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Questions & Answers about Друзі обговорюють книгу.
What does the noun Друзі mean, and why is it in this particular form?
Друзі translates as friends in English. It is in the nominative plural form, which is used for the subject of the sentence. In Ukrainian, the ending and form of the noun signal that it is the doer of the action.
What is the infinitive form of the verb обговорюють, and what does it signify?
The infinitive form is обговорювати, meaning to discuss. The form обговорюють is conjugated in the present tense for the third person plural, matching the subject Друзі in number.
Why does the noun книга appear as книгу in this sentence?
In Ukrainian, the direct object of a sentence is typically in the accusative case. Книгу is the accusative singular form of the feminine noun книга. The change in ending—from а in the nominative to у in the accusative—is a common pattern for feminine nouns in Ukrainian.
How does the word order in this Ukrainian sentence compare to typical English sentence structure?
The sentence follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, much like English. However, Ukrainian relies on case endings to indicate the grammatical roles of words, while English uses word order more strictly. This means that even if the word order were slightly altered, the cases would still make the roles clear.
Why isn’t there an explicit pronoun like вони (they) before обговорюють?
Ukrainian often omits subject pronouns when the verb form makes the subject clear. Since обговорюють clearly indicates a third person plural subject, and Друзі is already mentioned at the beginning, an additional pronoun is unnecessary.
What does the ending -ють in обговорюють tell us about the verb’s usage?
The ending -ють is a marker of the third person plural in the present tense. This ending ensures that the verb properly agrees with its plural subject Друзі. For native English speakers, this explicit subject-verb agreement (by way of verb endings) may be more pronounced than in English, where such endings are less common.