Questions & Answers about Я закончил работу.
What does each word in Я закончил работу mean?
• Я – “I,” the first‑person singular pronoun in the nominative case
• закончил – “finished” or “have finished,” past tense of the perfective verb закончить
• работу – “work” or “job,” feminine noun in the accusative case serving as the direct object
Why is работу in the accusative case?
What is the aspect of закончить, and why is the perfective used here?
How do you form the past tense in Russian, and what does закончил tell us about the subject?
To form the past tense, you take the verb stem and add gender/number endings:
– Masculine singular: -л
– Feminine singular: -ла
– Neuter singular: -ло
– Plural: -ли
Here, закончил ends in -л, so it’s masculine singular. The speaker is a man.
How would a female speaker say “I finished the work”?
She would use the feminine past ending -ла:
Я закончила работу.
How do you pronounce Я закончил работу, and where are the stresses?
In standard Russian pronunciation:
[jə zɐˈkonʲt͡ɕɪl rɐˈbotu]
Stresses: закончил работу. You can also write it with stress marks as я зако́нчил рабо́ту.
How do you ask “Did you finish the work?” in Russian?
Informal singular: Ты зако́нчил рабо́ту?
Formal or plural: Вы зако́нчили рабо́ту?
Use rising intonation to turn it into a question.
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