26 Comments
The verb is in the past imperfective. It is conveying habitual action in the past. Whether or not the action is still continuing is not conveyed in the sentence. It's a vague statement.
I don't think so, but I can't say for sure. In some other Slavic languages there is a distinct past form for the "used to" construct. I would think it will be similar in Russian. Need a native speaker to confirm, though
I'm not sure if this is a Duolingo problem or if I'm missing some subtlety here. My answer was "Mom has been at work" and it was marked wrong with "Mom has been to work." offered as the correct answer.
It may very well be, I'm just not certain why.
Идти and ходить (мама шла/ мама ходила) belong to a particular set of verbs called the verbs of motion. English has the verb "to go" to convey the idea of travel (among other definitions). There is a large group, and I suggest googling "Russian verbs of motion." For this exercise, understanding that all verbs of motion come in pairs. These pairs convey whether or not the subject has gone from point A to point B or from point A to point B then back to A. In other words did the person come back or not. This is a strange distinction for English speakers, but it is very pertinent to the meaning of the sentence in Russian. The use of ходить (ходила - conjugated into the past tense and agreeing with a female subject) means that the subject made repeated regular trips to work in the past. I really suggest googling this and doing some research. Knowing a little theory in this subject helps.
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A multidirectional non-prefixed past tense verb (like ходила here) can also imply a single past round trip to and from. So if in context we know Mom is home, this sentence could answer "What did Mom do today? She looks exhausted?" "She went to work."
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That's why I thought "Mom used to go to work" was rather a good translation. But it was not accepted
I think it is because "Mom has been to work" conveys motion while "Mom has been at work" conveys where she has been stationary.
Why is на used instead of в? I feel like I should know the answer, but it has been a long day lol
I think this is the answer: 'в' is generally used for a place you enter, and 'на' is used for outside-type places. I have a short list of places that take 'на' when you'd perhaps expect to use 'в': на заводу (to the factory), на консерту (to the concert), and of course на работу.
I guess you're right. Note: the right way to say на завод, на концерт.
But в театр, в музей, в кино, в бассейн.
