Questions & Answers about Я вижу листья и деревья.
Why do листья and деревья end in -ья instead of standard plural endings like -ы or -и?
They belong to a special group of nouns that form irregular plurals using -ья. You are learning this group right now! Other common words in this group are друзья (friends) and братья (brothers). You just have to memorize them.
Since "leaves and trees" are the direct object of "I see", shouldn't they be in the accusative case? Why didn't their endings change?
They actually are in the accusative case! For inanimate objects (things that aren't alive, like leaves and trees), the plural accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) form. So листья and деревья don't change here.
What are the singular forms of листья and деревья?
The singular of листья is лист (leaf), and the singular of деревья is дерево (tree). Notice how дерево is neuter in the singular, but still takes the irregular -ья plural ending!
I know the infinitive for "to see" is видеть. Why does it become вижу for "I see" instead of видю?
The verb видеть has a consonant mutation in the "I" (я) form. The д changes to ж, making it вижу. For the other forms, the д comes back (like ты видишь - you see).
How does the soft sign (ь) affect the pronunciation of листья and деревья?
The soft sign here is a "separating" soft sign. It tells you to pronounce a distinct "y" sound before the final vowel. Instead of blending the consonant smoothly into the vowel, you pronounce them like "list-ya" and "dyeryev-ya".
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