Word
Он начал работать в мае.
Meaning
He began working in May.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Он начал работать в мае.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
работать
to work
в
on / during (a time period)
май
May
Questions & Answers about Он начал работать в мае.
Why is the imperfective verb работать used here instead of a perfective verb?
In Russian, verbs that indicate the start, continuation, or end of an action (like начал) are always followed by an imperfective infinitive. This is because you are focusing on starting the ongoing process of the action.
Is the main verb начал perfective or imperfective?
It is perfective. While the action of working (работать) is an ongoing process, the specific event of starting is viewed as a single, completed action that happened in the past.
Since this lesson focuses on duration, how does the time expression в мае fit in?
В мае tells us exactly when the action happened, which requires the preposition в plus the Prepositional case (changing the dictionary form май to мае). This contrasts with the duration expressions in this lesson, which tell us how long something lasted or how long it took to complete.
How would the verb начал change if the subject was она (she)?
Past tense verbs in Russian must agree with the gender of the subject. Because он (he) is masculine, the verb ends in -л. If the subject were feminine, начал would change to начала.