Breakdown of Мы слышали громкие голоса, поэтому проснулись.
мы
we
слышать
to hear
поэтому
so (therefore)
громкий
loud
проснуться
to wake up (perfective)
голос
voice
Questions & Answers about Мы слышали громкие голоса, поэтому проснулись.
Why is the plural of голос written as голоса instead of голосы?
The word голос (voice) is a masculine noun, but it belongs to a special group of words that take a stressed -а or -я in the nominative plural instead of the standard -ы or -и. You have likely seen this pattern with other common words like дома (houses), города (cities), and глаза (eyes).
What case is громкие голоса in?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb слышали (we heard). Even though it is in the accusative case, it looks exactly like the nominative plural because голос is an inanimate noun. The adjective громкие (loud) matches this inanimate plural form.
Why does the sentence use the imperfective verb слышали alongside the perfective verb проснулись?
слышали (heard) is imperfective because hearing the voices was a continuous, ongoing background action. проснулись (woke up) is perfective because waking up was a sudden, single event that was completed as a result of that ongoing noise.
Why does проснулись have the -сь ending?
It comes from the reflexive verb проснуться (to wake up). When conjugating reflexive verbs in the past tense, the reflexive particle becomes -ся after consonants and -сь after vowels. Since the standard past tense plural ending is -ли, we add -сь to get проснулись.
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