Breakdown of Я должен прочитать несколько интересных книг.
книга
book
я
I
интересный
interesting
прочитать
to read (perfective)
должен
must, have to (должен, должна, должны)
несколько
several
Questions & Answers about Я должен прочитать несколько интересных книг.
Why does this sentence use интересных instead of the regular plural интересные?
The word несколько (several) indicates a quantity. In Russian, after words expressing an indefinite quantity, the following noun phrase must be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about multiple books, we use the genitive plural. The genitive plural ending for most adjectives is -ых.
Wait, if книг is genitive plural, where is the ending? Doesn't genitive plural usually end in -ов or -ей?
That is true for many masculine nouns and nouns ending in a soft sign! But for most feminine nouns that end in -а in their dictionary form (like книга), the genitive plural is formed by simply dropping the -а. This leaves us with a zero ending, making the word just книг.
If a female speaker is saying this sentence, does the word должен change?
Yes, it does. Должен (must / have to) acts like a short adjective and must agree with the gender and number of the subject. A woman would say Я должна, and a group of people would say Мы должны.
Could I say Я должен читать... instead of прочитать?
You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Using the perfective verb прочитать shows that your goal is to completely finish reading those books. If you use the imperfective читать, it just means you need to engage in the process of reading them, without necessarily finishing.
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