| Grammar Notes: Корова отдыхает на лугу. Вдали виднеется озеро. Romanisation: Koróva otdykháyet na lugú. Vdalí vidnéyetsya ózero. Word by word - Корова — koróva — cow. Noun, feminine, nominative singular. Dictionary form: корова. It is the subject of отдыхает. - отдыхает — otdykháyet — rests, is resting, is having a rest. Verb, third person singular, present tense, imperfective. Infinitive: отдыхать (otdykhát'). - на — na — on, in, at. Preposition. Here it means “in/on” and introduces a place. With location, it takes the prepositional case. - лугу — lugú — meadow. Noun, masculine, prepositional/locative singular. Dictionary form: луг. на лугу = in the meadow, on the meadow. - Вдали — vdalí — in the distance, far away. Adverb. - виднеется — vidnéyetsya — is visible, can be seen, appears. Verb, third person singular, present tense, imperfective, with the postfix -ся. Infinitive: виднеться (vidnét'sya). - озеро — ózero — lake. Noun, neuter, nominative singular. Dictionary form: озеро. It is the subject of виднеется. Grammar Корова отдыхает на лугу. Russian has no articles, so корова can mean “a cow” or “the cow” depending on context. Корова is the nominative singular subject. отдыхает is third person singular present: “rests / is resting”. на лугу is a prepositional phrase of place: “in/on the meadow”. The noun луг changes to лугу after на when talking about location. Вдали виднеется озеро. Вдали is an adverb meaning “in the distance”. виднеется is third person singular present, agreeing with the singular subject озеро. Present-tense Russian verbs do not show gender, only person and number. озеро is neuter nominative singular and is the subject, placed after the verb. Literally the sentence is “In the distance is visible a lake”; natural UK English: “In the distance, a lake is visible” or “A lake can be seen in the distance.” General grammar tip and related words Learn Russian nouns with their dictionary form and note the case after prepositions. на + prepositional case shows location: на лугу = in/on the meadow. For direction, Russian often uses на + accusative: на луг = onto the meadow. Word order is flexible; putting the subject after verbs like виднеется is common when something appears or exists in view. Related words not yet explained: отдых (rest), отдохнуть (to have a rest, perfective), луговой (meadow-), лужайка (small lawn/glade), озёрный (lake-), озерцо (small lake), видеть (to see), видно (visible, one can see), вдаль (into the distance), далеко (far). |
