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Breakdown of Занятый студент пишет письмо другу.
друг
the friend
писать
to write
письмо
the letter
студент
the student
занятый
busy
Questions & Answers about Занятый студент пишет письмо другу.
Why is занятый used here, and what part of speech is it?
занятый is the past passive participle of the perfective verb занять (“to occupy”), functioning as an adjective. It agrees in gender, number, and case with студент (masculine nominative singular) and here means “busy” or “occupied.”
What’s the difference between занятый студент and студент занят?
In занятый студент, the participle занятый is used attributively before the noun (“a busy student”). In студент занят, the short form занят is used predicatively after the noun or verb “to be” (implicitly “is”), meaning “the student is busy.”
Why is студент in the nominative case?
Because студент is the grammatical subject of the sentence. In Russian, the subject of a finite verb takes the nominative case.
What aspect and tense is the verb пишет, and why?
пишет is the third person singular present tense of the imperfective verb писать (“to write”). The imperfective aspect indicates an ongoing or habitual action: “is writing,” not “has written.”
Why is письмо in the accusative case and другу in the dative case?
With писать, the thing being written (what) is the direct object in the accusative (here письмо), and the recipient (to whom) is the indirect object in the dative (here другу). So пишет письмо другу literally means “writes a letter to a friend.”
Could you say пишет другу письмо instead, and would it change the meaning?
Yes. Russian word order is flexible: пишет письмо другу and пишет другу письмо both mean “is writing a letter to a friend.” Changing the order might add subtle emphasis but does not alter the basic meaning.
How is занятый pronounced, and where is the stress?
занятый is pronounced [zɐˈnʲætɨj], with the stress on the second syllable: za-NYAT-ый.
How would you modify this sentence for a female student or for multiple students?
For a female student:
Занятая студентка пишет письмо другу.
For plural students:
Занятые студенты пишут письмо другу.
The form of занятый changes to agree in gender (занятая) or number (занятые).
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