Мы сдвинули шкаф.

Сдвинули is the past tense plural form of the verb сдвинуть.

It tells you three important things:

• past: the action happened in the past
• plural: the subject was we
• perfective: the action is viewed as completed

So мы сдвинули шкаф presents the action as a finished result: we managed to move/shift the wardrobe.

In Russian, past tense verbs agree with the subject in number, and in the singular they also agree in gender.

Because the subject is мы (we), the verb must be plural:

• я сдвинул / сдвинула = I moved
• ты сдвинул / сдвинула = you moved
• мы сдвинули = we moved

Notice that in the past tense, Russian does not mark person on the verb the way English does. The ending here shows plural, not specifically first person.

Шкаф is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case.

However, for a masculine inanimate noun like шкаф, the accusative singular looks exactly the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: шкаф
• accusative: шкаф

That is why the form does not visibly change.

Compare with an animate masculine noun, where accusative often matches genitive instead:

• Я вижу брата = I see my brother

But:

• Я вижу шкаф = I see the wardrobe

Yes. Russian often drops subject pronouns when they are clear from context.

So both are possible:

• Мы сдвинули шкаф.
• Сдвинули шкаф.

Including мы can make the subject more explicit, clearer, or slightly more emphatic. It may sound like:

• we moved the wardrobe
• as for us, we moved the wardrobe

But in many contexts, Russian does not need the pronoun.

This is a very natural question, because several Russian verbs can mean move.

Сдвинуть usually suggests shifting something from its place, often a little, or budging it from where it was.

So сдвинули шкаф can feel like:

• we shifted the wardrobe
• we budged the wardrobe
• we moved the wardrobe from its position

By contrast, передвинуть is often a more general move something to another place/position.

Very roughly:

• сдвинуть = shift/budge from where it was
• передвинуть = move/reposition

Context matters, though, and in some situations the English translation may still just be moved.

The verb сдвинуть is perfective, so it focuses on the action as a completed whole.

The imperfective partner is usually сдвигать.

Compare:

• Мы сдвинули шкаф. = We moved/shifted the wardrobe.

  • completed, result-focused

• Мы сдвигали шкаф. = We were moving / used to move / tried moving the wardrobe.

  • process, repeated action, or action without focus on completion

Russian aspect is one of the biggest things English speakers need to get used to. In this sentence, the speaker is interested in the fact that the wardrobe was successfully shifted.

Not necessarily.

Сдвинуть often implies that something was moved from its original position, sometimes only slightly.

So the sentence does not by itself tell you how far the wardrobe was moved. It could mean:

• they shifted it a little
• they budged it enough to change its position
• they moved it aside

If you wanted to specify distance or destination, Russian would normally add more information.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, though Мы сдвинули шкаф is a very normal, neutral order.

Possible variants include:

• Мы сдвинули шкаф. — neutral
• Шкаф мы сдвинули. — emphasizes the wardrobe
• Мы шкаф сдвинули. — possible in speech, often with emphasis or contrast

The case endings help show who is doing what, so Russian can move words around more freely than English. Still, not all orders sound equally neutral.

A useful approximate pronunciation is:

• мы = mɨ
• сдви́нули = roughly zdVEE-noo-lee
• шкаф = roughly shkaf

A few helpful points:

• The stress is on -ви-: сдви́нули
• In the cluster сд, the с is voiced by the following д, so it sounds closer to зд
• ы in мы is the Russian vowel ы, which has no exact English equivalent
• ш in шкаф is a hard sh sound

So the sentence is approximately:

mɨ zdVEE-noo-lee shkaf

Russian has no articles like English a and the.

So шкаф can mean:

• a wardrobe
• the wardrobe

The context tells you which is meant.

That is completely normal in Russian. Learners often want to insert an article mentally, but Russian simply does not use one.

Because the subject is мы and the verb is plural past tense (сдвинули), the verb does not show gender here.

So it could refer to:

• a group of men
• a group of women
• a mixed group

Gender is only shown in the singular past tense:

• я сдвинул = I moved (male speaker)
• я сдвинула = I moved (female speaker)

But with мы, you use the plural form сдвинули, regardless of gender.