Breakdown of Вчера я посетил Большой театр.
я
I
вчера
yesterday
посетить
to visit
Большой театр
Bolshoi Theatre
Questions & Answers about Вчера я посетил Большой театр.
Why do we use посетил instead of посещал?
посетил is the perfective past of посетить, which describes a single, completed action (“I visited the Bolshoi Theatre once, and finished that visit”).
посещал is the imperfective past of посещать, implying repeated or continuous visits over time (“I used to visit…, I was visiting…”). Since you mean “I went and completed that visit yesterday,” you choose the perfective посетил.
Why doesn’t Большой театр change its form after посетил?
In this sentence Большой театр is the direct object of a transitive verb and thus is in the accusative case. For most masculine inanimate nouns the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. That’s why Большой театр stays unchanged.
Why isn’t there a preposition в before Большой театр?
The verb посетить directly takes its object without a preposition. You say посетил музей, посетил концерт, посетил Большой театр. If you used в, you’d need a different verb, for example сходил в Большой театр (“went to the Bolshoi Theatre”).
Can you move Вчера to a different position in the sentence?