Breakdown of Где были вторые часы, а где — третьи?
где
where / wherever
а
and (contrastive)
часы
watch / clock
быть
to be
второй
second
третий
third
Questions & Answers about Где были вторые часы, а где — третьи?
Why does the sentence use the plural вторые to mean "the second"?
The word for watch or clock, часы, is always plural in Russian. This is similar to words like "pants" or "scissors" in English. Because the noun is grammatically plural, any ordinal number describing it must also be in the nominative plural form, which is вторые.
The English translation says "Where was", so why is the plural verb были (were) used instead of a singular past tense verb?
Past tense verbs must agree with the noun they belong to. Since часы is grammatically plural, the past tense verb must be the plural были, even when you are talking about a single physical watch.
Вторые ends in -ые, but третьи ends in -ьи. Why do these plural ordinal numbers have different endings?
Most ordinal numbers act like standard adjectives, so второй (second) forms the regular plural вторые. However, третий (third) is a bit special because it has a "soft" stem. In the plural, it takes a soft sign before its ending to become третьи.
What is the purpose of the long dash in а где — третьи?
The dash is used to skip words that were already established in the first half of the sentence. Here, it stands in for были часы (were the watches), making the sentence sound much more natural by avoiding repetition.
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