Questions & Answers about Мой чемодан большой.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is usually skipped. So, Мой чемодан большой literally translates to "My suitcase big".
Why do we use мой here instead of моя or моё?
Мой is the masculine form of the word "my". We use it here because the noun it describes, чемодан (suitcase), is a masculine word since it ends in a consonant. If the word were feminine, like a bag (сумка), we would use моя.
Why does большой end in -ой rather than the usual -ый or -ий for masculine adjectives?
The ending of a masculine adjective depends on where the stress falls when you say the word. Because the stress in большой is on the very last syllable, it takes the -ой ending instead of the unstressed -ый (like in новый for "new").
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