Я проверил стоимость других билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый.

I checked the cost of other tickets and chose the cheapest one.

Breakdown of Я проверил стоимость других билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый.

• я: I
• и: and
• билет: the ticket
• выбрать: to choose
• проверить: to check
• другой: other
• дешёвый: cheap
• стоимость: the cost

Questions & Answers about Я проверил стоимость других билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый.

In Я проверил стоимость других билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый, why are проверил and выбрал masculine? Doesn’t я work for both genders?

In Russian, the personal pronoun я (“I”) does not show gender, but the past tense verb does.

• проверил, выбрал are past tense, masculine, singular forms.
• If a woman is speaking, she would say:
  • Я проверила стоимость других билетов и выбрала самый дешёвый.

So the gender of the speaker is shown on the verb in the past tense, not on я itself.

Why are проверил and выбрал perfective verbs? Could we use imperfective verbs instead?

Both проверил and выбрал are perfective past tense forms, which emphasize the completed result of the actions:

• проверил (from проверить) – “(I) checked” (and finished checking)
• выбрал (from выбрать) – “(I) chose” (and the choice is done)

Using imperfective forms would change the meaning:

• Я проверял стоимость других билетов – “I was checking / used to check the prices of other tickets” (process or repeated action, no guaranteed result).
• Я выбирал самый дешёвый – “I was choosing the cheapest one / I used to choose the cheapest one.”

In this sentence, the speaker wants to say I completed these actions and got a result, so perfective is natural.

Why is it стоимость других билетов and not something like стоимость другие билеты?

Here, стоимость (“price, cost”) is a feminine noun in the accusative (direct object of проверил):

• проверил (что?) стоимость – “checked (what?) the cost”

The phrase других билетов describes стоимость, so it must agree in case with стоимость:

• стоимость (чего?) других билетов – “the cost of other tickets”

This is why:

• стоимость is in the accusative singular (same as nominative for feminine inanimate nouns).
• других билетов is genitive plural (required by стоимость чего? “the cost of what?”).

других билетов is not a separate object of the verb; it’s dependent on стоимость and therefore goes into the genitive.

Why is других билетов in the genitive plural?

The noun стоимость (cost, price) typically takes the genitive to show “the cost of something”:

• стоимость билетов – “the cost of (the) tickets”
• стоимость других билетов – “the cost of other tickets”
• стоимость билета – “the cost of a ticket”

Questions:

• стоимость чего? – “the cost of what?” → (чего?) других билетов (genitive plural)

So других (other) + билетов (tickets) must both be in the genitive plural, because they answer чего? after стоимость.

What exactly does других mean here? Is it “other” or “different”?

In this context, других билетов means “other tickets”, i.e. tickets different from some previously considered ones.

In Russian:

• другой often means “another / other”:
  • другой билет – “another ticket / a different ticket”
• Depending on context, it can also imply “different,” but here the natural reading is:
  • стоимость других билетов – “the cost of other (alternative) tickets,” i.e. not the first one you looked at.

So it’s closer to “other” than “different” in this sentence.

Why is it самый дешёвый and not самый дешёвый билет?

In Russian, when it’s obvious from context what noun you’re talking about, you can omit the noun and keep just the adjective phrase:

• Full form: самый дешёвый билет – “the cheapest ticket”
• Shortened: самый дешёвый – “the cheapest (one)”

The omitted noun билет is clearly understood from earlier in the sentence (билетов), so it’s natural to drop it in the second part to avoid repetition.

Why is самый дешёвый masculine if it refers to стоимость, which is feminine?

The phrase самый дешёвый is understood as самый дешёвый билет (“the cheapest ticket”).

• билет is masculine, so the adjective must be masculine:
  • самый дешёвый (билет) – masc.
• стоимость is feminine, but самый дешёвый does not describe стоимость here; it describes the (understood) билет.

If you wanted to describe стоимость itself (the price), you would say:

• самая низкая стоимость – “the lowest price”
  • стоимость is feminine → самая (fem.), низкая (fem.)

What is the function of самый in самый дешёвый?

самый is used to form the regular (“analytic”) superlative of adjectives:

• дешёвый – “cheap”
• более дешёвый – “cheaper”
• самый дешёвый – “the cheapest”

So:

• самый + adjective = “the most + adjective”
  • самый дорогой – “the most expensive”
  • самый интересный – “the most interesting”

You can also express “the cheapest” using a comparison:

• дешевле всех – “cheaper than everyone/everything (else)” → “the cheapest” But самый дешёвый is the most neutral, textbook form.

Why is самый дешёвый not in the accusative? Shouldn’t it agree with the object of выбрал?

It does agree with the object of выбрал, but in this case the accusative form of a masculine, inanimate adjective is identical to the nominative.

Implied phrase:

• выбрал (что?) самый дешёвый билет – “chose (what?) the cheapest ticket”

Case:

• билет – masculine, inanimate
  • Nom.: дешёвый билет
  • Acc.: дешёвый билет (same form)
• Adjective:
  • Nom. masc. inanimate: самый дешёвый
  • Acc. masc. inanimate: самый дешёвый (same form)

So it is accusative grammatically, but it looks like the nominative because for masculine inanimate nouns and their adjectives, nominative = accusative in form.

Why is there no preposition before стоимость? In English we say “check the price of other tickets”.

Russian often uses direct objects without prepositions where English uses a preposition:

• проверить что? – “to check what?”
  → проверил стоимость – “(I) checked the price/cost”

English needs “of” because price doesn’t directly govern another noun; Russian стоимость does:

• стоимость чего? – “price/cost of what?” → стоимость других билетов

So in Russian:

• Verb + direct object: проверил стоимость
• Noun + genitive dependent: стоимость других билетов (cost of other tickets)

No preposition is needed before стоимость.

Can I change the word order, for example: Я проверил другие билеты на стоимость?

No, that sounds unnatural and partly incorrect.

• проверить что? – you normally say проверить стоимость (чего?):
  • проверил стоимость билетов – “checked the price of the tickets”
• Saying проверить билеты на стоимость is not standard; на стоимость here is not idiomatic.

Natural options:

• Я проверил стоимость других билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый.
• You can slightly move things:
  • Я проверил стоимость билетов и выбрал самый дешёвый.
  • Я проверил стоимость других билетов, а потом выбрал самый дешёвый.

But проверил другие билеты на стоимость is unidiomatic; Russians won’t say it that way.

Is и выбрал (“and [I] chose”) a new sentence or still part of the same sentence grammatically?

It’s still one sentence, with и (“and”) linking two verbs that share the same subject я:

• Subject: Я
• Verb 1: проверил
• Object 1: стоимость других билетов
• Conjunction: и
• Verb 2: выбрал
• Object 2: самый дешёвый (билет)

Russian does not repeat the subject when it is clear:

• Я проверил стоимость... и выбрал... = “I checked the price... and (I) chose...”

So выбрал is grammatically coordinated with проверил under the same subject я.