Questions & Answers about Стало совсем темно.
Why does the verb стало end in -о when there is no 'it' in the Russian sentence?
When talking about the environment, weather, or a general state, Russian doesn't use a subject pronoun like 'it'. Instead, the verb defaults to the neuter singular form. So, стало simply means 'it became' or 'it got'.
Is темно an adjective or an adverb here?
It acts as an adverb of state. In impersonal sentences describing weather or the environment, you use this -о ending rather than a full adjective. You say Здесь темно (It is dark here) and Стало темно (It got dark).
This lesson is about irregular comparatives. How would I use one with стало to say 'It got worse'?
You just swap out темно for your comparative adverb! To say 'It got worse,' you would say Стало хуже. Similarly, 'It got better' is Стало лучше. This impersonal structure is very common with comparatives.
I've seen совсем used with 'not'. Does it mean something different here?
On its own in a positive sentence, совсем means 'completely' or 'totally' (as in совсем темно - completely dark). But when you pair it with a negative word, like совсем не, it changes to mean 'not at all'.
Why is the perfective verb стало used here instead of the imperfective?
Стало (from the perfective verb стать) focuses on the completed result: the transition into darkness is finished. If you wanted to describe the ongoing background process ('It was getting dark'), you would use the imperfective past tense: становилось.
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