На завтрак я ем мясо с сыром.

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Breakdown of На завтрак я ем мясо с сыром.

• есть: to eat
• с: with
• на: for

Questions & Answers about На завтрак я ем мясо с сыром.

Why do we use На завтрак with the accusative case to mean “for breakfast” instead of something like Во время завтрака?

In Russian, meals are commonly introduced by на + accusative to mean “for a meal.” So you say на завтрак, на обед, на ужин for “for breakfast,” “for lunch,” “for dinner.” The preposition на here expresses purpose or scheduled time and takes the accusative case. By contrast, во время завтрака literally means “during breakfast,” which is fine if you want to talk about something happening at the same time as breakfast.

Why doesn’t мясо change form in the sentence? Shouldn’t a direct object be in the accusative?

Correct: мясо is the direct object of ем and thus is in the accusative case—but мясо is a neuter noun whose nominative and accusative singular forms are identical. That’s why it looks the same in both cases.

Why is сыр in the form сыром here?

The preposition с meaning “with” always requires the instrumental case. The instrumental singular of сыр is сыром, so you get с сыром for “with cheese.”

Russian has no articles like “a” or “the.” How do I know if мясо or сыр is definite here?