Questions & Answers about Наконец дети сыты и счастливы.
Why does this sentence use the short adjectives сыты and счастливы instead of the regular long ones?
Short-form adjectives are often used to describe temporary states, feelings, or conditions. Here, the children being full and happy describes how they feel right now. If we used the long forms (сытые and счастливые), it would sound more like a permanent characteristic, like talking about "the full and happy children" in general.
How do you form the plural of a short adjective like сыты?
To make a short adjective plural, you usually add -ы (or -и if required by spelling rules) to the consonant base. The base for "full" is сыт-, so for a plural subject like дети, we add -ы to get сыты. The same rule applies to счастливы.
Is there a trick to pronouncing счастливы?
Yes, there are two important pronunciation rules here! First, the letter combination сч is pronounced like the single letter щ (shch). Second, the letter т is completely silent. So, it is pronounced like "щастливы" (shchas-lee-vy).
I remember the word for child is ребёнок. Why is it дети here?
Дети is the plural form of ребёнок. It is a completely irregular plural that uses a different root word. You just have to memorize that one ребёнок (child) becomes multiple дети (children).
Learn Наконец дети сыты и счастливы and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free