Learn Russian: Дедушка долго смотрел телевизор. - Grandfather watched television for a long time.

Дедушка долго смотрел телевизор.

Grandfather watched television for a long time.

Breakdown of Дедушка долго смотрел телевизор.

смотреть

to watch / to look at / make sure (in a warning)

Questions & Answers about Дедушка долго смотрел телевизор.

Why does the past tense verb смотрел have a masculine ending when дедушка ends in -а?

Even though дедушка ends in -а (which is normally a feminine ending), it means grandfather and refers to a man. In the past tense, Russian verbs must match the actual gender of the person. So, we use the masculine ending -л instead of the feminine -ла.

How do we build the past tense word смотрел?

It comes from the regular verb смотреть (to watch). To form the past tense, you simply drop the -ть from the end of the dictionary form and add -л because the subject (дедушка) is masculine.

Is долго exactly the same as the English phrase 'for a long time'?

Yes! In English we need four words ('for a long time'), but in Russian it is just one adverb: долго. Notice that it is placed right before the verb it describes, which is a very common word order in Russian.

телевизор is the object being watched. Why didn't its ending change?

Because телевизор is a non-living (inanimate) masculine noun. When an inanimate masculine noun is the direct object of an action, we use the Accusative case. For these specific nouns, the Accusative case looks exactly the same as their basic dictionary form.