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Questions & Answers about Мой друг продаёт машину.
What does each word mean and what is its role in the sentence?
- Мой = my (possessive determiner agreeing with a masculine singular noun in nominative case)
- друг = friend (subject; nominative singular masculine)
- продаёт = sells / is selling (3rd person singular present, imperfective, from продавать)
- машину = car (direct object; accusative singular feminine of машина)
Why does машина change to машину?
Because it’s the direct object and must be in the accusative case. Feminine nouns ending in -а typically change to -у in the accusative singular: машина → машину.
What case is друг in, and why?
Друг is in the nominative case because it’s the subject (the doer of the action).
Why is it мой and not моя/моё/мои?
Russian possessives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case. Друг is masculine singular nominative, so you use мой. For reference:
- Masculine: мой друг
- Feminine: моя подруга
- Neuter: моё письмо
- Plural: мои друзья
How do I say “my female friend is selling a car”?
Use the feminine noun подруга: Моя подруга продаёт машину.
What tense/aspect is продаёт, and how do I interpret it in English?
Продаёт is present tense, imperfective aspect. It can mean either “is selling” (right now/in progress) or “sells” (habitually), depending on context. Russian present imperfective covers both English simple present and present continuous.
How do I say “My friend sold a car” and “My friend will sell a car”?
- Sold (past, perfective): Мой друг продал машину. (fem. subject: продала, pl.: продали)
- Will sell:
- Simple future (perfective): Мой друг продаст машину.
- Compound future (imperfective, ongoing/repeated): Мой друг будет продавать машину.
What’s the difference between продавать and продать?
They’re an aspect pair:
- Продавать (imperfective): process or repeated action (to sell, be selling).
- Продать (perfective): a single completed action (to sell off, to have sold).
Why is there a dot over ё in продаёт, and do people always write it?
Ё is pronounced “yo” and is always stressed. In practice, many texts omit the dots and write е instead (продает), but the pronunciation remains “продаёт” [prada-YOT]. Learners should keep the dots to remember stress and sound.
How do I pronounce the words, especially друг and продаёт?
- Мой: like “moy” (the й is a y-glide).
- друг: roughly “drook”; word-final г is usually devoiced to [k], so you’ll often hear [druk].
- продаёт: pra-da-YOT (stress on the last syllable; ё = “yo”).
- машину: ma-SHEE-nu (stress on the second syllable).
Can I change the word order?
Yes, Russian word order is flexible and often used for emphasis:
- Мой друг продаёт машину. (neutral: who is selling what)
- Мой друг машину продаёт. (emphasis on the action of selling)
- Машину продаёт мой друг. (emphasis that it’s my friend—contrasting the seller) All still mean “My friend is selling a car,” with different focus.
How do I say “My friend is selling his car”?
Use the reflexive possessive свой because the subject and the possessor are the same person:
- Мой друг продаёт свою машину. If you say его машину, it can imply “someone else’s car (his),” not necessarily the subject’s own.
How do I ask “Is my friend selling a car?” in Russian?
Use intonation (most natural):
- Мой друг продаёт машину? You can also use ли for a more formal/literary feel:
- Продаёт ли мой друг машину?
Does Russian mark “a/the” like English? How do I specify which car?
Russian has no articles. Машину can be “a car” or “the car,” depending on context. To be specific:
- “this car”: эту машину
- “that car”: ту машину
- “some car”: какую-то машину
What’s the plural of друг, and how would the sentence look with “friends”?
Plural is irregular: друзья. The verb and possessive change accordingly:
- Мои друзья продают машину. (My friends are selling a car.)
- If they sell cars in general: Мои друзья продают машины.
Can I omit мой and just say Друг продаёт машину?
You can, but then it sounds like “A friend (of mine) is selling a car,” not necessarily specifying whose friend. To say “a friend of mine,” a common, natural pattern is:
- Один мой друг продаёт машину. (One of my friends is selling a car.)
Is there anything special about the accusative with people vs things?
Yes. With masculine animate nouns (people/animals), the accusative equals the genitive:
- “I see my friend”: Я вижу моего друга. With inanimate objects, the masculine accusative equals the nominative; for feminine -а nouns, it’s -у:
- “I see the car”: Я вижу машину.
How do I negate the sentence, and what happens to the object?
- Simple negation: Мой друг не продаёт машину. (My friend is not selling the car.)
- If you mean “doesn’t sell any cars” in general, you can use a kind of “zero quantity” nuance:
- Он не продаёт машин. (genitive plural; emphasizes none at all)
- Он не продаёт машины. (also possible; often read as general plural)
What are the present-tense forms of продавать?
- я продаю
- ты продаёшь
- он/она продаёт
- мы продаём
- вы продаёте
- они продают