Question 1

How does the combination of за- and -ся change the verb in заговорилась?

Accepted Answer

This is the core of your current lesson! When you add the prefix за- and the postfix -ся (or -сь) to a verb, it often describes getting completely absorbed in an action to the point of excess or losing track of time. Here, the base verb говорить (to talk) becomes заговориться, meaning she got totally carried away talking.

Question 2

Why is обеих used here instead of обоих?

Accepted Answer

The word for 'both' has two base forms: оба for masculine/neuter and обе for feminine. Since подруга is feminine, we must use the обе- root. Furthermore, because she met people (animate nouns), the accusative case looks exactly like the genitive case, giving us the form обеих. If she had met two male friends, it would be обоих друзей.

Question 3

Why do we use встретив instead of встречая?

Accepted Answer

Встретив is a perfective verbal adverb (often called a gerund), meaning 'having met.' It is used here because the action of meeting was fully completed before the main action of getting carried away talking (заговорилась). If you used the imperfective встречая, it would mean she got carried away talking while in the very process of meeting them, which changes the logic of the sentence.

Question 4

I often see the verb 'to meet' followed by с (with). Why is there no preposition here?

Accepted Answer

It comes down to the difference between встретить (to encounter or run into someone) and встретиться (to intentionally meet up with someone). Встретить takes a direct object in the accusative case with no preposition, which is why we see встретив обеих подруг. If the sentence used the reflexive verb встретиться, you would need с plus the instrumental case: встретившись с обеими подругами.

Встретив обеих подруг, она заговорилась.

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