Я ждал такси целый час.

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Breakdown of Я ждал такси целый час.

• такси: the taxi
• час: the hour
• ждать: to wait for

Questions & Answers about Я ждал такси целый час.

Why is it ждал, not жду or ждать?

Ждал is the past tense form of the verb ждать (to wait).

• ждать = infinitive, to wait
• жду = present tense, I am waiting / I wait
• ждал = past tense, I waited / was waiting

So in Я ждал такси целый час, the speaker is talking about something that already happened.

Why does ждал end in -л?

In Russian, the past tense is commonly formed with -л.

For ждать, the stem is жда-, so:

• masculine: ждал
• feminine: ждала
• neuter: ждало
• plural: ждали

In this sentence, ждал shows that the speaker is masculine singular. A woman would normally say:

Я ждала такси целый час.

Why is there no word for for before такси? In English we say wait for a taxi.