Questions & Answers about В сентябре осень.
Where are the words for "it is" in the Russian sentence?
English requires a filler subject "it" and the verb "is" for sentences about seasons or weather. Russian doesn't need filler subjects and drops the present tense verb "to be" entirely. The sentence is literally just "In September autumn."
Why does the word for September (сентябрь) change to сентябре here?
When you want to say "in" a certain month, you must change the word's ending. This is called the prepositional case. For masculine nouns ending in a soft sign like сентябрь, you drop the soft sign (ь) and add an е to the end.
How do I pronounce the preposition В in this sentence?
Because the next word begins with the voiceless consonant с, the preposition В (normally a "v" sound) loses its voice and sounds like an "f". You pronounce it attached to the noun, almost as if it were a single word: "f-sentyabre".
Does the word order matter here? Could I say Осень в сентябре?
You can, but it changes the emphasis. Russian naturally puts the new or most important information at the end of the sentence. В сентябре осень highlights what is happening (it answers "What is the season in September?") while Осень в сентябре highlights the time (answering "When is autumn?").
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