Breakdown of Что вы обычно пишете новым клиентам?
вы
you (plural or formal)
что
what
новый
new
обычно
usually
писать
to write
клиент
client
Questions & Answers about Что вы обычно пишете новым клиентам?
Why is "new clients" translated as новым клиентам instead of just новые клиенты?
In Russian, the recipient of an action, meaning the person you are writing to, takes the Dative case. The direct object (what you are writing) is Что in the Accusative case, while the indirect object (who receives the message) is новым клиентам in the Dative case.
How do we get the ending -ам for клиентам?
The dictionary form of the noun is клиент. For nouns ending in a hard consonant, the Dative plural is formed by adding -ам. If the noun ended in a soft sign or a vowel like -я, it would take -ям instead.
Why does the adjective новым end in -ым?
Adjectives in the Dative plural take either -ым or -им. Because the stem of новый (new) ends in a regular hard consonant, it takes the hard ending -ым. If the stem ended in a soft consonant or a letter like г, к, х, ж, ш, ч, or щ, it would take -им due to spelling rules.
The dictionary form of the verb to write is писать. Where did the ш in пишете come from?
The verb писать (to write) has a consonant mutation in its present tense conjugation. The с changes to ш for all present tense forms, giving us я пишу, ты пишешь, вы пишете, and so on. This is a very common irregularity to memorize.
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