Questions & Answers about Я опоздал из-за дождя.
Why is опоздал in the masculine form, and how would a female speaker say the same sentence?
In Russian past-tense verbs agree in gender and number with the subject. опоздал is the masculine singular past form. A female speaker would use опоздала, and a group (regardless of gender) would use опоздали.
Why don’t we say Я был опоздал or use a separate “to be” verb?
The verb опоздать itself means “to be late,” so Russian does not require the auxiliary “to be” in present or past. Saying Я был опоздал would be redundant and ungrammatical—Я опоздал already conveys “I was late.”
What case does дождя take after из-за, and why is it not the nominative дождь?
The preposition из-за always governs the genitive case. The noun дождь in the genitive singular becomes дождя (masculine nouns ending in a soft sign take –я in genitive).
What is the difference between using из-за + noun and потому что + clause to express a reason?
из-за + noun (e.g. из-за дождя) is a prepositional phrase meaning “because of [noun]”—often used for a single cause, especially negative. потому что introduces a full clause (e.g. потому что шёл дождь) meaning “because [it was raining],” and can express any cause, positive or negative.