Questions & Answers about Мой спокойный друг читает книгу дома.
Why is there no word like is in this Russian sentence?
Russian usually drops the verb “to be” in the present tense when it just links a subject and a description.
- In English you say: My friend is calm.
- In Russian that would be: Мой друг спокойный. (literally: My friend calm.)
In your sentence, we don’t need “is” because читаeт already provides the verb:
Мой спокойный друг читает книгу дома.
literally: My calm friend reads a book at home.
So you never put a separate word for “is / am / are” in simple present statements like this. It appears in the past and future (e.g. был, будет), but not in the present.
Why is it мой спокойный друг, and not моя спокойный друг or мой спокойная друг?