Learn Hardcore Russian: В конце месяца платформа прислала опрос о том, довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим ли её продлить. - At the end of the month the platform sent a survey asking whether we are satisfied with the subscription and want to extend it.

конце – prepositional singular of конец (end)
- Pattern: в конце = “at the end (of)”
месяца – genitive singular of месяц (month)
- Pattern: конец чего? → конец месяца (end of the month)

So the structure is:

в
- prepositional (в конце)
followed by a noun in the genitive that depends on конец (месяца).

This is a very common pattern:
в конце года, в конце урока, в конце фильма, etc.

Why is the verb прислала feminine, even though платформа is not a person?

In Russian, verbs in the past tense agree with the grammatical gender of the subject, not with whether it’s a person or an object.

платформа is a feminine noun (it ends in -а and is grammatically feminine).
Past tense of прислать (to send) is:
- он прислал (masc.)
- она прислала (fem.)
- оно прислало (neut.)
- они прислали (pl.)

Since платформа behaves like она, you must say:
платформа прислала (the platform sent).

What is the nuance of прислала here compared to послала or отправила?

All three can translate as “sent,” but:

послать / отправить focus on the act of sending from the sender’s side.
прислать usually implies sending to the speaker or their group and often carries the idea that the thing arrived / was received.

In this context, платформа прислала опрос suggests:

The platform sent the survey to us, and
We actually received it (e.g., by email, in the app, etc.), not just that they theoretically sent it.

Why is it опрос, not анкета or опросник?

These words are related but not identical:

опрос – the survey / polling process or the survey as an event or instrument in general.
- E.g. онлайн‑опрос, опрос клиентов.
анкета – a questionnaire form you fill in (the physical or digital form with fields).
- E.g. заполнить анкету (to fill out a form).
опросник – a more technical term for a questionnaire (list of questions), often in psychology, marketing research, etc.

Here, платформа прислала опрос means the platform sent a survey to take part in. If the emphasis were on the actual form to be filled out, you might also see платформа прислала анкету.

What is the function of о том in опрос о том, довольны ли мы...? Could we just say опрос, довольны ли мы...?

О том introduces an object clause that explains the content of the survey:

опрос о чём? → о том, довольны ли мы подпиской…
- literally: “a survey about that – whether we are satisfied…”

This is a very standard pattern:
вопрос о том, как..., история о том, что..., сообщение о том, что...

You cannot simply say опрос, довольны ли мы... in neutral written Russian; it sounds incomplete or clumsy. You need о том (or at least о + some noun) to connect опрос with what it is about.

What does the particle ли do in довольны ли мы подпиской and where should it go?

Ли is a particle that turns a statement into a yes/no question (or, here, an indirect yes/no question).

Statement: мы довольны подпиской – we are satisfied with the subscription.
Direct question: мы довольны подпиской? (with intonation).
With ли: довольны ли мы подпиской?

Typical word order with ли:

Put ли right after the first stressed element (often the verb or short adjective):
- довольны ли мы, хотим ли мы, будет ли он.

The version ли мы довольны подпиской is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural and overly bookish. Native speakers almost always use довольны ли мы... type order.

Do we really need to repeat ли in довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим ли её продлить? Could we drop the second ли?

Repeating ли is the most natural and clear:

...довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим ли её продлить.

You can sometimes see:

...довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим её продлить.

This is not wrong, but:

Repeating ли makes it very explicit that both parts are separate yes/no questions:
- (1) Are we satisfied?
- (2) Do we want to renew?
Without the second ли, the second part can feel slightly less parallel and a bit “attached” to the first.

In careful or formal writing, repeating ли here is preferred.

Why are довольны and хотим in the present tense even though прислала is in the past?

Прислала is past because it describes a past event (the platform sent the survey).

However, довольны and хотим are inside an indirect question that reflects what the survey is asking at that time:

At the end of the month, the survey is checking:
- whether we are satisfied now,
- whether we want to renew now / from this point on.

In Russian, within reported/indirect questions of this kind, you keep the actual time reference of the inner actions:

платформа спросила, довольны ли мы – “the platform asked whether we are satisfied” (at the time of asking).
If you wanted a clearly past perspective, you’d say:
платформа спросила, были ли мы довольны – whether we were satisfied (before).

