In respect to the verb, it is difficult to give a general idea of its character; for it is in the forms of this part of speech, that there reigns the greatest variety in the numerous dialects of the Slavic language. The same termination which in Old Slavonic and in Russian indicates invariably the first person of the present, _u_ or _gu_, is in Servian that of the third person Plural of the present and imperfect; and the general termination of the Servian and the Polish for the first person of the present, _am, em_ or _im_, is in Old Slavonic and Russian used for the Plural, _em_ and _im_. There is however one fundamental form through all the Slavic dialects for the second person of the present, a termination in _ash, esh_ or _ish_; and this is consequently the person, by which it is to be recognized to what conjugation a verb belongs.
The division of the verbs adopted in all other European languages into _Active_ and _Passive_, seems to be useless in Slavic; for their being active or passive has no influence upon their flexion; and the forms of the Latin Passive and Deponent must in Slavic be expressed by a circumlocution. A division of more importance and springing from the peculiarity of the language itself, is that into verbs _Perfect_ and _Imperfect_. Neither the Greek, nor the Latin, nor the German, nor any of the languages derived from them, admits of a similar distinction. It seems therefore difficult for persons not perfectly acquainted with any Slavic dialect, to form to themselves a clear idea of it. It is however one of their most striking features, which adds very considerably to their general richness and power. The relation in which the perfect and imperfect verbs stand to each other, is about the same as that of the perfect and imperfect tenses in the conjugation of the Latin verb. Perfect verbs express that an action takes place a single time, and therefore is entirely completed and past; from their very nature it results, that they have no imperfect tense, and their conjugation must be in general incomplete. Imperfect verbs express that the same action continues. Both have in most cases the same radical syllable, and may be formed with a certain degree of freedom; thus in Servian, _viknuti_, to cry once, _vikati_, to be crying; _umriyeti_, to die, _umirati_, to be dying. There are however others, which stand in the same relation to each other without issuing from the same verbal stock; e.g. in Servian, _tchuti_ and _sluskati_, to hear; _retji_ and _govoriti_, to speak, etc.