Breakdown of Машина новая, а телефон старый.
а
and (contrastive)
машина
car
телефон
phone
новый
new
старый
old
Questions & Answers about Машина новая, а телефон старый.
Why does this sentence use а for 'but' instead of но?
The word а is used to show a simple contrast or comparison between two different things, like comparing the car to the phone here. It is softer than но (which expresses a stronger 'but' or contradiction). You can often think of а as meaning 'whereas' or 'while'.
Why is there no word for 'is' after the car or the phone?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb 'to be' (am/is/are) is almost always left out. You simply put the noun and the adjective right next to each other. Literally, this sentence reads 'Car new, while phone old'.
Why do the adjectives end differently (новая vs старый)?
Russian adjectives change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Машина (car) is a feminine word, so its adjective takes the feminine ending -ая. Телефон (phone) is a masculine word, so it takes the masculine ending -ый.
Do I always need to put a comma before а?
Yes! Russian punctuation has a strict rule: you must always place a comma before the contrast conjunctions а (and/while) and но (but).
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