Breakdown of Моя мама была поваром в известном ресторане.
мама
mom
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
ресторан
restaurant
в
in / to (direction)
известный
famous
быть
to be
повар
cook
Questions & Answers about Моя мама была поваром в известном ресторане.
Why is the word for cook written as поваром instead of just повар?
This is the Instrumental case! When we talk about someone's profession using the past tense verb была (was), we usually put the profession in the Instrumental case. This shows it was a role or a phase in her life.
Since мама is feminine, shouldn't the profession have a feminine ending?
In Russian, many profession words like повар (cook), врач (doctor), or инженер (engineer) are masculine nouns, regardless of whether a man or a woman is doing the job. Because повар is a masculine word, it takes the standard masculine Instrumental ending -ом.
If I wanted to say "My mom IS a cook" (present tense), would I still use поваром?
No, you wouldn't. In the present tense, Russian usually skips the verb "to be," and you just use the Nominative (dictionary) case: Моя мама — повар. The Instrumental case for professions is mainly triggered by the past (была) and future (будет) tenses.
Why does the adjective известном (famous) end in -ом?
It is in the Prepositional case, which we use after в to answer the question "where?" (in a famous restaurant). Since ресторан is a masculine noun, its matching adjective takes the masculine Prepositional ending -ом.
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