Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.

The child likes to dip bread into the soup.

Breakdown of Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.

• любить: to love
• суп: the soup
• хлеб: the bread
• ребёнок: the child
• в: into
• макать: to dip

Questions & Answers about Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.

What case is Ребёнок in, and how do I know it is the subject of the sentence?

Ребёнок is in the nominative singular case.

In a simple Russian sentence, the subject is normally:

• in the nominative case
• placed near the beginning of the sentence
• the word the verb agrees with in number (singular/plural)

Here:

• Ребёнок – nominative singular
• любит – 3rd person singular verb
• word order: Ребёнок (subject) + любит (verb) + макать хлеб в суп (what he likes to do)

So Ребёнок must be the subject: The child likes…

Why is there no word for a / the before ребёнок, хлеб, and суп?

Russian has no articles (no a/an, no the).

Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context, word order, and sometimes stress/intonation, not from a separate word.

So:

• Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.
  can be translated as:
  • The child likes to dip bread into soup.
  • A child likes to dip bread into soup.
  • The child likes dipping the bread into the soup.

English has to choose an article; Russian simply does not mark this grammatically.

Why is макать in the infinitive, and what does любить + infinitive mean?

Макать is in the infinitive form (to dip).

The structure любить + infinitive means “to like doing something / to love doing something” in general:

• люблю читать – I like to read / I like reading
• он любит плавать – he likes swimming / to swim
• Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп – the child likes to dip bread into soup

Russian does not use an -ing form like English (dipping); the infinitive covers both to dip and dipping here.

What case is хлеб in, and why does it look like the nominative?

Хлеб here is in the accusative singular, because it is the direct object of макать (what is being dipped).

For inanimate masculine nouns like хлеб, the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative:

• nominative: хлеб – bread
• accusative: хлеб – (to dip) bread

So even though the word looks like nominative, its role in the sentence (what is being dipped) tells you it is in the accusative case.

Why is it в суп and not в супе?

The preposition в can take either accusative or prepositional, with different meanings:

• в + accusative → motion into something
  
  • в суп – into the soup
  • идти в школу – to go to school
• в + prepositional → location in something
  
  • в супе – in the soup
  • в школе – in (at) school

In макать хлеб в суп, there is motion into the soup, so Russian uses в + accusative: в суп.

Is макать imperfective or perfective, and could I use макнуть here?

Макать is imperfective. Its common perfective partner is макнуть.

• макать – to dip (habitually, repeatedly, or as a process)
• макнуть – to dip once / to give a single dip

In this sentence, the meaning is a habitual action (what the child generally likes to do), so имperfective макать is correct:

• Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп. – The child likes (in general) to dip bread into soup.

If you said:

• Ребёнок макнул хлеб в суп. – The child dipped the bread into the soup (once, completed action).

Using макнуть with любит (Ребёнок любит макнуть хлеб в суп) would sound odd or at least stylistically marked, because любить usually goes with imperfective infinitives for general likes/habits.

Can I change the word order, for example: Ребёнок любит хлеб макать в суп or Ребёнок любит в суп макать хлеб?

Russian word order is more flexible than English, but not all orders sound equally natural.

The most natural here is:

• Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.

These are possible but sound more colloquial or emphasize different parts:

• Ребёнок любит хлеб макать в суп. – slight emphasis on хлеб.
• Ребёнок любит в суп макать хлеб. – emphasis on в суп (what he dips the bread into).

But something like:

• Ребёнок макать хлеб в суп любит.

is unusual and would require special intonation for contrastive emphasis. For learners, stick with the original standard order.

Is Ребёнок grammatically masculine, and can it refer to both boys and girls?

Yes:

• Ребёнок is grammatically masculine (you can tell from the typical masculine ending and from forms like маленький ребёнок – little child).
• But it can refer to a child of any sex.

So grammatically:

• Pronoun: usually он
• Past tense: Ребёнок любил макать хлеб в суп. (masculine form of the verb)

In context, you might know it’s a girl, but the grammar will usually still be masculine, unless the speaker immediately switches to она and feminine past (which sometimes happens in informal speech if the sex is clear).

Could I use нравиться instead of любить, like Ребёнку нравится макать хлеб в суп? What is the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп.
• Ребёнку нравится макать хлеб в суп.

They are close in meaning but not identical.

1. любить + infinitive

   • more direct, slightly stronger: “to love / like doing something”
   • focuses on the person’s habit or preference
   • structure: [subject in nominative] + любить + infinitive

2. нравиться + infinitive (or noun)

   • literally: “to be pleasing to” someone
   • more neutral/polite, and grammatically “backwards”:
     • Ребёнку (to the child, dative)
     • нравится (is pleasing)
     • макать хлеб в суп (to dip bread into soup)

Both are correct; любить + infinitive is often simpler for learners to start using actively.

Is макать used only with bread and soup, or more generally?

Макать is a general verb for dipping something into a liquid or sauce, often briefly, before eating:

• макать хлеб в соус – to dip bread into sauce
• макать печенье в чай – to dip a cookie into tea
• макать кисть в краску – to dip a brush into paint

So in Ребёнок любит макать хлеб в суп, макать keeps its general meaning to dip, just in a food context.