Questions & Answers about Мальчики обычно играют там.
How do we get the form играют from the dictionary word играть?
Играть (to play) is a first conjugation verb. Because the subject is мальчики (the boys), we need the 'they' form of the verb. We drop the -ть from the dictionary form and add the plural ending -ют to get играют.
Why does the plural word мальчики end in -и instead of the usual masculine plural -ы?
For most masculine words ending in a consonant, you make them plural by adding -ы. But мальчик ends in к. A major Russian spelling rule (the 7-letter rule) says you can never write ы after the letters к, г, х, ш, щ, ж, or ч. Because of this, we must use -и instead.
Why do the o letters in обычно sound different from each other?
In Russian, the letter о only sounds like a clear 'oh' when it is stressed. The stress in this word falls on the middle syllable (обы́чно). The unstressed о at the beginning and the end reduce to a short 'a' or 'uh' sound, making it sound roughly like 'ah-BYCH-nuh'.
Does the adverb обычно have to go before the verb?