Breakdown of Как долго продолжалось представление?
как
how
долго
for a long time
продолжаться
to continue, to go on
представление
the performance
Questions & Answers about Как долго продолжалось представление?
Why use the reflexive verb продолжалось instead of продолжало?
In Russian, when a phase verb like продолжать (to continue) has no direct object, it becomes intransitive and takes the reflexive -ся ending. Since the performance isn't continuing something else, but rather just lasting or continuing itself, we must use the reflexive продолжаться.
Why does the verb end in -ось?
Past tense verbs agree with the gender of the subject. The subject is представление (performance), which is a neuter noun. To match this, the past tense reflexive verb takes the neuter ending -ось instead of the masculine -лся or feminine -лась.
Could I ask this using the perfective aspect if the performance is already over?
No, you still need the imperfective aspect here. When you ask как долго (how long) to focus on the duration of an action or state, Russian requires imperfective verbs, regardless of whether the event has completely finished.
Is there another way to say как долго in this context?
Yes, you can use сколько времени (literally: how much time). Saying Сколько времени продолжалось представление? means exactly the same thing and is very common in everyday spoken Russian.
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