Breakdown of Раньше МГУ был закрыт.
быть
to be
раньше
earlier
закрыт
closed (закрыт, закрыта, закрыты)
МГУ
MSU
Questions & Answers about Раньше МГУ был закрыт.
Why is МГУ treated as masculine here (был закрыт) when it ends in the vowel sound "у"?
МГУ stands for Московский государственный университет (Moscow State University). For most indeclinable initialisms in Russian, the grammatical gender matches the head noun in the full phrase. Because университет is masculine, МГУ acts as a masculine noun and takes the masculine predicate был закрыт.
Is МГУ ever declined, for example, if it were the object of the sentence?
No, МГУ is indeclinable. Initialisms that end in a vowel sound or are pronounced letter-by-letter (it is read aloud as "эм-гэ-у") never change their form. You rely on the context and surrounding words to determine the grammatical case.
Why use the short form закрыт instead of the full adjective закрытый?
When an adjective or participle acts as the main predicate describing the subject's state (especially after forms of the verb "to be" like был), Russian strongly prefers the short form. Here, it is used to state the factual condition of the university.
Does раньше here mean "earlier today" or "in the past"?
While раньше can mean "earlier" in a strict timeline comparison, when placed at the beginning of a sentence to set a general timeframe like this, it naturally translates to "in the past" or "previously".
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