Breakdown of Женщина обнимает доброго бывшего соседа.
женщина
woman
сосед
neighbor
добрый
kind
обнимать
to hug
бывший
former
Questions & Answers about Женщина обнимает доброго бывшего соседа.
Why do доброго and бывшего end in -ого and -его if they are the direct object?
In Russian, the Accusative case (which marks the direct object) has a special rule for living beings. For masculine animate nouns like сосед (neighbor), adjectives copy the Genitive case endings (-ого or -его). Because the woman is hugging a living male neighbor, добрый бывший becomes доброго бывшего.
How do I pronounce the endings in доброго and бывшего?
Whenever you see the masculine Genitive/Accusative endings -ого and -его, the letter г is pronounced like an English "v". Therefore, they sound like "dob-ra-va" and "byv-she-va".
Why does the word for neighbor, соседа, end in -а? Doesn't that make it feminine?
No, the dictionary form is сосед, which is masculine. Just like the adjectives, masculine animate nouns (living people or animals) use the Genitive ending when they are the direct object. The Genitive ending for most masculine nouns is -а, which is why сосед becomes соседа.
What is the dictionary form of бывшего, and why does it take -его instead of -ого?
The dictionary (Nominative) form is бывший, meaning "former" or "ex". It describes the living masculine neighbor, so it must take an animate Accusative ending. It gets the -его ending instead of -ого because of a spelling rule: after "husher" consonants like ш, unstressed endings use е instead of о.
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