"Мальчик стоял и ждал."

Translation: The boy was standing and waiting.

[CthulhuX]

Why "a boy stood and waited" is incorrect?

[Ynhockey]

It's correct and should be accepted.

[Oberoth-SGA]

It still isn't accept. I reported.

[Jeffrey855877]

In another exercise with a similar kind of construction, the native-speakers were of the opinion that "a boy" would be expressed by re-ordering the words: Стоял и ждал мальчик.

[2E3S]

It's wrong, in constructions "subject+verb" a subject should always be first.

Russian doesn't have the definite/indefinite distinction, some constructions in some cases add a flavor of (in)definiteness, but it's not systematic.

[tapio517343]

What about "A boy was standing and waiting" ? Was not accepted, though, but why?

[dpelisek]

They surely just missed it. Keep reporting those things ;)

[Tina_in_Bristol]

Does Russian always have to have the conjunction between the two verbs: "standing AND waiting", or can you have: "standing waiting", as in English?

[2E3S]

If you eliminate English "and" then "waiting" becomes a gerund in a construction Past Progressive Tense+Gerund. It just happens that English present participles and gerunds have the same ending. In Russian a gerund would be translated here as деепричастие/transgressive "ожидая": "мальчик стоял ожидая" (it sounds a little awkward though).

To compare, without that English feature: стоял=stood, ждал=waited. You can't say "The boy stood waited".

[Tina_in_Bristol]

So, if I've understood correctly, there is no direct Russian equivalent, or at least none that would sound natural? So you would always need the "и": "was standing AND (was) waiting"?

[2E3S]

I think you understood incorrectly... There IS a Russian equivalent of Progressive Tense+Gerund (was standing waiting) which allows to eliminate AND, but while English present particle and gerund happen to have the same ending "-ing" so no ending is changed when you eliminate AND changing the second present particle into a gerund, the Russian equivalents (verb in past+transgressive) have different endings so you have to change an ending of the word becoming a transgressive.

[Masha515691]

"a boy"... should be accepted

[susanashe]

Is стоял the imperfective tense or the imperfective aspect or the perfective aspect of this verb? And why this particular tense or aspect?

[BenYoung84]

imperfective is an aspect, not a tense. стоял is a verb with a built in imperfective aspect. The past progressive form in English (e.g. was standing) is also imperfective so that's why this Russian form is used.

[EmilPetrov1]

Ahh, Duolingoooo... The boy has been standing and waiting is absolutely with same translation Мальчик стоял и ждал. Action in the past with continuous activity, tell me why you are not accepting this answer?

[BenYoung84]

Generally the best course of action is to translate the English present perfect progressive into the past tense in Russian (and pretty much any other language).

[dCii12]

Why is "the boy stood waiting" wrong? How would you express it in Russian?

[BenYoung84]

I would like to think in that case that "waiting" would be ждущий, which is the present active participle. But a native speaker would have a better idea.