Breakdown of Она целует смешного бывшего мужа.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
муж
husband
целовать
to kiss
смешной
funny
бывший
former
Questions & Answers about Она целует смешного бывшего мужа.
Why do the adjectives смешного and бывшего end in -ого and -его?
They are describing мужа (husband), which is the direct object of the verb. Because a husband is a living person, we use the animate rules for the Accusative case. For animate masculine words, adjectives copy the Genitive endings -ого or -его.
I know feminine nouns change in the Accusative case, but why does the masculine noun муж change to мужа here?
Normally, masculine nouns that are direct objects do not change their endings if they are inanimate objects (like a table or a park). But because муж is an animate noun (a living being), it copies its Genitive ending -а instead.
Are the endings in смешного and бывшего pronounced exactly as they are written?
No, the letter г in these specific endings is pronounced like an English v. This means you should say smesh-NO-va and BYV-she-va. This is a strict rule whenever you see the -ого and -его adjective endings.
The dictionary form of the verb is целовать, so why is it целует instead of целовает?
Verbs that end in -овать drop the -ова- part and replace it with -у- (or -ю-) in the present tense. That is why целовать changes to целует (she kisses).
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