Breakdown of По завершении учёбы выпускник начнёт искать работу.
работа
work, job
искать
to look for
начать
to begin (perfective)
выпускник
graduate
учёба
studies, schooling
по
upon / after (formal, e.g., upon arrival)
завершение
the completion
Questions & Answers about По завершении учёбы выпускник начнёт искать работу.
Why does завершение end in -ии in по завершении, and what case is this?
It is in the prepositional case. In this formal construction meaning "upon" or "after", the preposition по requires the prepositional case. Because завершение is a neuter noun ending in -ие, its prepositional ending is -ии rather than the standard -е.
I thought the preposition по usually takes the dative case. Is this an exception?
When по means "along", "around", or "according to", it does take the dative case. However, in this specific formal usage where it means "upon" (referring to time), it always takes the prepositional case. This is highly common in official, business, or academic contexts.
Could I just use после instead of по here?
Yes, you could say после завершения учёбы (после + genitive case). The meaning is exactly the same, but после is neutral and used in everyday speech. The structure with по + prepositional case sounds much more formal and official.
Why is the imperfective verb искать used right after the perfective verb начнёт?
In Russian, verbs that indicate the start, continuation, or end of an action (often called phase verbs) must always be followed by an imperfective infinitive. Even though the graduate will start (начнёт, perfective) at a distinct moment, the searching (искать) is viewed as the ongoing process they are launching into.
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