Breakdown of Из-за нелётной погоды мы прождали вылет пять часов.
мы
we
погода
the weather
пять
five
час
hour
Questions & Answers about Из-за нелётной погоды мы прождали вылет пять часов.
Why use the perfective verb прождали instead of the imperfective ждали for a duration of five hours?
The prefix про- creates a perfective verb indicating an action lasted for a specific, completed span of time. While imperfective verbs normally express duration, using прождали with the Accusative time phrase пять часов emphasizes the exhaustion or significance of spending that entire exact chunk of time waiting.
Why is вылет in the Accusative case here? Doesn't the verb to wait usually take the Genitive case?
Verbs of waiting like ждать or прождать take the Genitive case for abstract, indefinite, or unlikely things. However, they take the Accusative case for specific, definite people or scheduled events, like this specific flight departure (вылет).
Why use из-за for due to instead of благодаря?
The preposition из-за (requiring the Genitive case) is used for negative or neutral causes. Благодаря (requiring the Dative case) means thanks to and is strictly for positive causes. Since bad weather delaying a flight is a negative event, из-за is the correct choice.
What exactly is the adjective нелётной?
It literally translates to non-flying, deriving from the verb летать (to fly). The phrase нелётная погода is a fixed expression in Russian used specifically for weather conditions that are too dangerous for aircraft to fly.