Breakdown of Короткое описание помогает понять фильм.
Questions & Answers about Короткое описание помогает понять фильм.
Описание is a neuter noun (you can see this from the ending -ие in the nominative singular).
In Russian, adjectives agree with the noun in:
- gender
- number
- case
Here:
- описание – neuter, singular, nominative (it is the subject)
- So the adjective must be neuter, singular, nominative too → короткое
For a masculine noun, you would have короткий:
- короткий фильм – a short film (masc.)
- короткое описание – a short description (neut.)
So короткое is simply the correctly agreeing form of the adjective короткий for a neuter noun.
Короткое описание is the subject of the sentence.
The structure is:
- Короткое описание – subject (what does something?)
- помогает – verb (what does it do?)
- понять фильм – object/infinitive phrase (what does it help to do?)
So the sentence literally is:
A short description helps to understand the film.
The verb is помогать (to help), imperfective, present tense.
We need 3rd person singular, because the subject короткое описание is singular and behaves like оно (it).
Present tense conjugation of помогать is:
- я помогаю – I help
- ты помогаешь – you help (singular, informal)
- он / она / оно помогает – he / she / it helps
- мы помогаем – we help
- вы помогаете – you help (plural or polite)
- они помогают – they help
So with описание (it), you must use помогает:
Короткое описание помогает…
Yes, понять is an infinitive (perfective aspect) meaning to understand, to figure out.
In Russian, помогать / помочь + infinitive means to help (someone) do something:
- помогать учить слова – to help (someone) learn words
- помочь найти дорогу – to help (someone) find the way
- помогает понять фильм – helps (someone) understand the film
There is no extra particle like English to; the bare infinitive plays that role.
Понять and понимать are aspectual pairs:
- понимать – imperfective: to understand (in general, in process, repeated actions)
- понять – perfective: to understand (to reach an understanding, achieve the result)
In this sentence, we are talking about achieving understanding of the film, reaching the result, not about the ongoing process. That’s why the perfective понять is more natural:
- Короткое описание помогает понять фильм.
A short description helps (you) to come to understand / to grasp the film.
If you said помогает понимать фильм, it would sound like:
- it helps you to be in the state of understanding it / to keep understanding it,
which is possible but much less natural here.
Фильм here is in the accusative singular: it is the direct object of понять – to understand what? → фильм.
For inanimate masculine nouns ending in a consonant (like фильм, стол, город), the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative:
- Nominative: фильм – the film (subject)
- Accusative: фильм – the film (object)
Compare with an animate noun, where the accusative = genitive:
- Nominative: вижу брат – incorrect
- Correct: вижу брата – I see (my) brother (accusative = genitive form)
So here фильм looks unchanged, but grammatically it is accusative.
Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:
- Короткое описание помогает понять фильм. – neutral order, subject–verb–object.
- Понять фильм помогает короткое описание. – emphasizes помогает понять фильм (the action / result), and then adds what exactly helps.
In Russian, word order is more flexible than in English and is often used for emphasis or focus rather than grammar.
However:
- Короткое описание помогает понять фильм. – sounds the most neutral and natural.
- Понять фильм помогает короткое описание. – slightly more stylistic / poetic / focused.
Something like Короткое описание помогает фильм понять is possible but sounds less natural and is more likely in poetic or very stylistic speech.
The verb понять (to understand) takes its object directly in the accusative case, without any preposition:
- понять текст – to understand the text
- понять вопрос – to understand the question
- понять фильм – to understand the film
Using о фильме (about the film) would change the meaning to “understand about the film”, which is not natural Russian in this context. You want to understand the film itself, not some information about it.
Both are possible, but there is a nuance:
- короткое описание – a short description (emphasis on length, few words)
- краткое описание – a brief / concise description (emphasis on being compressed, to-the-point, no extra detail)
In practice:
- For something like a blurb, synopsis, or summary of a film, краткое описание is very common in formal/neutral language (on websites, in catalogs, etc.).
- короткое описание is more general and colloquial, just saying “it’s short”.
So you could definitely say:
- Краткое описание помогает понять фильм.
A brief / concise description helps to understand the film.
Approximate stresses (capital letters show the stressed syllable):
- корОткое – ko-RОT-ko-ye
(in careful speech ко-рОт-ко-е, everyday pronunciation often merges тк smoothly) - описАние – a-pi-SА-ni-ye
- помогАет – pa-ma-GА-yet
- понЯть – pa-NЯTʹ
- фильм – one syllable, фильм (consonant cluster льм at the end)
Full sentence with stress:
корОткое описАние помогАет понЯть фильм.