Breakdown of Мы будем начинать урок ровно в девять.
мы
we
девять
nine
урок
lesson
быть
to be
ровно
exactly
в
on / during (a time period)
начинать
to begin
Questions & Answers about Мы будем начинать урок ровно в девять.
Why do we use будем with начинать here?
This is the compound future tense, which is used to talk about ongoing or repeated actions in the future. You form it by taking the future tense of the helper verb быть (to be) and adding the imperfective infinitive of your main verb. Since the subject is мы (we), we conjugate the helper verb as будем, followed by the infinitive начинать (to start).
Could I use a perfective verb after будем instead?
No, the rule is strict: the helper verb быть can only ever be followed by an imperfective verb. Perfective verbs form the future tense all by themselves by taking regular conjugations, without needing a helper verb.
The word урок is the object of the sentence. Shouldn't its ending change?
It is indeed the direct object, meaning it is in the accusative case. However, урок is a masculine, inanimate noun (it is an object, not a living person or animal). For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative case looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form.
Why do we use в before девять?
In Russian, to say that something happens at a certain hour on the clock, you use the preposition в followed by the number in the accusative case. Because of this, в девять translates to at nine o'clock.
What does ровно mean in the context of time?
ровно comes from the word for flat or even, but when used with time expressions, it means exactly or sharp. So ровно в девять means at nine o'clock sharp.
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