Маленькая награда после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.

A small reward after a lesson, for example tasty tea, strengthens motivation.

Breakdown of Маленькая награда после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.

• маленький: small
• вкусный: tasty
• чай: the tea
• после: after
• например: for example
• урок: the lesson
• мотивация: the motivation
• усиливать: to strengthen
• награда: the reward

Questions & Answers about Маленькая награда после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.

Why is награда in the form награда and not награду?

Награда is the subject of the sentence, so it must be in the nominative case.

• Маленькая награда … усиливает мотивацию.
  Что (what) strengthens motivation? — награда (subject → nominative).

If you used награду, that would be accusative case (typical for a direct object), which would be ungrammatical here because the reward is doing the action, not receiving it.

Why is мотивацию in the accusative case?

The verb усиливает (strengthens) is a transitive verb and takes a direct object: it strengthens something.

• усиливать что? — мотивацию
  That что? question calls for the accusative case.

So мотивацию is accusative singular feminine as the direct object of усиливает.

Why is it после урока and not после урок?

The preposition после always requires the genitive case.

• после чего? — урока (genitive singular of урок)

So:

• nominative: урок
• genitive: урока

Because it follows после, you must use урока, not урок.

Could we say после уроков instead of после урока? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say both, but the nuance is slightly different:

• после урока — literally “after (the) lesson”. In Russian, singular is often used in a general sense too, so this can mean “after class” in general, not just one specific lesson.
• после уроков — “after (the) lessons”, implying a period after classes in general, or after several lessons in a day.

In this sentence, both are possible:

• Маленькая награда после урока …
• Маленькая награда после уроков …

The original feels a bit more like “after a lesson / after class” as a repeated situation.

Why does the verb усиливает appear in the singular, not plural?

The grammatical subject is singular: маленькая награда.

• Что усиливает мотивацию? — маленькая награда (singular)
  → The verb must match: усиливает (3rd person singular).

The phrase например вкусный чай is just an example of what the reward can be; it does not change the number of the subject grammatically. That’s why you don’t say усиливают here.

Why is it усиливает, not усилит or усиливаетcя?

Three different points are involved:

1. Aspect and tense (усиливает vs усилит)

   • усиливает — imperfective present: describes a general, repeated or typical fact.
     Here: “a small reward increases/strengthens motivation” in general.
   • усилит — perfective future: “will strengthen (once, in a specific situation)”.

   Since the sentence talks about a general principle, усиливает is best.

2. Reflexive form (усиливать vs усиливаться)

   • усиливать что? — to strengthen something (transitive; must have an object).
     → усиливает мотивацию (strengthens motivation).
   • усиливаться — to get stronger (intransitive; no direct object).
     → мотивация усиливается (motivation gets stronger).

   Here, motivation is the object being strengthened, so the non‑reflexive усиливает is correct.

3. Alternatives:

   • You could also say повышает мотивацию (increases motivation), which is very natural too, just a slightly different verb.

Why are there commas around например вкусный чай?

The phrase например вкусный чай is an inserted example (a parenthetical / appositive phrase) that explains what kind of reward we mean.

Russian usually separates such inserted examples with commas on both sides:

• Маленькая награда после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.

You could roughly paraphrase:
“A small reward after the lesson, for example a tasty tea, increases motivation.”

If you put например somewhere else, commas can change:

• Например, вкусный чай после урока усиливает мотивацию.
  Here например is at the start; you put a comma after it only.

Could we move после урока to another place in the sentence?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible. For example:

• Маленькая награда, например вкусный чай, после урока усиливает мотивацию.
• После урока маленькая награда, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.

All are grammatically correct. The nuance:

• Original: Маленькая награда после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.
  Flows from “small reward after the lesson” as one chunk.
• После урока в начале puts a bit more emphasis on the time (“After the lesson, a small reward…”).

Meaning stays essentially the same; it’s mainly about rhythm and emphasis.

How do I know that награда is feminine and чай is masculine, and how does that affect the adjectives?

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• награда ends in -а and is feminine.
  → adjective: маленькая (feminine, nominative singular).
  маленькая награда
• чай is masculine (most nouns ending in a consonant are masculine).
  → adjective: вкусный (masculine, nominative singular).
  вкусный чай

That’s why we say:

• маленькая награда (not маленький награда)
• вкусный чай (not вкусная чай)

Could we use a different adjective like небольшая награда instead of маленькая награда? Does it change the meaning?

You can, but there is a nuance:

• маленькая награда — literally “small reward”. Neutral, everyday, often used about a modest or minor reward.
• небольшая награда — literally “not-big reward”. Often sounds a bit more neutral or polite, sometimes slightly more formal.

In practice, in this context they are very close in meaning.
Both can be used to mean a modest reward after a lesson. Маленькая награда is a bit more colloquial and child-friendly.

Why is it вкусный чай and not something like вкусного чая?

In the given sentence, вкусный чай is part of the same nominative structure as награда; it’s an example of what that reward can be. So it stays in nominative:

• награда …, например вкусный чай, усиливает мотивацию.
  → “the reward, for example tasty tea, strengthens motivation.”

If you changed the structure, the case could change. For example:

• Маленькая награда после урока, например чашка вкусного чая, усиливает мотивацию.
  Here:
  • чашка is nominative (subject‑side noun inside the example),
  • чая is genitive after чашка (“a cup of tea”).

So the case depends on the grammatical role in the sentence. In the original, вкусный чай is a nominative example of награда.

Could we use the plural to talk about rewards in general, like Маленькие награды … усиливают мотивацию?

Yes, you can:

• Маленькие награды после урока, например вкусный чай, усиливают мотивацию.

This shifts the focus slightly:

• Singular маленькая награда … усиливает — “a small reward (as a type of thing) increases motivation” → generic statement using singular.
• Plural маленькие награды … усиливают — “small rewards (various or repeated) increase motivation”.

Both are correct. Russian often uses the singular for general truths, so the original singular sounds very natural.

How is the idea “increases motivation” expressed without a word like “can” or “usually”?

Russian often uses the simple present tense of an imperfective verb to express general truths, habitual facts, or typical results, without extra words like “can” or “usually”:

• Маленькая награда … усиливает мотивацию.
  Literally: “A small reward strengthens motivation.”

Depending on context, in English you might translate that as:

• “A small reward strengthens motivation.”
• “A small reward can strengthen motivation.”
• “A small reward usually strengthens motivation.”

Russian leaves that “usually / can” idea to context; the plain present усиливает covers it.

Where is the stress in the more difficult words: маленькая, награда, усиливает, мотивацию?

Stress falls as follows (stressed syllable in capitals):

• ма́ленькая — МА‑лень‑ка‑я
• награ́да — на‑ГРА‑да
• усИливает — у‑СИ‑ли‑ва‑ет
• мотива́цию — мо‑ти‑ВА‑ци‑ю

Correct stress is very important in Russian; misplacing it (for example saying усилива́ет) will sound wrong to native speakers.