Breakdown of Они раздавали газеты перед зданием.
они
they
здание
building
газета
newspaper
перед
in front of / of (with fear) / before (in time)
раздавать
to hand out
Questions & Answers about Они раздавали газеты перед зданием.
Why use the imperfective раздавали instead of the perfective раздали?
The English translation says 'were handing out', which describes an ongoing, continuous action in the past. If the focus was on the completed result of successfully handing them all out, you would use the perfective раздали.
Why is the noun здание (building) written as зданием here?
The preposition перед (in front of) requires the noun to be in the Instrumental case when describing a location (answering 'where?'). Because здание is a neuter noun, it takes the -ем ending in the Instrumental case to become зданием.
This lesson covers routines with по + Dative plural. How would we change this sentence to say they did this 'in the mornings' (every morning)?
You would add по followed by the Dative plural of утро (morning). The routine phrase for 'in the mornings' is по утрам. If you wanted to say they did it 'on Mondays', it would be по понедельникам.
How could we use по + Dative plural to give this sentence a distributive location meaning?
If they weren't just standing in front of one building, but going 'building to building' or distributing 'around the buildings', you could use по with the Dative plural of здание. That would be по зданиям.
How does the prefix раз- in раздавали build on the basic verb давать (to give)?
The prefix раз- (or рас-) often adds the meaning of spreading out, moving in different directions, or distributing among many people. When added to давать (to give), it creates раздавать, meaning 'to hand out' or 'to distribute'.
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