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Questions & Answers about Собака бігає поруч.
What is the grammatical role of “Собака” in the sentence?
“Собака” functions as the subject. It is in the nominative case and means dog. In Ukrainian, unlike English, there are no articles, so “Собака” can mean either “a dog” or “the dog” depending on the context provided by the conversation or surrounding text.
How is the verb “бігає” formed and what does its form indicate?
“бігає” is the third person singular present tense form of the verb бігати (to run). This inflection shows that the dog (a singular noun) is performing the action of running, and it corresponds to the English “runs” or “is running”.
What does the adverb “поруч” mean, and what role does it play in the sentence?
“поруч” is an adverb that means “nearby” or “next to.” It tells us where the dog is running. As an uninflected adverb, its position after the verb is typical in Ukrainian to specify location.
Why is there no article before “Собака” as there would typically be in English?
Ukrainian does not use articles like “a” or “the.” As a result, nouns such as “Собака” stand alone without an accompanying article. The specificity (definite or indefinite) is understood from context rather than by using separate words.
Could the word order in this sentence be changed without altering its meaning?
Yes, Ukrainian allows for relatively free word order due to its case system. For example, placing “Поруч” at the beginning—“Поруч бігає собака.”—would still be understood as “The dog runs nearby.” However, changing the order can emphasize different parts of the sentence.