Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя студентка говорит, что этот предмет редкий, и в нашем университете его почти нет. - My female student says that this subject is rare and in our university it almost doesn’t exist.

Russian commonly uses the present tense with verbs of speech (говорить, говорить, думать) when reporting information that is still valid or relevant now:

Моя студентка говорит, что… – “My student says that…” (she claims this, and it’s presumably still true or at least her current opinion)

You could say:

Моя студентка сказала, что этот предмет редкий… – “My student said that this subject was rare…”

That shifts the focus to the past speech event (“she said (once)”), and can sound more like a finished report.
With говорит, we focus on what she maintains or is telling us (possibly repeatedly or currently), not just on one past moment.

What is the function of что after говорит, and can it be omitted?

Here что is a conjunction meaning “that” introducing an object clause (reported speech):

Моя студентка говорит, что этот предмет редкий…
= “My student says that this subject is rare…”

So the whole clause что этот предмет редкий, и в нашем университете его почти нет is what she says.

About omitting что:

In standard written Russian, after verbs like говорить, думать, знать, the что introducing indirect speech is normally kept.
If you remove it, you either:
- Create direct speech with punctuation:
  Моя студентка говорит: этот предмет редкий… (“My student says: ‘This subject is rare…’”), or
- Sound colloquial/fragmented if you just drop it in writing.

So in this kind of sentence, you should keep что.

What exactly does предмет mean here? I thought it meant “object”.

Предмет has several meanings in Russian:

Physical object / thing – close to English “object”:
- предмет на столе – an object on the table
School / university subject, course – this is the meaning here:
- любимый предмет – favorite school subject
- гуманитарные предметы – humanities subjects

In the sentence:

этот предмет редкий = “this subject (course) is rare”

So here предмет means an academic subject or course, not a random object.

Why is the adjective редкий placed after предмет here, and how is that different from редкий предмет?

Two different structures:

редкий предмет – adjective before the noun
- Typical attributive use: “a rare subject / a rare item.”
- Used when you introduce or describe a noun phrase:
  Это редкий предмет. – “This is a rare subject.”
этот предмет редкий – adjective after the noun
- This is a predicate: “[this subject] is rare.”
- Structurally: этот предмет (subject) + редкий (predicate adjective).

So in the sentence:

что этот предмет редкий literally = “that this subject is rare.”

If you said:

что это редкий предмет, it would mean “that this is a rare subject,” which is close in meaning, but the original phrasing more clearly presents “rare” as a statement about an already identified subject, rather than as part of the noun phrase.

Why is редкий (adjective) used and not редко (adverb)?

Because we are describing a noun (предмет) with a quality, we need an adjective, not an adverb.

редкий – adjective: “rare” (describes a thing)
- редкий предмет – a rare subject
- предмет редкий – the subject is rare
редко – adverb: “rarely, seldom” (describes an action)
- Этот предмет редко преподают. – They rarely teach this subject.

In этот предмет редкий, the logic is:
“this subject (is) rare” → predicate adjective → must be редкий, not редко.

What case is в нашем университете, and why does наш change to нашем?

в нашем университете uses the prepositional case:

Preposition в
- prepositional is used for location (“in, at”) in many contexts.
университет (nominative) → в университете (prepositional)
The possessive наш must agree in case, number, and gender with университет:
- Masculine singular nominative: наш университет
- Masculine singular prepositional: в нашем университете

So the pattern is:

наш университет – our university
в нашем университете – in our university

What does его refer to here, and why do we use его instead of он?

Его here is a pronoun referring back to этот предмет (“this subject”).

предмет is masculine.
The pronoun that stands for it is он in the nominative (as a subject):
- Он редкий. – It (the subject) is rare.
But after нет, we need the genitive case, not the nominative.

The genitive form of он is его:

Nominative: он – he / it (masc.)
Genitive: его – of him / of it

So его почти нет literally means “there is almost none of it”.

Note: его is used as the genitive for both masculine and neuter, so it doesn’t show gender distinction here; context (the antecedent предмет) tells you it’s masculine.

Why is его in the genitive case after нет? How does this construction work?

In Russian, the verb нет (the negative of есть “there is / there are”) normally takes a genitive noun or pronoun to express non‑existence or absence:

У меня нет времени. – I have no time. (lit. “At me there is no time.” → времени is genitive)
Здесь нет людей. – There are no people here. (людей – genitive plural)
Его нет дома. – He is not at home. (его – genitive)

So in:

в нашем университете его почти нет

the structure is:

в нашем университете – location (“in our university”)
его нет – “there is none of it / it is not there” (negative existential)
его is in the genitive, required by нет.

A rough literal reading is:
“In our university, of it there is almost none.”

Is the word order в нашем университете его почти нет fixed, or can we move the words around?

Russian word order is relatively flexible; here are some natural variants, with slightly different emphasis:

В нашем университете его почти нет.
– Neutral, common: “In our university, there is almost none of it.”
Его почти нет в нашем университете.
– Slight focus on его почти нет (“there’s almost none of it”), then specifying where.
– Still very natural.
Его в нашем университете почти нет.
– Emphasizes the location a bit more: “As for in our university, there is almost none of it.”

All three are acceptable.
The original order, starting with в нашем университете, foregrounds the place and then tells you about the lack of the subject there.

What you cannot do is break the core phrase почти нет unnaturally, for example:

✗ почти его нет в нашем университете – possible in some contexts but marked/less neutral;
✗ в нашем университете почти его нет – also sounds awkward; the default is его почти нет as a block.

What exactly does почти mean here, and where can it be placed in the sentence?

Почти means “almost, nearly”.

In его почти нет, it modifies нет (“there is not”), telling you that the absence is not total:

его нет – there is none of it
его почти нет – there is almost none of it (maybe one course, extremely rare, etc.)

Typical and most natural position here is before нет and after the pronoun:

его почти нет – standard

You’ll also see:

почти нет этого предмета в нашем университете. – “There is almost none of this subject at our university.”
(почти before нет again)

Placing почти somewhere else usually changes rhythm or becomes less natural. So for learners it’s safest to keep:

его почти нет
почти нет + [genitive noun]

Is the comma before и in редкий, и в нашем университете его почти нет necessary?

In many modern style guides, this sentence is more commonly written without that comma:

…говорит, что этот предмет редкий и в нашем университете его почти нет.

Here что introduces one complex object clause, and редкий / (его) почти нет are two parts of what she says, linked by и. When two parts of the same subordinate clause are joined by и, Russian usually does not put a comma before и.

However, you do occasionally see a comma:

…говорит, что этот предмет редкий, и в нашем университете его почти нет.

With the comma, the writer treats it more like two closely connected statements of what she says:

что этот предмет редкий
(что) в нашем университете его почти нет

Both options are encountered in real texts. For a learner, the safer, more textbook‑like punctuation is without the comma before и in this particular structure.