Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Мы решили отложить поездку на дачу, потому что обещают сильный ветер.
Why is решили used here, and what form is it?
Решили is the past tense plural form of решить (to decide).
- мы решили = we decided
- Russian past tense agrees with the subject in gender/number:
- я решил = I decided (male speaker)
- я решила = I decided (female speaker)
- мы решили = we decided
The verb решить is perfective, so it presents the decision as a completed act: they reached a decision.
Why is it отложить, not откладывать?
This is about aspect.
- отложить = perfective → to postpone once, as a completed decision/action
- откладывать = imperfective → to be postponing, to postpone repeatedly, or to speak about the process in a general way
After решили (decided), Russian very often uses a perfective infinitive if the decision is about doing a single complete action:
- Мы решили отложить поездку. = We decided to postpone the trip.
If you used откладывать, it would sound more like deciding on an ongoing or repeated behavior, which is not the main idea here.
Why does become ?