Breakdown of Студенты слушают этого строгого преподавателя.
студент
student (m)
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
слушать
to listen
преподаватель
teacher (university)
строгий
strict
Questions & Answers about Студенты слушают этого строгого преподавателя.
Why do the words for "this strict" (этого строгого) end in -ого here?
In Russian, when a masculine noun is alive (animate) and is the direct object (Accusative case), its adjectives and pronouns take the ending -ого or -его. Because преподаватель (teacher) is a living person receiving the action of being listened to, этот becomes этого and строгий becomes строгого. (Note: This is exactly the same as their Genitive case endings!)
How is the -ого ending pronounced in этого строгого?
The letter г in the endings -ого and -его is pronounced like an English 'v'. So, you will hear a 'v' sound instead of a 'g' sound in both этого and строгого.
Why doesn't the sentence have a word for "to" after слушают?
In English, we say "listen to someone", but the Russian verb слушать (to listen) takes a direct object with no preposition. You just put the person or thing you are listening to directly into the Accusative case.
Why does преподавателя end in -я instead of -а?
Masculine animate nouns in the Accusative case take the same endings as they do in the Genitive case. Since the dictionary form преподаватель ends in a soft sign (-ь), that soft sign changes to -я to match the soft declension pattern.
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