Questions & Answers about Мама моет посуду в раковине.
What is the base verb of моет and what form is it here?
Моет comes from the infinitive мыть (to wash). Here it is the third person singular present tense form in the imperfective aspect, so it literally means “she washes” or “is washing.”
Why is посуда in the accusative case посуду, and what does that case indicate?
As the direct object of моет, посуда (dishes) takes the accusative case—посуду. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative singular ends in -у. This case marks the thing being washed.
What case is used in в раковине, and why is раковина in that case?
After the preposition в when indicating location (“where?”), Russian uses the prepositional case. The noun раковина (sink) changes to раковине to signal “in the sink.”
What does раковина mean in English?
Раковина means “sink” or “washbasin,” the fixture in the kitchen or bathroom used for washing.
Russian doesn’t have articles. How do we tell if посуду is “the dishes” or “some dishes”?