Breakdown of Ребёнок не моется, потому что вода холодная.
не
not
вода
water
ребёнок
child
холодный
cold
потому что
because
мыться
to wash oneself
Questions & Answers about Ребёнок не моется, потому что вода холодная.
Why does the verb моется have -ся at the end?
The ending -ся shows that this is a reflexive verb, meaning the action reflects back on the subject. The base verb is мыть (to wash). If you say ребёнок моет, you have to state what he is washing (like a toy or a dog). By adding -ся to make it мыться, it means he is washing himself, which we translate as bathing.
Why do we use -ся here instead of -сь?
For reflexive verbs, we add -ся if the regular verb ending is a consonant (like the past tense мылся) or if it ends in -й or -т (like the present tense моет). We only use -сь when the regular verb form ends in a vowel, for example in the 'I' form: я моюсь (I am washing myself). Since ребёнок takes the 'he/she/it' ending -ет, we add -ся to get моется.
I noticed моется ends in -тся. Is that pronounced exactly how it is spelled?
No, it has a special pronunciation! In Russian, whenever a verb ends in -тся or -ться, those letters combine to make a 'tsa' sound (like the 'ts' in cats followed by an 'a'). So, моется is pronounced as 'мо-е-ца'.
Why is there no word for 'is' in вода холодная (the water is cold)?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb 'to be' (am, is, are) is almost always skipped. You simply put the subject (вода) right next to the adjective (холодная) to mean 'the water is cold'. You only need to add a 'to be' verb if you are talking about the past or the future!
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