Questions & Answers about Деревья раскачиваются от ветра.
Деревья is the nominative plural of дерево (tree).
- Singular:
- дерево – a tree (nominative singular)
- Plural:
- деревья – trees (nominative plural)
Many neuter nouns ending in -о form an irregular plural, and дерево → деревья is one of those irregular patterns.
You use the nominative plural here because деревья is the subject of the sentence: the trees are doing the action (they are swaying).
Раскачиваются is:
- 3rd person plural (они – they)
- Present tense
- Imperfective aspect
- Reflexive (-ся / -сь verb)
Full infinitive: раскачиваться – to sway, to swing, to rock (back and forth).
So деревья раскачиваются literally:
- они раскачиваются – they sway / are swaying.
The -ся ending makes the verb reflexive: раскачиваться instead of раскачивать.
Here, reflexive has a more “middle voice” or intransitive meaning, not truly “the trees are swaying themselves” on purpose. It often:
- Emphasizes that the subject is changing its own state or moving by itself
- Removes an explicit external agent from the verb
Compare:
- Ветер раскачивает деревья. – The wind rocks the trees.
- раскачивает = non‑reflexive, transitive (wind does something to trees)
- Деревья раскачиваются от ветра. – The trees are swaying from the wind.
- раскачиваются = reflexive/intransitive (trees are in a swaying state, caused by the wind)
So -ся here makes the verb describe the trees’ state/behavior, not a direct action on an object.
Both verbs are possible, but they have slightly different nuances.
- качаться – to swing, to sway, to rock (basic verb)
- раскачиваться – to start swaying and continue / to sway noticeably or intensively
In practice:
- Деревья качаются от ветра. – The trees are swaying from the wind.
- Деревья раскачиваются от ветра. – The trees are rocking / swinging back and forth from the wind (often feels a bit more vivid / noticeable).
The difference is subtle, and in everyday speech many people would use them almost interchangeably here.
Ветра is the genitive singular form of ветер (wind).
- Nominative singular: ветер – the wind
- Genitive singular: ветра – of the wind
The preposition от always requires the genitive case. So you must say:
- от ветра – from the wind / because of the wind
You could never say от ветер, because ветер is nominative, and от does not take nominative.
От here expresses cause or source:
- от ветра ≈ from the wind / because of the wind / due to the wind
You can also say из-за ветра:
- Деревья раскачиваются из-за ветра.
Nuance:
- от ветра – very natural here, often neutral, can imply a more direct physical cause (the wind is physically making them sway).
- из-за ветра – also “because of the wind”, sometimes with a slight tendency to be used for negative or problematic causes (because of the wind, we couldn’t do X), though that nuance is weaker in this context.
For simple physical cause like trees moving in the wind, от ветра is the most typical choice.
Yes, both sentences are correct but they focus on different things:
Ветер раскачивает деревья.
- Subject: ветер (wind)
- Verb: раскачивает (transitive)
- Object: деревья (trees)
- Focus: what the wind is doing to the trees.
Деревья раскачиваются от ветра.
- Subject: деревья (trees)
- Verb: раскачиваются (reflexive/intransitive)
- Cause: от ветра (from the wind)
- Focus: the state/behavior of the trees, and the wind is mentioned only as the cause.
So it’s a choice of perspective:
- First: The wind is rocking the trees.
- Second: The trees are swaying because of the wind.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and От ветра деревья раскачиваются is correct.
Possible orders (all grammatically fine):
- Деревья раскачиваются от ветра. – neutral, common.
- От ветра деревья раскачиваются. – slightly more emphasis on the cause (from the wind).
The main constraints:
- The subject (деревья) must agree with the verb (раскачиваются) in number and person.
- The preposition (от) must stand right before its noun (ветра).
Within those constraints, you can reorder elements for emphasis or style.
You can drop it, and the sentence is still grammatically correct:
- Деревья раскачиваются. – The trees are swaying / rocking.
Then you are simply not specifying the cause. The context would have to make it clear why they are swaying (wind, a passing train, an earthquake, etc.), or it may not matter.
Adding от ветра answers the implicit question “from what / because of what?”
The usual perfective partner is раскачаться.
- раскачиваться (imperfective) – focuses on the process or repeated action:
- Деревья раскачиваются от ветра. – The trees are swaying (as an ongoing process).
- раскачаться (perfective) – focuses on the result / the moment they get into a swaying state:
- Деревья раскачАлись от ветра. – The trees (finally) started swaying / have swung into motion because of the wind.
So with perfective, you would usually put it in past (or sometimes future) and mean “ended up in a swaying state,” not “are in the middle of swaying.”
Stresses (capital letters show the stressed syllable):
- ДЕревья – де́ревья
- раСКАчиваются – раска́чиваются
- от ВЕТра – от ветра́
Putting it together:
- де́ревья раска́чиваются от ветра́
Note that ветер has stress on the first syllable, but the genitive ветра́ moves the stress to the last syllable.
No, Russian does not have a separate grammatical progressive form like English “are swaying.”
The simple present imperfective often covers:
- English simple present:
- Деревья раскачиваются. – Trees sway (in general, when it’s windy).
- English present progressive:
- Деревья раскачиваются. – The trees are swaying (right now).
Context (or adverbs like сейчас – now) tells you whether it’s a general fact or something happening at this moment.