Breakdown of У брата любимый предмет — география, он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
Questions & Answers about У брата любимый предмет — география, он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
У брата is literally “at (the) brother”.
In Russian, the preposition у + genitive case often expresses possession or something that belongs to / is characteristic of a person:
- У брата = my brother has / as for my brother / with my brother
- У мамы есть машина. = Mom has a car.
- У меня нет времени. = I don’t have time.
So брата is in the genitive singular because у always requires the genitive. In this sentence, У брата любимый предмет — география means roughly:
“(As for) my brother, (his) favorite subject is geography.”
Russian often omits “to be” in the present tense when stating what something is or what someone has as a general characteristic.
- English: My brother’s favorite subject is geography.
- Russian: У брата любимый предмет — география. (no present-tense есть)
You could insert есть in some contexts (У брата есть любимый предмет — география), but it sounds unnatural and overly heavy here. For neutral statements of identity or characteristic, the simple structure [subject] — [predicate] (with a dash) is standard and fluent.
The long dash — in любимый предмет — география functions as a linking element between two noun phrases, similar to “is” in English.
Pattern:
- [Noun / noun phrase] — [Noun / noun phrase]
Examples:
- Москва — столица России. = Moscow is the capital of Russia.
- Его хобби — фотография. = His hobby is photography.
So У брата любимый предмет — география =
“My brother’s favorite subject is geography.”
The dash is especially common when both parts are nouns (or noun phrases) and no verb is used in the present tense.
Without the dash, У брата любимый предмет география looks incorrect or at best very awkward in standard written Russian.
You need either:
- the dash: У брата любимый предмет — география.
- or the copula это: У брата любимый предмет — это география. (more emphatic, a bit heavier)
The dash is the normal, elegant choice in this type of sentence.
In Russian, it is perfectly normal to join two independent clauses with just a comma, especially when the second clause logically follows the first:
- У брата любимый предмет — география, он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
Literally, you have two separate clauses:
- У брата любимый предмет — география.
- Он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
In English, joining them only with a comma would be a comma splice and considered incorrect in standard writing. You’d normally use:
- My brother’s favorite subject is geography, and he dreams of seeing all the planets.
- My brother’s favorite subject is geography. He dreams of seeing all the planets.
But in Russian, a simple comma (without a conjunction) between such related clauses is acceptable and common in non-formal writing. In more formal Russian, some editors would prefer a period or a semicolon.
The verb мечтать (“to dream [of doing something]”) is usually followed by an infinitive, and the aspect of that infinitive matters:
- увидеть – perfective, “to see (once / as a result)”
- видеть – imperfective, “to be seeing / to see (in general, repeatedly)”
Here, he dreams of achieving a result — at some point actually seeing all the planets. That’s a single, completed outcome, so Russian prefers the perfective:
- Он мечтает увидеть все планеты. = He dreams of (one day) seeing all the planets.
If you said:
- Он мечтает видеть все планеты.
this would sound strange, as if he wants to be continuously in a state of seeing them all the time. That interpretation is unusual here, so увидеть is the natural choice.
Планеты here is in the accusative plural:
- Nominative plural: планеты (planets – subject)
- Accusative plural (inanimate feminine nouns): планеты (same as nominative)
The verb увидеть is transitive and takes a direct object in the accusative:
- увидеть что? — все планеты
So все планеты is simply “all the planets” as the direct object of увидеть.
In Russian, adjectives normally come before the noun they modify:
- любимый предмет = favorite subject
- красная машина = red car
- интересная книга = interesting book
The phrase предмет любимый is possible but marked: it sounds poetic, emotional, or stylistically unusual. It might appear in:
- poetry, songs
- expressive speech with special emphasis
In neutral everyday Russian, you say любимый предмет.
The adjective любимый agrees with the grammatical gender, number, and case of the noun предмет:
- предмет (subject)
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- case: nominative
So the adjective must be:
- masculine, singular, nominative: любимый
If the noun were feminine or neuter, the adjective would change:
- любимая книга (book – feminine)
- любимое место (place – neuter)
- любимые предметы (subjects – plural)
Yes, У моего брата любимый предмет — география is grammatically correct. The difference is mostly style and specificity:
У брата любимый предмет — география.
- Implies “My brother’s favorite subject is geography” where it’s clear from context that we’re talking about my brother (for example, within the family context).
- Russian often omits мой / твой / наш when the relationship is obvious (мама, папа, брат, сестра, жена, etc.).
У моего брата любимый предмет — география.
- More explicit: “my brother” as opposed to “your brother”, “his brother”, etc.
- Slightly more formal/precise, used if there is any chance of ambiguity.
In many everyday contexts, the shorter У брата sounds more natural.
Все and всё are different forms of the same word “all”, but they agree with what they modify:
все – for plural nouns (any gender):
- все люди – all people
- все книги – all the books
- все планеты – all the planets
всё – for neuter singular or as a standalone pronoun “everything”:
- всё время – all the time
- я сделал всё – I did everything
Since планеты is plural, the correct form is все планеты.
The sentence is grammatically correct and understandable, and a native speaker would not find it wrong. However, in everyday speech or polished writing, it might more often appear as:
- У брата любимый предмет — география. Он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
(two separate sentences)
Or with a conjunction:
- У брата любимый предмет — география, и он мечтает увидеть все планеты.
So your original version is valid Russian, but splitting it into two sentences or adding и often feels more natural and stylistically smooth, especially in formal text.