Breakdown of Мы читали о плохих отелях в новых отзывах.
мы
we
новый
new
плохой
bad
читать
to read
в
in / to (direction)
о
about (о, об, обо)
отель
hotel
отзыв
review
Questions & Answers about Мы читали о плохих отелях в новых отзывах.
Why does плохих end in -их while новых ends in -ых?
Both are in the prepositional plural, which normally uses the ending -ых for adjectives (like новых from новый). However, the stem of плохой (bad) ends in х. According to the 7-letter spelling rule, after the letters к, г, х, ш, ж, ч, щ, you must write и instead of ы. That is why it becomes плохих.
Why do the nouns have different endings (отелях vs отзывах) if they are both in the prepositional plural?
Both о and в are followed by the prepositional case here. Is that always true?
The preposition о (meaning "about") almost always triggers the prepositional case. The preposition в triggers the prepositional case when it indicates location (meaning "in" or "inside" the reviews). If в meant direction or motion (like "into"), it would take the accusative case instead.
Could читали mean "were reading" instead of just "read"?
Yes! Читали is an imperfective verb in the past tense, so it focuses on the process. It can translate to "read," "were reading," or "used to read." If you wanted to emphasize that you completely finished reading all the reviews, you would use the perfective verb прочитали.
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