Сахар — вредный продукт.

the product

Breakdown of Сахар — вредный продукт.

• сахар: the sugar
• вредный: harmful

Questions & Answers about Сахар — вредный продукт.

Which cases are used here, and why are both sides in the nominative?

Both Сахар and вредный продукт are in the nominative case. In present‑tense equational sentences (X is Y), Russian drops the verb быть (to be) and keeps both the subject and the nominal predicate in the nominative. In the past or future, the predicate usually switches to the instrumental: Сахар был/будет вредным продуктом.

Why is there a dash?

The dash marks the missing present‑tense быть and the pause between the subject and the nominal predicate. It’s standard (and often required) when both parts are nouns or a noun phrase: Сахар — вредный продукт. It’s a dash (тире), not a hyphen.

Can I add это or есть?

• Сахар — это вредный продукт is very common and perfectly natural; это helps make the classification explicit.
• Writing Сахар это вредный продукт without the dash appears in casual text, but edited Russian prefers the dash.
• Сахар есть вредный продукт sounds bookish/old‑fashioned; you’ll mainly see есть in formal definitions or for special emphasis.

Why is it вредный (masculine) and not вредная or вредное?