Breakdown of Ребёнок рисует пальцем на запотевшем окне смешное лицо.
Questions & Answers about Ребёнок рисует пальцем на запотевшем окне смешное лицо.
Пальцем is in the instrumental case (singular).
In Russian, the instrumental is used after many verbs to show the means or instrument by which an action is done:
- писать ручкой – to write with a pen
- есть ложкой – to eat with a spoon
- рисовать пальцем – to draw with a finger
So пальцем answers the question чем? (with what?) and tells us how the child is drawing: with a finger.
Yes, you can say пальцами, and it is also grammatically correct (instrumental plural).
The nuance is:
- пальцем – with one finger (that’s the picture most people imagine: tracing with one finger)
- пальцами – with several fingers at once, or more vaguely “with (his) fingers”
In practice, people usually say рисует пальцем when describing this kind of simple drawing on a window.
Окне is the prepositional case of окно (window).
The preposition на can take either accusative or prepositional:
- на + accusative – direction, movement onto something
- Он встал на стул. – He stood onto the chair.
- на + prepositional – location, being on a surface or in a place
- Книга лежит на столе. – The book is on the table.
With рисовать на (чём?) (“to draw on something”), Russian uses на + prepositional to express the surface where the drawing is:
- рисовать на бумаге, на стене, на доске, на окне
So we get на запотевшем окне – on the steamed‑up window.
Запотевшем is a past active participle from the verb запотеть (“to mist up, to get fogged up”). Here it functions like an adjective describing the window.
It agrees with окне in gender, number, and case:
- окно – neuter singular noun
- prepositional singular: окне
- запотевший – full form of the participle (like an adjective)
- prepositional singular masculine/neuter: запотевшем
So: на запотевшем окне = on the steamed-up window.
Grammatically, it’s the same structure as на старом окне (“on the old window”).
They are in different cases:
смешное is nominative/accusative neuter singular (from смешной – funny).
It agrees with лицо (face), which is neuter: смешное лицо.запотевшем is prepositional masculine/neuter singular (from запотевший).
It agrees with окне (prepositional case): на запотевшем окне.
So:
- Neuter nominative/accusative adjective: смешное окно, смешное лицо
- Neuter/masculine prepositional adjective: о смешном лице, на смешном окне, на запотевшем окне
Different endings because they are in different cases, describing different nouns.
Лицо is in the accusative case, used for the direct object of the verb:
- Кто? Что? (who/what?) – лицо (nominative)
- Кого? Что? (whom/what?) – лицо (accusative, inanimate neuter = same form)
The verb рисует (is drawing) takes a direct object: что? – лицо (what is (s)he drawing? – a face).
So смешное лицо is the thing being drawn, hence the accusative.
Рисует is present tense, imperfective aspect of рисовать.
Imperfective in the present can express both:
- a current ongoing action – The child is drawing…
- a habitual action – The child draws… (regularly)
Russian doesn’t have a separate continuous form like English is drawing. Context decides which English translation is better. In this specific sentence (with a lot of concrete detail), English speakers would usually understand it as is drawing.
If you used the perfective future нарисует, it would mean will draw (and finish drawing).
In this context, no, that would sound unnatural.
With рисовать, Russian uses на + prepositional to talk about the surface on which something is drawn:
- рисовать на бумаге, на стене, на доске, на окне
Using на + accusative (на запотевшее окно) would suggest movement onto the window, as if the face itself is moving to the window, not being drawn on it. So for drawing, you say:
- рисует на запотевшем окне – correct, means draws on the steamed-up window.
Yes, you can change the word order. Russian word order is fairly flexible, and all these are grammatically correct:
- Ребёнок рисует пальцем на запотевшем окне смешное лицо.
- Ребёнок рисует на запотевшем окне пальцем смешное лицо.
- На запотевшем окне ребёнок рисует пальцем смешное лицо.
The basic meaning stays the same. What changes is the focus:
- Starting with Ребёнок… – neutral; focus on who is acting.
- Starting with На запотевшем окне… – emphasizes the location: On the steamed-up window, the child…
All parts still play their same grammatical roles regardless of position.
Ребёнок is grammatically masculine, even though it can refer to a child of either sex.
Some key points:
- Singular:
- nominative: ребёнок
- accusative: ребёнка
- genitive: ребёнка
- Plural:
- nominative: дети (irregular)
- accusative: детей
- genitive: детей
So you say:
- Этот ребёнок рисует… – This child is drawing… (masculine этот)
- Маленький ребёнок – little child (masculine adjective)
In your sentence, Ребёнок рисует… agrees with a masculine subject, but it doesn’t tell you whether the child is a boy or girl; that comes from context, if needed.
The letter ё is pronounced [yo]. The word ребёнок is pronounced [rebrok] (re-BYOnok).
In careful or educational texts, ё is often written explicitly, as in your sentence. However, in many printed Russian texts, ё is replaced with е, so you might see:
- ребенок instead of ребёнок
The pronunciation stays [yo]; native speakers know this from experience and stress patterns. For learners, it’s safer to write and learn forms with ё, especially at the beginning.
Смешной mainly means:
funny / amusing – makes you want to laugh
- смешной фильм – a funny movie
- смешное лицо – a funny-looking face, a face that makes you smile or laugh
Sometimes: ridiculous / absurd (in a slightly negative sense), depending on context
- смешная зарплата – ridiculously low salary
In this sentence, смешное лицо most naturally means a playful, amusing face the child is drawing.
Another common word is забавный (amusing, cute-funny), which is often softer and more positive. But смешное лицо is the usual, natural phrase here.
Yes, Ребёнок пальцем рисует на запотевшем окне смешное лицо is also correct.
Placing пальцем right after Ребёнок slightly emphasizes how the child is doing it:
- Ребёнок рисует пальцем… – neutral, standard
- Ребёнок пальцем рисует… – a bit more focus on with a finger (as opposed to, say, with a marker)
Grammatically it doesn’t change anything; it is still instrumental case indicating the means of the action.
Yes, you can say пальчиком. It is the diminutive form of палец:
- палец – finger
- пальчик – little finger / cute way to say “finger”
So:
- рисует пальцем – neutral, factual
- рисует пальчиком – sounds more affectionate, childlike, or cute, fitting if you want to emphasize how small and sweet the child is.
Both are grammatically correct (instrumental singular) and mean with a finger; the difference is stylistic and emotional.