Breakdown of Христиане и мусульмане долго спорили.
и
and
спорить
to argue
долго
for a long time
христианин
Christian
мусульманин
Muslim
Questions & Answers about Христиане и мусульмане долго спорили.
Why do христиане and мусульмане end in -е instead of standard plural endings like -ы or -и?
These words come from singular masculine nouns ending in -анин or -янин (христианин, мусульманин), which are often used for nationalities or religious groups. In the plural, they drop the -ин suffix and take the special ending -е in the nominative case.
If a mixed group is христиане, what is the plural for a group of only women?
How does the genitive plural work for these nouns?
It is surprisingly simple! They take a zero ending (no ending at all). Since the plural stem of христиане is христиан-, the genitive plural (used after words like 'many' or 'five') is just христиан. The same goes for мусульман.
Why is the imperfective verb спорили used here instead of a perfective verb?
The adverb долго (for a long time) focuses on the continuous duration of the argument. Whenever you emphasize how long an action lasted, you must use the imperfective aspect, because perfective verbs focus on a sudden completion or specific result.
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