Доверие важно в дружбе.

Trust is important in friendship.

Breakdown of Доверие важно в дружбе.

• в: in
• важный: important
• дружба: the friendship
• доверие: the trust

Questions & Answers about Доверие важно в дружбе.

Why is доверие treated as neuter, and how can I tell its gender?

Доверие is a neuter noun. You can tell mainly by its ending and by dictionary form:

• Many abstract nouns ending in -ие (e.g. счастье, терпение, доверие) are neuter.
• In the dictionary, доверие will be marked as ср. (средний род = neuter).

So the subject доверие is neuter singular in the nominative case, and the rest of the sentence (the short-form adjective важно) agrees with that gender and number.

Why is it важно and not важна, важен, or важное?

Важен / важна / важно / важны are short-form adjectives used in the predicate (after the subject) to say something is important.

They must agree with the gender and number of the subject:

• masculine: Он важен.
• feminine: Она важна.
• neuter: Оно важно.
• plural: Они важны.

Since доверие is neuter, the correct form is важно:
Доверие (оно) важно.

Важное is the long-form neuter adjective (used before a noun: важное правило), not the form you want in this sentence.

Is важно an adjective or an adverb here?

Here важно is a short-form predicate adjective, not an adverb.

• As a short-form adjective, it tells us what trust is: trust is important.
• An adverb would modify a verb (e.g. He works importantly), which is not the case here.

In grammar books you’ll often see forms like нужно, можно, важно, трудно called predicative words or short-form adjectives when they function like this.

Why is there no word for “is”? Why isn’t it доверие есть важно?

In Russian, the verb быть (to be) in the present tense is usually omitted when you say “X is Y”.

So instead of:

• Доверие есть важно в дружбе. ❌ (sounds wrong/foreign)

You simply say:

• Доверие важно в дружбе. ✅

In the past or future, the verb appears:

• Доверие было важно в дружбе. – Trust was important in friendship.
• Доверие будет важно в дружбе. – Trust will be important in friendship.

What case is доверие in, and what is its role in the sentence?

Доверие is in the nominative singular (basic dictionary form).

In this sentence it is the subject: it is the thing about which we’re making a statement.

Structure:

• Доверие – subject (nominative)
• важно – predicate (short-form adjective: “is important”)
• в дружбе – prepositional phrase giving context (“in friendship”).

Why is it в дружбе and not в дружба?

Дружба is a feminine noun:

• Nominative singular: дружба
• Prepositional singular: (о) дружбе

After the preposition в (in), when we talk about a state or sphere (not physical motion), we use the prepositional case:

• в дружбе – “in friendship”, “in the context of friendship”

So дружба → в дружбе follows the normal pattern for feminine -а nouns.

Why do we use в дружбе, not для дружбы? What’s the difference?

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

• Доверие важно в дружбе.
  Focus: Within friendship, in that relationship, trust is important.
  It describes what is important inside the sphere of friendship.

• Доверие важно для дружбы.
  Focus: For friendship to exist or succeed, trust is important.
  It sounds more like “trust is important for friendship (it helps create or maintain it).”

Both are natural, but в дружбе emphasizes the context/sphere, while для дружбы emphasizes purpose/benefit.

Can I change the word order to В дружбе важно доверие? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

• В дружбе важно доверие. ✅

The basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis shifts:

• Доверие важно в дружбе.
  Topic: доверие (trust). You are talking about trust, saying that it is important in friendship.

• В дружбе важно доверие.
  Topic: в дружбе (in friendship). You are talking about friendship, and specifying what is important in it – доверие.

Both are correct. Russian uses word order to indicate information structure and emphasis more than English does.

Could I just say Доверие важно without в дружбе?

Yes, absolutely:

• Доверие важно. – “Trust is important.”

This is a general statement about trust, without specifying where or in what context.

Adding в дружбе restricts the statement to the context of friendship: Trust is important specifically in friendship.

Can I say важна instead of важно if I want to emphasize something?

No. Важна is the feminine short form and would only be used with a feminine subject:

• Дружба важна. – Friendship is important. (feminine noun → важна)

Since доверие is neuter, the only correct short form is важно. Changing to важна would be a grammatical error, not a change of emphasis.

How do you pronounce the words доверие, важно, and дружбе? Where is the stress?

Stress and syllables:

• доверие – доверие
  IPA: [dɐˈvʲerʲɪjɪ]
  Stress on the second syllable: до-ВЕ-ри-е.

• важно – важно
  IPA: [ˈvaʐnə]
  Stress on the first syllable: ВАЖ-но.

• дружбе – дружбе
  IPA: [ˈdruʐbʲe]
  Stress on the first syllable: ДРУЖ-бе.

Is the dash (—) ever used here, like Доверие — важно в дружбе?

You may sometimes see a dash in similar sentences, but in this specific case it is not necessary and usually not used:

• Доверие важно в дружбе. – normal, neutral.

A dash is often used:

• to emphasize the contrast between subject and predicate, or
• when the predicate is a noun or a long phrase.

With a predicative adjective like важно, especially a short one, native speakers typically omit the dash. You could write Доверие — важно в дружбе for extra expressive emphasis, but it will look stylistically marked and is not the neutral default.