Breakdown of Листья начинают падать с деревьев осенью.
дерево
the tree
осень
the autumn
с
from
лист
the leaf
Questions & Answers about Листья начинают падать с деревьев осенью.
What grammatical case is листья in, and why is it plural?
листья is in the nominative plural case. It functions as the subject of the sentence and refers to multiple leaves (not just one).
Why is the plural form of лист here листья instead of the regular листы?
When лист means “leaf” (on a tree or plant), it has an irregular plural листья. The form листы is used when лист means “sheet” (of paper, metal, etc.).
Why is начинают followed by the infinitive падать rather than a finite verb form?
In Russian, verbs of beginning (like начинать, “to start”) are followed by an infinitive to show what action is starting. Thus начинают падать literally means “they start to fall.”
Why is the imperfective падать used here instead of the perfective упасть?
Because начинают describes the onset of an ongoing process, it pairs with the imperfective verb падать. The perfective упасть conveys a single, completed event and doesn’t fit naturally after начинать.
What case is деревьев, and why is the preposition used instead of or ?