Questions & Answers about Я не люблю мясо без приправ, но обожаю сыр.
Why is there no article (a/the) before мясо or сыр?
Russian doesn’t have articles like “a” or “the.” You simply use the noun by itself. Context (and word order, intonation, etc.) tells you whether something is general, specific, or indefinite.
Why is мясо in this form? Is it nominative or accusative?
Here мясо is the direct object of люблю, so grammatically it’s accusative. However, neuter inanimate nouns like мясо have the same form in nominative and accusative, so you don’t see a different ending.
Why is сыр also uninflected? Shouldn’t it be in the accusative case after обожаю?
сыр is a masculine inanimate noun. In Russian, masculine inanimates take the same form in nominative and accusative. You know it’s accusative here because the verb обожаю (“I adore”) requires a direct object.
Why is без приправ in the genitive plural?
The preposition без (“without”) always takes the genitive case. Using the plural приправ (“seasonings, spices”) expresses “without any seasonings” in a general sense.
Could I say без приправы instead of без приправ?