Breakdown of Правительство обсуждает решение.
решение
the decision
обсуждать
to discuss
правительство
the government
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Questions & Answers about Правительство обсуждает решение.
Which word is the subject, and which word is the object?
The subject is правительство because it is the thing doing the action.
The object is решение because it is the thing being discussed.
So the structure is:
- Правительство = subject
- обсуждает = verb
- решение = direct object
Why is обсуждает singular if a government is made up of many people?
Because правительство is grammatically singular in Russian.
Even though a government consists of many people, Russian treats правительство as one unit, so the verb must also be singular:
- правительство обсуждает = singular
- not правительство обсуждают
This is similar to English the government is discussing... in varieties of English that use singular agreement.
What gender is правительство?
Правительство is neuter.
You can often recognize neuter nouns by endings like -о or -е, and правительство ends in -о.
Because it is neuter singular, the verb is in the 3rd person singular form: обсуждает.