Breakdown of Вчера дедушка не брился, потому что он отдыхал.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
отдыхать
to rest
потому что
because
дедушка
grandfather
вчера
yesterday
бриться
to shave
Questions & Answers about Вчера дедушка не брился, потому что он отдыхал.
Why does the verb брился have -ся at the end?
The ending -ся makes the verb reflexive, meaning the action is done to oneself. The base verb брить means "to shave (someone or something else)", but adding -ся makes it бриться ("to shave oneself"). Here, grandfather is shaving himself.
How do I know whether to use -ся or -сь for past tense reflexive verbs like брился?
It depends on the letter right before it! In the past tense, you form the regular verb first. Since grandfather is masculine, the verb is брил. Because -л is a consonant, we must add -ся to make брился. If the subject were feminine (брила) or plural (брили), the regular verb ends in a vowel, so we would add the shorter -сь to make брилась or брились.
The word дедушка ends in "a". Doesn't that usually mean a word is feminine? Why are the verbs masculine?
You are right that most words ending in -а or -я are feminine. However, words that specifically refer to male family members or men—like дедушка (grandfather), папа (dad), or дядя (uncle)—are exceptions. They are grammatically masculine because they refer to men, so they require masculine verb endings like брился and отдыхал.
The English translation says "was resting", but is отдыхал just the regular past tense?
Yes, it is! Russian doesn't have a separate "was doing" (continuous) tense like English does. A standard past tense verb like отдыхал can translate to "rested", "used to rest", or "was resting" depending on what makes the most sense in the English sentence.
Learn Вчера дедушка не брился, потому что он отдыхал and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free