Breakdown of Она немного пишет по-русски.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
по-русски
in Russian
писать
to write
немного
a little
Questions & Answers about Она немного пишет по-русски.
The infinitive is писать, so why does the sentence use пишет instead of "писает"?
The verb писать (to write) is irregular. In the present tense, the consonant с changes to ш, and the stress jumps back to the first syllable. With the "she" ending -ет, it becomes пишет.
Why do we say по-русски instead of just русский?
We use по-русски (which literally means "in Russian" or "the Russian way") with verbs like speaking, reading, and writing. The word русский is an adjective, so you only use it to describe a noun, like a Russian person or dictionary.
Could I put the word немного at the very end of the sentence?
Yes, Russian word order is flexible! You could say Она пишет по-русски немного. However, putting adverbs like немного (a little) right before the verb they describe is very common and sounds perfectly natural.
Does немного change its ending depending on who is writing?
No, немного is an adverb, which means it is a "frozen" word that never changes its shape. It stays exactly the same whether you are talking about a man, a woman, or a group of people.