| Grammar Notes: Sentence 1: Японские дети и их матери в кимоно. *Romanisation:* Yaponskiye deti i ikh materi v kimono. - Японские (yaponskiye) – adjective, nominative plural, from *Японский* (Japanese). Agrees with *дети* in number, case, and gender (plural). - дети (deti) – noun, nominative plural, meaning “children”. Infinitive: *ребёнок* (child; *дети* is the irregular plural). - и (i) – conjunction “and”. - их (ikh) – possessive pronoun “their”, indeclinable (does not change form). Derived from the genitive/accusative of *они* (they). - матери (materi) – noun, nominative plural, meaning “mothers”. Infinitive: *мать* (mother). - в (v) – preposition “in”, followed by the prepositional case when indicating location (no movement). - кимоно (kimono) – noun, neuter, indeclinable. Here in the prepositional case (location), but form unchanged. Infinitive: *кимоно*. Sentence 2: Мы также видим гору и цветущую сакуру. *Romanisation:* My takzhe vidim goru i tsvetushchuyu sakuru. - Мы (my) – pronoun, nominative plural “we”. - также (takzhe) – adverb “also”. - видим (vidim) – verb, 1st person plural present indicative, from infinitive *видеть* (to see). - гору (goru) – noun, accusative singular feminine, from infinitive *гора* (mountain). Direct object of *видим*. - и (i) – conjunction “and”. - цветущую (tsvetushchuyu) – adjective, accusative singular feminine, from *цветущий* (blooming). This is a present active participle of the verb *цвести* (to bloom). Agrees with *сакуру*. - сакуру (sakuru) – noun, accusative singular feminine, from infinitive *сакура* (cherry blossom tree / sakura). Direct object of *видим*. General grammar tip: Russian uses cases to show grammatical relationships. In the second sentence, *гору* and *сакуру* are in the accusative case because they are direct objects of the verb *видим*. Adjectives (like *цветущую*) must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case. Note that the possessive pronoun *их* is indeclinable – it never changes regardless of the noun’s case. Related words (not yet explained): - *ты* (ty) – you (singular informal) - *он* (on) – he; *она* (ona) – she; *оно* (ono) – it - *они* (oni) – they - *вижу* (vizhu) – I see (first person singular of *видеть*) - *видишь* (vidish’) – you see (singular informal) - *гора* (gora) – mountain (nominative singular) - *сакура* (sakura) – cherry blossom (nominative singular) - *цветущий* (tsvetushchiy) – blooming (masculine nominative singular form) |
