Breakdown of Голосование закончилось намного раньше.
раньше
earlier
намного
much, by far
закончиться
to end (perfective)
голосование
the voting
Questions & Answers about Голосование закончилось намного раньше.
Why do we use the reflexive verb закончилось here instead of just закончило?
In Russian, when a phase verb (verbs about starting, continuing, or ending) is intransitive—meaning the subject itself is ending, rather than someone ending it—we use the reflexive form. Here, the voting (голосование) ended itself, so it acts as the Nominative subject and takes the reflexive закончилось. If we used the non-reflexive закончило, we would need a direct object, meaning the voting finished something else!
Why does the verb end in -ось instead of -ся?
Reflexive verbs in the past tense change their ending to match the gender of the subject. Because голосование is a neuter noun, the base past tense verb takes the neuter ending -ло. The reflexive particle attaches as -сь after a vowel and -ся after a consonant. So, we combine them: закончило + сь = закончилось.
Why use the perfective закончилось instead of the imperfective заканчивалось?
We use the perfective aspect here because the sentence states a single, completed fact with a clear result: the voting has come to a definitive end. If we used the imperfective заканчивалось, it would mean the action was in progress ("the voting was ending") or happened repeatedly ("the voting used to end").
Could I say очень раньше instead of намного раньше to mean "much earlier"?
No, you cannot use очень (very) with comparative words like раньше (earlier). Just like in English where we say "much earlier" rather than "very earlier," in Russian you must use намного (by a lot) or гораздо (much/significantly) to amplify a comparative adjective or adverb.
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