Breakdown of Я взял лёгкие гантели, потому что после работы мне не хотелось поднимать тяжёлую штангу.
я
I
работа
the work
не
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мне
me
Questions & Answers about Я взял лёгкие гантели, потому что после работы мне не хотелось поднимать тяжёлую штангу.
Why is it взял, and not брал?
Взял is the perfective past tense of взять (to take). It presents the action as a completed whole:
I took the light dumbbells.
If you used брал (from брать, imperfective), it would sound more like:
- I was taking
- I used to take
- or it might focus on the process rather than the completed choice
In this sentence, the speaker means they chose/took the dumbbells on that occasion, so взял fits best.
Also, взял is masculine singular past tense, so it tells us the speaker is male. A female speaker would say взяла.
Why does лёгкие end in -ие?
Because лёгкие agrees with гантели in:
- number: plural
- gender: plural form
- case: accusative plural
Гантели is plural, so the adjective must also be plural:
- лёгкая гантель = a light dumbbell
- лёгкие гантели = light dumbbells
Since гантели are inanimate, the accusative plural looks the same as the nominative plural, so лёгкие гантели stays the same here.