Модератор подготовил новый опрос и добавил его в список заданий к фильму.

The moderator prepared a new survey and added it to the list of tasks for the movie.

Breakdown of Модератор подготовил новый опрос и добавил его в список заданий к фильму.

• в: to
• новый: new
• и: and
• фильм: the movie
• задание: the task
• подготовить: to prepare
• его: it
• добавить: to add
• к: for
• модератор: the moderator
• список: the list
• опрос: the survey

Questions & Answers about Модератор подготовил новый опрос и добавил его в список заданий к фильму.

Why is подготовил used here instead of готовил or подготавливал? What’s the difference in aspect?

Подготовил is perfective past tense. It presents the action as completed: the moderator finished preparing the new poll.

• подготовил – perfective, past, masculine singular
  Meaning: he prepared (and finished preparing).
• готовил / подготавливал – imperfective, past
  Meaning: was preparing / used to prepare / was in the process of preparing.

Compare:

• Модератор готовил новый опрос. – He was preparing a new poll (process, we don’t know if he finished).
• Модератор подготовил новый опрос. – He did the job and it’s now ready.

Because the sentence also says he added it somewhere (another completed result), perfective подготовил fits best.

How do we know that модератор is masculine? What if the moderator is a woman?

The noun модератор is grammatically masculine in Russian. Verbs in the past tense agree in gender with the subject, so подготовил (masculine) shows that grammatically the subject is masculine.

In everyday Russian, модератор is used for both male and female moderators. If the speaker wants to emphasize that it’s a woman, they often keep the noun masculine but change the verb to feminine:

• Модератор подготовила новый опрос… – The moderator (a woman) prepared a new poll…

There is a colloquial form модераторша, but it can sound informal or slightly derogatory; it’s not neutral standard style. Neutral speech usually uses модератор for any gender and lets context or verb endings indicate if needed.

What exactly does опрос mean here? Is it a “poll”, a “survey”, or an “interview”? Why not голосование?

Опрос is a general noun meaning survey / poll / questioning – a situation where you ask a group of people questions and collect their answers.

Depending on context:

• опрос – survey, poll, or questioning (broad term)
• голосование – a vote, usually choosing between options (often with yes/no or multiple-choice)
• анкетирование – filling in a questionnaire
• опросник – the actual questionnaire form (list of questions)

In an online or media context, новый опрос often translates naturally as a new poll (e.g. on a website or social media). It might involve voting on options and/or answering questions; Russian uses опрос for both.

What case is новый опрос in, and why does it look like nominative if it’s an object?

Новый опрос is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb подготовил.

For inanimate masculine nouns like опрос, the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative:

• Nominative: новый опрос (subject)
• Accusative: новый опрос (object)

So:

• Новый опрос готов. – subject (nominative)
• Модератор подготовил новый опрос. – object (accusative)

Even though the forms look the same, the function in the sentence and the verb tell you that it’s accusative here.

In добавил его в список, what exactly does его refer to, and how do we know it means “it” and not “his”?

Here его is the unstressed accusative pronoun meaning “him/it”.

It refers back to новый опрос:

• добавил его = added it (i.e. added the new poll).

Russian его can be:

1. A personal pronoun (him/it) – object form
2. A possessive adjective (his) – “whose?” form

In this sentence:

• It stands where a direct object should be (after добавил).
• It replaces a masculine inanimate noun (опрос).
• There is no noun right after it that it could modify possessively.

So here его clearly means “it” (the poll), not “his”.

Why is it добавил его в список, with в + accusative, and not в списке or another preposition?

The preposition в with the accusative case expresses movement into / placement into something.

• добавил его в список – added it to the list
  Literally: added it into the list (direction into the list).

Compare:

• Он в списке. – He is on/in the list. (в + prepositional: location, no movement)
• Он вошёл в список. – He entered the list. (в + accusative: movement into)

So:

• добавить в список = to add (sth) to a list (put it there).
• Using в списке instead would mean “in the list” (state), not the action of adding.

