Breakdown of Учитель говорит об искусстве.
учитель
teacher
говорить
to speak, to talk
о
about (о, об, обо)
искусство
art
Questions & Answers about Учитель говорит об искусстве.
Why is the word for "about" об instead of о here?
Just like "a" becomes "an" in English before a vowel sound, the Russian preposition о becomes об before words starting with vowels (like а, о, у, э, и). Since искусстве starts with the vowel и, we use об so the two words flow together easily without a pause.
Why does the dictionary word for art, искусство, end in -е in this sentence?
When we talk about a topic using the preposition о or об, that topic must be in the Prepositional case. For most neuter nouns ending in -о like искусство, the ending changes to -е in this case, giving us искусстве.
How do we know to use говорит instead of another form of the verb?
The subject is учитель (the teacher), which is a singular "he" or "she" (third person). The verb говорить (to speak) is a Type 2 verb. To make the "he/she" form, we drop the -ить ending and add -ит, making it говорит.
Учитель is a masculine word, so does this mean the teacher is definitely a man?
Not necessarily! While учитель is grammatically masculine, it is commonly used as a general professional title for a teacher of any gender. There is a specific feminine word, учительница, but using учитель for a female teacher in a formal context is very common and correct.
Learn Учитель говорит об искусстве and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free