Breakdown of Они действительно заняты, а мы наконец свободны.
а
and (contrastive)
мы
we
они
they
свободный
free, available
занят
busy (short form)
наконец
finally
действительно
really
Questions & Answers about Они действительно заняты, а мы наконец свободны.
Why do we use заняты and свободны here instead of the regular long-form adjectives занятые and свободные?
We use the short forms заняты (busy) and свободны (free) because they describe a temporary state rather than a permanent characteristic. In Russian, short-form adjectives are very commonly used to state how someone feels or what their status is at this exact moment.
Why do both of these short adjectives end in -ы?
Just like regular adjectives, short-form adjectives must agree with the noun or pronoun they describe. Since Они (they) and мы (we) are both plural subjects, we attach the plural ending -ы to the base forms of занят and свободен.
The masculine singular word for free is свободен. Where did the -е- go in свободны?
The -е- in свободен is a fleeting vowel. It exists mostly to make the masculine word easier to pronounce because it ends in two consonants. When we add endings for feminine, neuter, or plural forms (like the plural -ы here), that extra vowel drops out, giving us свободны.
The English translation says 'and we are finally free', so why does the Russian sentence use а instead of и?
The conjunction а is used to show contrast. While it often translates to 'but', it is also used to mean 'and' when you are comparing two different subjects doing two different things. Here, you are directly contrasting their busy state with our free state, so а is the most natural choice.
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