6 Стриптизëры оставляли пыль от пудры.
7 «Папики-профессора» танцевали бразильский танец.
8 Геи-полицейские пели какие-то странные гимны.
IMPERFECTIVE GERUND
In Russian there are two forms of the gerund: the imperfective and the
perfective (see Unit 16). In this unit we look at the imperfective gerund.
The imperfective gerund can be used as a substitute for an adverbial clause
(‘when, while, in doing something, etc.’) or an independent clause (‘and’). To
translate ‘She was sitting at home (while, and) reading the newspaper’, one
could use either an independent clause – Она сидела дома и читала газету –
or an imperfective gerund: Она сидела дома, читая газету. For an imperfect
gerund to be used, the actions of both parts of the sentence (sitting and
reading) must be taking place at the same time.
The performance of the action denoted by the imperfective gerund must
refer back to the principle subject of the sentence, so that the woman reading
the paper has to be the same woman as the woman who was sitting at home.
As with adverbs – the gerund is sometimes called a ‘verbal adverb’ – the
form of the imperfective gerund never changes, regardless of the number or
gender of the subject:
Он сидел/Они сидели дома, смотря ‘He was/They were sitting at
телевизор. home watching television.’
Neither is it affected by the tense of the main verb:
Она сидит дома, читая газету. ‘She’s sitting at home reading the
newspaper.’
Nouns governed by the gerund are in the same case as after the verb from
which the gerund is formed: ... и читала газету and ... читая газету, in
both instances in the accusative case (газету).
Formation of the imperfective gerund
The imperfective gerund (always derived from the imperfective aspect of the
verb) is formed by replacing the third person plural present tense with -я or
-а, the latter when the verbal stem ends in ж, ч, ш or щ:
дела-ют → дела-я ‘doing’, ‘making’
нес-ут → нес-я ‘carrying’
сид-ят → сид-я ‘sitting’
плач-ут → плач-а ‘crying’
ищ-ут → ищ-а ‘seeking’
Unit 15 161