Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее.

A bad law often makes people’s lives more difficult.

Breakdown of Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее.

• часто: often
• человек: the person
• делать: to make
• жизнь: the life
• плохой: bad
• закон: the law
• сложнее: more difficult

Questions & Answers about Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее.

Why is it плохой закон and not плохая / плохое закон?

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• закон is:
  • masculine
  • singular
  • nominative case (the subject of the sentence)

For a masculine, singular, nominative noun, the adjective плохой is the correct form.

• плохая – feminine singular nominative (e.g. плохая идея – a bad idea)
• плохое – neuter singular nominative (e.g. плохое решение – a bad decision)

So only плохой закон is grammatically correct here.

What grammatical case is закон, and how do I know?

закон is in the nominative singular.

You can tell because:

1. It is the subject of the sentence:

   • Плохой закон (subject) делает (verb) жизнь людей (object) сложнее (complement).

2. The basic dictionary form of a noun is nominative singular, and закон appears exactly in that form:

   • Nom. sg.: закон
   • Other cases would look different (e.g. Gen. закона, Dat. закону, etc.).

So here it’s simply the subject, in nominative.

Why is the verb делает and not делают?

The verb must agree with the subject in person and number.

• Subject: плохой закон = “bad law”
  • This is third person singular (one law).
• Therefore, the verb must also be third person singular:
  • делает = “(he/she/it) makes / does”
  • делают = “(they) make / do”

So Плохой закон делает… = “A bad law makes…”, not “make”.

What tense and aspect is делает, and why is that used?

делает is:

• Present tense
• Imperfective aspect
• 3rd person singular of делать (“to do / to make”)

It describes something that happens regularly or typically:

• Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее.
  • “A bad law often makes people’s lives harder.”
  • This is a general statement about how bad laws usually work.

If you used perfective сделает, it would normally refer to one specific future action:

• Плохой закон сделает жизнь людей сложнее.
  • “The bad law will make people’s lives harder (once / as a result).”

In the given sentence, the speaker wants a general truth, so делает (imperfective present) is correct.

What case is жизнь in, and why is it singular instead of plural?

жизнь here is in the accusative singular.

1. Case:

   • It is the direct object of the verb делает:
     • делать (что?) жизнь – “to make (what?) life”
   • For feminine nouns ending in a soft sign (-ь), the accusative singular form often looks the same as nominative:
     • Nom. sg.: жизнь
     • Acc. sg.: жизнь

2. Singular vs. plural: Russian often uses the singular to talk about life in general, even when it involves many people:

   • жизнь людей = “the life of people” / “people’s life (in general)”
   • You could say жизни людей (plural), but жизнь людей as a generic, collective “life” is very natural and common.

So делает жизнь людей сложнее = “makes people’s life more difficult (in general).”

Why is it жизнь людей and not людям жизнь?

Both structures are possible in Russian, but they are not identical:

1. жизнь людей:

   • Literally “the life of people.”
   • людей is genitive plural, showing possession/association:
     • жизнь кого? – жизнь людей
   • This corresponds closely to English “people’s life / the life of people.”

2. людям жизнь (more natural as делать людям жизнь сложнее):

   • людям is dative plural (“to people”).
   • Structure: “to make life harder for people.”
   • Focuses more on who is affected rather than whose life it is.

Your sentence chooses the genitive structure:

• делает жизнь людей сложнее – literally “makes the life of people more difficult.”
  A very standard and natural way to say this.

What case is людей, and how is this form built?

людей is genitive plural of люди (“people”).

• Nominative plural: люди – “people” (subject form)
• Genitive plural: людей

You use genitive here because людей depends on жизнь:

• жизнь кого? – жизнь людей
  “life of whom?” – “life of people”

This is like the English “people’s life / the life of people” construction.

Why is it сложнее and not сложной or сложная?

сложнее is the comparative form of the adjective сложный (“complex / difficult”).

• сложный – base form: “difficult”
• сложнее – “more difficult”

The structure here is:

• делать (что-то) (каким?) – “to make (something) (how?)”
• But with comparatives, Russian typically uses the short comparative form:
  • делает жизнь людей сложнее – “makes people’s life more difficult.”

So:

• сложной – feminine, instrumental singular (e.g. делает жизнь более сложной)
• сложная – feminine, nominative singular (e.g. жизнь сложная – life is difficult)
• сложнее – comparative (“more difficult”) – the correct form in this pattern.

Could I say делает жизнь людей более сложной instead of сложнее?

Yes, you can, and it’s correct, but the grammar changes slightly.

1. Given sentence:

   • делает жизнь людей сложнее
   • Uses the synthetic comparative (сложнее).
   • Very natural, a bit more compact.

2. Alternative:

   • делает жизнь людей более сложной
   • Uses более + adjective (“more + difficult”).
   • Now сложной appears in the instrumental case:
     • делать (что-то) каким? – делать жизнь более сложной

Both mean the same thing:
“A bad law often makes people’s life more difficult.”

The version with сложнее is slightly more colloquial and common; более сложной can sound a bit more formal or careful.

What does часто do in the sentence, and can I move it?

часто means “often” and is an adverb describing how frequently the bad law makes people’s life more difficult.

In Russian, adverbs like часто are fairly flexible in position. All of these are possible:

• Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее. (most natural)
• Часто плохой закон делает жизнь людей сложнее. (emphasis on “often”)
• Плохой закон делает жизнь людей часто сложнее. (possible, but less natural here)

The most neutral, typical placement is right before the verb:
часто делает = “often makes”.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before плохой закон?

Russian does not have articles like a/an or the. The phrase плохой закон by itself can mean:

• “a bad law”
• “the bad law”
• “bad law” (in a general sense)

Which one is meant depends on context, not on a separate article word.

Here, with часто and the general statement structure, it most naturally means:

• “A bad law often makes people’s life more difficult.”
  (i.e. any bad law, in general)

Is there a more “native-sounding” verb than делает … сложнее?

The sentence as given is correct and natural, but Russian also very often uses the verb усложнять (“to complicate, to make more difficult”):

• Плохой закон часто усложняет жизнь людей.

This is almost the same meaning as:

• Плохой закон часто делает жизнь людей сложнее.

The version with усложняет is a bit more compact and is very typical in written and spoken Russian. But your original sentence is fully acceptable and clear.

How is the sentence pronounced, and where is the stress?

Stress and rough pronunciation (stressed syllables in caps):

• ПЛО-хой – ploh-HOY (stress on -хой)
• за-КОН – za-KON (stress on -кон)
• ЧАС-то – CHAS-ta (stress on ча-)
• ДЕ-ла-ет – DYE-la-yet (stress on де-)
• ЖИЗНЬ – zhizn’ (one syllable, final soft нь)
• лю-ДЕЙ – lyu-DYEY (stress on -дей)
• слож-НЕ-е – slozh-NYE-ye (stress on -не-)

Full sentence (with stressed syllables capitalized):

• ПлоХОй заКОН ЧАСто ДЕлает ЖИЗНЬ люДЕЙ сложНЕе.

Key points:

• жизнь ends with a soft нь; the ь is not pronounced separately but softens the н.
• In людей, ю is pronounced like “lyu” because л is palatalized (soft).
• сложнее has two е in writing, but in normal speech it’s often smoothed to two syllables: slozh-NYE-ye or almost slozh-NYE.