Фонарь освещает тротуар вечером.

in the evening

Breakdown of Фонарь освещает тротуар вечером.

• фонарь: the streetlight
• тротуар: the sidewalk
• освещать: to light up

Questions & Answers about Фонарь освещает тротуар вечером.

How do I know which word is the subject and which is the object in Фонарь освещает тротуар вечером?

In this sentence:

• Фонарь – subject
• освещает – verb
• тротуар – direct object
• вечером – adverbial phrase (tells us when)

How you can tell:

1. Typical word order
   Russian often uses Subject–Verb–Object order, especially in neutral sentences.
   So the first noun (фонарь) is very likely the subject, and the noun after the verb (тротуар) is likely the object.

2. Case

   • Фонарь is in the nominative case (dictionary form), which is used for the subject.
   • Тротуар is in the accusative case as the direct object.

   However, for masculine inanimate nouns like тротуар, the accusative form is identical to the nominative (both look like тротуар). You know its role here mainly from word order and meaning.

So: фонарь (nom.) is doing the action, тротуар (acc.) is receiving it.

What gender is фонарь, and how can I tell?