Breakdown of После долгого дня хороший сон приносит радость.
Questions & Answers about После долгого дня хороший сон приносит радость.
Дня is the genitive singular of день (day).
The preposition после (after) in Russian always takes the genitive case. That’s why we must say:
- после дня – after the day
- после урока – after the lesson
- после работы – after work
The base form is:
- Nominative (dictionary form): день
- Genitive: дня
So после долгого дня literally means after (of) a long day, with дня in the genitive because of после.
Adjectives in Russian must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case.
- день is masculine, singular, genitive (дня).
- So the adjective долгий (long) also has to be masculine, singular, genitive.
The forms are:
- Nominative: долгий день – a long day
- Genitive: долгого дня – of a long day / after a long day
Masculine/neuter adjectives in the genitive singular typically end in -ого:
- новый стол → нового стола – of the new table
- интересный фильм → интересного фильма – of the interesting film
So долгий день becomes долгого дня after после.
You could say после длинного дня and people would understand you, but it sounds a bit less natural in this context.
- долгий usually refers to time, duration:
- долгий день – a long (in terms of feeling/time) day
- долгая зима – a long winter
- длинный usually refers to physical length:
- длинная дорога – a long road (physically long)
- длинные волосы – long hair
A day is more naturally “long” in the sense of how long it feels or how much time it takes, so долгий день is the normal phrase here.
Formally:
- сон is in the nominative case → typical subject form.
- радость is in the accusative case → typical direct object form.
The verb приносит (brings) is a transitive verb that usually has:
- a subject in the nominative (who/what brings?) → сон
- an object in the accusative (what is brought?) → радость
So the structure is:
- Хороший сон – subject (nominative)
- приносит – verb
- радость – direct object (accusative)
Word order in Russian is more flexible than in English, so case endings, not position, tell you who is doing what.
Some feminine nouns ending in a soft sign (-ь) have the same form in nominative and accusative in the singular.
Declension of радость (joy):
- Nominative: радость – joy (as subject)
- Accusative: радость – joy (as object)
The form itself doesn’t change, so you must rely on:
- The verb’s pattern (it expects a direct object), and
- The other noun clearly being in nominative (сон)
Together, that tells you радость is functioning as the direct object even though it looks the same as the nominative form.
Приносит is:
- From the verb приносить – to bring
- Aspect: imperfective
- Tense: present
- Person/number: 3rd person singular (he/she/it brings)
So хороший сон приносит радость = “good sleep brings joy (in general)”.
The aspect pair is:
- приносить (imperfective) – to be bringing / to bring generally
- принести (perfective) – to bring (as a single, completed act)
Example forms:
- Он приносит. – He brings / He is bringing.
- Он принесёт. – He will bring (once, completed).
- Он принёс. – He brought (completed in the past).
The sentence expresses a general truth / regular pattern, not a single one‑time action.
- приносит (imperfective present) is used for:
- general statements
- repeated actions
- timeless truths
For example:
- Смех приносит радость. – Laughter brings joy.
- Музыка успокаивает. – Music calms (people).
If you said принесёт, it would sound like a specific future event:
- После долгого дня хороший сон принесёт радость.
≈ After the long day (this one), a good sleep will bring joy (then).
That’s possible, but the original sentence is more like a general statement about life, so приносит is more appropriate.
Yes. Russian word order is flexible. Some common variants:
После долгого дня хороший сон приносит радость.
– Neutral, slightly emphasizing the time “after a long day.”Хороший сон после долгого дня приносит радость.
– Emphasizes хороший сон a bit more, then specifies “after a long day.”Хороший сон приносит радость после долгого дня.
– Slightly unusual, can sound like “it brings joy after a long day (as opposed to during it).”
All are grammatically correct; the main differences are in emphasis and rhythm, not in basic meaning. The original version is very natural.
Russian has no articles (a, an, the), so хороший сон can, in principle, correspond to:
- a good sleep
- good sleep
- the good sleep
The exact nuance comes from context, word order, and intention, not from a separate word.
In this sentence, it’s a general statement about what good sleep does. English normally expresses this as:
- “A good sleep brings joy,” or
- “Good sleep brings joy.”
Both are acceptable translations depending on style. Russian itself doesn’t mark that difference grammatically here.
- сон (sleep) is masculine.
- Many masculine nouns end in a consonant: дом, стол, сон.
- радость (joy) is feminine.
There are a few common feminine patterns:- Ending in -а / -я: книга, неделя
- Ending in a soft sign -ь and referring to an abstract thing: радость, любовь, ночь (these are usually feminine)
So in this sentence:
- хороший сон – masculine adjective + masculine noun
- радость – feminine noun in the accusative (same as nominative form)
Both can be related to time, but they work differently:
после = after (something has finished)
- после долгого дня – after a long day (when the day is over)
- после работы – after work
после always takes the genitive case.
через = in / after (a period of time) or through
- через час – in an hour / an hour from now
- через два дня – in two days
- через парк – through the park
In this sentence we’re talking about something that happens after the day is over, so после долгого дня is the correct choice.