Breakdown of Я вчера кое-как дочитала черновой отчёт, потому что была очень уставшей.
я
I
вчера
yesterday
быть
to be
потому что
because
Questions & Answers about Я вчера кое-как дочитала черновой отчёт, потому что была очень уставшей.
Why is the verb дочитала used here instead of читала or прочитала?
Дочитала comes from дочитать, which means to finish reading something to the end.
The prefix до- adds the idea of reaching the end of an action. So:
- читала = was reading / read
- прочитала = read through / read completely
- дочитала = finished reading something that had already been started
In this sentence, дочитала suggests that the speaker was working through the draft report and finally got to the end of it.
With кое-как, it gives the sense of I barely managed to finish it.
What does кое-как mean?
Кое-как means something like:
- somehow
- with difficulty
- barely
- in a slapdash way
It often suggests that the action was done with effort, not smoothly, and maybe not very well.
So вчера кое-как дочитала means the speaker finished reading it, but only with difficulty, probably because she was tired.
Why does дочитала end in -ла?