Breakdown of Сегодня восемнадцатое декабря, а завтра девятнадцатое.
а
and (contrastive)
сегодня
today
завтра
tomorrow
декабрь
December
восемнадцатый
eighteenth
девятнадцатый
nineteenth
Questions & Answers about Сегодня восемнадцатое декабря, а завтра девятнадцатое.
Why do the numbers for the dates end in -ое (восемнадцатое, девятнадцатое)?
When stating the date, Russian uses the neuter form of ordinal numbers (words like first, second, third). They end in -ое because they act as adjectives agreeing with the neuter word число (date or number), which is usually dropped from the sentence. You are literally saying 'Today is the eighteenth (date)...'
Why is December written as декабря instead of its dictionary form декабрь?
It is in the genitive case. When giving a date, you are literally saying 'the eighteenth of December.' The genitive case is used to show this 'of' relationship for the month.
Why does the sentence use а for 'and' instead of и?
The conjunction а is used to show a slight contrast or to switch focus from one thing to another. Since we are shifting the topic from 'today' to 'tomorrow', а is the most natural choice. Using и here would sound strange, as it is mostly used to simply add similar items together in a list without contrasting them.
I know the word сегодня means 'today', but why is the letter г pronounced like a 'v'?
This is a historical quirk! The word сегодня is actually made up of two older words merged together: сего (of this) and дня (day). Because сего was in the genitive case, its г was pronounced as a 'v' (which is the standard rule for genitive endings like -ого and -его), and that pronunciation stuck when the words combined.
Learn Сегодня восемнадцатое декабря, а завтра девятнадцатое and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free