Questions & Answers about Мама подала на стол борщ и хлеб.
Why is подала translated as served here, not just gave?
Because подать can mean to hand/give, but with food and the phrase на стол, it very often means to serve.
So:
- подать = to give/hand over, or to serve
- подать на стол = to serve food to the table
In this sentence, Мама подала на стол борщ и хлеб means that Mother served borscht and bread.
Also, подала is the past tense feminine singular form, matching мама.
Why is it подала, not подал or подали?
Russian past tense changes to match the gender and number of the subject.
Here the subject is мама, which is:
- singular
- feminine
So the verb must be подала.
Compare:
- папа подал = Dad served
- мама подала = Mom served
- родители подали = The parents served
This is a very common feature of Russian past tense.
Why is мама in this form? Why not маму?