Breakdown of Занятый студент пишет письмо другу.
друг
the friend
писать
to write
письмо
the letter
студент
the student
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?