Breakdown of Они говорили о дате совещания?
они
they
говорить
to speak, to talk
о
about (о, об, обо)
дата
date
совещание
meeting (business, formal)
Questions & Answers about Они говорили о дате совещания?
Why is the word for date written as дате here?
It is in the Prepositional case because it comes directly after the preposition о (about). The dictionary form is дата, and since it is a feminine noun ending in -а, it changes to -е in the Prepositional case.
Why does совещание (meeting) end in -я here?
It is in the Genitive case (совещания), which is used here to express the English word "of". Together, о дате совещания literally means "about the date of the meeting". Since совещание is a neuter noun ending in -е, its Genitive ending changes to -я.
This lesson is about answering "On what date?", but I do not see the Genitive date structure here. Why?
This sentence asks about a date in general using the Prepositional case (о дате), rather than stating the specific date an event actually happens on. If someone answered this question with a specific date (like "on the fifth of May"), that is when they would use the Genitive date structure taught in this lesson (for example, пятого мая).
Could I use сказали instead of говорили?
Not quite. The perfective verb сказать means "to tell" or "to say" a specific fact, and it does not usually pair with о (about). The imperfective verb говорить means "to talk" or "to converse", which fits perfectly when people are having a discussion about a topic.
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