Breakdown of Почему ты работаешь с таким медленным компьютером?
ты
you (singular)
компьютер
computer
работать
to work
почему
why
с
with (also со)
медленный
slow
такой
such / so / what ... is
Questions & Answers about Почему ты работаешь с таким медленным компьютером?
Since a computer is a tool, why do we use the preposition с here instead of just the bare Instrumental case like in писать ручкой?
Simple manual tools use the bare Instrumental case without a preposition. However, when you operate a complex machine or system like a computer, Russian treats it more like an interaction or working alongside it. Therefore, you use the phrase работать с (to work with) plus the Instrumental case.
Why do таким and медленным have different endings (-им and -ым) if they agree with the same masculine noun?
Both are masculine Instrumental endings, but they follow different spelling rules. The default ending for hard stems is -ым, used in медленным. The dictionary form of таким is такой, which has a stem ending in к. Because of a strict Russian spelling rule, you cannot write ы after к, so it changes to -им.
What is the dictionary form of таким, and how does it differ from этим?
The dictionary form is такой, which means such or such a. If you wanted to say with THIS slow computer, you would use этим, which is the Instrumental form of этот. Since the speaker is saying such a slow computer, they use таким.
Could I put the preposition с right before the noun, like таким медленным с компьютером?
No, in Russian, a preposition must come before the entire noun phrase it connects to. Because таким and медленным describe the computer, the preposition с has to be placed before all of them.
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