Why is there no explicit “to be” verb (like есть) in довольны ли мы подпиской?

In Russian, the present‑tense verb быть (“to be”) is usually omitted in statements:

мы довольны подпиской literally is “we satisfied (with) the subscription”.
The implied full form would be мы (есть) довольны подпиской, but есть is almost never used here.

So:

мы студенты, not мы есть студенты.
он директор, not он есть директор.

In the past and future, you must use быть:

мы были довольны подпиской – we were satisfied.
мы будем довольны подпиской – we will be satisfied.

What exactly is довольны here – an adjective, and why this form, not довольные?

Довольны is the short form of the adjective довольный (satisfied).

Long form plural: довольные
- Used predicatively and attributively:
  - довольные клиенты – satisfied customers.
Short form plural: довольны
- Primarily predicative: used after “to be”, describing the subject’s state:
  - мы довольны, они были довольны.

In довольны ли мы подпиской, you are describing the state of “we,” so the short form довольны is the natural choice. Long form here (мы довольные подпиской) would sound wrong or at best very awkward.

Why is подпиской in the instrumental case after довольны?

Some Russian adjectives and verbs require the instrumental case to show what you are satisfied, happy, or dissatisfied with.

Доволен / довольна / довольны чем? → instrumental:

доволен работой – satisfied with the work
довольна результатом – satisfied with the result
довольны подпиской – satisfied with the subscription

So подписка → instrumental singular подпиской.

Common similar patterns:

удовлетворён чем, горжусь чем, довольны чем, etc.

Why is the pronoun её used in хотим ли её продлить and how is its position chosen? Could we say хотим ли продлить её?

Её refers back to подписка (feminine singular) and replaces repeating the noun:

Full version: хотим ли мы продлить подписку.
With pronoun: хотим ли (мы) её продлить.

Position:

Both её продлить and продлить её are acceptable:
- хотим ли её продлить – a bit more neutral in spoken style.
- хотим ли продлить её – also correct; slightly more formal or emphatic.

In Russian, unstressed object pronouns often go before the infinitive, but putting them after is also possible and often used for emphasis or rhythm. Here both variants are fine.

Why is the infinitive продлить used, and what is its aspectual meaning?

Продлить is a perfective infinitive of продлевать / продлить (to extend, to renew).

Perfective infinitive (продлить) focuses on the result / completed action:
- to (successfully) renew the subscription.
Imperfective (продлевать) would focus on the process / repeated action:
- to be renewing, to keep renewing.

In questions like хотим ли её продлить, a perfective infinitive is natural because you are asking whether they want to carry out a single, complete renewal action.

Why is there a comma after том but no comma before и in о том, довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим ли её продлить?

Punctuation here follows Russian rules for subordinate clauses:

о том, довольны ли мы подпиской и хотим ли её продлить
- о том, – we put a comma before the subordinate clause.
- The whole довольны ли мы... и хотим ли... is one subordinate clause with two coordinated predicates.

Because довольны ли мы подпиской and (мы) хотим ли её продлить are parts of the same subordinate clause joined by и, there is no comma before и.

If they were two separate subordinate clauses, you might see another comma, but here they share the same о том and form one unit.

Could we say к концу месяца instead of в конце месяца? What’s the difference?

Both exist, but they’re not the same:

в конце месяца – at the end of the month (point in time, inside the period, at its end).
- Neutral time expression: в конце дня, в конце недели.
к концу месяца – by the end of the month (up to that deadline).
- Emphasizes a deadline or limit: something will be done by then.
- E.g. закончим работу к концу месяца – we’ll finish the work by the end of the month.

In your sentence, the survey is actually sent at the end of the month, so в конце месяца is the natural choice.

Why is there no explicit нам (to us) after платформа прислала опрос? Could we add it?

Russian often omits obvious indirect objects when they’re clear from context. In this sentence, it’s obvious the survey was sent to the users (to us).

You can absolutely say:

В конце месяца платформа прислала нам опрос... – “the platform sent us a survey...”

This version is slightly more explicit and is also correct. The original just leaves нам implied, which is normal and natural in Russian when the recipient is clear.