Breakdown of Я случайно проглотил горькую таблетку.
я
I
случайно
accidentally
таблетка
the pill
горький
bitter
Questions & Answers about Я случайно проглотил горькую таблетку.
What form of the verb is проглотил, and how would the sentence change if the speaker were female or if there were several people?
Проглотил is the masculine singular past tense, perfective form of проглотить (to swallow down).
Russian past tense agrees with the gender and number of the subject:
- Masculine singular: я случайно проглотил горькую таблетку (man speaking)
- Feminine singular: я случайно проглотила горькую таблетку (woman speaking)
- Neuter singular (for neuter subjects): лекарство случайно проглотило таблетку (artificial example)
- Plural (any gender mix):
- мы случайно проглотили горькую таблетку – we accidentally swallowed a bitter pill
- они случайно проглотили горькую таблетку – they accidentally swallowed a bitter pill
Why is it таблетку and not таблетка?
Таблетка is the nominative form (dictionary form), used for the subject of the sentence.
Here, таблетку is the direct object of the verb проглотил, so it must be in the accusative case.
For feminine nouns ending in -а in the nominative, the accusative singular usually changes -а → -у:
- Nominative (subject): Таблетка горькая. – The pill is bitter.
- Accusative (object): Я проглотил таблетку. – I swallowed a pill.
So таблетка → таблетку because it is what was swallowed.