Breakdown of Он всегда дарит собаке новую игрушку.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
собака
dog
новый
new
всегда
always
Questions & Answers about Он всегда дарит собаке новую игрушку.
Why is the word for dog spelled собаке instead of собака?
Because the dog is the indirect object here—the one receiving the toy. In Russian, the receiver takes the Dative case. For feminine nouns ending in -а like собака, the Dative ending becomes -е, making it собаке.
Does дарит just mean "gives"?
It specifically means "gives as a gift". If you were simply handing the toy to the dog to fetch, you would use a different verb (даёт). дарит comes from the verb дарить, which is always used for presents.
Why is it новую игрушку and not новая игрушка?
The toy is the direct object because it is the thing being given, so it needs the Accusative case. For feminine words, the adjective ending -ая changes to -ую, and the noun ending -а changes to -у, giving us новую игрушку.
Could I change the word order to Он всегда дарит новую игрушку собаке?
Yes, Russian word order is very flexible! Because the word endings (like the Dative -е on собаке and Accusative -у on игрушку) already tell us exactly who is receiving what, you can safely move the words around without changing the meaning.