Questions & Answers about Из-за задержки поезда мы не успели на семинар.
Why does the sentence start with из-за? What exactly does it mean?
Из-за means because of, due to, or as a result of. It introduces the reason for something, usually with a somewhat negative or unwanted cause.
So in this sentence:
Из-за задержки поезда... = Because of the train delay...
A useful thing to remember is that из-за is followed by the genitive case.
Why are задержки and поезда both in a changed form?
Because of case.
- из-за requires the genitive
- задержка becomes задержки
- поезд becomes поезда
Here the structure is:
- из-за задержки = because of a delay
- задержки поезда = the delay of the train / the train delay
So поезда is also in the genitive because it depends on задержки: it tells us whose delay it was.
Why is it задержки поезда, not поездной задержки or something else?