Breakdown of Иван вчера не был в офисе.
не
not
в
in / to (direction)
офис
office
Иван
Ivan
вчера
yesterday
быть
to be
Questions & Answers about Иван вчера не был в офисе.
Why do we use был here instead of another form like была?
Does не always go right before the verb?
Yes, when you are negating the action itself (saying he "was not"), the negative word не must sit directly in front of the verb it negates. This gives us не был.
How do you pronounce не был? Does the emphasis change?
Yes, it does! A quirky rule about the past tense of this verb is that the stress jumps to the negative word for the masculine, neuter, and plural forms. So you pronounce it НЕ был (emphasizing the first word).
Why is there an "e" at the end of офисе?
This is the Prepositional case, which you use to talk about physical locations. The dictionary form for "office" is офис. Because Ivan is in the office (after the preposition в), we add an -e to the end of the word to make it в офисе.
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