Questions & Answers about Они мечтали о рае.
Why is они used here, and does it tell us anything about gender?
Они means they. It is the nominative plural form of the pronoun.
Unlike English, Russian does not have a separate plural pronoun for different genders. So они can refer to:
- a group of men
- a group of women
- a mixed group
- even things or animals
You only learn the gender makeup from context, not from они itself.
What form is мечтали?
Мечтали is the past tense plural form of the verb мечтать, which means to dream, to daydream, or to long for.
Russian past tense forms agree with gender and number, not person. Compare:
- я мечтал — I dreamed, masculine speaker
- я мечтала — I dreamed, feminine speaker
- оно мечтало — it dreamed
- они мечтали — they dreamed
So -ли here tells you the subject is plural.
Does мечтали mean they dreamed, they were dreaming, or they used to dream?
It can mean any of those, depending on context.
Because мечтать is an imperfective verb, the past form мечтали often suggests:
- an ongoing action in the past — they were dreaming
- a repeated or habitual action — they used to dream
- a general past situation — they dreamed
Russian does not force the same tense distinctions that English does here. The wider context tells you which English translation fits best.