Breakdown of Моя сестра летала стюардессой, ей было тяжело.
сестра
sister
мой
my / mine
быть
to be
ей
to her
тяжело
hard / heavily
летать
to fly (repeatedly)
стюардесса
flight attendant (f)
Questions & Answers about Моя сестра летала стюардессой, ей было тяжело.
Why is the imperfective verb летала used here instead of a perfective verb?
This is a classic example of the general factual use of the imperfective aspect in the past tense. The speaker is simply stating a fact about their sister's past experience and profession. A perfective verb would imply a single, completed result, rather than a general period of her life.
Why do we use the multidirectional летала instead of the unidirectional летела?
Летала is the multidirectional (or indeterminate) verb of motion. It is used here because her job as a flight attendant involved flying back and forth many times as a regular habit, not just making one continuous trip in a single direction (which would require летела).
Why is стюардессой in the instrumental case here?
In Russian, the instrumental case is often used to denote a person's role or profession, especially when the verb involves acting in that capacity. You can think of летала стюардессой as meaning she flew in the capacity of or as a flight attendant.
Why do we say ей было тяжело instead of она была тяжёлая?
Russian frequently uses impersonal constructions featuring a pronoun in the dative case plus an adverb to describe how someone experiences a situation emotionally or physically. Ей было тяжело literally translates to 'to her it was hard.' If you said она была тяжёлая, using the nominative and an adjective, it would mean 'she was heavy' in weight!
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