Пустыня — тоже часть природы, хотя там почти нет деревьев.

The desert is also part of nature, although there are almost no trees there.

Breakdown of Пустыня — тоже часть природы, хотя там почти нет деревьев.

• дерево: the tree
• там: there
• хотя: although
• почти: almost

Questions & Answers about Пустыня — тоже часть природы, хотя там почти нет деревьев.

Why is there a dash after Пустыня? Where is the verb “is”?

In Russian, the verb “to be” (быть) in the present tense is usually omitted in sentences like “X is Y”.

So instead of saying:

• Пустыня есть часть природы. (grammatical but very unusual in modern speech)

Russian normally says:

• Пустыня — часть природы.

The long dash — visually marks the link “X = Y” (subject = complement). It roughly corresponds to the English “is” here:

• Пустыня — часть природы. ≈ “A desert is a part of nature.”

You will see this pattern often:

• Москва — столица России.
• Вода — жидкость.

Could we say Пустыня тоже часть природы without the dash? Is it wrong?

You can say Пустыня тоже часть природы without the dash in handwriting or informal contexts; in plain text Russians sometimes omit it, especially online.

From the point of view of strict punctuation rules in printed text, the dash is recommended (and usually expected) between two nouns in this kind of “X = Y” sentence when there is no verb:

• Пустыня — тоже часть природы.

So:

• Without the dash – understandable, common in casual writing.
• With the dash – stylistically and orthographically standard in edited text.

What exactly does mean here, and how is it different from ?