When to use Past and when Present Perfect

[Iouri]

Thank you.

Now it is getting warmer

[inbox]

From where I learned Dutch the first time, the teacher said that imperfectum is more for informal conversation and for written perfectum is more used. Well I don't know whether that s true

[ngonyama]

If it is any consolation Iouri, for me imperfective and perfective aspect verbs in Russian are equally baffling. Especially in forms like the imperative or the infinitives. (What is the difference between извините and извиняете?)

Although I do think there is a bit of overlap with what Dutch does with imperfects and perfect presents and I wonder how useful it would be for a Russian speaker to think of it in those terms.

E.g. when talking about something that lasted a while in the past you'd typically use an imperfect. I think Russian would use an imperfective verb. (?)

Hij lag in bed en piekerde over zijn problemen. - he was lying in bed and ruminated about his problems.

The perfect is used for statements of fact about the past:

Hij heeft gisteren geen televisie gekeken - he did not watch any television yesterday

Perfective verb in Russian. I think, but I don't think the correspondence is anyway near 100%

Sometimes adverbs like 'al' are used in Dutch to add duration

Zij is al 3 jaar mijn vriendin - she is my girlfried and it has been that way 3 y already.

Notice that "Zij is 3 jaar mijn vriendin geweest" implies that she is no longer your girlfriend (the sentence is perfect, in the sence of: it is over and finished).

[Iouri]

I'll try to figure this out. SO far my objective is to understand and to make people understand me.

Thank you very much

[Iouri]

Ngonyama,

You got me started on the
(What is the difference between извините and извиняете?)
I know perfectly how to use it, but it is difficult to explain. Now I am thinking how would I explain it to a foreigner.
I think that извините (sorry, or excuse me) is an imperative and извиняете is used in a question or statement
Вы извиняете меня? - question
Он извиняет его за его ошибки. - statement
There are only 3 tenses in Russian, but there are a lot is expressed by prefixes and suffixes.
If you are interested to discuss it, email or skype me, not to distract people in this forum from dutch.
I will be happy to exchange your dutch to my russian.
Iouri