Breakdown of А где мышь? Она тоже дома.
где
where / wherever
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
мышь
mouse
а
and (contrastive)
дома
at home
тоже
also
Questions & Answers about А где мышь? Она тоже дома.
Why does the second sentence use она (she) for a mouse instead of оно (it)?
In Russian, all nouns have a grammatical gender. The word for mouse (мышь) is feminine. When replacing a feminine noun with a pronoun, you must always use она, even for animals and objects that we would call 'it' in English.
How can I tell that мышь is a feminine noun?
It ends in a soft sign (ь). Nouns ending in a soft sign can be either masculine or feminine, so you usually have to memorize their gender when you learn the word. Мышь is one of the most common feminine soft-sign nouns to learn.
Why does the sentence start with А instead of И for the word 'And'?
Both words can mean 'and', but а is used to introduce a shift in focus or a slight contrast. Here, it translates best as 'And what about...' or 'But where is...', shifting the conversation's attention over to the mouse.
Why does the word for home have an 'a' at the end (дома)?
Дом is the basic noun for a house or building. The form дома is a special word that specifically means 'at home' (answering the question 'where?').
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