Breakdown of Ты закончил копировать отчёты на дежурстве?
ты
you (singular)
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
отчёт
report
закончить
to finish (perfective)
дежурство
duty
копировать
to copy
Questions & Answers about Ты закончил копировать отчёты на дежурстве?
Why is копировать imperfective if the action of copying is finished?
This is the core rule for phase verbs (verbs of beginning, continuing, and finishing). After verbs like закончить (to finish), you must always use the imperfective infinitive for the second verb. The phase verb itself handles the completion aspect, so копировать just names the process that was brought to an end.
Why did we use the perfective verb закончил instead of the imperfective заканчивал?
We use the perfective закончил because the speaker is asking about a single, completed result: did you successfully reach the end of the task? The imperfective заканчивал would change the meaning to 'Were you in the process of finishing?'
What case is отчёты, and why didn't its ending change?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of копировать (copying what?). Because отчёт (report) is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative plural form is identical to its nominative plural form (отчёты).
Why do we say на дежурстве instead of в дежурстве for 'on duty'?
In Russian, abstract events, processes, or states of being typically take the preposition на + Prepositional case. Since дежурство (duty or a shift) is an activity rather than a physical enclosed space, it requires на.
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