Questions & Answers about На странице указаны даты и важные события.
Why is странице in the prepositional case rather than the accusative or dative?
Because на странице indicates the location where something exists or happens. The prepositional case is used with the preposition на to express “on” or “in” for static locations (answers “where?”).
What is указаны, and why is it in this form?
Указаны is the short form of the plural passive past participle of the perfective verb указать (“to indicate, to point out”). In this sentence it functions as a passive verb meaning “are listed/are indicated.” The perfective aspect shows that the action (indicating) is viewed as a completed event.
Why are даты and события in the nominative case? Aren’t they objects?
In a passive construction like this, the things that are being indicated (даты, события) take the nominative case because they are the grammatical subjects of the passive verb указаны. In Russian passive sentences, the “object” of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence and stays in the nominative.
There’s no mention of who indicated these dates and events. Is that OK?
Yes. Russian often uses the impersonal passive when the agent (the “who”) is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context. You simply focus on what is indicated, not on who did it.
Why is the adjective важные in the full (long) form and not the short form?