Breakdown of Четвёртый кандидат ответит завтра, а седьмой — послезавтра.
а
and (contrastive)
завтра
tomorrow
послезавтра
the day after tomorrow
ответить
to answer (perfective)
кандидат
candidate
четвёртый
fourth
седьмой
seventh
Questions & Answers about Четвёртый кандидат ответит завтра, а седьмой — послезавтра.
Why do четвёртый and седьмой have different endings (-ый vs -ой) if they are both describing a masculine noun?
Both are in the masculine Nominative form to match кандидат. The difference comes down to pronunciation stress. In седьмой (seventh), the stress falls on the last syllable, so it takes the stressed ending -ой. In четвёртый (fourth), the stress is on the stem (on the letter ё), so it takes the unstressed ending -ый.
Why is there no noun after седьмой?
Just like in English, you can drop the noun if it is already obvious from the context. Седьмой still takes the masculine form because it refers back to the masculine noun кандидат mentioned earlier in the sentence.
Why does ответит mean "will answer" without a future tense helper word like будет?
The verb ответить (to answer) is perfective, meaning it focuses on a completed result. Perfective verbs do not have a present tense. When you conjugate them using normal present-tense endings, they automatically form the future tense. You only use helper words like будет with imperfective verbs.
Why use а for "and" here instead of и?
The conjunction а is used to show a slight contrast or to shift focus to a new subject. Since you are comparing two different schedules (one candidate tomorrow, whereas the other is the day after), Russian uses а to highlight this contrast.
What is the dash (—) doing before послезавтра?
In Russian, a dash is often used to replace words that are obvious from the first half of the sentence to avoid repeating them. Here, the dash stands in for the omitted words кандидат ответит (the candidate will answer).
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