Breakdown of Почему этот кот пьёт молоко?
кот
cat
молоко
milk
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
пить
to drink
почему
why
Questions & Answers about Почему этот кот пьёт молоко?
Why does the verb пьёт (is drinking) look so different from its dictionary form пить?
Пить (to drink) is a high-frequency irregular verb. Instead of dropping -ть and adding normal endings, it uses a soft sign (ь) and ё-based endings. The pattern is: я пью, ты пьёшь, он/она/оно пьёт (he/she/it drinks), мы пьём, вы пьёте, они пьют.
Why use этот кот instead of эта кошка for 'this cat'?
Кот is specifically a male cat, which is a masculine noun, so it requires the masculine word for 'this' (этот). Кошка is grammatically feminine and uses эта; it means a female cat, or is used as the generic word for a cat when the gender is unknown.
The milk is being drunk, so shouldn't молоко be in the accusative (direct object) case?
It is in the accusative case! However, молоко is a neuter noun (ending in -о). Neuter nouns do not change their spelling when they become direct objects, so the accusative form looks exactly the same as the dictionary form.
Does the soft sign (ь) in пьёт change how the word is pronounced?
Yes, in this word the soft sign acts as a separator. It stops the consonant п from blending directly into the vowel ё. It forces you to pronounce a distinct 'y' sound before the vowel, making it sound like 'p-yot'.
How would I change this sentence to mean 'Why DOES this cat drink milk?' as a general habit?
You wouldn't change anything! Russian does not have a separate continuous tense like English ('is drinking'). The present tense verb пьёт covers both 'is drinking right now' and 'drinks in general' depending on the context.
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