Breakdown of Она тоже поздно ужинала.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
тоже
also
поздно
late
ужинать
to have dinner
Questions & Answers about Она тоже поздно ужинала.
How do we get ужинала from the dictionary form of the verb?
The dictionary form (infinitive) is ужинать (to have dinner). To form the past tense, you drop the -ть ending and add a past tense ending: -л for a masculine subject, -ла for feminine, -ло for neuter, and -ли for plural. Because the subject here is Она (she), we add -ла to make ужинала.
Why is 'had dinner' translated as just one word?
In English, we often use 'to have' or 'to eat' plus the name of the meal. In Russian, it is much more common to use a single verb for the whole action. The verb ужинать means 'to have dinner' all by itself, so you don't need a separate word for 'had'.
Is the letter д pronounced in the word поздно?
No, the д in поздно is completely silent. You pronounce it as if it were spelled 'позно' (POZ-nuh). Russian sometimes drops the sound of a middle consonant when several of them are clustered together to make the word easier to say.
The English sentence puts 'late' at the end, but поздно is right before the verb. Does it have to be in that spot?
Russian word order is very flexible. Putting the adverb поздно (late) right before the verb it describes is the most neutral, standard way to say this. However, saying Она тоже ужинала поздно is also perfectly fine and just puts a tiny bit more emphasis on the fact that it was late.