Breakdown of Мой брат писал письмо.
брат
brother
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
письмо
letter
писать
to write
Questions & Answers about Мой брат писал письмо.
Why does the translation say "was writing" instead of just "wrote"?
The verb писал is in the imperfective aspect. In the past tense, Russian uses imperfective verbs to focus on an ongoing process or action, which often translates to "was doing" something in English. If we wanted to say he completely finished writing the letter, we would use the perfective verb написал.
The letter is the object being written. Why doesn't письмо change its ending?
The word письмо is actually in the accusative case here because it is the direct object receiving the action. However, since it is a neuter noun (ending in -о), its accusative form looks exactly the same as its basic dictionary form. In this case, you only need to change the endings for feminine nouns ending in -а or -я, and living masculine nouns.
Why does the verb end in -л here?
In the past tense, Russian verbs must match the gender of the subject. Because брат (brother) is a masculine noun, the verb takes the masculine past tense ending -л. If it were a sister writing, the feminine subject would require the verb to be писала.
It looks like писал and письмо are spelled similarly. Is that a coincidence?
Not a coincidence! They share the same root. The verb писать means to write, and письмо means a letter. Noticing these word families is a great trick for remembering new Russian vocabulary as you continue learning.
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