Breakdown of Неужели они просидели в терминале пять часов?
они
they
в
in / to (direction)
пять
five
час
hour
Questions & Answers about Неужели они просидели в терминале пять часов?
Why is просидели perfective if it describes sitting for five hours, which is a continuous action?
Adding the prefix про- to certain imperfective verbs like сидеть creates a perfective verb meaning to spend a specific amount of time doing that action. Because the duration has a stated limit (five hours) and the action is now over, it is viewed as one completed block of time, requiring the perfective aspect.
Do I need a preposition like на or за before пять часов to translate "for five hours"?
No, when expressing how long an action lasted, Russian simply uses the Accusative case without a preposition. Using на пять часов would mean they went into the terminal with the intention of staying for five hours, while за пять часов would mean it took them five hours to achieve a specific result.
What does the word неужели add to this question?
Неужели expresses genuine surprise or disbelief. It is the best way to translate "Did they really...?" or "Is it actually true that...?" If you removed it, the sentence would become a completely neutral yes/no question without any emotional shock.
Just as a refresher, why is the word for hours in the form часов here?
The phrase пять часов acts as the Accusative of time to show duration. In Russian, numbers five and above require the following noun to be in the Genitive plural. Therefore, часы (hours) becomes часов. If they had waited for two, three, or four hours, you would use the Genitive singular часа instead.