Тренер дал команду, и мы начали бегать.

to run

Breakdown of Тренер дал команду, и мы начали бегать.

• и: and
• мы: we
• дать: to give

Questions & Answers about Тренер дал команду, и мы начали бегать.

Why is it дал, not давал?

Дал is the perfective past of дать and means gave as a completed action. In this sentence, the coach gave one command, and that action is treated as a single finished event.

Давал would be imperfective and would suggest something like:

• he was giving a command,
• he used to give commands,
• or the action is viewed as ongoing/repeated rather than completed.

Here, the completed action gave the command fits best, because it is followed by the result: we started running.

Why is it команду and not команда?

Because дать normally takes a direct object in the accusative case, and команда is a feminine noun.

Its forms are:

• nominative: команда
• accusative: команду

So:

• Тренер дал команду = The coach gave a command

This is very similar to English give an order/command.

Why is начали plural?