Из‑за маленького недоразумения коллеги сначала молчали, а потом спокойно поговорили.

Because of a small misunderstanding, the colleagues were silent at first and then talked calmly.

Breakdown of Из‑за маленького недоразумения коллеги сначала молчали, а потом спокойно поговорили.

• маленький: small
• спокойно: calmly
• коллега: the colleague
• а: and

Questions & Answers about Из‑за маленького недоразумения коллеги сначала молчали, а потом спокойно поговорили.

What does из-за mean here, and why is it written with a hyphen?

Here из-за means because of.

It is a fixed preposition written with a hyphen: из-за. Russian also uses it in a literal spatial sense, meaning from behind, but in this sentence it clearly has the causal meaning because of.

A very important grammar point: из-за normally takes the genitive case, which is why you get маленького недоразумения.

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Why are маленького and недоразумения in that form?

Because из-за requires the genitive case.

The base forms are:

• маленькое = small, little
• недоразумение = misunderstanding

After из-за, they become:

• маленького
• недоразумения

So:

• из-за недоразумения = because of a misunderstanding
• из-за маленького недоразумения = because of a small/minor misunderstanding

The adjective маленького matches the noun недоразумения in case, number, and gender.

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Why is it маленького недоразумения and not something like небольшого недоразумения?