Breakdown of Его голос естественный и спокойный.
Questions & Answers about Его голос естественный и спокойный.
Его here is a possessive pronoun meaning his (or its), not he or to him.
- он = he (subject form)
- ему = to him (dative case)
- его = can mean his, him, or of him, depending on context
In this sentence, его голос literally means his voice. Russian uses его as the possessive for both masculine and neuter:
- его голос – his voice
- его лицо – his face
Unlike English his / her / its, Russian его never changes its form for gender or case in the possessive use.
Russian usually omits the verb to be (быть) in the present tense when it just links a subject to a description.
So instead of literally saying:
- Его голос есть естественный и спокойный.
Russian simply says:
- Его голос естественный и спокойный.
This is understood as His voice is natural and calm.
The verb есть (present form of быть) is normally used only:
- in older, bookish, or emphatic styles, or
- with certain logical/emphatic constructions.
In everyday modern Russian, you leave it out in sentences like this.
They agree with the noun голос.
- голос is masculine (it ends in a consonant and is grammatically masculine)
- It is singular and in the nominative case (it’s the subject of the sentence)
Predicate adjectives (adjectives used after “is” in English) agree in gender, number, and case with the subject:
- голос какой? – естественный (masc. sg. nom.)
- голос какой? – спокойный (masc. sg. nom.)
So you must use masculine singular nominative forms: естественный, спокойный, not естественное / спокойное, etc.
Yes, you can say:
- Его голос естественен и спокоен.
Here естественен and спокоен are short-form adjectives. The meaning is almost the same: His voice is natural and calm.
Differences in nuance:
- Long forms (естественный, спокойный)
- More neutral, common in everyday speech
- Often describe stable, typical qualities
- Short forms (естественен, спокоен)
- A bit more bookish or formal, often used in written or literary style
- Often emphasize a current state or an assessment/judgment
In ordinary conversation, Его голос естественный и спокойный is more common and neutral.
Голос is in the nominative singular case because it is the subject of the sentence:
- Его голос (subject) – естественный и спокойный (predicate)
You would see other endings in other roles:
- голоса – genitive singular (нет голоса – “there is no voice”)
- голосом – instrumental (он говорит тихим голосом – “he speaks in a quiet voice”)
In our sentence, we have a simple X is Y structure, so голос stays in nominative.
Both can translate as natural, but they’re used differently.
Естественный:
- typical, normal, unforced, sounds like it comes naturally
- In this sentence, естественный голос means the voice doesn’t sound affected, fake, or forced.
- Common with behavior, manner, style, speech: естественное поведение (natural behavior).
Натуральный:
- physical, real, not artificial or synthetic; very common about materials/food:
- натуральная кожа – genuine leather
- натуральный мёд – natural honey
Натуральный голос could be understood as “real, not modified, not electronically changed,” but it’s not the normal choice to describe someone’s manner of speaking. For “his voice sounds natural,” естественный is the correct word.
Yes.
Both
- Его голос естественный и спокойный
and - Его голос спокойный и естественный
are correct. Russian word order here is fairly flexible.
Changing the order slightly affects emphasis or rhythm, but there is no big change in meaning. You might choose one or the other for stylistic reasons (which quality you want to mention first), similar to English: natural and calm vs calm and natural.
Both are grammatically correct, but the structure and nuance differ:
Его голос естественный и спокойный.
- голос = subject
- естественный и спокойный = predicate adjectives
- Structure: His voice is natural and calm.
- Sounds like a description, statement of fact, evaluation.
его естественный и спокойный голос
- естественный и спокойный are attributive adjectives directly modifying голос
- Structure: his natural and calm voice
- This is a noun phrase, usually part of a larger sentence, e.g.
- Мне нравится его естественный и спокойный голос. – I like his natural and calm voice.
So:
- With Его голос естественный и спокойный you’re making a full statement.
- With его естественный и спокойный голос, you’re just naming/describing the voice inside a larger sentence.
Stresses (marked with bold letters in the stressed syllable):
- Его́ – ye-VO (stress on го)
- го́лос – GO-los (stress on го)
- есте́ственный – ye-STYE-STVE-nnyi (stress on сте́)
- и – short ee
- споко́йный – spa-KOY-nyi (stress on кой)
More precisely in IPA:
- Его́ – [jɪˈvo]
- го́лос – [ˈɡoləs]
- есте́ственный – [jɪˈsʲtʲestvʲɪnːɨj] (double нн → long [nː])
- и – [i]
- споко́йный – [spɐˈkojnɨj]
Note: in естественный, the т and с form a consonant cluster [stʲ], and the е after с makes it soft.
By form, его can mean his or its. Russian doesn’t distinguish them in this word.
- его голос might be his voice (a man’s voice), or its voice (an animal, a thing with a “voice”), depending on context.
- Only context tells you whether его refers to a male person or to something neuter (it).
In typical usage, with голос, speakers usually mean his voice, but grammatically its voice is also possible.