Breakdown of Почему вы ищете этого молодого человека?
вы
you (plural)
человек
person
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
почему
why
молодой
young
искать
to look for
Questions & Answers about Почему вы ищете этого молодого человека?
Why do этого and молодого end in -ого?
In this sentence, the phrase "this young man" is the direct object (the person being looked for), so it must be in the accusative case. Because the noun (человек) is masculine and animate (a living person), adjectives and pronouns describing it take the ending -ого or -его. This is why этот молодой becomes этого молодого.
How should I pronounce the -ого endings in этого молодого?
The letter г in the -ого and -его grammatical endings is always pronounced like the English "v". Remember this pronunciation rule whenever you see these specific case endings on adjectives or pronouns!
Why does the noun change to человека instead of staying as человек?
Just like the adjectives describing it, the masculine animate noun itself must change in the accusative case. For animate masculine nouns, the accusative form looks exactly like the genitive form. Therefore, человек adds an -а to become человека.
What is the infinitive of ищете, and why doesn't it have a preposition like "for" after it?
The infinitive is искать (to look for). In the present tense, its stem changes (-ск- becomes -щ-), which gives us forms like я ищу and вы ищете. Unlike English, the Russian verb искать doesn't need a preposition; it points directly to its object.
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