Breakdown of Третий актёр будет петь. А что будет делать шестой?
а
and (contrastive)
что
what
делать
to do
актёр
actor
быть
to be
петь
to sing
третий
third
шестой
sixth
Questions & Answers about Третий актёр будет петь. А что будет делать шестой?
Why does третий end in -ий but шестой ends in -ой?
Most ordinal numbers act like standard adjectives. Masculine ones usually end in -ый (like первый for first), but if the stress falls on the very last syllable, they take -ой (like шестой). The word третий (third) is an exception: it has a "soft" ending, so it takes -ий in the masculine nominative case.
Why isn't the word for "actor" repeated after шестой?
Just like in English, Russian ordinal numbers can stand completely on their own if the noun is already clear from context. We know we are still talking about an актёр (actor), so шестой stays in the masculine form to match it, even though the noun itself is left out.
Why do we use two words (будет петь and будет делать) for the future tense?
Both петь (to sing) and делать (to do) are imperfective verbs, meaning they focus on the ongoing process of an action. To form the future tense of imperfective verbs, Russian uses a two-word structure: the future tense of быть (to be) — which is будет for "he/it will" — followed by the infinitive of the main verb.
Why does the second sentence start with А instead of И for "And"?
Russian uses а when shifting focus or showing a slight contrast between two things. Since we are moving our attention from what the third actor is doing to what the sixth actor is doing, а is the natural choice. Using и here would sound unnatural because и is for simply adding identical actions together, not pivoting between different subjects.
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