA + the accusative case. For example:

“Going” by Other Methods of Movement

Some verbs of motion in Russian go beyond simple movement and give more information about the mode of transportation. Here are some more specific verbs used to convey motion.

These are listed in unidirectional-multidirectional pairs, in that order:

Note: Гнать / Гонять isn’t used for “driving a car,” unless it’s implied that the driving is fast or reckless. ( Вести / Водить is used for “driving a vehicle,” as you’ll see below.) Instead, this verb pair means to force someone to move, as in the case of “driving a herd.”

Фермеры гоняли скот на рынок. (The farmers drove the livestock to market.)

However, you can use it as an informal expression for driving fast:

Куда ты так гонишь?  (Where are you driving so fast?)

“Carrying,” “Leading” and “Taking’” Russian Verbs of Motion

There are four verbs of motion pairs that fall into the “carrying” category. The carrying verb pairs are sometimes difficult for learners to get their heads around, because the idea is that an object or a person is being moved.

Each of these pairs is described in more detail below:

Perfective and Imperfective Verbs of Motion 

Russian verbs are either perfective or imperfective, and verbs of motion are no exception.

But as you may have noticed, directionality takes on some of the meaning usually defined by perfectiveness. Up until now, we’ve only been dealing with the imperfective verbs. Perfective unidirectional verbs are generally used to describe the beginning of movement, whilst perfective multidirectional verbs usually refer to movement that was or will be happening for some time, often to underline the limits of that amount of time.

Perfective Verbs

Perfective verbs of motion are used to:

• mark the start of an action
• show a change of action in progress or with the future perfective of another verb.

For instance:

An important thing to remember regarding verbs of motion and aspect is that both unidirectional and multidirectional verbs have a perfective aspect.

For example:

• лететь (imperfective) and полететь (perfective) are unidirectional (a.k.a. concrete)
• летать (imperfective) and полетать (perfective) are multidirectional (a.k.a. abstract)

Further, perfective verbs have only two tenses: past and future.

Imperfective Verbs

The imperfective aspect is used to showcase actions that are:

• ongoing
• repeatable
• incomplete
• indicative of a length of time

For example:

Note that both unidirectional and multidirectional verbs utilize the imperfective aspect.

Prepositions and Russian Verbs of Motion

The method of movement will determine both which verb you use and which preposition accompanies it.

Here are the most common prepositions that accompany Russian verbs of motion:

Note that the preposition “У” is not used with verbs of movement. It’s about the present location (“I’m near X”). The only way to indicate movement using this preposition is not through a verb, but through a past or future tense (“I will be near X,” “I was near X”). In other words, it’s a hint at movement.

Take these sentences, for example:

Я буду у твоего офиса через час. (I will be near your office in an hour.)

Они были у памятника, когда они мне позвонили. (They were near the monument when they called me.)

Prefixes for Russian Verbs of Motion

As with other Russian verbs, verbs of motion use prefixes to add meaning and context to them.

Some of the most common prefixes used with Russian verbs of motion include:

Think you’ve got the hang of Russian verbs of motion? If so, check your skills using this online proficiency test. There are many resources that can help you with that, but we recommend this handbook from Yale that focuses specifically on this tricky subject.

With these verbs of motion in your Russian vocabulary, your language skills can keep on moving forward!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

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