Question 1

Why is the particle ли placed right after закончилась instead of at the beginning of the clause?

Accepted Answer

In Russian, the indirect question particle ли (meaning "whether" or "if") cannot start a clause. It must directly follow the specific word being questioned. Since we are asking whether the action of finishing happened, the verb закончилась comes first in that clause, immediately followed by ли.

Question 2

Could we use если instead of ли here, since the English translation often uses "if"?

Accepted Answer

No, this is a classic trap! Если is strictly used for conditional statements (like "If it rains, we will stay home"). When "if" means "whether" in an indirect question—such as finding out if something is true—you must use the particle ли.

Question 3

What would it mean if we changed the word order to реконструкция ли закончилась?

Accepted Answer

The word that comes right before ли is the focus of your question. With закончилась ли реконструкция, you are asking about the action: did it finish? If you said реконструкция ли закончилась, you would be emphasizing the noun, asking: "Was it the reconstruction (as opposed to something else) that finished?"

Question 4

Why do we use the reflexive verb закончилась instead of just закончила?

Accepted Answer

The base verb закончить is transitive, meaning someone finishes something (e.g., "The builders finished the work"). Here, the reconstruction isn't finishing something else; it is coming to an end itself. Therefore, we need the intransitive, reflexive form закончиться. It takes the feminine ending -ась to match реконструкция.

Вы узнали, закончилась ли реконструкция здания?

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