Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Май — тёплый месяц.
Why is there a dash in the middle of the sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is usually skipped. When you link a noun subject like Май directly to a noun description like месяц, a dash is often used in writing to stand in for the missing word "is".
Why does тёплый end in -ый?
Adjectives in Russian must match the gender of the noun they describe. The word for month, месяц, is a masculine noun because it ends in a consonant. Therefore, the adjective for warm takes the masculine ending -ый to become тёплый.
Is the word Май capitalized just because it is at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes! Unlike in English, months of the year are not capitalized in Russian. If the word май appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would be written with a lowercase letter.
How do I know which syllable is stressed in the word тёплый?
The letter ё makes it easy! In Russian, whenever a word contains the letter ё, that syllable always takes the stress. Because of this rule, you don't have to guess where the emphasis goes.