Breakdown of Вечером комары сильно кусали, но мы долго сидели на веранде.
мы
we
вечером
in the evening
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
сидеть
to sit
долго
for a long time
но
but
сильно
strongly, greatly
веранда
veranda
комар
mosquito
кусать
to bite
Questions & Answers about Вечером комары сильно кусали, но мы долго сидели на веранде.
Why are both verbs (кусали and сидели) in the imperfective aspect?
This ties directly into our lesson on repeated past sequences. The mosquitoes did not bite just once; the biting was a repeated, ongoing action throughout the evening. Likewise, sitting on the veranda was a prolonged, continuous state. Neither action is presented as a single completed event.
Why is сильно (strongly) used to describe mosquitoes biting instead of something like больно (painfully)?
In Russian, сильно is the standard adverb to describe intense, aggressive, or severe actions. Just like the weather can rain strongly in Russian, mosquitoes bite strongly to mean they are biting hard and in large numbers.
Does the word долго (for a long time) force the verb сидели to be imperfective?
Yes! Adverbs that highlight how long an action lasted, such as долго, act as strong triggers for the imperfective aspect. Since the focus is entirely on the duration and process of sitting, rather than its result or completion, the perfective aspect cannot be used here.
I remember that time expressions can be tricky. Why does вечером not use a preposition here?
To express during a specific time for parts of the day or seasons, Russian simply uses the instrumental case of the noun without any preposition. So the nominative вечер (evening) becomes вечером (in the evening). It is a helpful pattern to review when setting the scene for ongoing past events.
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