Word
Правительство изменило правило.
Meaning
The government changed the rule.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Правительство изменило правило.
правило
the rule
менять
to change
правительство
the government
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Questions & Answers about Правительство изменило правило.
Why is the verb изменило and not изменил or изменила?
Because правительство is a neuter singular noun in Russian.
In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:
- изменил = masculine singular
- изменила = feminine singular
- изменило = neuter singular
- изменили = plural
So:
- Правительство изменило правило. = The government changed the rule.
Even though a government is made up of people, the noun правительство is grammatically singular and neuter, so the verb must match that grammar.
How can I tell that правительство is neuter?
A big clue is its ending: -о.
Many Russian nouns ending in -о or -е are neuter.
So правительство is neuter, and that affects agreement with adjectives and past-tense verbs.
For example:
- новое правительство = the new government
- правительство изменило = the government changed
There are exceptions in Russian, but -о is a very common neuter ending.
Why is правило unchanged? Shouldn’t the object have a special ending?