"Мы собрали стул за десять минут."

Translation: We assembled the chair in ten minutes.

[deactivated user]

Hi comrades.
If I leave ¨За¨ out of the sentence, what change of meaning there would be?
Мы собрали стул десять минут. Is that grammaticaly right?

[deactivated user]

You can use time with accusative without a preposition only with imperfective verbs:

• Мы собира́ли сту́л де́сять мину́т.

But this doesn't work for most perfectives (although there are some exceptions, such as perfectives with про-: мы прособира́ли сту́л де́сять мину́т) .

[deactivated user]

It makes sense now. It's a matter of emphasize, time spent on an ongoing task= Time in Acc. vs time spend on a completed task= За + Time in Acc.

[mightypotatoe]

No that is not grammatically correct and it doesn't make sense without the preposition.

[pablomaclarry]

This is not correct, in my understanding; the word за changes the meaning. It tells readers that "we" finished building the chair in a total time of 10 minutes. If we left it out, it would mean that we were in the process of building the chair for ten minutes, and it would be unclear if we finished assembling it in that time or not: We built a chair for 10 minutes. I think that might require the imperfect, though I could be wrong. Fun fact, one can use на to talk about plans: Мы будем собирать стул на десять минут = We will be assembling the chair in ten minutes.

[bill.grimmett]

I wish to point out there are at least three translations of 'стул': chair, stool, seat. This site at present only accepts one -- chair.

[Barzhikev]

по нашему пятилетнему плану

[RoUU7]

А как если пишу вместо "за" "через"?

[pablomaclarry]

I think that doing so would be understood by a native speaker, but might not be the most grammatically precise way to put it. За implies that the action was completed in that time of ten minutes, and через would be more for a sequence of events, though I could be wrong: Мы собрали стул через десять минут = We assembled the chair after ten minutes passed (i.e. we took a ten-minute break, then finished the chair?).

[Scian4]

So not an Ikea one, then...