Breakdown of Девочка целует нашего смешного кота.
кот
cat
девочка
girl
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
целовать
to kiss
Questions & Answers about Девочка целует нашего смешного кота.
Why do нашего and смешного end in -его and -ого?
They are describing the direct object of the sentence, кота (cat). Because a cat is a living being, it acts as an animate masculine noun. In the accusative case, animate masculine nouns and their modifiers take endings that look exactly like the genitive case. For adjectives and pronouns like наш and смешной, that means taking -его and -ого.
How do I pronounce the г in those -ого and -его endings?
In the grammatical endings -ого and -его, the letter г is always pronounced like an English "v". So, you will hear "na-she-vo" and "smesh-no-vo".
Why does the noun кота end in -а if its adjectives end in -ого?
Nouns and adjectives follow different rule sets (declension patterns) for their endings. For an animate masculine direct object, the noun itself adds -а or -я (so кот becomes кота), while the adjectives and pronouns describing it take -ого or -его. Even though the letters don't match, they are all in the exact same case!
The dictionary says "to kiss" is целовать. Why does it change so much to become целует?