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Questions & Answers about Урок кончается.
Why does the verb кончается end in -ся?
The -ся ending makes the verb reflexive. While we say 'the lesson is ending' in English, Russian uses this form for actions that happen on their own, without a specific person doing them. Without -ся, the base verb means 'to finish [something else]'.
Since this lesson teaches the compound future tense, how would I say 'The lesson will be ending'?
You use the future form of быть (to be) that matches the subject, plus the infinitive of the verb. Since урок is a masculine 'it', we use будет. The infinitive of this verb is кончаться. So, 'The lesson will be ending' is Урок будет кончаться.
I listened to the audio and кончается sounds like it has a 'ts' sound near the end. Why?
Whenever a Russian verb ends in -тся (like it does here) or -ться, those letters combine to make a 'ts' sound, exactly like the Russian letter ц or the end of the English word 'cats'. Additionally, the final я is pronounced like a short 'a'.
What if I wanted to say 'The lessons are ending' in the plural?
You would first change the subject to the plural уроки. Then, the verb must match 'they', so кончается changes to its plural present-tense form кончаются.