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Я купила отбеливатель, а потом снова зашла в прачечную, чтобы спросить, сколько его добавлять.

Я купила отбеливатель, а потом снова зашла в прачечную, чтобы спросить, сколько его добавлять.
I bought bleach, and then I went into the laundromat again to ask how much to add.

Breakdown of Я купила отбеливатель, а потом снова зашла в прачечную, чтобы спросить, сколько его добавлять.

я
I
в
to
купить
to buy
снова
again
потом
then
добавлять
to add
сколько
how much
его
it
спросить
to ask
прачечная
the laundromat
отбеливатель
the bleach
а
and/but
зайти
to go in / to enter
чтобы
in order to / so that
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Questions & Answers about Я купила отбеливатель, а потом снова зашла в прачечную, чтобы спросить, сколько его добавлять.

Why is it купила and not купил or купили?

Купила is past tense feminine singular, so it implies the speaker (or the subject я) is a woman.

  • masculine: я купил
  • feminine: я купила
  • plural (we/they): мы/они купили
What’s the difference between я купила and я покупала?

It’s mainly about aspect.

  • купила (perfective) = “I bought it” as a completed, single action (result: now you have it).
  • покупала (imperfective) = “I was buying / I used to buy / I went to buy” depending on context (focus on process, repetition, or background).

Here, купила fits because the purchase is treated as a finished event.

Why does the sentence use а потом instead of и потом?

Both can translate as “and then,” but they feel different:

  • а потом often marks a shift to the next step in a story (“and then / afterwards”), sometimes with slight contrast or just a narrative break.
  • и потом is more like simply adding another item in a chain (“and then also…”).

In this context, а потом is a very natural “next thing that happened.”

Why is снова placed before зашла?

снова (“again”) usually goes right before the verb it modifies, especially in neutral word order:

  • снова зашла = “went in again / stopped by again”

You can move it for emphasis (e.g., зашла снова), but снова зашла is the most straightforward.

What does зайти mean here, and why is it зашла?

зайти often means “to stop by / drop in (somewhere)” and can imply a short visit.

  • зашла is past tense feminine singular of зайти (perfective), matching я (female speaker).

It’s different from войти, which is more like “enter” in a neutral, literal sense.

Why is it в прачечную and not в прачечной?

Because Russian distinguishes:

  • в + Accusative = motion into a place (destination): в прачечную (“into the laundromat”)
  • в + Prepositional = location in a place: в прачечной (“in the laundromat”)

Here the meaning is “(I) went into / stopped by the laundromat,” so в прачечную is required.

What case is прачечную?

It’s accusative singular (because of motion with в).
Dictionary form: прачечная (feminine).
Accusative singular feminine typically ends in -ую: прачечная → прачечную.

What does чтобы do, and why is it followed by an infinitive (спросить)?

чтобы introduces a purpose clause: “in order to / so that.” Russian commonly uses:

  • чтобы + past tense (or conditional), or
  • чтобы + infinitive (very common when the subject is the same as in the main clause)

Here, the subject is still я, so чтобы спросить = “(in order) to ask.”

Why is it спросить and not спрашивать?

Again, aspect:

  • спросить (perfective) = to ask once, to get the information (a single completed question).
  • спрашивать (imperfective) = to be asking / to ask repeatedly / to ask in general.

Since the goal is one specific question, спросить is the natural choice.

What does сколько его добавлять mean grammatically—why is there no “if/whether/that”?

Russian often forms indirect questions without an extra conjunction:

  • спросить, сколько… = “to ask how much…”

So спросить, сколько его добавлять literally is “to ask how much of it to add.”

Why is it его—what does it refer to, and why not её?

его refers back to отбеливатель (“bleach”).
отбеливатель is masculine, so “it” becomes он → его.

It’s not “him”; Russian uses the same form for “it” based on grammatical gender.

Why is it сколько его—what case is that, and could you also say сколько отбеливателя?

After сколько (“how much/how many”), Russian typically uses the genitive for the thing being counted/measured:

  • сколько отбеливателя = “how much bleach”
  • сколько его = “how much of it” (with a pronoun)

его here functions like a genitive “of it” meaning “of that bleach.”

Why is the verb добавлять (imperfective) and not добавить (perfective)?

With сколько … добавлять, imperfective is common because it asks about the general procedure/amount per use (“how much should I add (typically)?”).

сколько … добавить is also possible, but it leans more toward a single конкретный situation (“how much should I add (this one time)?”).