Breakdown of Для меня чашка чая или несколько минут игры в телефон — это награда за успешно сделанное задание.
Questions & Answers about Для меня чашка чая или несколько минут игры в телефон — это награда за успешно сделанное задание.
Чая is in the genitive case and shows what the cup is filled with.
In Russian, when you say “a container of something”, the “something” normally goes in the genitive:
- чашка чая – a cup of tea
- стакан воды – a glass of water
- тарелка супа – a plate of soup
So чай (nominative) → чая (genitive) after чашка.
Using чашка чай would be incorrect grammar.
Меня here is genitive, because the preposition для (“for”) always takes the genitive case:
- для меня – for me
- для тебя – for you
- для него – for him
Compare forms of “I”:
- я – nominative (subject)
- меня – genitive / accusative
- мне – dative
After для, you must use the genitive form: для меня, not для мне and not для я.
The pattern X — это Y is a very common way to say “X is Y”:
- Для меня отдых — это необходимость. – For me, rest is a necessity.
- Чтение книг — это хобби. – Reading books is a hobby.
Here:
- чашка чая или несколько минут игры в телефон = X
- награда = Y
The dash marks the link between subject and predicate. Это works like a neutral “this/it” that introduces the explanation (“this is a reward”).
You could say …игры в телефон — награда… without это. That’s grammatically OK, but:
- X — это Y sounds very natural and conversational.
- X — Y without это can sound a bit more “dry” or bookish here.
So — это is not strictly required, but it is very idiomatic.
After несколько (“a few, several”), the noun goes in the genitive plural:
- несколько минут – a few minutes
- несколько дней – a few days
- несколько книг – a few books
So:
- минута (nom. sg.)
- минуты (nom. pl.)
- минут (gen. pl.)
Because несколько requires genitive plural, we use минут, not минуты.
There is a little chain of genitives here:
- несколько минут – “a few minutes” (минут = genitive plural after несколько)
- несколько минут игры – literally “a few minutes of play/game”
Игры is genitive singular of игра.
So минуты чего? – игры.
This is the same pattern as:
- несколько часов работы – a few hours of work
- пять лет учёбы – five years of study
So игры is in the genitive because it depends on минут and answers “minutes of what?”
Игра в телефон literally is “playing (a game) on/with the phone”.
Colloquially, играть в телефон means “to fiddle with your phone / play games on your phone / use your phone for entertainment”.
Grammatically:
- игры – “of playing” (genitive singular of игра)
- в телефон – “in/into the phone”, but in this idiom it really means “on the phone”
Some other options you might see:
- игры на телефоне – games on the phone
- поиграть в игры на телефоне – to play games on the phone
Играть в телефон is informal, typical spoken Russian.
Играть на телефоне is clearer if you specifically mean “using the phone as a device to play games”.
Here за with the accusative marks the reason or basis for the reward: “a reward for (doing) something”.
- награда за работу – a reward for (one’s) work
- премия за хороший результат – a bonus for a good result
So:
- награда за (что?) успешно сделанное задание – a reward for the successfully completed task.
Compare two different за meanings:
за + accusative = “for (as a consequence of)”
- Спасибо за помощь. – Thank you for the help.
- Награда за победу. – A reward for the victory.
за + instrumental = “behind / beyond” (different meaning and case)
- за домом – behind the house
In this sentence, it’s за + accusative with the meaning “for”.
Успешно is an adverb (“successfully”), not an adjective.
It describes how the task was done, not what kind of task it is.
- успешно сделанное задание – “a task that was done successfully”
(literally: “successfully done task”).
If you said:
- успешное сделанное задание
you would have two adjectives (успешное, сделанное) before задание, which sounds wrong here; успешное задание would mean “a successful task” as a property of the task itself, which is not natural.
So:
- успешно (adverb) modifies сделанное (participle).
- Together they form успешно сделанное: “successfully done”.
Сделанное is a full passive participle (полное страдательное причастие) from сделать (to do, to complete).
- сделанное задание – “a completed/done task”
Form:
- Verb: сделать
- Participle: сделанный / сделанное / сделанная / сделанные (short stem сделан-
- endings)
We need сделанное because it must agree in gender, number, and case with задание:
- задание – neuter, singular, accusative (here same as nominative)
- participle: сделанное – neuter, singular, accusative
Сделан is the short form (краткое причастие), used usually after the verb быть or as a predicate, not directly before the noun:
- Задание сделано. – The task is done. (short form)
- Сделанное задание лежит на столе. – The completed task is lying on the table. (full form before noun)
So in успешно сделанное задание, only the full form сделанное is correct.
Yes, you can say:
- награда за задание, которое я успешно сделал
This is grammatically correct and clear. The difference is stylistic:
- успешно сделанное задание – more compact, a bit more “written” or formal; uses a participle.
- задание, которое я успешно сделал – more like everyday spoken Russian; uses a full relative clause.
Meaning-wise, they are almost the same: “a task that I successfully completed”.
Russian often allows both a participial construction and a который-clause; the participle is just more concise.
We are talking about a completed task, so we use the perfective verb сделать:
- сделать задание – to do/complete the task (finished action)
- сделанное задание – the completed task
Imperfective делать describes an ongoing/repeated process:
- делать задание – to be doing the task / to do tasks generally
Its passive participle would be:
- делаемое задание – “the task being done / the task that is (in the process of being) done”
So:
- делаемое задание – ongoing process (being done)
- сделанное задание – result (already done)
In this sentence, the speaker means a task that is already finished successfully, so сделанное (perfective) is the natural choice.
Это here is not really replacing награда; it’s part of the fixed pattern X — это Y.
In Russian, это is often used as a neutral “this/it is” in defining sentences, regardless of the gender of the noun that follows:
- Москва — это столица России. – Moscow is the capital of Russia.
- Мой отец — это учитель. – My father is a teacher.
- Чашка чая — это награда. – A cup of tea is a reward.
If you tried to use a gendered pronoun instead:
- Для меня чашка чая — она награда. – This would be wrong/unnatural.
So in X — это Y, это is not agreeing with награда; it’s just the neutral copular element that means “is”.