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Questions & Answers about Народ избрал президента.
Why is народ singular if the English meaning is the people?
In Russian, народ is a singular collective noun. It refers to a people, a nation, or the population as a whole, so it often corresponds to English the people even though the grammar is singular.
That is why the verb is also singular:
- народ избрал = the people elected
- not народ избрали
If you wanted to talk about individual persons rather than the population as a whole, you would more often use люди.
Why is it избрал and not избирал?
Избрал is the perfective past form of избрать, meaning the action is viewed as completed: the election happened and produced a result.
- избрал = elected / chose as a completed event
- избирал = was electing / used to elect / elected repeatedly, depending on context
In a simple statement about the result of an election, Russian normally uses the perfective form:
- Народ избрал президента. = The people elected the president.
Why does избрал end in -л?