Breakdown of Любопытство и желание учиться движут учёных вперёд.
и
and
любопытство
the curiosity
желание
the desire
учиться
to learn
Questions & Answers about Любопытство и желание учиться движут учёных вперёд.
Why is the verb движут used here? Isn’t the present-tense of двигать usually двигают?
движут is actually an archaic or elevated variant of the third-person plural present tense of двигать. In modern spoken and written Russian you will almost always see двигают. Authors sometimes use движут in older texts or poetry for stylistic or rhythmic effect. You can freely replace движут with двигают in everyday usage.
What case is учёных, and why does it look like a genitive plural rather than accusative?
Here учёных functions as the direct object of движут, so it’s in the accusative case. Because учёные (“scientists”) is an animate masculine noun in the plural, its accusative form coincides with its genitive plural form. Russian’s animacy rule makes the accusative of animate nouns identical to the genitive.
What part of speech is вперёд, and how does it work in this sentence?
вперёд is an uninflected adverb of direction meaning “forward.” It modifies the verb движут, showing where the action is directed. Russian often uses simple adverbs of direction without additional prepositions.
Why is желание учиться used instead of желание учения or желание ученья?