Breakdown of Этот урок кажется лёгким, потому что мы уже знаем много слов.
Questions & Answers about Этот урок кажется лёгким, потому что мы уже знаем много слов.
In Russian, after certain verbs like быть (to be), становиться (to become), казаться (to seem), the adjective that describes the subject often goes into the instrumental case.
- Nominative: урок лёгкий – the lesson is easy (a simple statement of fact).
- Instrumental after казаться:
Этот урок кажется лёгким. – This lesson seems easy.
So лёгкий (nominative masculine singular) changes to лёгким (instrumental masculine singular) because of the verb кажется.
You could say:
- Урок лёгкий. – It is easy.
- Урок кажется лёгким. – It seems easy (maybe it will turn out harder/lighter than it looks).
Using nominative лёгкий after кажется would be a mistake in standard modern Russian.
Yes, you can absolutely say Этот урок лёгкий.
Difference in meaning:
Этот урок лёгкий. – This lesson is easy.
A direct statement of fact. The speaker is confident.Этот урок кажется лёгким. – This lesson seems easy.
The speaker is describing an impression, not a definite fact. It might later turn out to be harder than expected.
So кажется adds a nuance of:
- subjectivity (your personal impression)
- some doubt or reservation: “at least it looks that way now”
These are both correct but slightly different in nuance and structure.
Кажется, этот урок лёгкий.
- Кажется here is like an introductory word: It seems / I think.
- Rough English equivalent: It seems (to me) this lesson is easy.
- The main clause is этот урок лёгкий (lesson = easy).
Этот урок кажется лёгким.
- Here кажется is the main verb: seems.
- The subject is этот урок and the predicate is кажется лёгким.
The meaning is very close. The first sounds a bit more like “I have the impression that…”, the second is more neutral “this lesson seems easy.”
Потому что introduces a subordinate clause of reason (“because …”), so Russian normally uses a comma before it.
- Этот урок кажется лёгким, потому что мы уже знаем много слов.
This lesson seems easy because we already know many words.
Structure:
- Main clause: Этот урок кажется лёгким
- Subordinate clause of reason: потому что мы уже знаем много слов
In Russian punctuation rules, a comma is required between these two clauses.
You would not normally write it without a comma:
- ✗ Этот урок кажется лёгким потому что мы уже знаем много слов. (incorrect in standard writing)
You can use так как; the sentence would still be correct:
- Этот урок кажется лёгким, так как мы уже знаем много слов.
Differences:
- потому что – neutral, very common “because”.
- так как – slightly more formal or bookish in many contexts, often used more in written language.
In everyday speech, потому что is more natural here.
In writing (especially more formal text), both are fine.
Note on word order with так как:
- Так как мы уже знаем много слов, этот урок кажется лёгким.
This is also correct and is fairly natural in writing.
After много (a lot of / much, many), the noun must be in the genitive plural in modern Russian:
- много слов – a lot of words
- слово – nominative singular
- слов – genitive plural
This is a regular pattern:
- много книг (from книга) – many books
- много ошибок (from ошибка) – many mistakes
- много людей (from человек) – many people
So много слова is incorrect; the grammar of много requires слов.
They look similar but are not interchangeable.
много слов – many words / a lot of words
Focus: quantity, a large number.многие слова – many (of the) words
Focus: which ones among a known group. It often implies “a large part of a certain set.”
Examples:
- Я знаю много слов. – I know many words (a large vocabulary).
- Я знаю многие слова из этого списка. – I know many of the words from this list (not all, but a large part of that specific group).
In your sentence, we just mean “a lot of words in general”, so много слов is correct.
Both forms exist, but the aspect and meaning are different.
знаем – imperfective, present tense of знать (to know).
Мы уже знаем много слов. – We already know many words.
This describes a current state: right now, we possess this knowledge.узнали – perfective past of узнать (to get to know / to find out / to learn).
Мы уже узнали много слов. – We have already learned/found out many words.
This emphasizes the completed process of learning, not the state of “knowing.”
In your sentence, the reason the lesson seems easy is our current knowledge, so the state verb знаем fits better.
Yes. Уже (already) is flexible in Russian word order. All of these are grammatically correct:
- Мы уже знаем много слов. – neutral, very common.
- Мы знаем уже много слов. – slightly emphasizes how many words we know.
- Уже мы знаем много слов. – possible, but sounds more stylized or poetic.
In normal, neutral speech and writing, Мы уже знаем много слов is the best and most natural choice.
Because урок (lesson) is:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative case here
The demonstrative этот / эта / это / эти must match the noun in gender and number:
- этот – masculine singular (этот дом, этот стол, этот урок)
- эта – feminine singular (эта книга, эта проблема)
- это – neuter singular (это окно, это слово)
- эти – plural (эти уроки, эти книги, эти слова)
So:
- этот урок – this lesson (correct)
- эта урок – wrong gender
- это урок – could mean “this is a lesson” in another structure, but not here as a simple modifier of урок.
The correct pronunciation is [лё́гким] – with the ё sound (yo).
Orthographically:
- In everyday Russian writing, ё is often replaced by е (people write легким but pronounce лёгким).
- In textbooks and learning materials, ё is usually written explicitly to show pronunciation.
So:
- лёгкий → лёгким (instrumental) – phonetic spelling with ё
- легкий → легким – common “simplified” spelling in normal Russian texts, but still pronounced лёгкий / лё̣гким.
As a learner, it’s better to remember it with ё so you don’t forget the correct sound.