Breakdown of Вчера мы показали туристу музей.
мы
we
музей
museum
турист
tourist
вчера
yesterday
показать
to show (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Вчера мы показали туристу музей.
Why does the word for tourist end in -у (туристу)?
In this sentence, the tourist is the indirect object—the person to whom the museum is shown. Russian uses the Dative case for indirect objects. For most masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like турист, you add -у to form the Dative case.
Since музей is the direct object being shown, shouldn't its ending change?
It actually is in the Accusative case (the case used for direct objects), but its spelling doesn't change here! For masculine nouns that are non-living things (inanimate), like музей, the Accusative form looks exactly the same as the dictionary form.
Why does the verb показали end in -и?
In the past tense, Russian verbs change their endings based on whether the subject is masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural. Because the subject here is мы (we), which is plural, the verb takes the plural past tense ending -и.
Does the word order matter? Could I put музей before туристу?
You absolutely can! Because the case endings tell us exactly who is receiving the action (туристу) and what is being shown (музей), Russian word order is very flexible. Saying Вчера мы показали музей туристу is perfectly correct and means the same thing.
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