Word
Мама застелила деревянный стол белой скатертью и поставила на неё всю посуду.
Meaning
Mom covered the wooden table with a white tablecloth and put all the dishes on it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Мама застелила деревянный стол белой скатертью и поставила на неё всю посуду.
белый
white
стол
the table
и
and
на
on
Questions & Answers about Мама застелила деревянный стол белой скатертью и поставила на неё всю посуду.
Why is застелила used here instead of стелила? What’s the difference between стелить and застелить?
Russian verbs come in aspect pairs. стелить is imperfective (ongoing or habitual action), while застелить is perfective (a one-time, completed action). In this sentence Mom finished covering the table, so the perfective застелила is correct.
Why is деревянный стол in the form стол (nominative) and not стола (genitive) or another case?
деревянный стол is the direct object of застелить, so it takes the accusative case. For inanimate masculine nouns like стол, the accusative is identical to the nominative, hence деревянный стол.
Why does деревянный have two нн in its spelling?
Adjectives formed with the suffix -янн- (e.g. деревянный from дерево) always use double Н. This distinguishes them from simple adjectives with a single н.
Why is белой скатертью in the instrumental case?