Breakdown of Мой брат работает программистом, а моя сестра хочет быть переводчицей.
Questions & Answers about Мой брат работает программистом, а моя сестра хочет быть переводчицей.
Because Russian normally uses the instrumental case for professions after verbs like быть (to be), стать (to become), and often работать (to work).
- программист is nominative (dictionary form).
- программистом is instrumental singular (masculine/neuter: -ом).
In this sentence, работать кем? чем? (to work as who/what?) requires the instrumental:
- Он работает врачом. – He works as a doctor.
- Она работает учительницей. – She works as a (female) teacher.
So Мой брат работает программистом literally means “My brother works as a programmer.”
Both can be translated as “My brother is a programmer,” but they have different nuances.
Мой брат программист.
- No verb in Russian (present “to be” is usually omitted).
- Simple statement of identity/occupation, more static:
- “My brother is a programmer (that’s his profession).”
Мой брат работает программистом.
- Uses the verb работает (works).
- Focuses more on what he does for work, his current employment:
- “My brother works as a programmer (that’s his job right now).”