What's the Russian phrase for that? Can you spell it phonetically? I'd love to slip that into conversation sometime..."Well, you know, as the Russians like to say..."
Well, the Russian version is just as I said above. If you need the totally exact grammatical form it'll be "better to do and to regret rather than to not do and to regret
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Um... You mean this? Я жалею Ты жалеешь Он жалеет Мы жалеем Вы жалеете Они жалеют Past form жалел for singular and жалели for plural. Future is made with the verb быть (я буду жалеть). There is also a different form of this verb пожалеть, meaning the action is already complete (I don't remember how this form is called), conjugate for future same way as above for present, for past - same way as above for past, and no present, I think. The noun with same root is жалость, the adjective is жалкий.
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Я жалею
Ты жалеешь
Он жалеет
Мы жалеем
Вы жалеете
Они жалеют
Past form жалел for singular and жалели for plural. Future is made with the verb быть (я буду жалеть).
There is also a different form of this verb пожалеть, meaning the action is already complete (I don't remember how this form is called), conjugate for future same way as above for present, for past - same way as above for past, and no present, I think.
The noun with same root is жалость, the adjective is жалкий.
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Waitaminute... I've heard of жал(ь?), as in, "that's too bad." *facepalm* Guess it's not such a new word after all, I'm just having a blonde moment.
Oh, and the по- is perfective
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Жаль is more "that's a pity" rather than "that's too bad", because it emphasises the sorrow, not the negative aspect itself.
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