Breakdown of Мы готовимся к экзамену, знакомимся с новыми словами и читаем учебник.
читать
to read
с
with
новый
new
и
and
к
to
мы
we
слово
the word
готовиться
to prepare
экзамен
the exam
учебник
the textbook
знакомиться
to get acquainted
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Questions & Answers about Мы готовимся к экзамену, знакомимся с новыми словами и читаем учебник.
What’s the role of the suffix -ся in готовимся and знакомимся?
The suffix -ся turns a verb into its reflexive or middle‐voice form. In готовимся (“we prepare”) and знакомимся (“we get acquainted”), it doesn’t literally mean “prepare ourselves” or “acquaint ourselves” but indicates that the action is performed by the subject. Many Russian verbs use -ся to change their valency or express a reciprocal/middle action.
Why is the phrase к экзамену in the dative case?
The preposition к always governs the dative case. Here, экзамен (exam) becomes экзамену (dative singular) to show the target of preparation: готовимся к экзамену = “we are preparing for the exam.”
Why do we say с новыми словами with the preposition с and the instrumental case?
The verb знакомиться (“to get acquainted”) requires с + instrumental. Thus новые слова in nominative plural changes to новыми словами (instrumental plural), giving знакомимся с новыми словами = “we are getting familiar with new words.”
Why is учебник in the accusative case, not another case?
Читать (“to read”) is a transitive verb that takes a direct object in the accusative case. Since учебник (textbook) is inanimate, its accusative form is identical to the nominative: учебник, so читаем учебник = “we read the textbook.”
All the verbs in the sentence are imperfective. When would you use a perfective form?
Imperfective verbs (готовимся, знакомимся, читаем) describe ongoing or habitual actions. To express completion or a one-time event, you’d use perfective forms:
• подготовиться к экзамену – “to complete preparation for the exam”
• ознакомиться с новыми словами – “to become acquainted with the new words” (to completion)
• прочитать учебник – “to read/finish the textbook.”
Where is the stress in знакомимся, and why is it important?
The stress falls on the second syllable: знако́мимся (zna-KO-mim-sya). Correct stress is crucial in Russian because shifting it can change the word’s meaning or mark a foreign accent.
Why is there no comma before the final и in this list of actions?
When listing three or more items or verbs in Russian, you place commas between each element but omit the comma before the final coordinating conjunction и. Here we have three verbs (готовимся, знакомимся, читаем). We separate the first two with a comma but not before и читаем, following standard punctuation rules.