Questions & Answers about Завтра экзамен.
This lesson is about the future tense. Why isn't the future tense verb будет (will be) used here?
You can absolutely say Завтра будет экзамен (Tomorrow will be an exam), which uses the future tense from this lesson! However, for scheduled events like exams, classes, or meetings, Russians often drop the verb entirely. They state it as a simple fact, letting the word завтра do all the work to show it happens in the future.
Is экзамен the subject of the sentence even though it comes last?
Yes, it is! Экзамен is in the nominative (dictionary) case because it is the subject of the sentence. Russian word order is very flexible. By putting the time word завтра first and the subject экзамен last, the speaker puts the focus and emphasis on the exam itself.
Why does the в in завтра sound like an English F?
This happens because of a common Russian pronunciation rule. The letter в normally makes a V sound, but here it is directly followed by т, which is a voiceless sound (made without vibrating your vocal cords). To make the word easier to say quickly, the в loses its voice and turns into an F sound.
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