Questions tagged [tense]

The expression <я пошёл к себе> is in the past tense but it means "I'm off home" which is the present tense. Why is this?

Я не ослышалась? Клянусь, я только что слышала, как она поблагодарила меня. I just heard this (sarcastically said) in conversation. In English, you'd express the same idea with the conditional tense: "I could've sworn I just heard ...". I wonder…

I've noticed twice now that in situations where someone is reporting past events, they suddenly switch to the present tense for no apparent reason. The first example is from this fairy tale. The second paragraph starts out in the past tense and then…

The title of this question is ambiguous as I couldn't think of anything better. What I'm trying to articulate is the thought of 'I didn't know at the time but do now'. Can this be expressed by saying 'Я не знал', or does it go deeper than that? For…