Breakdown of Вчера я прочитал шестьдесят одну страницу.
я
I
один
one
вчера
yesterday
прочитать
to read (perfective)
страница
page
шестьдесят
sixty
Questions & Answers about Вчера я прочитал шестьдесят одну страницу.
Why is the noun страницу in the singular form when we are talking about 61 pages?
In Russian, compound numbers ending in 1 (like 21, 31, 61, except 11) always take a singular noun. Even though 61 is a plural amount in English, Russian grammar follows the very last word in the number, which is 1. So, the sentence literally translates as sixty-one page.
Why is the word for one written as одну instead of один or одна?
The number 1 must agree with its noun in both gender and case. The dictionary form of page is страница, which is feminine, giving us одна. Because the pages are the direct object being read, we use the accusative case, which changes the feminine одна to одну and страница to страницу.
Does the word шестьдесят (sixty) change its form here too?
No, it stays exactly the same as its dictionary form. When acting as an inanimate direct object, the accusative case for tens like 50, 60, and 70 looks identical to the basic nominative case. In this compound number, only the final word (one) changes to match the noun.
Why use the perfective verb прочитал instead of the imperfective читал?
The speaker is stating a specific, completed result: exactly 61 pages were read. When you talk about successfully completing an action and mention a concrete quantity, Russian strongly prefers the perfective verb прочитал. If you just meant I was reading yesterday without focusing on the final result, you would use читал.
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