Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда я смотрю на новый бутон, мне кажется, что орхидея скоро перестанет вянуть совсем. - When I look at the new bud, it seems to me that the orchid will soon stop wilting completely.

Word

Когда я смотрю на новый бутон, мне кажется, что орхидея скоро перестанет вянуть совсем.

Meaning

When I look at the new bud, it seems to me that the orchid will soon stop wilting completely.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of Когда я смотрю на новый бутон, мне кажется, что орхидея скоро перестанет вянуть совсем.

Why is it смотрю на новый бутон and not just смотрю новый бутон?

Because смотреть usually takes the preposition на when it means to look at something.

Without на, смотреть usually means something more like to watch:

So here смотрю на новый бутон is the normal way to say I look at the new bud.

Why is it новый бутон? Shouldn’t the accusative be different?

In this sentence, бутон is the object of смотрю на, so it is indeed in the accusative:

But for masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks exactly like the nominative singular.

So:

That is why nothing changes in form. If it were an animate masculine noun, you would see a different ending pattern.

What does Когда mean here? Is it when in the sense of one time, or whenever?