Breakdown of На чашке появилась маленькая трещина, и я больше не наливаю в неё кипяток.
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Questions & Answers about На чашке появилась маленькая трещина, и я больше не наливаю в неё кипяток.
Why is it на чашке, not в чашке?
Because the crack is understood as being on the cup / in the cup’s surface or body, not inside the cup’s interior where liquid goes.
- на + prepositional often means on the surface of something
- в + prepositional means in / inside something
So:
- На чашке появилась трещина = a crack appeared on the cup
- В чашке would sound like something is inside the cup
With cracks, Russian often uses на when talking about the outside surface or object as a surface-bearing thing.
Why is the verb появилась feminine?
In the past tense, Russian verbs agree in gender and number with the subject.
The subject here is трещина (crack), which is:
- feminine
- singular
So the verb must also be feminine singular in the past:
- появился = masculine
- появилась = feminine
- появилось = neuter
- появились = plural
Even though трещина comes after the verb, it is still the subject, so the verb agrees with it.
Why is маленькая трещина in the nominative case?