Question 1

Why are both были and работали in the imperfective aspect, even though we are asking if these actions were successfully completed in the past?

Accepted Answer

This is the "general factual" use of the imperfective aspect, which this lesson covers. When you ask "Have you ever done X?", you only care about the bare fact of whether the action occurred at least once in the person's life. Because you aren't focusing on a specific result, duration, or a sequence of completed actions, Russian uses the imperfective.

Question 2

Why use когда-нибудь here instead of когда-то?

Accepted Answer

Both words relate to an undefined time, but когда-нибудь is used for hypothetical or unknown times, making it the perfect word for "ever" in questions. Когда-то means "once" or "formerly" and is used in affirmative statements about a real event in the past that definitely happened, even if you don't specify exactly when.

Question 3

Why is the word for flight attendant in the instrumental case (стюардессой)?

Accepted Answer

When you talk about working as a certain profession, Russian uses the verb работать followed by the instrumental case. It essentially translates to "working in the capacity of." Note that the verb "to be" in the past tense (были) also commonly triggers the instrumental case for professions, so it applies perfectly to both verbs here.

Question 4

I thought trips or events often use the preposition на. Why is it в круизе?

Accepted Answer

It is a great exception to note! While many events or modes of transport use на (like на экскурсии for "on an excursion" or на корабле for "on a ship"), круиз takes в. You go в круиз (accusative for motion) and spend time в круизе (prepositional for location).

Вы когда-нибудь были в круизе или работали стюардессой?

Breakdown of Вы когда-нибудь были в круизе или работали стюардессой?

Questions & Answers about Вы когда-нибудь были в круизе или работали стюардессой?

Learn Вы когда-нибудь были в круизе или работали стюардессой and more in Russian