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Психолог говорит тихо, но задаёт очень простые вопросы, и у нас получается честный диалог.

Психолог говорит тихо, но задаёт очень простые вопросы, и у нас получается честный диалог.
The psychologist speaks quietly but asks very simple questions, and we manage to have an honest dialogue.

Breakdown of Психолог говорит тихо, но задаёт очень простые вопросы, и у нас получается честный диалог.

говорить
to speak
тихо
quietly
и
and
мы
we
вопрос
the question
но
but
очень
very
простой
simple
задавать
to ask
получаться
to manage
честный
honest
психолог
the psychologist
диалог
the dialogue
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Questions & Answers about Психолог говорит тихо, но задаёт очень простые вопросы, и у нас получается честный диалог.

Why is it говорит тихо and not говорит тихий or говорит тихим голосом?

In Russian you normally use an adverb (answering “how?”) with говорить:

  • говорить тихо – “to speak quietly” (how does the person speak? quietly).

Using an adjective like тихий would describe a noun, not the verb:

  • тихий голос – “a quiet voice”
  • Он говорит тихим голосом – “He speaks in a quiet voice.”

So the options are:

  • Он говорит тихо. – absolutely natural and common.
  • Он говорит тихим голосом. – also correct, but a bit more descriptive/explicit.

Он говорит тихий is simply ungrammatical, because тихий must modify a noun, not the verb говорит.

Can I say тихо говорит психолог instead of Психолог говорит тихо? Does the word order change the meaning?

Both are grammatical, but the focus changes slightly:

  • Психолог говорит тихо. – neutral statement. Subject (психолог) first, then what he does and how.
  • Тихо говорит психолог. – puts extra emphasis on тихо (“quietly is how the psychologist speaks”), often used for stylistic or rhythmic reasons, e.g. in narration.

The basic meaning is the same. For a learner, the safest and most neutral order is Психолог говорит тихо.

What is the difference between задаёт вопросы and спрашивает? Both seem to mean “asks”.

Both relate to “asking,” but they’re used a bit differently:

  • задавать вопросы literally “to pose questions”

    • Focuses on the act of formulating and putting questions.
    • Sounds a bit more formal/neutral.
    • Often used about professionals, interviews, exams:
      • Учитель задаёт вопросы. – The teacher asks questions.

  • спрашивать – “to ask (someone)” (for information)

    • Typically followed by a person or information:
      • Он спрашивает психолога. – He asks the psychologist.
      • Он спрашивает, почему… – He asks why…

In this sentence, задаёт очень простые вопросы fits well because we’re talking specifically about the questions the psychologist is formulating, not just the act of asking in general.

Why is it очень простые вопросы and not something like простые очень вопросы?

Russian has a preferred order for multiple modifiers:

  1. Degree adverb (очень)
  2. Adjective (простые)
  3. Noun (вопросы)

So the natural order is:

  • очень простые вопросы

The version простые очень вопросы is grammatically possible but sounds stylistically awkward and marked; it would be used only in very special, expressive contexts. In normal speech/writing, use очень простые вопросы.

Why is вопросы in that form? Which case is it, and why?

вопросы here is accusative plural of вопрос (question).

  • Singular:
    • Nominative: вопрос
    • Accusative: вопрос (same form for inanimate nouns)
  • Plural:
    • Nominative: вопросы
    • Accusative: вопросы (again, same for inanimate nouns)

After a transitive verb like задаёт (asks/poses), its direct object takes the accusative:

  • задаёт (что?) вопросы – asks questions.

It happens that for inanimate masculine nouns, nominative plural = accusative plural, which is why the form looks the same.

Why is it у нас получается честный диалог instead of something like мы получаем честный диалог or мы имеем честный диалог?

У нас получается is a very natural Russian structure that doesn’t translate literally:

  • у нас получается = “for us it turns out / we manage / we end up having”.

Breaking it down:

  • получаться – to turn out, to work out, to succeed (impersonal/neutral)
  • у нас – “with us / for us / on our side”

So у нас получается честный диалог ~ “we manage to have an honest dialogue / we end up with an honest dialogue.”

Phrases like мы получаем честный диалог or мы имеем честный диалог sound unnatural here. иметь is rarely used in the sense of “to have” in such abstract contexts; получаться is the idiomatic choice.

