Learn Russian: Она читает по-английски очень быстро.

Она читает по-английски очень быстро.

She reads English very fast.

Breakdown of Она читает по-английски очень быстро.

она

she / it (for a feminine noun)

Questions & Answers about Она читает по-английски очень быстро.

Why is English translated as по-английски instead of английский?

When talking about doing an action in a language, like reading, speaking, or writing, Russian uses a special adverb form that starts with по- and ends in -и. It literally means in the English way. You would use the adjective английский to describe a noun, like an English book (английская книга).

Why is there a hyphen in по-английски?

In Russian, adverbs describing how you speak a language always have a hyphen after the по- prefix. This is a strict spelling rule you will see with all languages, such as по-русски for Russian or по-испански for Spanish.

Why does the word for fast (быстро) end in -о?

The word быстро is an adverb, which means it describes an action. It tells us how she reads. In Russian, many adverbs are made by taking a descriptive word (an adjective) and changing the ending to -о. If you wanted to describe a noun, like a fast train, you would use the adjective form быстрый.

How do we know the verb читает matches the pronoun Она?

The dictionary form of the verb is читать, which means to read. Because the subject is Она (She), you drop the -ть ending and add the third-person singular ending -ет to make читает.