Learn Hardcore Russian: Вечером канал объявил результаты конкурса. - In the evening the channel announced the contest results.

Вечером is an adverbial expression of time. It comes from the noun вечер in the instrumental singular (–ом) used without a preposition to mean “in the evening.” It specifies when the action occurred.

Why is канал in the nominative case, and what role does it play?

канал is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case. As the subject, it indicates who performed the action: “the channel” announced something.

What does the ending -л in объявил indicate?

The -л ending marks past tense. Because канал is masculine singular, the verb takes объявил. For a feminine subject you'd have объявила, neuter объявило, and plural объявили.

Which aspect is used in объявил, perfective or imperfective, and why?

объявил is the perfective past tense of the verb объявить. Perfective aspect denotes a completed, one-time action – the channel finished announcing the results.

Why are результаты and конкурса in the accusative and genitive cases respectively?

• результаты is the direct object of объявил, so it’s in the accusative case. Since результаты is inanimate and plural, its accusative form matches the nominative (результаты).
• конкурса is the genitive singular of конкурс, showing possession: “results OF the contest.”

Why are there no articles like “the” or “a” before канал or результаты конкурса?

Russian doesn’t have articles. Definiteness (“the”) or indefiniteness (“a”) is understood from context or word order. Here it’s clear we mean “the channel” and “the competition’s results.”

How can the word order be changed, and how does it affect emphasis?

Russian word order is flexible. For example:
• Канал объявил результаты конкурса вечером. (neutral)
• Вечером канал объявил результаты конкурса. (emphasizes the time “in the evening”)
• Результаты конкурса канал объявил вечером. (emphasizes the “results”)
Changing word order shifts focus but keeps the same core meaning.

What’s the difference between канал объявил and на канале объявили constructions?

• Канал объявил результаты конкурса. – Personal construction; “the channel” is the agent.
• На канале объявили результаты конкурса. – Impersonal construction; “on the channel” with an indefinite “they announced,” common in headlines or reports. Nuance is minor: the impersonal form sounds more general.

How would you form the passive voice of this sentence?

Passive voice: Результаты конкурса были объявлены каналом вечером.
• были объявлены – past passive perfective
• каналом – agent in the instrumental case (by the channel)
This construction puts focus on результаты конкурса rather than канал.