Word
Проверь, закрыта ли застёжка на рюкзаке, а то вещи могут выпасть.
Meaning
Check whether the fastening on the backpack is closed, otherwise things might fall out.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Проверь, закрыта ли застёжка на рюкзаке, а то вещи могут выпасть.
на
on
мочь
to be able
проверить
to check
вещь
the thing
Questions & Answers about Проверь, закрыта ли застёжка на рюкзаке, а то вещи могут выпасть.
Why does the sentence start with Проверь? What form is that?
Проверь is the imperative form of проверить, which means to check.
So Проверь means Check! when speaking to one person informally.
If you wanted to say it politely or to more than one person, you would say Проверьте.
- проверить = to check, to verify
- Проверь = check!
Why is it закрыта ли, and what does ли do?
The particle ли is used to introduce an indirect yes/no question.
So закрыта ли застёжка means something like:
- whether the fastener is closed
- if the clasp is closed
This is different from a direct question:
- Застёжка закрыта? = Is the fastener closed?
After verbs like проверь (check), Russian often uses this X ли... structure:
- Проверь, дома ли он. = Check whether he is at home.
- Спроси, готова ли еда. = Ask whether the food is ready.
In this sentence, ли goes after закрыта because that is the element being questioned.
Why is it закрыта, not закрытый or закрыть?