Questions & Answers about Июнь — шестой месяц, а июль — седьмой.
Why do the ordinal numbers шестой (sixth) and седьмой (seventh) end in -ой here?
Ordinal numbers act just like regular adjectives in Russian. They must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Here, they are describing месяц (month), which is a masculine noun in the nominative (subject) case. Because the stress falls on the last syllable for these specific numbers, they take the masculine ending -ой instead of -ый.
Why are there long dashes (—) after Июнь and июль?
Russian does not use a present tense verb for "is" or "are". When a sentence directly equates one noun phrase with another (like "June is the sixth month"), a long dash is used in written Russian to represent that missing verb.
The English translation says "and", so why does the Russian sentence use а instead of и?
The conjunction а is used to show a slight contrast or to compare two different things, much like "whereas" or "while" in English. Because the sentence contrasts June's position in the calendar with July's position, а is the natural choice. Using и here would sound unnatural, as и is usually used just to link similar items in a list without contrasting them.
Why is the word месяц (month) missing at the end of the sentence?