Сегодня солнце светит ярче, чем вчера.

yesterday

Breakdown of Сегодня солнце светит ярче, чем вчера.

• сегодня: today
• солнце: the sun
• светить: to shine

Questions & Answers about Сегодня солнце светит ярче, чем вчера.

Why is сегодня at the beginning? Does Russian word order work like English?

Russian word order is much more flexible than English word order.

In Сегодня солнце светит ярче, чем вчера, putting сегодня first makes today the topic or starting point of the sentence: As for today, the sun is shining brighter than yesterday.

This sentence could also be rearranged, for example:

• Солнце сегодня светит ярче, чем вчера.
• Ярче, чем вчера, сегодня светит солнце.

These versions are all grammatical, but they sound a little different in emphasis. The original sentence is a very natural, neutral way to say it.

What form is светит, and why does it end in -ит?

Светит is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb светить.

So:

• я свечу / светю — I shine, light up
• ты светишь — you shine
• он / она / оно светит — he / she / it shines

Here the subject is солнце (the sun), which is grammatically singular and neuter, so Russian uses the same form as it shines:

• солнце светит = the sun shines / is shining

The ending -ит is typical for many verbs in this conjugation.

Why is солнце neuter, and does that matter here?