Breakdown of Мы позвали нового менеджера, чтобы спросить о зарплате.
мы
we
новый
new
о
about (о, об, обо)
спросить
to ask (perfective)
менеджер
manager
позвать
to call, to invite (perfective)
чтобы
in order to
зарплата
salary
Questions & Answers about Мы позвали нового менеджера, чтобы спросить о зарплате.
Why is the infinitive спросить used after чтобы?
In Russian, when the subject of both actions is the same (we called, and we are the ones asking), you use чтобы followed directly by an infinitive. If the person asking was different, you would use чтобы with the past tense instead.
нового менеджера is the direct object (accusative case), so why does it have genitive endings?
Because менеджер is a living person (animate). For masculine, animate nouns, the accusative case takes the exact same endings as the genitive case (-а or -я for nouns, -ого or -его for adjectives).
Why is the preposition о used with зарплате instead of the dictionary form зарплата?
The preposition о (meaning "about") always requires the prepositional case. For most feminine nouns ending in -а, like зарплата, this means changing the ending to -е.
Both позвали (called) and спросить (to ask) are perfective verbs. Why not use their imperfective forms here?
Perfective verbs are used here because these are specific, one-time actions with a clear result. We called the manager once on this specific occasion to ask a specific question, rather than calling and asking repeatedly as a general habit.
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