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Questions & Answers about Я читаю исследование.
Why isn’t there an article like the or a before исследование?
Russian has no articles. Nouns stand alone without a, an or the. Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context rather than from an article.
What case and number is исследование in, and why doesn’t its ending change?
Here исследование is neuter, singular, in the accusative case (direct object of читаю). Neuter nouns of the second declension ending in -ие have identical forms in nominative and accusative, so there’s no visible change.
Why is the verb читаю used instead of a perfective form?
Читаю is the present tense of the imperfective verb читать, which describes an ongoing or habitual action (“I am reading” or “I read regularly”). If you want to emphasize completion, you’d use the perfective прочитать, e.g. Я прочитаю исследование (“I will read the study through”).
How is Я читаю исследование pronounced, and where are the stressed syllables?
The sentence is pronounced “ya chee-TA-yu iss-lye-do-VA-nye.” Stress falls on the second syllable of читаю and on the penultimate syllable of исследование.
Could I say исследовать instead of читать исследование?
No. Исследовать means “to research” or “to investigate” – you are doing the study yourself. Читать исследование means “to read a study” someone else has written.
Is the word order fixed, or can I say Исследование я читаю?
Word order in Russian is fairly flexible. Я читаю исследование is neutral. Исследование я читаю puts emphasis on исследование (“It’s the study that I’m reading”), but the basic meaning remains the same.
How do I say “I am reading an interesting study”?
Add the adjective интересное in front of исследование, matching its gender and case: Я читаю интересное исследование.