Breakdown of Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый.
Questions & Answers about Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый.
In Russian, который is the standard relative pronoun for clauses like “the house that I see…”.
- который declines (changes form) for gender, number, and case, and it agrees with the noun it refers to: here it refers to дом (masculine, singular).
- что can introduce some kinds of clauses, but typically:
- after words like всё, то, то, что: То, что ты сказал, важно.
- in some more colloquial structures.
For a normal relative clause directly after a noun (the house that I see), который is the correct and neutral choice:
Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый.
Который is in the accusative masculine singular form.
- It refers to дом → masculine, singular.
- Inside the clause который я вижу из окна, the verb вижу (I see) takes its direct object in the accusative.
- So the relative pronoun must be in the accusative: который.
You can see the pattern:
- Nominative: который дом (which house) – subject
- Accusative: я вижу который дом (I see which house) – object
Even though we don’t say “который дом” in the sentence, grammatically который is standing in for дом as the object of вижу, so it must be accusative.
Both are possible, but the meaning structure is slightly different.
Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый.
- Literally: The house that I see from the window is old.
- Дом is the subject, старый is the predicative (part of the main sentence Дом старый = The house is old).
- The clause который я вижу из окна is additional information about дом.
Старый дом, который я вижу из окна…
- This sounds more like you are specifying which house: the old house that I see from the window (as opposed to some other house).
- Here старый is an attributive adjective attached to the noun: старый дом.
So:
- Старый дом, который я вижу из окна… = the old house (that I see…) – focus is on identifying which house.
- Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый. = the house that I see (from the window) is old – focus is on stating that this house is old.
In your sentence, старый is a predicate, which is why it naturally comes at the end.
Russian usually omits есть in simple present sentences like X is Y when Y is a noun or adjective:
- Дом старый. = The house is old.
- Она врач. = She is a doctor.
Using есть here would sound unusual or very emphatic:
- Дом старый. – normal
- Дом есть старый. – strange in modern Russian; can only work in very special emphatic or archaic-style contexts.
So the main clause is just Дом старый, and the relative clause который я вижу из окна is inserted in the middle and separated by commas.
The commas mark a non‑restrictive relative clause (an “extra” description), similar to English “The house, which I see from the window, is old.”
Structure:
- Main clause: Дом старый.
- Inserted relative clause: который я вижу из окна
In Russian:
- Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый.
The commas show that the middle part is a separate clause describing дом, not part of the core Дом старый structure.
If the clause were strictly identifying which house (restrictive use), punctuation could be a bit different in other contexts, but with this exact wording, native speakers naturally use commas here.
Yes, that’s grammatical and very natural Russian, and the basic meaning is the same:
- Я вижу дом из окна. Дом старый.
= I see a/the house from the window. The house is old.
The difference is stylistic:
- Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый. – one more complex sentence; sounds a bit more bookish or written.
- Я вижу дом из окна. Дом старый. – two simple sentences; more straightforward, conversational.
Both are fine; the complex sentence just packs everything into one structure using a relative clause.
Both из and с can translate as from, but they are used differently:
из = out of / from the inside of something (interior → outside)
- из дома – out of the house
- из окна – (looking) from the inside of the window / from the window opening
с = off / from the surface, top, or edge of something
- со стола – from (off) the table
- с крыши – from (off) the roof
When you look from a window, Russian usually conceptualizes that as from inside the window opening, so из окна is the normal phrase:
- Я вижу улицу из окна. – I see the street from the window.
С окна is possible in some contexts but tends to emphasize the surface/ledge/edge or is used in set phrases (and can also sound dialectal or poetic). For a learner, из окна is the safe and standard choice.
The preposition из in Russian always takes the genitive case.
- из дома (from the house) – дом → дома (genitive)
- из школы (from school) – школа → школы
- из окна (from the window) – окно → окна
Окно is a neuter noun:
- Nominative: окно
- Genitive: окна
So after из you must use окна, not окне.
Окне is the prepositional case (used after в, на, о in many situations): в окне, на окне, об окне.
Вижу comes from the imperfective verb видеть:
- я вижу – present tense, imperfective aspect = I see / I am seeing
Imperfective is used for:
- Current ongoing actions or states: Сейчас я вижу дом.
- General or repeated actions: Каждый день я вижу этот дом.
Увижу comes from the perfective увидеть:
- я увижу – future tense, perfective aspect = I will see (at some point)
In your sentence, you are describing what you see now when you look from the window, not a single future event of seeing. So:
- Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый. – natural and correct.
- Дом, который я увижу из окна, старый. – would imply the house that I will see from the window (in the future) is old.
Yes, that is grammatically possible and can sound natural in context:
- Дом, который вижу из окна, старый.
Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from the verb ending:
- Вижу дом. – I see a house.
- Читаю книгу. – I’m reading a book.
However:
- With a relative clause inside a longer sentence, many speakers will prefer to keep я for clarity and smoothness:
Дом, который я вижу из окна, старый. sounds slightly more neutral and clearer, especially for learners.
So: yes, you can drop я, but including it is safer and more typical for clear written Russian.
Который must agree with the noun it refers to (дом) in:
- Gender – masculine
- Number – singular
- Case – accusative (because it’s the object of вижу)
Дом is masculine singular, so:
- Masculine singular accusative: который
- Feminine singular accusative: которую (e.g. которую я вижу девушку)
- Neuter singular accusative: которое (e.g. которое я вижу здание)
- Plural accusative: которые (for inanimate nouns)
Since the noun is masculine (дом), you must use который, not которую or которое.
Stress and basic pronunciation:
дом – [dom]
- Single syllable, clear o (like “dome” but shorter, without an English glide).
который – [ka‑TO‑ryj]
- Stress on the second syllable: кото́рый
- Final й is like English y in “boy” but shorter.
я – [ya]
- Like “ya” in “yard”.
вижу – [VEE‑zhu]
- Stress on the first syllable: ви́жу
- ж like s in “measure”.
из – [ees] (quickly, often closer to [is])
- Unstressed и, shorter and weaker.
окна – [ak‑NA]
- Stress on the second syllable: окна́
- First о is unstressed, pronounced more like a short a.
старый – [STA‑ryj]
- Stress on ста́
- Final ый is roughly like a very short “iy” sound, not a full English vowel.
Full sentence with stress:
- До́м, кото́рый я ви́жу из окна́, ста́рый.