Questions & Answers about Мы купили дешёвый телефон.
Why does the verb купили end with -ли, and what tense and aspect is it?
купили is the past‐tense form for “we bought.” The -ли ending marks the 1st person plural in the past tense. The verb купить is perfective, so купили indicates a completed action (we did buy it, and it’s done).
Why is there no preposition before телефон?
The verb купить (“to buy”) takes a direct object in the accusative case, with no preposition. In Russian, many transitive verbs simply use the accusative for their objects.
How can I tell that телефон is in the accusative case?
телефон is a masculine inanimate noun ending in a consonant. In Russian, the accusative of inanimate masculine nouns is identical to the nominative. So телефон stays the same whether it’s the subject or a direct object. Context and word order show that it’s the object of купили here.
Why is the adjective дешёвый ending in -ый?
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. телефон is masculine, singular, and (here) accusative, so дешёвый takes the masculine singular form -ый (which looks identical in nominative and accusative for inanimate nouns).