Сегодня я глажу костюм утюгом.

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Breakdown of Сегодня я глажу костюм утюгом.

• сегодня: today
• костюм: the suit
• гладить: to iron

Questions & Answers about Сегодня я глажу костюм утюгом.

What tense and aspect is глажу in this sentence?

Глажу is the 1st person singular present tense form of the imperfective verb гладить (“to iron”). Imperfective aspect describes an ongoing, habitual or repeated action. If you wanted to express a single completed action, you would use the perfective verb погладить (“to iron once”) and say я поглажу костюм – but that would be future tense, since perfective verbs have no present form in Russian.

What is the infinitive (dictionary) form of глажу, and what meaning does it carry?

The infinitive is гладить. It carries the general meaning “to iron” (clothes, linen, etc.) and is imperfective, so it can describe ironing in progress, habitual ironing, or repeated ironing.

Why is глажу spelled with ж rather than д?

The root of the verb is глад-, but when you form the present tense, a consonant alternation occurs: глад- + -и- + -у → глажу. Phonetically, the д combines with the following vowel to become the affricate ж, so you see ж in the written form.

What case is костюм in, and why does its form not change from the nominative?