Questions & Answers about Пришедший гость пьёт чай.
What part of speech is пришедший, and why is it used instead of a clause?
Пришедший is a past active participle (a deverbal adjective) formed from the perfective verb прийти (“to arrive”). As a participle it means “who has arrived” and functions like an adjective modifying гость. Russian often prefers participles to full relative clauses to make speech more concise.
Why is there no comma between пришедший and гость?
When a participle comes before and defines the noun (a restrictive attribute), no commas are used. If the participle followed the noun as additional, non-essential information (a nonrestrictive attribute), it would be set off by commas.
How would you say the same thing with a full relative clause instead of a participle?
You could say:
Гость, который пришёл, пьёт чай.
Here “который пришёл” is a relative clause meaning “who arrived,” and the commas indicate it’s extra information around гость.
Why is пьёт used here?
Пьёт is the present tense of the imperfective verb пить (“to drink”). It indicates an ongoing action: “is drinking tea”. If you used a perfective (“выпить”), it would suggest completion (“has drunk up the tea”), which changes the meaning.