Я предложил пойти в парк после работы.

I suggested going to the park after work.

Breakdown of Я предложил пойти в парк после работы.

• я: I
• в: to
• парк: the park
• пойти: to go

Questions & Answers about Я предложил пойти в парк после работы.

Why is it предложил and not предложила or предложили?

Предложил is past tense, and in Russian past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

Here the subject is я, but Russian past tense still shows the speaker’s gender:

• я предложил = a male speaker
• я предложила = a female speaker
• мы предложили = we suggested

So я предложил tells you the speaker is male.

Why is the verb in the past tense?

Russian uses the past tense here because the act of suggesting has already happened. The sentence is about a completed suggestion: I suggested...

The form is built from the infinitive предложить:

• infinitive: предложить
• past masculine singular: предложил

This is very normal after reporting what someone said, suggested, decided, asked, and so on.

Why do we have пойти after предложил?

After verbs like предложить, Russian often uses an infinitive to say what was suggested.

So:

• предложил пойти = suggested going / suggested that someone go

This works a lot like English:

• I suggested going
• I suggested that we go

In Russian, the infinitive пойти expresses the action that was proposed.

Why is it and not ?