Breakdown of Продавец решил сделать скидку на этот телефон.
Questions & Answers about Продавец решил сделать скидку на этот телефон.
Решил is the past tense, masculine, perfective form of решить (to decide).
- Past tense: the decision was made in the past.
- Masculine: it agrees with продавец, which is grammatically masculine.
- Perfective aspect: the decision is seen as a completed, one‑time action, not a process.
Compare:
- Продавец решил… – The seller decided (once, finished decision).
- Продавец решал… – The seller was deciding / used to decide (process, not finished in itself; less natural here).
Both are possible, but they focus on different things:
Продавец решил сделать скидку…
Emphasis is on the decision to give a discount.Продавец сделал скидку…
Emphasis is on the fact that he actually gave the discount (the result).
In your sentence, the speaker wants to highlight that the seller came to the decision to discount this phone, not just that the discount already took place.
Yes, сделать скидку is a very common collocation in Russian. Literally it means to make a discount, but it corresponds to English to give a discount or to discount.
There are a few common variants with similar meaning:
- сделать скидку – very common, neutral.
- дать скидку – also very common, completely natural.
- снизить цену (на телефон) – to lower the price (on the phone); focuses on the price change, not the “discount” as such.
All of these can be used in shop contexts; сделать скидку and дать скидку are especially typical in everyday speech.
Скидку is the accusative singular form of the feminine noun скидка.
- Dictionary form (nominative): скидка
- Accusative singular (direct object): скидку
In the sentence, скидку is the direct object of the verb сделать:
- сделать что? → скидку
- Therefore we use the accusative case: скидку.
With discounts, Russian normally uses на + accusative to show what the discount applies to:
- скидка на этот телефон – a discount on this phone
- скидка на обувь – a discount on shoes
Other related patterns:
- телефон со скидкой – a phone with a discount
- телефон по скидочной цене – a phone at a discounted price
But if you want to say “a discount on X”, the standard pattern is:
скидка на + accusative
сделать/дать скидку на + accusative
Этот телефон is in the accusative case, because:
- The preposition на here means “on / for (applied to)” and
- with this meaning it governs the accusative.
Forms:
- Nominative: этот телефон
- Accusative (masculine inanimate): этот телефон (same form as nominative)
So you get:
- на этот телефон – onto / for this phone (target of the discount)
На этом телефоне would be prepositional case, and means “on this phone (physically, on its surface / as a location)”, which is not what we want here.
For masculine inanimate nouns like телефон, the accusative singular form = nominative singular form.
- Nominative: телефон
- Accusative: телефон
But for masculine animate nouns, the accusative equals the genitive:
- Nominative: продавец
- Accusative: продавца
So на этот телефон is already accusative, even though телефон looks just like the dictionary form.
Grammatically, продавец is masculine, so the “by‑the‑book” agreement is:
- Продавец решил…
In real speech, when everyone clearly knows the seller is female, many speakers use semantic agreement and say:
- Продавец решила сделать скидку…
Both can be heard.
If you want an explicitly feminine noun, you can say:
- Продавщица решила сделать скидку на этот телефон.
But in modern Russian, продавец for women is very common and often preferred in formal contexts.
Продавец is a general word for salesperson / shop assistant / seller.
- In a small shop: продавец is the person who helps you, shows goods, and often also takes payment.
- In a supermarket: the person at the till is more specifically кассир (cashier), but in everyday speech people might still loosely call them продавец.
Other related words:
- продавщица – specifically female seller; somewhat informal / old‑fashioned in some contexts.
- менеджер по продажам – sales manager; more businesslike, not used for a typical shop clerk.
In your sentence, продавец just means the store worker who can decide about giving a discount.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and these variants are grammatically correct:
- Продавец решил сделать скидку на этот телефон. (neutral, most natural)
- Продавец решил на этот телефон сделать скидку. (slight emphasis on this phone as the object of the decision)
- Скидку на этот телефон продавец решил сделать. (emphasis on the discount on this phone)
The main constraints:
- The finite verb решил usually stays close to продавец.
- The phrase скидку на этот телефон stays as a logical unit, but internal order (скидку на этот телефон vs на этот телефон скидку) can change for emphasis.
сделать скидку – perfective; one complete act of giving a discount.
- Продавец решил сделать скидку. – He decided to give a (one‑time) discount.
делать скидку – imperfective; process, repeated or usual action.
- В этом магазине часто делают скидку. – In this shop they often give discounts.
- Он любит делать скидку постоянным клиентам. – He likes giving discounts to regular customers.
In your sentence, we are talking about one specific decision to give a specific discount, so the perfective сделать is appropriate.
Stresses:
- Продаве́ц – pro‑da‑VETS (stress on the last syllable)
- реши́л – re‑SHEEL
- сде́лать – SDYEH‑lat’ (stress on the first syllable)
- ски́дку – SKEED‑koo
- на – na (unstressed, short)
- э́тот – EH‑tat
- телеfóн – tee‑lee‑FON
Full sentence (stressed vowels marked with ´):
Продаве́ц реши́л сде́лать ски́дку на э́тот телефо́н.
Natural speech will also slightly emphasize the key information word, often ски́дку or телефо́н, depending on context.