Questions & Answers about Наш сосед очень спокойный.
Why is there no word for "is" in this Russian sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb to be (am, is, are) is almost always skipped. So, Наш сосед очень спокойный literally means "Our neighbour very calm" but perfectly translates to "Our neighbour is very calm."
Why do наш and спокойный have these specific endings?
In Russian, describing words must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because сосед (neighbour) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form of our (наш) and the masculine adjective ending for calm (-ый making спокойный).
How would this sentence change if we were talking about a female neighbour?
The word for a female neighbour is соседка. If you were talking about her, the describing words would change to their feminine forms to match. The sentence would become Наша соседка очень спокойная.
Can I change the word order to Наш очень спокойный сосед?
You can put the words in that order, but it changes the meaning. Because Russian leaves out the word is, word order tells us what is happening. Наш сосед очень спокойный makes a full sentence meaning "Our neighbour is very calm." But putting the adjective right before the noun, like Наш очень спокойный сосед, just means "Our very calm neighbour" and leaves the listener waiting for the rest of your sentence.
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