244 Ukrainian: A Comprehensive Grammar листуватися but not *листувати to correspond (with each other) 6.4.3 ASPECT As the use of the Ukrainian verb is to such an extent a function of its aspect, we present here the notions of tense, sequence of actions, and the imperative under the global umbrella of'aspect'. 6.4.3.1 Tense The basic distribution of tenses vis-a-vis aspect was described in 6.1: the imperfective verb has all three basic tenses (past, present, and future) while the perfective verb is limited to two (past and future) by virtue of the notion of 'completed' action: Imperfective: Кожного дня Маша ходить до школи. Іван Франкб був письменником. Батько працював на заводі. Ми дуже любимо танцювати. Чи будеш відпочивати літом? У школі діти читатимуть (будуть читати) українську літературу. Perfective: Його виключили з парти. Нарешті Леся дописала книжку віршів. Зайдеш до мене увечері? Запишу тобі свою адресу. Every day Masha goes to school. Ivan Franko was a writer. Father worked in a factory. We really like to dance. Will you rest (this) summer? In school the children will be reading Ukrainian literature. He was expelled from the party. Lesja finally finished writing the book of verse. Will you visit me (come by) this evening? I'll write down my address for you. 6.4.3.2 Sequence of actions Actions that are taking place concurrently (in any of the three tenses) must by their very nature be imperfective: Тато сидів за столом, пив каву, та читав газету. Dad was sitting at the table, drinking (some) coffee and reading the newspaper.
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