Breakdown of Иногда домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок.
Questions & Answers about Иногда домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок.
Both домашнее задание and урок are in the nominative singular:
- домашнее задание – nominative singular neuter
- урок – nominative singular masculine
In this sentence, домашнее задание is the subject (“homework”), and everything after it is the predicate:
- домашнее задание (что?) – subject
- сложнее, чем урок – compound nominal predicate (“is more difficult than the lesson”)
The word урок is nominative because, after чем, Russian typically uses the same case as the item you are comparing to (and here that’s nominative).
In Russian, домашнее задание is a countable noun phrase and is normally used in the singular to mean “(a) homework assignment” or “homework.”
- домашнее – an adjective meaning home / domestic in neuter singular form
- задание – a countable noun, assignment / task
So literally, домашнее задание = a home assignment.
Russian doesn’t have a single uncountable noun that matches English homework exactly; instead it uses this countable phrase. The singular here expresses the general idea of “the homework (for today/this lesson)” rather than many individual tasks.
Домашнее is an adjective that modifies задание:
- The base form is дома́шний (home, domestic).
- задание is neuter singular (оно).
- Adjectives in Russian must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
So we get:
- masculine: дома́шний (e.g. дома́шний кот – pet cat)
- feminine: дома́шняя
- neuter: дома́шнее → used here because задание is neuter
- plural: дома́шние
That’s why the phrase is дома́шнее зада́ние, not дома́шний задание or дома́шняя задание.
Сложнее is the comparative form of the adjective сло́жный (complex / difficult).
- base adjective: сло́жный
- comparative: сложне́е
This is the regular synthetic comparative:
- сло́жный → сложне́е
- meaning: more difficult / harder
You could also say:
- более сло́жное (домашнее задание) – more difficult homework
But in everyday speech, the short comparative сложне́е is much more natural.
Formally, Russian grammars treat comparative forms like сложне́е as a special class (comparative degree), but functionally here it behaves like an adjective in the predicate:
- It describes домашнее задание (the homework).
- It is part of the predicate: домашнее задание (есть) сложнее...
So practically, you can think of it as “the homework is more difficult,” i.e. a predicate adjective.
Чем in this sentence means than in a comparison:
- сложнее, чем урок – more difficult than the lesson
There are two main patterns for comparisons in Russian:
- With чем:
- домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок
- With the genitive case (without чем):
- домашнее задание сложнее уро́ка
Both are correct and mean the same thing:
- сложнее, чем урок – literally “more difficult than the lesson”
- сложнее урока – literally “more difficult (than) of the lesson”
Using чем tends to sound a bit more explicit and is very common in modern speech and writing.
The comma is there because чем introduces a comparison clause/turn:
- сложнее, чем урок
In school-style punctuation rules, when you have a comparative with чем introducing a separate comparison (sometimes felt as a small clause), you usually put a comma:
- Это проще, чем кажется. – This is simpler than it seems.
- Домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок. – Homework is harder than the lesson.
In short: сложнее and чем урок are divided by a comma in standard writing.
Russian often omits the verb “to be” (быть) in the present tense.
English:
- Sometimes homework is harder than the lesson.
Russian literally:
- Иногда домашнее задание (есть) сложнее, чем урок.
The есть (“is”) is understood but not written or said. This is completely normal in Russian for present-tense sentences like:
- Он студент. – He (is) a student.
- Книга интересная. – The book (is) interesting.
If you want to, you can add бывает to emphasize that this happens sometimes:
- Иногда домашнее задание бывает сложнее, чем урок.
“Sometimes the homework turns out to be harder than the lesson.”
Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are possible, with only slight differences in emphasis:
Иногда домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок.
Neutral: sometimes the homework is harder than the lesson.Домашнее задание иногда сложнее, чем урок.
Emphasizes “the homework,” then notes that sometimes it’s harder.Домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок, иногда.
Possible, but sounds stylistically odd; иногда almost always goes at the beginning or just before the predicate.Иногда урок сложнее, чем домашнее задание.
Now the meaning changes: sometimes the lesson is harder than the homework.
Word order doesn’t usually change the basic grammar (subject, case, etc.) but it can change what is emphasized or what is contrasted.
Иногда means sometimes / occasionally.
Position in the sentence:
- Most common and neutral: at the beginning
- Иногда домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок.
- Also natural: before the predicate (verb or main adjective)
- Домашнее задание иногда сложнее, чем урок.
Less natural positions (especially at the very end) can sound stylistically marked or clumsy:
- Домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок, иногда. – possible, but awkward.
So, the original sentence uses the most natural placement: Иногда at the beginning.
Russian has no articles, so урок by itself is neither strictly “a lesson” nor “the lesson.” The exact English translation (a/the) depends on context.
In this sentence, natural English is:
- Sometimes homework is harder than the lesson.
(i.e. the class you just had, or the current lesson)
But depending on context it could also be:
- Sometimes homework is harder than the lesson itself.
- Sometimes homework is harder than class.
Russian leaves that nuance to context, intonation, and what the speakers already know.
Yes, you can say:
- Иногда домашнее задание труднее, чем урок.
Both сложнее and труднее are comparative forms:
- сложне́е ← сло́жный – complex / difficult (in structure, confusing, not simple)
- трудне́е ← тру́дный – hard / difficult (requires effort, demanding)
In many contexts they overlap and can both just mean “harder”. Possible nuance:
- сложнее – emphasizes complexity, many parts, not easy to understand.
- труднее – emphasizes difficulty in doing it, more effort, more work.
In everyday talk about schoolwork, they are often interchangeable.
Both are correct and mean essentially the same thing:
Иногда домашнее задание сложнее, чем урок.
- Uses чем
- nominative (урок).
- Very common and slightly more conversational/neutral.
- Uses чем
Иногда домашнее задание сложнее урока.
- Uses genitive (урока) after the comparative.
- Feels a bit more compact; still normal in modern Russian.
Subtle points:
- With чем it is always clear you have a comparison.
- With the genitive, the comparison is still clear because of the comparative form, but the structure is tighter and slightly more formal in some styles.
Both are valid choices in standard Russian.