Questions & Answers about У нас был отличный вечер.
Since this lesson is about такой ... что (such ... that), how would I expand this sentence to say "We had SUCH an excellent evening THAT we went home late"?
You would add такой before the adjective to match the masculine noun вечер, followed by a comma and the что clause. For example: У нас был такой отличный вечер, что мы поехали домой поздно.
Why is the verb был in the masculine form, even if the "we" (нас) speaking might be a group of women?
In the Russian "to have" construction, the thing possessed or experienced is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. The subject here is вечер (evening), which is a masculine noun. Therefore, the past tense verb must be the masculine был, regardless of who is in the у нас (by us) group.
Why don't we see a past tense equivalent of the word есть in this sentence?
The word есть is specifically the present tense form used for possession (like in у нас есть). In the past tense, you drop есть entirely and just use the correct past tense form of the verb "to be", which here is был.
Is there a difference between using отличный and прекрасный for an evening?
Both are great choices, but they have a slight difference in flavor. Отличный leans toward "excellent" or "great" in a high-quality or fun sense, while прекрасный means "wonderful" or "beautiful" and can sound just a bit more romantic or atmospheric.