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В школе дети вели себя хорошо.

В школе дети вели себя хорошо.
The children behaved well at school.
From Lesson 88:Reflexive pronouns (себя)·Russian

Questions & Answers about В школе дети вели себя хорошо.

How do you say 'to behave' in Russian, and how does it work in this sentence?
Russian uses the phrase вести себя, which literally means 'to lead oneself.' In this sentence, вели is the past tense plural ('led'), so вели себя means the children behaved (or 'led themselves').
What case is себя in here?
It is in the accusative case. Since the children are performing the action on themselves, себя acts as the direct object of the verb вели.
Дети (children) is plural. Why doesn't себя change to a plural form like 'themselves' in English?
The reflexive pronoun себя is unique because it never changes for gender, person, or number! It simply bounces the action back to the subject of the sentence. Whether the subject is 'I,' 'she,' or 'they,' the accusative form is always just себя.
What is the dictionary form of вели?
The infinitive is вести (to lead). It has an irregular past tense: the masculine is вёл, the feminine is вела, the neuter is вело, and the plural is вели.

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