Breakdown of Я радуюсь новому обычаю собираться всей семьёй.
я
I
новый
new
семья
the family
собираться
to gather
обычай
the custom
радоваться
to rejoice
весь
whole
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Questions & Answers about Я радуюсь новому обычаю собираться всей семьёй.
What does the verb радуюсь mean and how is it formed?
Радуюсь is the 1st person singular present tense of the reflexive verb радоваться, meaning “to rejoice” or “to be glad about something.” It’s built from:
- the root рад- (“glad”)
- the thematic vowel -у-
- the ending -сь indicating reflexivity
So я радуюсь literally “I am rejoicing (myself).”
Why is новому обычаю in the dative case?
In Russian the verb радоваться requires its object in the dative. It answers the question «чему?» (“to what?”). Hence новому обычаю (“to the new custom”) stands in the dative masculine singular (новый → новому, обычай → обычаю).
What is the infinitive собираться doing after обычаю?
Here обычай (“custom”) is specified by a non-finite clause собираться всей семьёй:
- обычай собираться = “the custom of gathering”
- всей семьёй further describes собираться (“to gather as a whole family”).
In English we’d say “the custom of getting together with the whole family.”
Why is собираться imperfective, not perfective собраться?
Because we’re talking about a regular, repeated action (“gather as a family” habit), the imperfective aspect is used to express that ongoing or habitual nature. The perfective собраться would imply a one-time event.
Why is всей семьёй in the instrumental case?
Russian uses the instrumental to express accompaniment or the group involved in an action. Всей семьёй literally “with the whole family” (all together) uses the instrumental plural of вся семья.
Is it necessary to include the pronoun Я before радуюсь?
No, because Russian verb endings already show the subject. You could say simply Радуюсь новому обычаю… Omitting Я is common and stylistically more neutral. Including Я adds emphasis on “I.”
Could one say Я рад новому обычаю собираться всей семьёй instead of радуюсь?
Yes. Я рад новому обычаю… uses the adjective рад (“glad”) with the same dative case. The nuance is that радоваться is more dynamic (“I’m rejoicing”), while я рад is more static (“I’m pleased”). Both are correct with dative.
Where are the word stresses in this sentence?
- ра́дуюсь (ra-DOO-yusʹ)
- но́вому (NO-va-mu)
- обыча́ю (a-bye-CHA-yu)
- собира́ться (sa-bi-RAT’-sya)
- всёй семьёй (vsey sem-YOY)