Мы чуть не проехали нужную остановку, потому что слишком долго говорили о работе.

Чуть не means almost or nearly.

So Мы чуть не проехали нужную остановку means We almost went past / missed the stop we needed.

A very common pattern is:

чуть не + past tense verb = almost did something

It often suggests a close call, especially with something unwanted or accidental.

Compare:

• Мы почти проехали остановку = We almost passed the stop.
• Мы чуть не проехали остановку = We almost passed the stop, and it feels a bit more like that was close.

Проехали is the past plural form of проехать, a perfective verb.

Here, проехать остановку means to go past a stop or to miss a stop by riding/driving past it.

So the idea is not just we were traveling, but we nearly reached the specific result of passing the stop. That is why perfective проехать fits well.

Compare:

• ехать = to be going, to be riding, to travel
• проезжать / проехать = to go past something

Because the sentence is about almost reaching a completed result (passing the stop), проехали is natural.

Because остановку is the direct object of проехали.

The base form is:

• нужная остановка = the needed/right stop

But after a transitive verb like проехать, Russian uses the accusative case for the direct object:

• нужную остановку

Both words change because the noun phrase is feminine singular:

• нужная → нужную
• остановка → остановку

So:

• Мы проехали нужную остановку = We passed the stop we needed

Because the subject is мы = we.

In the Russian past tense, verbs agree with the subject in gender/number:

• я говорил / говорила
• он говорил
• она говорила
• оно говорило
• мы говорили
• они говорили

So говорили is simply the correct past-tense plural form for мы.

Because говорили describes an ongoing activity: we were talking.

The sentence says:

потому что слишком долго говорили о работе
= because we talked about work for too long

That sounds like a process continuing over time, so the imperfective verb говорить is the natural choice.

By contrast, сказали means said and usually refers more to a single completed utterance or statement, not an extended conversation.

So:

• говорили = were talking / talked
• сказали = said

Because the verb говорить commonly takes the preposition о when it means to talk about something.

Pattern:

говорить о + prepositional case

So:

• работа = work
• о работе = about work

Other examples:

• говорить о семье = to talk about family
• говорить о фильме = to talk about a film
• говорить о проблеме = to talk about a problem

This is just the standard construction.

Слишком долго means too long.

In this sentence it modifies говорили:

• слишком = too
• долго = for a long time / long

So:

слишком долго говорили = talked for too long

The placement is normal. In Russian, adverbs often go before the verb they describe:

• слишком долго говорили
• слишком быстро ехали
• очень хорошо знает

Because потому что introduces a subordinate clause meaning because.

Russian normally puts a comma before such clauses:

• Мы ушли, потому что было поздно.
• Я не пришёл, потому что заболел.
• Мы чуть не проехали нужную остановку, потому что слишком долго говорили о работе.

So the comma is standard punctuation here.

The word order is fairly natural, but Russian word order is more flexible than English.

The original version is neutral and clear:

Мы чуть не проехали нужную остановку, потому что слишком долго говорили о работе.

You could also say:

Потому что мы слишком долго говорили о работе, мы чуть не проехали нужную остановку.

That is still correct, but it sounds a bit more marked or structured differently. Russian often changes word order for emphasis, style, or information flow.

So the given order is not the only possible one, but it is a very normal one.

Literally, нужную comes from нужный, which means needed, necessary, or the right one needed in the situation.

In transport contexts, нужная остановка is very natural and usually means:

• the stop we need
• the right stop
• our stop in context

So yes, the literal idea is needed stop, but in natural English you would usually say the stop we needed or our stop.