Word
Мы говорили о химии в этой лаборатории.
Meaning
We were talking about chemistry in this laboratory.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Мы говорили о химии в этой лаборатории.
мы
we
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
говорить
to speak, to talk
в
in / to (direction)
Questions & Answers about Мы говорили о химии в этой лаборатории.
Why do both химии and лаборатории end in -ии instead of the usual prepositional ending -е?
These words come from the base dictionary forms химия and лаборатория. In Russian, nouns that end in -ия, -ие, or -ий are special: they take -ии in the prepositional case instead of the standard -е.
Why is the word for 'this' spelled этой here?
It has to match the noun it describes, лаборатории, which is feminine and in the prepositional case. The feminine prepositional form of эта is этой.
Why does this sentence use the imperfective verb говорили?
The imperfective aspect is used here to focus on the ongoing process of the conversation. It translates well to 'we were talking' or implies a general discussion. If the sentence meant 'we said' or 'we had a brief chat', a perfective verb like сказали or поговорили would be used.
Why is the preposition о used instead of об?