Breakdown of Почему ты режешь мясо таким старым ножом?
ты
you (singular)
старый
old
почему
why
мясо
meat
резать
to cut
нож
knife
такой
such / so / what ... is
Questions & Answers about Почему ты режешь мясо таким старым ножом?
Why do таким, старым, and ножом all have these special endings?
They are in the Instrumental case because the knife is the tool being used to cut the meat. In Russian, you don't need a preposition like 'with' when using a tool; you just put the noun and any adjectives describing it into the Instrumental case.
Why does таким end in -им but старым ends in -ым? They both describe the masculine noun ножом.
Both use masculine Instrumental endings, but a spelling rule forces them to look different. The standard 'hard' ending is -ым, which we see in старым. However, the stem of такой ends in к. The spelling rules say you can never write the letter ы after к, г, х (or the hushing sounds). Therefore, the ending has to be spelled with an и, giving us таким.
Why does the word for knife (нож) become ножом here?
Standard masculine nouns taking the Instrumental case add -ом. There is a tricky rule for words ending in 'hushing' sounds like ж, ш, ч, щ, and ц: they only take -ом if the stress falls on the ending itself, as it does in ножо́м. If the stress falls on the stem, the ending becomes -ем (for example, му́жем — with a husband).
The verb is режешь (you are cutting). What is the infinitive, and why is there a ж in it?
The infinitive is резать (to cut). This verb belongs to a very common group where the final consonant of the stem changes when conjugated. Here, the з changes to ж across all forms (я режу, ты режешь, etc.).
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