Questions & Answers about Моя цель — выучить пять новых слов каждый день.
Why is there a dash between цель and выучить?
In Russian the dash often replaces the verb “to be” in the present tense or introduces an explanation. Here it links the noun цель (“goal”) with the infinitive выучить (“to learn”), effectively saying “My goal is to learn….”
You could also use a colon:
- Моя цель: выучить пять новых слов каждый день.
But the dash is more common in this construction.
Why is it моя цель and not мой цель or моё цель?
Russian adjectives and possessive pronouns must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.
- цель is a feminine singular noun in the nominative case.
- The feminine nominative form of “my” is моя.
So you say моя цель, not мой цель or моё цель.
Why is the infinitive выучить used here instead of the imperfective учить?
Russian has two aspectual forms of “to learn/teach”:
- учить (imperfective) focuses on the process/ongoing action.
- выучить (perfective) focuses on completing the action.
Since the sentence sets a goal (“complete the learning of five new words”), you use the perfective выучить to emphasize that you want to finish that task every day.
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