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Questions & Answers about Я выбрал новую причёску.
Why is the verb выбрал in the masculine past tense, and what would change if a female speaker were talking?
In Russian, past tense verbs agree with the gender of the subject. The form выбрал is masculine, reflecting that the speaker (using Я) is male. If a female speaker were saying the same sentence, she would use выбрала instead.
What aspect does the verb выбрал have, and what does that tell us about the action?
The verb выбрал is in the perfective aspect. This means the action of choosing is viewed as complete and finished. The speaker emphasizes that the decision (choosing a new hairstyle) has been decisively made.
Why do the adjective and noun appear as новую причёску instead of новая причёска?
In this sentence, причёска is the direct object of the verb выбрал and therefore is in the accusative case. For first-declension feminine nouns, the nominative -а ending changes to -у in the accusative (so причёска becomes причёску). The adjective новая must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, so it also takes the accusative feminine singular ending, turning into новую.
What is the literal English translation of Я выбрал новую причёску and how does each component correspond to its English equivalent?
The sentence literally translates to "I chose a new hairstyle." Here, Я means “I,” выбрал means “chose” (with the masculine past tense form), новую is “new” (in the accusative feminine form), and причёску means “hairstyle” (also in the accusative).
Can the word order in this sentence be rearranged without changing its basic meaning?
Yes, Russian allows flexibility in word order because case endings mark grammatical roles. While the standard order is Subject-Verb-Object (Я выбрал новую причёску), rearranging the elements (for example, "Новую причёску я выбрал") can shift the emphasis but does not change the fundamental meaning of the sentence.