На пикнике мы разделили ягоды поровну, а потом я понемногу начала читать роман.

At the picnic we divided the berries evenly, and then I slowly started reading a novel.

Breakdown of На пикнике мы разделили ягоды поровну, а потом я понемногу начала читать роман.

• я: I
• читать: to read
• на: at
• мы: we

Questions & Answers about На пикнике мы разделили ягоды поровну, а потом я понемногу начала читать роман.

Why does the sentence start with На пикнике? Why на, not в?

In Russian, на is often used with events, activities, and some outdoor/social settings, including пикник.

So:

• на пикнике = at the picnic
• not usually в пикнике

This is similar to other expressions like:

• на концерте = at the concert
• на уроке = in class / at the lesson
• на встрече = at the meeting

So На пикнике is the normal way to say at the picnic.

Why is разделили in the past plural form?

Because the subject is мы = we.

Russian past tense agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• я разделил = I divided/shared out (masculine speaker)
• я разделила = I divided/shared out (feminine speaker)
• мы разделили = we divided/shared out

So разделили is simply the correct past-tense plural form for мы.

Why is ягоды the form used here? Is it accusative or nominative?