Question 1

Why do быстро and медленно end in -о?

Accepted Answer

In Russian, many adverbs (words that describe how an action is done) are formed by changing an adjective's ending to -о. For example, the adjective for "quick" becomes the adverb быстро (quickly/fast), and "slow" becomes медленно (slowly).

Question 2

Why does the sentence use а for "but" instead of но?

Accepted Answer

The word а is a contrastive conjunction. It acts like "whereas" or "while" in English to compare two different subjects doing different things (you do this, whereas he does that). The word но is used for direct contradictions or exceptions, like "I want to work, but I am tired."

Question 3

What is the dash doing in the second half of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

The dash replaces the repeated verb работает (works). Instead of saying а он работает медленно, Russian often drops the second verb and uses a dash to show the omission. It sounds much more natural this way!

Question 4

Just to review, why is the verb spelled работаешь?

Accepted Answer

This is the present tense form of работать (to work) that matches the informal "you" (ты). For this group of verbs, you drop the -ть from the dictionary form and add the ending -ешь.

Ты работаешь быстро, а он — медленно.

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