Breakdown of Дежурный передал вызов экипажу, чтобы они начали тушить пожар.
они
they
чтобы
in order to
начать
to begin (perfective)
передать
to pass on, to hand over
пожар
fire (destructive event)
вызов
call
экипаж
crew
дежурный
duty officer
тушить
to extinguish
Questions & Answers about Дежурный передал вызов экипажу, чтобы они начали тушить пожар.
Why is начали in the past tense if the English translation says 'would start'?
After the conjunction чтобы (so that), when there is a change of subject (from the duty officer to the crew), the following verb must be in the past tense. It expresses purpose or intent, not an actual past event.
Why do we use the imperfective verb тушить instead of its perfective pair потушить?
Verbs that indicate starting, continuing, or finishing an action (like начали) must always be followed by an imperfective infinitive. This is because these 'phase verbs' focus on the ongoing process of the action, not its completion.
Is дежурный a noun or an adjective here?
It functions as a noun meaning 'the duty officer' or 'the person on duty', but it declines exactly like a standard adjective. Words like this are called substantivized adjectives.
Why is экипажу in the dative case?
The verb передать (to pass or transmit) requires the dative case for the recipient of the action. The duty officer passed the call TO the crew (экипажу), while the thing being passed (вызов) is in the accusative case.
Learn Дежурный передал вызов экипажу, чтобы они начали тушить пожар and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free