English Translation
He works day and night to provide for his family.
Why обеспечить rather than обеспечивать? I would expect the imperfective.
English Translation
He works day and night to provide for his family.
The verb обеспечить (perfective) is used in this sentence because the focus is on the goal or result of his work — to provide for his family (i.e., to make sure they are provided for).
Let’s unpack it:
Он работает днём и ночью, чтобы обеспечить свою семью.
→ He works day and night in order to provide for his family (to achieve that result).
The conjunction чтобы introduces a clause of purpose (“in order to…”), and Russian usually uses the perfective aspect for the verb in such clauses, because the speaker’s focus is on the intended completion of the action — what he wants to accomplish.
If we said обеспечивать, it would sound like focusing on the process of providing rather than the goal:
Он работает днём и ночью, чтобы обеспечивать свою семью.
This would feel odd, almost like “so that he may be in the process of providing for his family,” not what’s meant here.
Compare these examples:
Я учусь, чтобы сдать экзамен. (perfective → goal: to pass the exam)
Я учусь, чтобы сдавать экзамены. (imperfective → process: to take exams regularly, maybe as a student in general)
So the rule of thumb:
After чтобы when expressing purpose, use perfective if the aim is a one-time or desired result, and imperfective if it’s about a repeated or ongoing process.
2 Likes
I see. Thank you for the excellent explanation.