Questions & Answers about Мама готовила обед.
Why does the verb готовила end in -ла?
In Russian, past tense verbs change based on the gender of the person or thing doing the action, not on who is speaking. The dictionary form of this verb is готовить (to cook/prepare). To make it past tense, we drop the -ть and add -л for a masculine subject, -ла for a feminine subject, -ло for neuter, and -ли for plural. Since мама is feminine, we use готовила.
The translation says "was making". Could готовила also mean she completely finished making it?
Usually, no. Russian has two types of verbs for the past tense: one for ongoing actions (imperfective) and one for completed actions (perfective). Готовить is the ongoing version, so it translates best to "was making" or "used to make". If we wanted to say she completely finished making lunch, we would use its completed partner verb, приготовить (Мама приготовила обед).
Since обед is the thing being made, shouldn't its ending change because it is the object of the sentence?
It actually is in the object case (the accusative case), but the ending doesn't look different from the dictionary form! Обед is a masculine noun that refers to an inanimate (non-living) thing. In Russian, inanimate masculine nouns do not change their endings when they are the direct object of an action.
Does готовила specifically mean "making food" or can it mean "making" anything?
It literally means "preparing". In the context of food, it means cooking or making a meal. You wouldn't use it for making a physical object like a table (that would be делать), but you can use it for preparing non-food things, like preparing homework or getting ready for a test.
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