A Grammar Blow

I got some really bad news about Russian today: most verbs have two infinitives. That explains a lot. I have been having dictionary troubles with verbs, not understanding why I am being given multiple similar translations when I look up a single simple English verb. And I have also been confused trying to figure out why VocabuLearn verbs often sound similar but not identical to verbs I’ve learned through Pimsleur.

On the other hand, I continue to be amazed by how many cognates there are. With all these cognates, Russian sometimes feels like (a) English and (b) cheating.

Around 4:30 this afternoon, exhausted, I got into bed with my headphones and Pimsleur. I started lesson 20, halfheartedly answering questions, and then woke up some time later in the middle of lesson 21, then answered a few more questions, then woke up in lesson 22. I finished that and went ahead with 23, at which point Brandt came in to find me still doing Pimsleur. He was amused. I was in bed for about two hours and felt much better when I got out of it than when I got into it.