Questions & Answers about Я смотрю канал в интернете.
Why is смотреть used here and not видеть?
смотреть means “to watch” in the sense of actively looking at something (TV, video, a channel). видеть means “to see,” as in passively perceiving something with your eyes. To convey the idea of intentionally watching an online channel, Russian uses смотреть.
Why is канал in the accusative case?
In Russian, the direct object of a transitive verb goes into the accusative case. Here канал is what you are watching, so it takes the accusative form, which for masculine inanimate nouns looks identical to the nominative.
What case is интернете, and why is it used?
интернете is in the prepositional case (singular). After the preposition в indicating location, we use the prepositional case to say “in the Internet.”
Why do we say в интернете rather than на интернете?
Different languages choose different prepositions. In Russian, location inside something uses в + prepositional. Although English uses “on the Internet,” Russian convention is “в интернете.”
Why are there no articles (a/the) in Russian?