Breakdown of Плохо слышно, я перезвоню вечером.
я
I
звонить
to call
вечером
in the evening
плохо слышно
the line is bad, I cannot hear you
Questions & Answers about Плохо слышно, я перезвоню вечером.
Why does плохо слышно mean "the line is bad" when there is no word for "line" here?
Russians use an impersonal construction to express this idea. Слышно literally means "audible" or "can be heard", and плохо means "poorly". So you are literally saying "It is poorly audible", which is the natural Russian way to say a phone connection is bad.
What does the prefix пере- add to the verb перезвоню?
The prefix пере- often means doing an action again or anew, similar to "re-" in English. Here, it changes звонить (to call) into перезвонить (to call back or to call again).
Why is it я перезвоню and not я буду перезвонить to say "I will call again"?
Перезвонить is a perfective verb, which focuses on the result or completion of an action. To form the future tense of a perfective verb, you just conjugate the verb itself. You only use буду with imperfective verbs.
Why does вечером end in -ом?
When you want to express "in the morning", "in the afternoon", or "in the evening", Russian uses the instrumental case. The noun вечер (evening) becomes вечером to mean "in the evening".
Learn Плохо слышно, я перезвоню вечером and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free