Questions & Answers about Он внимательно читает книгу.
Russian simply doesn’t have articles.
There is no separate word for a/an or the, so книгу can mean a book or the book, depending on context.
If you really need to show that the book is specific, you usually add other words (like эту книгу – this book).
Книгу is the accusative singular form of книга.
In this sentence, книгу is the direct object of the verb читает (reads), and in Russian direct objects normally take the accusative case.
Declension of книга (singular, main cases):
- Nominative (subject): книга – The book is on the table.
- Accusative (direct object): книгу – He reads the book.
So Он читает книгу = He reads (is reading) the book.
Читает is 3rd person singular, present tense, imperfective aspect of читать (to read).
Present conjugation of читать:
- я читаю – I read / am reading
- ты читаешь – you (sg., informal) read / are reading
- он / она / оно читает – he / she / it reads / is reading
- мы читаем – we read / are reading
- вы читаете – you (pl./formal) read / are reading
- они читают – they read / are reading
In the sentence, он читает = he reads / he is reading.
Russian present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous.
So Он читает книгу can mean:
- He reads a book (habitually, in general)
- He is reading a book (right now)
To make it clearly right now, you can add сейчас:
- Он сейчас внимательно читает книгу. – He is carefully reading a book right now.
To make it clearly habitual, you can add adverbs like обычно (usually), каждый день (every day):
- Он каждый день внимательно читает книгу. – He carefully reads a book every day.
Внимательно is an adverb meaning attentively, carefully, closely. It describes how he reads.
The most neutral word order is the one you have:
- Он внимательно читает книгу.
Other possible placements:
- Он читает книгу внимательно. – Still correct; focuses a bit more on внимательно at the end.
- Внимательно он читает книгу. – Stronger emphasis on внимательно; more literary or contrastive.
Russian adverbs like this normally stand before the verb, but can also go after the verb or even at the start of the sentence for emphasis.
Внимательный is an adjective: attentive (describing a person).
Внимательно is the adverb: attentively (describing an action).
A common pattern: take a short‑form masculine adjective (ending in -ый / -ий / -ой) and replace that ending with -о to form the adverb:
- внимательный → внимательно – attentive → attentively
- осторожный → осторожно – careful → carefully
- быстрый → быстро – fast → quickly
So Он внимательно читает literally is He reads attentively.
All these versions are grammatically correct and keep the same basic meaning, but the emphasis shifts:
- Он внимательно читает книгу. – Neutral: he reads the book attentively.
- Он читает книгу внимательно. – Slight emphasis on how he reads; внимательно feels a bit highlighted.
- Книгу он внимательно читает. – Emphasizes книгу (the book), often in contrast:
- For example: Журнал он листает, а книгу он внимательно читает.
– He flips through the magazine, but the book he reads attentively.
- For example: Журнал он листает, а книгу он внимательно читает.
Russian word order is flexible; it’s mostly about information structure and emphasis, not basic grammar.
Russian can drop subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context and the verb ending.
So you can say:
- Внимательно читает книгу. – (He/She) is reading the book attentively.
This is common in conversation when it’s obvious who you’re talking about.
Including Он makes the subject explicit or can be used for emphasis (e.g., contrasting with someone else: Он внимательно читает книгу, а она смотрит фильм.).
Книгу is in the accusative case (singular, feminine).
The accusative case is typically used for direct objects – the things directly affected by the action.
Common verbs that typically take a direct object in the accusative:
- читать книгу – to read a book
- писать письмо – to write a letter
- видеть друга – to see a friend
- покупать машину – to buy a car
So книгу is the object of читает.
Past tense:
- Он внимательно читал книгу. – He was reading / He read the book attentively. (process or repeated action)
- Он внимательно прочитал книгу. – He read the book attentively (and finished it).
- Прочитал is perfective: completed action.
Future tense:
- Он будет внимательно читать книгу. – He will be reading / will read the book attentively. (process or repeated)
- Он внимательно прочитает книгу. – He will read the book attentively (and complete it).
Imperfective (читать) = process/habit;
Perfective (прочитать) = completed single action.
Stressed syllables in capitals (approximate):
- Он – ON (like “own” but shorter; [on])
- внима́тельно – vni-MA-telʹ-no ([vnʲiˈmatʲɪlʲnə])
- чита́ет – chi-TA-yet ([t͡ɕɪˈta(j)ɪt])
- кни́гу – KNI-gu ([ˈknʲiɡʊ])
Whole sentence slowly:
Он внима́тельно чита́ет кни́гу.
Key points:
- вн in внимательно is pronounced together, like vn in Vladimir
- n.
- ч is like English ch in chill, but softer.
- г in книгу is a g sound (not k).
Он is 3rd person singular, masculine – he.
For she:
- Она внимательно читает книгу. – Она is feminine singular; the verb form читает stays the same.
For they:
- Они внимательно читают книгу. – Они is plural; the verb changes to читают (3rd person plural).
So only the pronoun and the verb ending change; внимательно and книгу stay the same.
Внимательно mainly describes mental focus: attentively, paying attention, often with eyes/ears or thinking.
- Он внимательно читает книгу. – He reads paying close attention to the text.
For carefully in the sense of cautiously, so as not to cause harm, Russian usually uses осторожно:
- Он осторожно открывает дверь. – He carefully/cautiously opens the door.
So внимательно = mentally attentive;
осторожно = physically/behaviorally cautious.