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Questions & Answers about Долгий урок.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" is almost always skipped. Depending on the context, Долгий урок can simply mean "A long lesson" or act as a full sentence meaning "The lesson is long."
Since this lesson is about the past tense, how would I say "The lesson was long"?
Because this sentence has no verb in the present tense, you need to add the past tense of the verb "to be" (быть) to put it in the past. Since урок is a masculine noun, you use the masculine past tense form был. The sentence becomes Урок был долгий.
Could I use долгий to say a street or a river is long?
No, долгий is only used for things that are long in time or duration, like a lesson, a movie, or a wait. For things that are physically long in distance (like a street or a line), you must use a different word: длинный.
Why does долгий end in -ий? Don't masculine adjectives usually end in -ый?
Yes, many masculine adjectives end in -ый (like новый for "new"). However, Russian has a strict spelling rule: you can never write the letter ы after the letters г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ. Because the root of this word ends in г (долг-), you must use и instead, making the ending -ий.