In список заданий, why is заданий in the genitive plural? Could we say список задания?

After nouns like список (list), Russian normally uses the genitive case to show what the list consists of.

• список чего? – заданий (genitive plural of задание)

So:

• список заданий – a list of tasks/assignments

Задания in the nominative plural would mean simply “tasks/assignments” as the subject or object, not as something that a list contains. Список задания (genitive singular) would sound wrong here, because the list obviously contains more than one task.

Correct patterns:

• список книг – a list of books
• список фильмов – a list of films
• список заданий – a list of tasks

What does задания mean in this context? Is it like “tasks”, “assignments”, or “exercises”?

The noun задание means task / assignment, and often also exercise in learning contexts.

Here, список заданий к фильму likely means:

• a list of tasks or assignments related to the film (e.g., questions to answer, things to discuss, exercises to do after watching).

Depending on context, задание can be:

• homework assignment – домашнее задание
• exercise in a workbook – выполните задание 3
• task in a to-do list or software – новое задание в системе

In this sentence, “tasks/assignments” is usually the best translation.

Why is the preposition к used in к фильму instead of для фильма or по фильму? What’s the nuance?

The preposition к here means “related to / intended for / accompanying” something.

• задания к фильму – tasks for / connected with the film
  (tasks that belong with this film, go along with it)

Compare:

• для фильма – literally “for the film”; often implies purpose for the benefit of the film (e.g. music written for a film: музыка для фильма).
• по фильму – often “based on / about the film” in the sense of content:
  • тест по фильму – a test about the film (questions on its content)
  • игра по фильму – a game based on the film

К фильму is common in educational and media contexts for things that accompany the main material:

• вопросы к фильму – questions to go with the film
• упражнения к тексту – exercises accompanying the text

So список заданий к фильму is a standard phrase: a list of tasks that go with this film.

Could the word order be different, like Модератор добавил в список его or Модератор новый опрос подготовил?

Russian word order is relatively flexible, but not all variants sound natural.

1. Модератор добавил в список его
   This is grammatically possible but sounds awkward and unnatural here. Pronoun objects like его usually come before the prepositional phrase:

   • Natural: добавил его в список
   • Unnatural: добавил в список его (feels heavy, and его is too far from the verb)

2. Модератор новый опрос подготовил
   This is also grammatically possible and can be used for emphasis (e.g. emphasizing новый опрос). However, the neutral order for a simple declarative sentence is:

   • Модератор подготовил новый опрос…

So the original sentence has the default, most neutral word order:

• [Subject] Модератор
• [Verb 1] подготовил
• [Object] новый опрос
• [Verb 2 + pronoun object] и добавил его
• [Prepositional phrase] в список заданий к фильму

Do we need to repeat anything with the second verb? Could we say Модератор подготовил и добавил новый опрос… instead?

You can share the same object between the two verbs:

• Модератор подготовил и добавил новый опрос в список заданий к фильму.

This is perfectly correct and natural. The original sentence instead uses a pronoun to avoid repeating новый опрос:

• Модератор подготовил новый опрос и добавил его в список…

Both structures are fine:

• If you want to avoid repetition, use его.
• If you want to keep it explicit and simple, you can repeat новый опрос or share it after both verbs as above.

You usually don’t repeat the subject (Модератор) or the tense; one subject and one finite verb form is enough for both actions when they are joined by и and share the same subject.

How would the sentence change if the moderator were female, or if there were several moderators?

For a female moderator, Russian usually keeps the noun модератор but changes the verb ending to feminine past:

• Модератор подготовила новый опрос и добавила его в список заданий к фильму.

Changes:

• подготовил → подготовила
• добавил → добавила

For several moderators, both the noun and the verb go to plural:

• Модераторы подготовили новый опрос и добавили его в список заданий к фильму.

Changes:

• модератор → модераторы (plural)
• подготовил → подготовили
• добавил → добавили

The rest of the sentence stays the same.