Breakdown of Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю.
мой
my
брат
the brother
рассказывать
to tell
история
the story
Questions & Answers about Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю.
What case is мой брат in, and why?
Мой брат is in the nominative case.
- Мой – nominative masculine singular form of мой (my)
- брат – nominative masculine singular (dictionary form)
Russian uses the nominative case for the subject of the sentence – the person or thing performing the action. Here, мой брат is the one doing the action of telling, so it must be nominative.
What case is смешную историю, and why do both words change their endings?
Смешную историю is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb – the thing being told.
- смешную – accusative feminine singular of the adjective смешной (funny)
- историю – accusative feminine singular of the noun история (story)
In Russian, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:
- gender (feminine here),
- number (singular),
- case (accusative).
So both the adjective and the noun change their endings to show they are feminine, singular, and accusative.
Why is it рассказывает and not говорит or скажет?