Breakdown of Директор заволновался и заговорил быстрее.
и
and
быстро
fast, quickly
директор
director
заговорить
to start speaking
заволноваться
to get worried
Questions & Answers about Директор заволновался и заговорил быстрее.
How does the prefix за- change the meaning of the verbs волноваться and говорить in this sentence?
The prefix за- here acts as an ingressive prefix, meaning it shows the sudden or spontaneous beginning of an action. So заволновался means he got worried or suddenly started worrying, and заговорил means he broke into speech or started speaking.
Is заговорил the normal perfective form of говорить?
No, the standard perfective of говорить is сказать (to say or tell). The verb заговорить specifically means 'to start speaking' or 'to speak up', focusing purely on the sudden start of the speech rather than the completion of a statement.
Since за- means 'to start' here, can I use it with any verb to mean 'started doing something'?
Not with every verb! This 'sudden start' meaning of the за- prefix is mostly used with verbs of emotion (worrying, panicking) and verbs of sound or speech (crying, laughing, singing, talking). For most everyday physical actions, like reading or eating, you still need to use the verb начать (to start) followed by an imperfective infinitive.
Why do we use быстрее here instead of более быстро?
While both mean 'faster', adding the -ее suffix to the root of an adverb (like changing быстро to быстрее) is the most natural and common way to form a comparative adverb in everyday Russian. Using более is usually reserved for formal writing or longer, complex words.
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