Breakdown of Иностранный студент читает журнал.
студент
student (m)
журнал
magazine
читать
to read
иностранный
foreign
Questions & Answers about Иностранный студент читает журнал.
Does "читает" mean "reads" or "is reading"?
It can mean both! Russian doesn't have a separate continuous tense like English does. Depending on the context, читает can translate as "reads" or "is reading".
"Журнал" is the direct object of the sentence, so why doesn't its ending change?
Because журнал is a masculine, inanimate noun (it is a thing, not a person or animal). In Russian, when a masculine inanimate noun is the direct object (using the accusative case), its ending stays exactly the same as its basic dictionary form.
Why does the adjective "иностранный" end with "-ый"?
Adjectives in Russian have to match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because студент is a masculine, singular noun acting as the subject (nominative case), the adjective takes the standard masculine nominative ending -ый.
How do we know it translates to "The foreign student" and not "A foreign student"?
Russian does not use articles like "a" or "the". You have to figure it out from the context. Often, when a noun is placed at the start of a Russian sentence, it refers to a specific person or thing we already know about, making "The" the most natural fit here.