Breakdown of Вчера мы смотрели интересный спектакль в театре.
в
in
вчера
yesterday
интересный
interesting
мы
we
Questions & Answers about Вчера мы смотрели интересный спектакль в театре.
Why is вчера at the beginning of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?
Russian word order is fairly flexible, and adverbs of time like вчера (yesterday) very often appear at the beginning to set the time frame.
You can also say:
- Мы вчера смотрели интересный спектакль в театре.
- Мы смотрели вчера интересный спектакль в театре.
All of these are grammatically correct. The basic meaning does not change, but the emphasis shifts slightly:
- Вчера мы… – emphasizes when this happened.
- Мы вчера… – slightly more neutral, just stating what you did yesterday.
- Мы смотрели вчера… – can sound like you are contrasting with another time (for example: We watched it yesterday, not today).
So вчера is at the beginning simply as a natural, common way to start with the time information.
Why is the verb смотрели used and not посмотрели?