For Susan Welsh-different encoding

[Nola]

Dear Susan, I hope this is readable-I'm using Cyrillic ISO this time-

It is about  есть\нет, and быть in the past and future. 
У Саши бЫЛА машина. Sasha had a car.

У Саши не было машины. Sasha didn't have a car.

Ok-I understand the explanation in this case about было \была. In the first sentence, Sasha had a car and it's positive so Sasha is genitive because of the У but HAD is была, matching gender of машина. And in second sentence, Sasha is in genitive case again, car is now genitive because of negative existence,  but было is neuter, because when the existence of something in the past is negative, you use the neuter form of быть.

But see this-------

 Ольга не была сегодня в магазине. Olga was not in the shop today

Тогда  её не было в Москве. At that time, she wasn't in Moscow.

OKAY! What gives here?Both times Olga simply wasn't at a place...but in one case  быть matches Olga's gender and in the next it's neuter...I cannot see what would be the reason for this. 









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