Breakdown of Из-за опоздания поезда наш утренний созвон начался на десять минут позже.
Questions & Answers about Из-за опоздания поезда наш утренний созвон начался на десять минут позже.
What does из-за mean here?
Из-за means because of or due to.
In this sentence, Из-за опоздания поезда means because of the train’s delay.
A useful nuance: из-за is often used for a cause with a negative or inconvenient result, so it fits very naturally here.
Why is опоздания in the genitive case?
Because из-за requires the genitive.
So:
- опоздание = delay, being late
- after из-за, it becomes опоздания
This is just a case rule:
- из-за чего? = because of what?
- из-за опоздания = because of the delay
Why is поезда also in the genitive?
Because опоздание поезда means the delay of the train or the train’s delay.
The noun опоздание often takes another noun in the genitive to show who or what was late:
- опоздание поезда = the train’s delay
- опоздание автобуса = the bus’s delay
- опоздание рейса = the flight’s delay
So in the full phrase:
- из-за опоздания поезда
- literally: because of the delay of the train
Both nouns end up in the genitive, but for different reasons:
- опоздания — because of из-за
- поезда — because it depends on опоздание
What exactly does созвон mean?
Созвон is a fairly modern, conversational word meaning a call, often a planned work call, check-in, or quick meeting by phone or online.
So утренний созвон is something like:
- morning call
- morning check-in
- morning sync
- morning team call
It is common in workplace speech, especially in business or IT contexts.
It is less formal than some other options, such as:
- звонок = a call
- совещание = a meeting
- конференц-звонок = conference call
Why is it наш утренний созвон?
This is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.
- наш = our
- утренний = morning
- созвон = call
All three words agree with each other:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
That is why you get:
- наш утренний созвон
not some other form like нашего утреннего созвона, which would be a different case.
Why is the verb начался?
Because the subject созвон is masculine singular, and the verb in the past tense agrees with it.
- созвон is masculine
- so начаться in the past becomes начался
Compare:
- созвон начался = the call started
- встреча началась = the meeting started
- совещание началось = the meeting started
So the ending tells you the gender/number of the subject in the past tense.
Why use начался and not начинался?
Because начался is perfective, and here the sentence is about a single completed event: the call started at a certain time.
- начался = started, began
- начинался = was starting / used to start / started repeatedly or in a more process-focused way
In this sentence, the speaker is not describing an ongoing process. They are stating a fact about when the call began, so начался is the natural choice.
How does на десять минут позже work?
This means ten minutes later.
The pattern is:
- на + amount of difference + comparative
So:
- на десять минут позже = ten minutes later
- на час раньше = an hour earlier
- на два дня позже = two days later
Here:
- на introduces the amount of difference
- десять минут is the amount
- позже means later
This is a very common Russian structure.
Why is it десять минут, not another case form?
Because after на in this kind of expression, the amount usually appears in the accusative.
With numbers, the form can look tricky, but here:
- десять минут is the normal form used after на
- минут is the genitive plural form required after десять
So the whole phrase follows standard number rules:
- десять минут
- пять минут
- двадцать минут
Compare:
- на одну минуту позже
- на две минуты позже
- на пять минут позже
The noun changes depending on the number.
Is there a difference between позже and позднее?
Both mean later and both are usually possible here.
- позже = later
- позднее = later
In everyday speech, позже is often more common and natural. Позднее can sound a bit more formal or bookish in some contexts, though it is still perfectly normal Russian.
So this sentence could also be:
- ...начался на десять минут позднее
But позже is probably what you will hear more often.
Could I also say Из-за того, что поезд опоздал...?
Yes. That would be a very natural alternative.
Compare:
- Из-за опоздания поезда наш утренний созвон начался на десять минут позже.
- Из-за того, что поезд опоздал, наш утренний созвон начался на десять минут позже.
The difference is mainly structural:
- из-за опоздания поезда uses a noun phrase
- из-за того, что поезд опоздал uses a full clause
The second version may feel a bit more explicit to learners because it literally says because the train was late.
Both are correct.
Why is the cause phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence?
Russian word order is flexible, and putting Из-за опоздания поезда first gives the reason up front.
That is very natural, especially when the speaker wants to frame the whole sentence with the cause:
- Because of the train’s delay, our morning call started ten minutes later.
You could rearrange the sentence, for example:
- Наш утренний созвон начался на десять минут позже из-за опоздания поезда.
This is also correct, but the original order sounds very natural because it introduces the reason first.
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