Культура делает жизнь интересной.

Culture makes life interesting.

Breakdown of Культура делает жизнь интересной.

• интересный: interesting
• делать: to make
• культура: the culture

Questions & Answers about Культура делает жизнь интересной.

What part of speech is Культура, and why is it in the nominative case?

Культура is a feminine singular noun. It stands in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence, answering the question Кто? (“Who makes life interesting?”).

What does делает mean, and what tense, person, and aspect is it?

Делает is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the imperfective verb делать (“to do, to make”). Imperfective aspect indicates an ongoing or habitual action: “Culture makes (habitually or generally) life interesting.”

Why is жизнь in the accusative case here?

The verb делать is transitive, so its direct object takes the accusative case. Жизнь is an inanimate feminine noun, so its accusative form is identical to its nominative: жизнь.

Why is интересной in the instrumental case?

When делать expresses “to make someone/something become something,” the resulting state is expressed by an object complement in the instrumental case. Thus, интересной is the feminine singular instrumental form of интересный, answering the question Каким? (“into what?”).

What kind of grammatical construction is “делает жизнь интересной”?

This is a causative construction combining: • a direct object in the accusative (жизнь)
• an object complement in the instrumental (интересной)
It literally means “causes life to be interesting.”

Could I use a comparative form to say “more interesting”?

Yes. You can say Культура делает жизнь интереснее. Here интереснее is the comparative form, functioning adverbially with делать, meaning “Culture makes life more interesting.”

Is жизнь animate or inanimate, and does that affect its accusative form?

Жизнь is inanimate. In Russian, inanimate nouns have identical nominative and accusative forms, so жизнь remains жизнь in the accusative.

Which question does each word answer in the sentence?

• Культура – answers Кто? (“Who?”)
• делает – answers Что делает? (“What does [the subject] do?”)
• жизнь – answers Что? (“What is being made interesting?”)
• интересной – answers Какая? / Каким? (“What kind?” / “Into what?”)

What are some other adjectives I could use instead of интересной?

You can replace интересной (instr.) with other instrumental singular adjectives, for example:
• увлекательной (fascinating)
• занимательной (engaging)
• познавательной (informative)