What exactly does получается mean here, and what is the infinitive?

The infinitive is получаться.

Core meanings:

  1. to turn out, to come out (in a certain way)

    • У нас всё получается. – Everything is working out for us.

  2. to be the result / to result in

    • Получается, что он был прав. – It turns out that he was right.

In this sentence:

  • у нас получается честный диалог
    – “an honest dialogue results/comes out for us,”
    – idiomatically: “we end up having an honest dialogue / we manage to have an honest dialogue.”

So получается here expresses the idea of successful outcome, not “receiving” something.

Why is получается in the 3rd person singular neuter if the sentence is about “us” (у нас)?

This is a common Russian impersonal/experiencer construction:

  • у кого?
    • 3rd person singular verb

Examples:

  • У меня болит голова. – My head hurts. (literally: “At me hurts head.”)
  • У нас всё получается. – Everything works out for us.

In у нас получается честный диалог:

  • у нас – “with us / for us” (experiencer)
  • получается – 3rd person singular, agreeing with the “situation”/result, not directly with мы
  • честный диалог – what is turning out / working out.

You can think of it as:
(It) turns out (for us) to be an honest dialogue.

So the grammar doesn’t match мы directly; it follows an impersonal pattern native to Russian.

Why is it честный диалог and not откровенный разговор? What’s the nuance?

Both pairs are close but not identical:

  • честный диалог

    • честный – honest, truthful, fair
    • диалог – dialogue, two-way exchange
    • Focus: truthfulness and sincerity within a balanced conversation.

  • откровенный разговор

    • откровенный – frank, candid, open (often emotionally)
    • разговор – talk, conversation (more general)
    • Focus: frankness and emotional openness, possibly “heart-to-heart.”

In a therapy context:

  • честный диалог emphasizes that both sides are honest and not hiding the truth.
  • откровенный разговор emphasizes a very open, possibly intimate or deep, emotional talk.

Both could be used, but честный диалог highlights the honesty and balance of the interaction.

Why are there commas before но and before и? How is the sentence structured?

The sentence has three coordinated clauses:

  1. Психолог говорит тихо – The psychologist speaks quietly,
  2. но задаёт очень простые вопросы – but asks very simple questions,
  3. и у нас получается честный диалог – and we end up with an honest dialogue.

Commas:

  • ..., но ... – In Russian, но (but) almost always joins two clauses with a comma before it.
  • ..., и ... – и (and) also takes a comma when it joins clauses, not just single words.

So:

  • Психолог говорит тихо, (clause 1)
  • но задаёт очень простые вопросы, (clause 2)
  • и у нас получается честный диалог. (clause 3)

Hence the commas before но and и.

Why is задаёт written with ё? Can it be задает? And where is the stress?

The correct stressed vowel is ё:

  • задаёт – pronounced зада*йо́т* [zə-da-YÓT].

Rules:

  • ё always indicates stress and is pronounced /jo/ (like “yo”).
  • In many printed texts, ё is replaced with е (задает), but the pronunciation remains [йо] and the stress stays on that syllable.

For learners, it’s safer to write ё:

  • задаёт – more learner-friendly and unambiguous.

In this sentence, main stress in задаёт is on the last syllable: -ёт.

Where is the stress in психолог, тихо, and получается?

Stresses:

  • психолог – психо́лог (stress on хо)
  • тихо – ти́хо (stress on ти)
  • получается – получа́ется (stress on ча)

Full pronunciation guide:

  • психолог – [пси-ХО-лог]
  • тихо – [ТИ-хо]
  • получается – [па-лу-ЧА-е-ца]

Remember that получается has the stress on ча, not on the last syllable.

Is психолог grammatically masculine? What if the psychologist is a woman?

Психолог is a grammatically masculine noun:

  • Этот психолог говорит тихо.
  • Past tense (if you add it) would be masculine:
    • Психолог говорил тихо.

In real life, it can refer to both male and female psychologists. If you need to make the gender explicit:

  • женщина-психолог – a female psychologist
  • мой психолог / моя психолог – in practice, some speakers say моя психолог (treating it as feminine in agreement), but the noun itself stays in the masculine form.

In this sentence, gender is not specified; context would tell you whether the psychologist is male or female.