В чате было непонятно, то ли семинар отменили, то ли просто перенесли на вечер.

In the chat, it was unclear whether the seminar had been canceled or simply moved to the evening.

Breakdown of В чате было непонятно, то ли семинар отменили, то ли просто перенесли на вечер.

• в: in
• быть: to be
• на: to
• вечер: the evening

Questions & Answers about В чате было непонятно, то ли семинар отменили, то ли просто перенесли на вечер.

Why is it в чате, and what case is чате?

В чате means in the chat.

Here в means location, so it takes the prepositional case:

• чат → dictionary form
• в чате → in the chat

So the phrase refers to what was written or discussed in the chat. In natural English, it often means something like from the chat / in the chat conversation.

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Why does Russian say было непонятно instead of something like это было непонятно?

This is a very common impersonal construction in Russian.

Было непонятно literally means:

• it was unclear
• it wasn't clear

Russian often leaves out это in sentences like this, because English it is often just a dummy subject, and Russian does not need one.

So:

• Было непонятно = It was unclear
• not necessarily This was unclear, but more generally it wasn’t clear

This sounds very natural in Russian.

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Why is it было непонятно and not было непонятным?