Breakdown of Анна была экономистом на заводе.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
завод
factory
Анна
Anna
быть
to be
экономист
economist
Questions & Answers about Анна была экономистом на заводе.
Why is it экономистом instead of экономист?
When talking about someone's profession in the past tense using быть (to be), Russian uses the Instrumental case. Since экономист ends in a hard consonant, we add -ом.
Anna is a woman, so why do we use the masculine noun экономистом?
Many profession words in Russian, like экономист, врач (doctor), or менеджер (manager), do not have a separate feminine form. We use the masculine noun even for women. Notice that the verb была is still feminine to match Anna.
Would she still be экономистом if she were an economist right now?
No. In the present tense, you drop the verb for 'to be', and the profession stays in the Nominative case: Анна — экономист. The Instrumental case here is triggered by the past tense verb была.
Why does it say на заводе instead of в заводе for 'at a factory'?
In the Prepositional case, Russian normally uses в for locations inside a building. However, завод (factory) is one of the traditional exceptions that takes на, just like на почте (at the post office) or на вокзале (at the train station).
Learn Анна была экономистом на заводе 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