Questions & Answers about Мы поужинали поздно.
Why does the verb поужинали end in -ли instead of just -л?
In the past tense, Russian verbs change based on gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular vs. plural). Since the subject here is мы (we), which is plural, we drop the -ть from the dictionary form (поужинать) and add the plural past tense ending -ли.
Is поужинать a regular verb? How would this look for a single person?
Yes, it is regular! To say a man had dinner, you use the masculine past-tense ending -л to get он поужинал. For a woman, you use the feminine ending -ла to get она поужинала.
What does the по- at the beginning of поужинали do? I thought the verb for having dinner was ужинать.
You will often see Russian verbs in pairs. Ужинать is used for the general, ongoing action of eating dinner. Adding the prefix по- makes it focus on the completed result. So, поужинали emphasizes that dinner was a single, finished event.
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