Breakdown of Родитель читает книгу ребёнку.
книга
the book
читать
to read
ребёнок
the child
родитель
the parent
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Questions & Answers about Родитель читает книгу ребёнку.
Which part of the sentence is the subject?
The subject is Родитель, in the nominative singular case. It denotes who performs the action “reads.”
Why is ребёнку in the dative case?
Ребёнку is the indirect object (the recipient of the reading). In Russian, the dative case marks “to whom” something is given, shown, or told—in this case, “to the child.”
Why does книга change to книгу?
As a feminine noun in the singular, книга takes the accusative ending -у when it becomes the direct object. Thus книга → книгу.
What aspect and tense is читает, and why is it used here?
Читает is the third-person singular present tense of the imperfective verb читать. The imperfective aspect expresses an ongoing or habitual action—“reads” or “is reading.”
Is the word order fixed in this sentence?
Russian word order is flexible thanks to case endings. The sequence S-V-DO-IO here (“Родитель читает книгу ребёнку”) is correct but emphasizes книгу. A more neutral order is S-V-IO-DO (“Родитель читает ребёнку книгу”). Swapping elements changes the focus, not the basic meaning.
Why use родитель instead of мама or отец?
Родитель is a neutral, formal word for “parent” without specifying gender. If you want “mother” or “father,” you’d use мама or отец. There is also родительница (feminine), but it’s rarely used in everyday speech.
How do you pronounce ребёнку, and where is the stress?
Ребёнку is stressed on the second syllable: re-BYON-ku [rʲɪˈbʲønku]. The letter ё always signals the stressed yo sound here.