The article refers to the need of including in the course of Russian as a foreign language at an advanced stage the material associated with the study of the means of verbal action. An attempt is made to analyze some of the existing descriptions classifying the formation of different means of verbal action. This covers not only theoretical research, but also practical manuals for foreign students to study the verbal prefixes. The great diversity and the heterogeneity of the phenomenon is noted. Attention is drawn to the difficulties encountered by foreign students while working on these verbs.